Solving the TV Debate: 5 Shows that Educate and Entertain Your Kids

TV is always a good topic of discussion among parents.  The questions never end as to whether kids should watch TV, how much they should watch, and what to watch.  Personally, my belief as an educator is that the less TV your kids watch the better it is for them.  The plain and simple truth is that TV watching is not a good way for kids to spend their time.  It limits their imagination, creativity, and ability to play.  It reduces the time that they are engaged actively or intellectually.  It is unproductive and not stimulating at all for the mind.  Unfortunately, TV lessens kids’ chances of developing the skills that help them in and out of the classroom.

However, I do understand and realize that kids will always spend some of their time watching TV.  So, I have researched 5 programs that I believe are not only entertaining, but also are beneficial educationally for children.  This way, you know that when your children do watch TV, they are spending their time watching shows that both entertain AND develop their knowledge and skills.  

As you will see, all of my shows are ones that are broadcast on your local Public Television stations in the United States (If you are in another country and desire to watch these shows, then you can find them online as well), and most are in cartoon format.  The reason I chose these particular programs is because they are geared toward youth audiences, they are aimed at being educational, and they are publicly funded so that they are shown without any commercial interruptions.  Research has shown that much of the problems that occur while watching TV happen during commercials.  They interrupt the program, hindering children’s ability to keep track and develop their sense of storyline and literary elements.  In addition, the extensive marketing and selling of products brainwash our highly impressionable youth to desire useless toys, junk food and other such non-essential items.  Need I say more?

The first shows I chose are for very young children: 

1.   Sesame Street (www.sesamestreet.org).  I believe that Sesame Street is one of the best shows on TV still.  It has a long history and tradition of broadcasting meaningful shows that teach young, nursery, preschool, and kindergarten age children letters, numbers, number sense, phonemic awareness, and other literacy skills.  And, it provides role models for problem solving and good behavior. 

2.   Word World (pbskids.org/wordworld/).  This program teaches preschool and kindergarten age children emerging literacy skills.  It instructs on all aspects of literacy development and it is very engaging and entertaining. 

For older children:

3.  Wild Kratts (pbskids.org/wildkratts/). This program teaches children all about animals and their habitats.  It is highly entertaining and educational

4.   Word Girl (pbskids.org/wordgirl/).  This show teaches children all about words.  It helps develop their vocabulary skills by acting out and teaching a new vocabulary word each episode. 

5.   Electric Company (pbskids.org/electriccompany/).  This program also has a long history and is geared toward pre-teens and early teenagers.  It teaches both literacy skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal relations, and critical thinking. 

When you watch these shows, know that, as a parent and your kids’ primary educator, you are providing them with the best of everything.  And that includes what they watch on TV.  Check them out; let me know what you think! And, enjoy knowing that your kids are learning while they watch.

Success Starts with YOU: 3 Easy Things To Do To Help Your Children Achieve

I have to say that parents, friends, and acquaintances ask me all the time what they can do to help their kids do well in school.  This is the quintessential question for all parents.  The irony of it all is that when I inform them of some of the simple things that they can do at home, many times the parents agree with what I tell them and inform me that they already do it.  However, in reality, they don’t do it with their own children at all.  It isn’t that they don’t want to help their children; it seems that life gets in the way of their intentions on a day to day basis.  For this reason, I thought that I would write down only 3 things that parents can do to begin to help their children be successful in and out of school.  I do this with the hope that if I stayed simple, then it would be easy to implement daily despite what life throws your way. 

1.   Be positive. Children at all ages need to feel loved, valued, and proud of what they do and who they are.  Celebrate their victories, their work, and their ideas.  Keep your criticisms, your concerns, or insecurities about their accomplishments in school to yourself.  You should be your children’s advocates, cheerleaders, role-models, and guides.  They need to feel that you are a part of their team and their world.  Self-esteem is hard enough to come by, so be sure that you add to their feelings of self-worth rather than subtract from them.

