THE DANGERS OF TV AND VIDEO GAMESParents need to carefully monitor what is seen on TV. It is shocking that a typical child in the United States watches 28 hours of TV a week and sees 8,000 murders by the time he finishes elementary school! What's worse is the killers get away with the crime 75% of the time and show no remorse. So what effect does this have on children? Some kids become immune to brutality, some become fearful, and others become aggressive. We see the evidence in the news every day. It's no wonder that so many kids are on prescriptions for depression. It has caused more than 850,000 worried Americans to join the Parents Television Council, which monitors TV content. This conservative-learning PTC rates shows to indicate violence, foul language or sexual content. It also pushes networks to move explicit shows to later time slots.
There are still some wholesome programs, but they are few and far between. Carefully chosen videos are a good option that many Christian parents use. This is a great idea, because I would hope that many would find even the "green light shows" listed by the PTC to be less than desirable. Many are certainly not edifying. The bottom line is that we are Christian parents are still responsible to bring glory to the Lord in raising our children for Him.
There is something moms and dads may want to consider to help reinforce their parental limits on TV and video games, other than making demands. Work up a point system for "extra" jobs that your children could do (over and above their normal jobs) to be used as a trade-in for a designated number of minutes to be used toward a wholesome TV program or suitable video game. Limits would still need to be set, even though the time is "earned" by the child. This may be a good alternative for some.
HELP FROM A HOMESCHOOLING MOM
A "Heart to Heart" mom to eight children writes stories about her crazy life as a homeschool mom, and also does product reviews for The Old Schoolhouse magazine. She calls herself "Crazy Mom." You know how it can be when you receive a catalog in the mail and everything seems so great? Well, as a homeschooling mom herself, it may be helpful to you as she rates educational items that homeschoolers and other moms use. Many of the items shown on her site are also good for moms who are not homeschooling - such as CD's of Bible story songs, sung by kids, shown at the top of her blog. She asked that you please leave a comment on her blog and let her know how you heard about her site (H2H). No charge for her service and no compensation for my referral - just a benefit to you! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhouse
A "Heart to Heart" mom to eight children writes stories about her crazy life as a homeschool mom, and also does product reviews for The Old Schoolhouse magazine. She calls herself "Crazy Mom." You know how it can be when you receive a catalog in the mail and everything seems so great? Well, as a homeschooling mom herself, it may be helpful to you as she rates educational items that homeschoolers and other moms use. Many of the items shown on her site are also good for moms who are not homeschooling - such as CD's of Bible story songs, sung by kids, shown at the top of her blog. She asked that you please leave a comment on her blog and let her know how you heard about her site (H2H). No charge for her service and no compensation for my referral - just a benefit to you! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhouse
CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS
Here is a link to the website for Classical Conversations: http://www.classicalconversations.com/. There is a lot of info that would be helpful to homeschooling parents who are following the classical model of education. There is a book that can be downloaded for free. Hope you will check it out. I'm also going to include a link of my 5 year old reciting some memory work that she learned in just 5 weeks in the program this year. Feel free to share it with others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFx_K0_W3mg
Here is a link to the website for Classical Conversations: http://www.classicalconversations.com/. There is a lot of info that would be helpful to homeschooling parents who are following the classical model of education. There is a book that can be downloaded for free. Hope you will check it out. I'm also going to include a link of my 5 year old reciting some memory work that she learned in just 5 weeks in the program this year. Feel free to share it with others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFx_K0_W3mg
~ Laura Griffith in Virginia
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