LOL. You aren't older than dirt but you should pick up the DVD or CD on those songs! School house Rock was a classic for a lot of us on Sat. mornings. I remember it well. (ps - I graduated in '83, so you ain't old sistah!)
OK, I have seen some Discovery Channel stuff and some History Channel stuff, and I would still argue that TV isn't the best method of learning/absorbing information. It isn't going to hurt a kid to watch a show about a zebra or the civil war, but the experience pales when compared to seeing a real live zebra or walking a civil war battlefield with somebody who knows what happened there. And I have to admit that I am very suspicious of those people who watch lots and lots and lots of TV and who claim that they *always* watch educational stuff. Right. That's how come their kids are wearing "Fairly Odd Parents" t-shirtsand "Sponge Bob" backpacks and know all Krusty's lines from the Simpsons...not to mention the fact that kids are being marketed to incessantly on all but commercial-free tv, and half the time there (that's how come kids beg for Elmo dolls and what-not). My kids are in school with, and play ball with, and are in scouts with kids who watch TV pretty much every day.....and it's funny, the kids NEVER ask each other if they saw the latest PBS series on the Persian Wars.....but they mostly ALL know what happened on "CSI" last night.
Now what good's a DVD gonna do me, I ask you? I don't have anything to play it on, lol. We do have a couple of cassettes of the stuff that I used to play for the kids on long car trips. Only I got sick of it because you all are right. The songs get into your head and just won't get out. The only thing worse is Glen Campbell singing "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife." That's what my husband sings to me when he's feeling really sadistic. Oh yeah, that and some soppy thing about a woman named Honey who died "one day when I was not alone, one day when she was all alone, the angels came..." Thanks a lot people. Like I need a head full of conjunction junction.....
I dont claim to watch lots and lots of Tv, and I dont claim to only watch Educational stuff. I've even watched some of the mindless stuff they show on TV. I love sci-fi and have seen every Star Trek and Stargate ever made.
I'm *trying* to keep my DD's shows to education stuff only, in the hopes she will like it. I'm sure as she gets older she'll want to watch what is 'cool' among her age group and want us to buy her the back pack with Dora or Barbie on it, which is where i will draw the line with her.
If someone can afford to show their child a real zebra or take them to the sites of past wars, then go for it. I hope to afford to keep the house we're in.
I guess I am just an electronic age girl. I work all day on computers, programming, debugging, playing. I shop off the internet, I download things, I program web pages. I love sci-fi, something my parents got me interested in, and I thank them. (Starting with the original Star Trek) And our world is going more and more towards technology. Which isn't always a good thing, but sometimes its best to embrace it. Whatever my DD decides to do when she finished all her schooling, I want to give her the knowledge of computers so that she will have the best chance she can get.
Too late for me I think. (to change my feelings of TV, computers etc)
I want to introduce my DD to sci-fi, in a few years. I want to show her the original classic sci-fi shows. But most of all I want to support her in whatever subjects she becomes most interested in.
The original Star Trek series got me through grad school -- it was MY mind candy in those days...I'd come home from the library and turn on re-runs of old Kirk and Spock....I wouldn't mind watching some of those again with my kids sometime (see, I'm not against all TV). I don't even limit my kids to "educational" TV either....I mean, we watch it for mind candy usually, so why not let them "pig out" a couple of times a year on whatever junk they want to watch...sort of like Easter or Halloween candy.
I don't know where you live, but you can probably take your kid to the zoo five or six times for what it cost for one month's cable. And chances are there are historic sites that you all can visit for a minimal cost around your house -- not now, but in a few years when your daughter is old enough.
As for the buying of "cool" stuff, that's one of the things about TV for kids that bugs me the most....the marketing tie ins. Don't get me started.
Pages
So does that mean she is watching it or not?
<>
So what again
PumpkinAngel
I'm just a bill
Yes, I'm only a bill
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill
Well, it's a long, long journey
To the capitol city
It's a long, long wait
While I'm sitting in committee
But I know I'll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will
But today I am still just a bill
I was always so happy when he finally got to be a law :-).
Laura
I'm *trying* to keep my DD's shows to education stuff only, in the hopes she will like it. I'm sure as she gets older she'll want to watch what is 'cool' among her age group and want us to buy her the back pack with Dora or Barbie on it, which is where i will draw the line with her.
If someone can afford to show their child a real zebra or take them to the sites of past wars, then go for it. I hope to afford to keep the house we're in.
I guess I am just an electronic age girl. I work all day on computers, programming, debugging, playing. I shop off the internet, I download things, I program web pages. I love sci-fi, something my parents got me interested in, and I thank them. (Starting with the original Star Trek) And our world is going more and more towards technology. Which isn't always a good thing, but sometimes its best to embrace it. Whatever my DD decides to do when she finished all her schooling, I want to give her the knowledge of computers so that she will have the best chance she can get.
Too late for me I think. (to change my feelings of TV, computers etc)
I want to introduce my DD to sci-fi, in a few years. I want to show her the original classic sci-fi shows. But most of all I want to support her in whatever subjects she becomes most interested in.
~~ edited for a couple spelling errors ~~
Edited 9/14/2004 4:08 pm ET ET by sunkistmom22
I don't know where you live, but you can probably take your kid to the zoo five or six times for what it cost for one month's cable. And chances are there are historic sites that you all can visit for a minimal cost around your house -- not now, but in a few years when your daughter is old enough.
As for the buying of "cool" stuff, that's one of the things about TV for kids that bugs me the most....the marketing tie ins. Don't get me started.
Depending on where you live it can be quite affordable.
PumpkinAngel
Pages