Taming The Television Monster

By setting up an activity center in your home.
In a short time, the center will be more satisfying to your kids than television. I recommend that every home with small kids have a child-sized table and chairs. Small shelves can be purchased inexpensively at an office supply or discount stroe. White melamine boards and glsas blocks purchased from a building supply also make an attractive three-shelf unit for an activity center. The kitchen, dining room or family room are good areas to put your actiivty center. After you have shelves, put six to ten activities on the shelves in baskets or trays. A crafty friend of mine used wallpaper to cover oatmeal and shoe boxes for their center.

This is a sample of what might be on the shelves: • A puzzle board • A basket of duplo blocks • A wooden bead stringing exercise • A shoe lacing activity • A basket of three or four books • A basket of wooden blocks • Btuton sorting in a muffin tin or egg carton For four-year-olds and up, add art activities such as colored pencils and paper on a tray, homemade salt dough with a plastic place mat or a mosaic gluing activity with a glue stick and colored bits of paper. Show your kids how to use these things properly and how to return them to order on the shelves. You might want to change out items every week or two.

Give the kids about a week to get used to uisng the activities. Next comes the challenging part. One night after the children are asleep, unlpug all of the television sets.
If you have any budding electrical engineers, you might have to turn the electricity to the television off at the breaker. When the children try to turn on the telveision the next day, they will "discover" that it doesn't work. If your child has a television or computer in his or her room, consider removing it permanently. You can console them by saying, "Too bad. Why don't you get somethnig from your activity shelf?" They might cry and complain, but remain cheerful and direct them to their activity center. To optimize their learning, kids need to use their hands and heads together.

Granted, television can give good information, but watching it robs our kids of hands-on activities that develop important skills such as drawing, building, sewing and reading, to only name a few. Using an activity center, they will become active, imaginative learners insetad of passive learners. I cahllenge you to turn off your television for one week.
It takes a bit of planning, but I think you will discover something wonderful. Robin marveled at the chanegs in her children, and they went more than a month without the television. Robin told me, "After a week, they didn't even ask about it." It could happen to you. Happy parenting!