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Children's TV

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I'm not a great TV watcher at the best of times, and because of work and after school activities I rarely switch on the television until after our evening meal. But yesterday I was home early and the children were out with their grandmother, so having a little spare time I decided to switch on the TV and plug in the iron and while away an hour or 2. However as I flicked through the channels BBC 1 was offering some childrens TV programme, BBC2 had a lifestly type show (cookery I think :? ) ITV had some old repeat of a detective type show and I ended up watching Noel Edmonds on C4 :roll: . Whatever happened to childrens programmes on ITV, there always used to be 2-3 of hours of programming from after school up until the news of purely children's entertainment, and I'm sure that when my children were younger they'd watch both channels (or squabble more likely over what channel to watch :roll: ). If children don't enjoy BBCs offering they're reduced to the dreadful programming on Cartoon Network and the like :shock::shock:

I was quite shocked, I know that we shouldn't be encouraging our children to sit and watch TV for hours on end, but mine used to enjoy relaxing in front of the box for a while after school, and some programmes could be quite entertaining as well as educational.

Is this because of the advertising ban on junk food aimed at children :?

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My lot don;t have a choice - they can watch the BBC programmes if they wish, or it's outside to play. They sat and watched ITV one day, and within 20 minutes they had a list as long as your arm of expensive toys they needed to get. I just can't afford for them to get excited over toys advertised on the tv - half of them have their prices in small letters at the bottom, saying things like RRP £95 :roll::roll::roll: That's maybe why - I'm sure I'm not the only parent to switch ITV childrens programmes off because of this.

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CBeebies in unbeatable although Nick Junior is not so bad either - you do get the adverts but you get a half hour of solid programming between them, if the programme is just 15 minutes long then you get 2 back to back. HOWEVER, we have watched so many episodes of the WonderPets recently (anything but the stupid "In the Night Garden" as the pre-bed wind down) that I now burst into song whenever the phone rings.

 

"The phone, the phone is ringing

The phone, we'll be right there,

The phone, the phone is ringing

There's an animal in trouble somewhere

 

Mind you its better than trying to work out the difference between the stupid ninky nonk and plinky plonk and who is macca pacca and iggle piggle. I don't know why they have this in this slot - its that precious 30 mins before putting your slightly older kids to bed and thats when we rely on good programming.

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With most people having freeview now in the run up to the digital switchover, the main terestrial channels have half a dozen channels so they can have set channels for differnt types of viewing, so now there is CBeebees for 1-5 year old and CBBC for older children so you get all day kids telly. I dont mind the Cbeebees for the most part as a lot of the programing is educational, but once they hit 5 I wont really have the TV on as most older kids TV is just pointless cartoons or adults behaving obnoxiously and shouting Boogies. :roll: Plus children at that age should have more developed imaginative play to be able to amuse themselves a lot better without TV.

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I beg to differ, James has always been great at imaginative play and will play happily all sorts of imaginative games. Telly is really for when we want him to wind down! He also watches telly as a "babysitter" He wakes up before 6am most mornings and whilst I lounge in the bath with my book he watches a recorded programme (Cbeebies doesn't start till 6) and then a "live programme" until it is time for him to join me in the bath. After breakfast and getting dressed for school he then watches another programme whilst Mum nips in the shower and gets dressed.

 

In the evening he gets one programme after school with his snack and then he gets some of the "bedtime hour" to wind down. I'm not planning to change this anytime as he gets so much imaginative play that I don't worry the telly is harming him.

 

However, the more he visits friends houses the more he sees tellys in their bedrooms. He is just 5 but many of his friends have tellys and they watch all manner of unsuitable programmes, one of his class is an avid Dr Who fan and wouldn't let James play Dr Who because he'd never watched it so one Saturday we put it on and after 5 mins he asked me to turn it off because he was scared! He never sees adult films (like his friends do!) and even what I watch is regulated around him, he likes casualty as he understands it's just acting and loves seeing the doctors and ambulancemen working. Other than that I stick with the early evening soaps when he is watching - even Eastenders is often a bit over the top.