If you feel the need to criticize or correct, then use my rule of thumb.  Give 3 positives remarks or comments before you provide 1 negative.  And, make the criticism about 1 particular behavior or 1 skill that needs improvement.  This way, your child will understand what needs to improved and can focus his/her energies in the right way.   This rule of thumb will enable your child to still feel good about what he/she has accomplished and what he/she knows while he/she works to improve the specific behavior or skill.  Remember, children blossom with care, and love, not with disapproval and neglect. 

2.   Listen to your children.  This may seem too simplistic, but it is something that isn’t done enough, especially in our every-increasing technologically connected world.  Parents always seem to be connected to their computers, TV, or phones more than to their own children.  It is vital that your children feel that you are a part of their lives and that you are interested in them and their activities in and out of school.  So, be there!  Turn off your machines and listen to them.  Ask questions and listen.  And, wait for a response because many times it doesn’t come when you ask.  If there isn’t anything that your child wants to say, then you talk about your day, your thoughts, and your dreams, whatever—model the conversation for them.  It is important that your children feel that they have parents that can and do take the time to put them first to listen and be there for them.  It isn’t hard to do, it doesn’t cost a thing, and it can change not only your relationship with your children, but their attitude toward you and toward school. 

3.   Read, read and read some more.  I can’t tell you how much research indicates that the activity of sitting down and reading with your children helps them in myriad ways.  While I know that I’m not the first to say this, I can’t reiterate it enough.  30 minutes a day out of your busy schedule to sit down and read to or with your children CAN make all the difference in the world.  Now this doesn’t mean that you should send your kids to the couch and have them read while you listen peripherally and watch TV or talk on the phone at the same time.  No, that doesn’t and won’t help.  This means that all other outside activities shut down for that small amount of time and you and your child dedicate yourselves to reading and being together.  Not only will kids’ reading skills improve, but their vocabulary, their knowledge of the world, their understanding of story elements and structure, their ability to concentrate, their questioning skills, their comprehension skills will too. To top it all off, your children will feel loved, comforted, and valued all at the same time.  How can you resist? 

While I’ve outlined 3 simple things to do to help your child succeed, there are others.  However, your children’s perception of who they are and what they can achieve is the first step toward academic and social success.  Try it, it can only help!

Learn the Value and Responsibility of Money by Giving Kids a Weekly Allowance

Last year I went to my child’s kindergarten conference and learned that most of the children in her class did not know how to identify or use money, and absolutely NO understanding of its value.  This is an occurrence that is happening more and more each year, as we parents use our credit and debit cards to buy everything.  What we model when we do that is that a card is all you need to get groceries, buy toys, clothes, or anything that might be needed or desired.  As a consequence, kids today have no sense of the value or worth of money.  Because it is our job as parents to help our kids learn important life skills, we need to remember the one essential life skill that we need to teach: MONEY sense.  That means identifying, understanding and knowing what money is, how and when to use it, and what it is worth. 

So, my suggestion to you is:  if you want your child to succeed both in school and in life, then start giving your kids money in a weekly allowance.  That way, they will have the power to practice saving, handling, budgeting and using money.  Think of the learning possibilities!  Not only will they begin to learn the names and uses of coins and dollars, but they will learn out to add, subtract, and use money, practicing all the important mathematical skills that come along with it.  AND, in these times of economic insecurity at all personal, professional, state, and national levels, our children will be able to begin to understand how budgets are used and how we all can’t spend more than we have.  Think of the life skills that can be learned at the price of just 1 or 2 dollars in a weekly allowance…go ahead you can afford it!

Turning a Fight into Fun: Using Educational Games as a Learning Opportunity

Battles in the bath, battles in the car, washing their hair, and getting ready for school-do these times during the day make you stressed, angry, or just plain worn out?  Every family has to deal with these types of battles because parents have an obligation to care for their children, but, at the same time, the children want to assert themselves and control their lives and environment.  As a result, there is a clash of wills.  But, you don’t have to accept this as a normal activity that you will have to deal with daily, leaving you tired and needing your space. 

