Parents & Children

Are you using tv wisely?

• What does your child do when he/she comes home from school?
  
• Is TV one of the many fun-time activities that you child participates in?
  
• Are your children allowed to watch television be fore school?
  
• Is TV the background noise all or most of the time?
  
• Are they always asking for toys and Foods advertised on TV?

Controlling Your Child's TV Viewing Habits

• Do you as a parent provide a role model for your child?
  
• Are books readily available in your home?
  
• Is there some other time allotted to other reading or being read to each day?
  
• Do your children ask you about things they see on TV? And do you help them look up the answers?

What To Do First

Begin by recording how much you and your children watch TV each week. Then, set limits on when and how much TV viewing is to be allowed and stick to it!
1. Get together with your children and explain what you are doing and why. Using a TV guide, let your children circle, with different colored pens, their chosen programs. Alternate who gets first choice. Explain that anytime the television is on, that time is counted as viewing time.
2. Make sure the TV goes on at the proper time, not before the program begins.

Teaching Critical Viewing

1. Watch with your children. Talk to them about the programs, let them know your views on what is happening.
2. Ask, "What do you think will happen next?"
3. Have your child use as many different words as possible to describe one of the characters.
4. Ask your child to put his/her favorite shows into categories such as: type of show, and funniest to most serious. Devise a rating scale. Have your child rate each program he/she watches. Keep track on a chart or graph. Have them explain why they gave the programs that rating.
5. Examine the methods used by advertisers to sell products. Talk about whether the method used to advertise the product makes any sense, why the advertisers may have used that method, and words they use to sway.
6. Use a small notebook to make a dictionary of unfamiliar words, looking up the meanings in a regular dictionary. Try to make a game of using the new words during the week.