 

I have told him we will consider a telly after Christmas and if we do put one in his room I will also put in a spare PVR which has freeview. He would then be able to watch a programme in his own room after he goes to bed. This may help all of us as bedtime resistance is getting very high, often lately he finds he can't sleep and gets back up only to loll on the sofa with me, watching my programmes as he drifts off. He was at a friends house this week and his 2 YEAR OLD sister has her own telly! The friend also had a load of DVD's in his room that I did not consider suitable viewing for a 5 year old.

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The odd thing is she is much better with kids than me, her son is a nightmare but she has all his friends over and James came home with loads of things he'd made, she had them all sitting down making stuff.

 

Biggest problem is I now have to have her son back, the last time he was here he just threw all of James' toys on the floor and I let them go in James bedroom and the pair of them wrecked it. He is a nasty little boy and frankly I didn't want him round again!

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I know what you mean about the TV in bedroom thing. I couldn't believe it yesterday when my 4 year old said she wanted a TV in her room for Christmas :shock: ! I do the same - as a morning babysitter cbeebies/nickjunior is unbeatable. I really can't/won't be on the go from 5.30 every day!

It is difficult when their friends have everything, but I take a sneaky pride when my sons friends come over that he is the "worst" on the playstation, because although he "had" to have one, he would far rather be outside kicking a football or making up an imaginery game.

As with all things (except chickens :lol: !) moderation is the key I guess.

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One of the big problems with parent's is they use the T.V as a baby sitter :cry:

We only allow ours 20 minutes in the morning and the same during the evening as it then allows then to develop more imagination playing skills and interaction with one and other , time spent with the kids is so improtant IMO and that mean playing with them , also sitting down to dinner at the table chatting , sadly i see this is rare in todays climet :cry:

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Sorry penguinmad but we are 'night garden' fans.

 

I have finally sussed out who everyone is although I do have to think carefully before sayiong them out loud incase I get the wrong one.

 

I am tempted to call the new girls coming tomorrow ( :D:D ) macca and pacca or Iggle and piggle. Ash is 1 and I want to get names that wil appeal to him as he learns to speak.

 

TV is generally rubbish now though, nothing imaginative. Regarding old DVD's I have bought the worzel gummidge collection and can;t wait until he is old enough to watch it.

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I completely agree, and am really thankful that we now live somewhere the children can play outside and we can go for lovely walks without resorting to taking the car, but that half an hour extra in the morning - it keeps me sane so that I have the energy and enthusiasm for playing and enjoying the children during the day.

 

There is definitely a place for television, but I agree we need to be careful when it is used.

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One of the big problems with parent's is they use the T.V as a baby sitter :cry:

We only allow ours 20 minutes in the morning and the same during the evening as it then allows then to develop more imagination playing skills and interaction with one and other , time spent with the kids is so improtant IMO and that mean playing with them , also sitting down to dinner at the table chatting , sadly i see this is rare in todays climet :cry:

 

As stated above I use the TV as a babysitter, so does my Mum every morning when we are getting ready for work/school. This is a time when James generally cannot play in the garden and isn't really fully alert and ready to get the toys out. It also puts a good boundary on what he should do, the programme he is watching whilst Mum showers finishes as it is time to go to school, games never finish to schedule!

 

James plays oustide in all weathers, he has lots of imaginative toys both indoor and outdoor - more than many of his friends as he buys them at the boot sale. He watches telly during his snack time (he WILL NOT talk about his school day - to the extent where his teacher has to email me if anything important has happened) and then its off to play. He eats breakfast at the table with us and tea at his table (I'm sorry but when I don't have lunch until 1.45pm I cannot eat tea at 5 with him) whilst one or both of us sits and talks to him. At weekends all meals are taken as a family with the telly on in the corner - on Radio 2 or 4 depending on whose bit of the house we are in.

 

This week has been school holidays and there has been a lot more telly. Mum is away and I'm on my own with James. I'm sorry but I work damned hard and I do not want to get up at 5.45 AM during my holidays so James will watch telly in bed with me whilst I doze till around 7am. The evening telly session is necessary to get him to slow down and prepare for bed, on nights when he continues playing he is too wide awake to go to bed on time.