Instead, you CAN make this time fun.  It is in your power as parents to still maintain control, get the kids dressed, bathed, in the car, and ready for school.  And, it can be a learning experience.  But, it begins with YOU.  The key is to change your tactics as parents.  As many psychologists suggest, the best way to change a negative situation or behavior is to distract your children; to refocus their behavior on something that is good.  Think about it:  Don’t fight, instead PLAY A GAME that has your kids thinking and improving their skills.  This is the perfect diversion that is fun, engaging, and a great learning opportunity.  When I’m in those situations and I feel the battle is beginning to rage, I suggest to my kids to play one of these 2 games that are very engaging and educational:

1.      The guessing game: This game has you or your children using adjectives that describe anything that you can think of: animals, plants, objects, people, and places.  For example, my kids like animals.  So, I begin the game thinking of an animal that I don’t share with the kids.  Then, I use adjectives to describe it; I describe its habitat and the food it eats etc.  Last, I wait to see if the children can guess what animal it is.  It is that simple.  Once, the children have practice guessing, let them try.  They will LOVE trying to stump you, and you will LOVE to watch their skills grow! 

2.      The math story game: This game helps to develop your kids’ math conceptual skills (usually with kids in grades K-4).  All you have to do is tell a story that poses a math problem using addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division concepts that they then have to solve in their mind for the answer.  For example, a math story can be, “There were 7 horses in a pasture eating grass.  Then, 12 more horses galloped over to eat grass.  How many horses are in the pasture now?”  Just adjust the story to your kids’ ability.  Then, let them tell their own math stories for you to solve.  This is a great opportunity to understand both the level of mathematical understanding your children have, and to build their conceptual understanding of addition, subtraction, and more advanced skills of multiplication and division. 

The next time World War III ensues in your household with your little ones, choose to play instead of fight.  You will find that you will all win in the end. 

Who is Dumber?: Bill Gates or the American People

So Bill Gates, the multi-billionaire, who has NO training in education and NO experience in education other than being a student, is now THE expert at how to solve this country's problems in education.  It is truly ironic that the American people are so in love with the rich that they will believe anything they say because they have money.

Let’s look at the facts. Yes, Bill Gates is an innovator in technology and, now that he is a billionair­e, he is giving some of his money to education. That should be commended. He is trying to improve education and make it better for all students. The problem that I have is that he has focused the issue in the media, once again, on teachers, particular­ly senior, experienced, well-educa­ted teachers, as the problem with failing schools and failing students. Nowhere does he discuss the real issues that plague schools that score poorly on state and national tests and that are mostly located in the low economic communitie­s: crime, malnutriti­on, transiency­, family stability, and healthcare­. Rather, he claims that a “great teacher” will make up for all these problems, even though there is a plethora of research that shows that all these detrimenta­l factors significantly influence kids’ ability to do well in school.

And, there is also plenty of research showing that new teachers, which he claims are better than experienced ones, are NOT more effective. In fact, if new teachers were the solution to the problem then why don’t schools with high rates of teacher turnover, such as schools in poor urban communitie­s, score better on state assessments? I have no problem with finding new and equitable ways to measure teacher effectiven­ess to improve practice, but hiring all new teachers and putting them in schools with large class sizes certainly isn’t the solution.

Now he has written an article in the Huffington Post that argues that spending is the problem in education, and he provides the public with a pretty little graph that shows the dollars spent per student annually from 1975-2007 (see www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-gates/bill-gates-school-performance_b_829771.html).  For example, the graph shows that we spent $5000/student in 1975 and approximately $10,000/student in 2007, a large increase in funding.  Alongside these data, the graph shows that over the same time span the reading and math scores of our students haven't significantly increased, the line is essentially flat.  Gates uses this simple source of data to support the favored Republican argument that we shouldn't "throw money at the problem."  What these data fail to show are the real-life issues that schools in poor urban communities have to understand, assist, and overcome so that their students succeed in school.  School success is not the same and should NOT be correlated with scoring well on a state or national standardized assessment that is invariably culturally, ethnically, and linguistically biased and that really doesn't measure more than how well a student can bubble-in the correct answer.  When poor students are worried about crime, food, shelter, and financial security, scoring well on state and national tests become meaningless, an after-thought.  Get real.

Please be critical readers and don't always accept the statistics represente­d on pretty graphs when they are used for political purposes.  Don't be dumb, think beyond what is stated, and believe in what you already know:  that if you are wealthy you will be fine, and if you are poor...I hope your bootstraps help you because Gates's policy won't.