At the same time (coincidence, or cause and effect?), he has become less and less inclined to exert himself: he's "too tired" to put away his toys after he plays with them, it's "too hot" to play in the backyard, and he needs to be carried because riding his bicycle is "too hard." He wanders around the house repeating obnoxious phrases from the films such as, "You're biting my butt!" (Madagascar) to himself--and sometimes to me. This morning, for the first time in his life, he didn't want to go out for a walk when I invited him--preferring, he explained, to stay home and watch TV.
We went for the walk, and the television is now officially off until school starts up again after Labor Day. Who knows? It might even stay off longer than that--I might put it in storage or in our bedroom and bring out my grandfather's old electric organ to occupy the place of honor in the living room--but a month and a half should be long enough to show whether no TV will make a positive difference in my children's lives and behavior.
I grew up without a television set in the house until I was eleven years old, and when my parents did break down and buy one, they put it in their bedroom, where we were allowed to sit and watch it for an hour a day. Most of the time my choice of program was Square One TV on PBS.
Because of that lack of early exposure, I have never had much patience for television. I have no tolerance at all for commercials and the other mindless chitchat and sensationalization that seems to occupy most of the time slots on most television channels, so I'm glad my husband hasn't insisted on getting cable.
We do have a DVD player and a VHS player because Steve didn't want to do away with the television completely when Sebastian was born four years ago (he now watches "television" only on his computer--the news and a couple of sci-fi shows, which he downloads from the networks' websites). As soon as Sebastian figured out what they could do--when he was less than a year old--it became a constant struggle for me to keep the set turned off most of the day.
Until this spring he watched the French and Chinese and other educational videos that I chose for him almost exclusively, but then I let him watch Stuart Little and 101 Dalmatians in French, thinking that it would be good for his French to hear more complex conversations than he had heard before. When Steve saw that, he got him the English versions of those two movies, and then we let him watch a couple of classic Disney videos that someone had given us for free at a garage sale. When he couldn't stand to watch those one more time, Steve got him some of the more recent animated blockbusters--Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Madagascar--and it all went downhill from there. These films are cute enough in some ways, but I also find them loud, hyperactive, and sarcastic, as well as chock-full of gratuitous violence passing itself off as comedy (or even normality). And of course they are all in English; every hour he spends watching them is an hour that he is not getting any exposure to French or Chinese. I am not going to miss them much.
My one concern is that I won't be able to keep up the kids' Chinese without TV. Since my own Chinese is very limited, I've been relying to a large extent on educational shows to teach Sebastian and Serena Chinese vocabulary and to help keep the words and phrases fresh in my own mind. Will they end up with less exposure to Chinese over the next month and a half, or will the lack of TV time as good for their Chinese-language skills as I suspect it will be for some other aspects of their lives? Will we, perhaps, finally get around to reading those Chinese books we have lying around, and will we find more time to actually speak with each other in Chinese?
Although he has always loved reading, Sebastian only wants to sit through stories in the evenings after supper, and I'm hoping that will change. I want to introduce him to longer books with fewer pictures such as Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan and to substitute audiobooks for some of his former TV time. Since last fall he has enjoyed listening to some of his favorite stories--Curious George, Madeline, The Polar Express--on tape when he goes to bed, and for the last few days we have already been listening to Winnie the Pooh on CD in the car and Little Bear on tape at home.
It may be harder for me to find appropriate audiobooks for him in French and Chinese, since his comprehension level in both languages--and especially in Chinese--is much lower than in English. I might have to get creative and make my own recordings for him to listen to at night and when I'm busy doing laundry or cooking supper. That could even become a project for the whole family.
I will try to make posts on the progress of the No-Television Experiment at least once a week until school starts in September. I'm sure there will be plenty to report!
1 comment:
Good luck on your experiment! I have been very conservative in screen time for Griffin (age 2.5) because we have so few age-appropriate videos for him in French, and I'm determined not to let him watch shows in English when I'm around. He and I have so little time exclusively in French that I can't bear to share it with English videos!
My mother, who is very supportive of our goal of bilingualism for him, just doesn't understand this, though. She occasionally suggests that if I allowed Griffin to watch Sesame Street I would have an hour to myself--but it doesn't work like that! I would want to be sitting beside him, commenting in French, asking questions, interacting. And if I'm going to do that, I'd much rather interact with him around a book or in a sandbox or with a stack of blocks!
Post a Comment