 

This form of babysitting is needed for us to keep our sanity. I need my "wake up" time during my bath in the morning before he hops in with me and plays. He also learns so much from television as his favourite programmes are things where he finds things out, nina and the neurons, come outside, big cook little cook. Or programmes which spark his imaginative play like Fireman Sam, Postman Pat & Lunar Jim - often he will play these characters for hours.

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Sorry penguinmad but we are 'night garden' fans.

 

I have finally sussed out who everyone is although I do have to think carefully before sayiong them out loud incase I get the wrong one.

 

I am tempted to call the new girls coming tomorrow ( :D:D ) macca and pacca or Iggle and piggle. Ash is 1 and I want to get names that wil appeal to him as he learns to speak.

 

TV is generally rubbish now though, nothing imaginative. Regarding old DVD's I have bought the worzel gummidge collection and can;t wait until he is old enough to watch it.

 

Don't be sorry, I think its probably a good programme for younger children I just think its useless for the slightly older ones and it is in the wrong slot given that they are the harder ones to get to bed. Still it's helped me find out how much fun the Wonder Pets are! I love the way they sing - singing is great for kids!

 

Oh and if I watch "night garden" too often I find myself changing the words to the "Iggle Piggle" song - I just can't help myself and the words I end up singing are not suitable for children!!!

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My children have tv's in their bedrooms (the youngest is 4), and despite this fact, they are rarely on. There's nothing wrong with children having a tv in their bedroom, as long as parents a) monitor what is being watched, and b) put restrictions on how long it is watched for. The boys watch dvds at night now - it's dark here by about 6:30, and I'd rather they were in, safe, than out in the dark. Last night they sat and played Monopoly for a couple of hours before bed rather than watch the tv, and Caitlin hasn't had her tv on during the week since we moved here six months ago. She sometimes watches CBeebies on a Sunday morning, while we have a lie in, but is far too busy creating artistic masterpieces to be bothered with tv nowadays.

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ha ha ha were in the night garden fans too, I want to name a couple of my chooks macca pacca and Iggle piggle!

 

Yeah the CBeebies stuff is pretty good, we also sit and do the interactive stuff on the website, noah sits nex to me on the sofa with the laptop and we do the rhyming stories and games for Razzle Dazzle and stuff, plus we occasionally get the magazine, so he does the colouring in (or rather scribbles on them all) So the TV characters make things familier and support the learning. Its really helped him with things like learning animal noises and sounds, because he is delayed with speach so it helps a lot.

 

I wouldnt let him have a TV in his room for a good while yet, cause I know he would have it on a lot, even if not watching it and studies have shown that having it on as a 'backgound noise' can harm speach development. He has a load of toys in his bedroom though so when he gets up at the crack of dawn he just plays to himself untill I go in to get him up. And I get to see in what creative ways he has re-arranged his furniture :lol:

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I;m in Rettendon - I go to Great Baddow Village Surgery! Small world.

 

We do the stuff on the website and James has speech and language delay too! Actually the last time he saw the speech therapist she said he had so many issues he would be in the top category - which means she may see him again (just for assessment) before Christmas! Fortunatley the TA's at his school have done all the courses and work well with him.

 

He was over three years old before he said a single word - I knew he was behind but having no friends with children it wasn't always obvious. He was a quiet baby, didn't chat to himself and when he was 4 he had grommits inserted for glue ear. They always said his hearing was fine but after the op he was complaining about how loud things were. When he didn't talk he created his own sign language. He started school with just a few words and no sentances, now he doesn't shut up but he can still be hard to understand at times - he starts his words wrong and substitutes G or D for S of F - he will ask if he can Dit on the Dofa.

 

There is always background noise in our house, the telly is always on but often tuned to one of the radio stations, of course he sings better than he talks at time you should hear his Kaiser Cheifs impression! But I believe music is great to grow up with.

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