I decided along with my New Years Resolution of reading a parenting book every other month I would also post a review for the books I find helpful. I thought this might be good for other moms out their looking for helpful tid bits with the child rearing thing.
I admit I am a bit obsessed about the topic of Media and its effects on our kids. I tend to read lots of books and articles on the subject. At this point I am not sure if Its a good thing for me to research or not. The problem with information is it can REALLY freak you out. This book has admittedly freaked me out. It is an excellent book and very informative. As a parent I want to know what types of effect media is having on my boys and how it has changed over time. The challenge is, I find myself struggling to figure out how to protect them without being a totall hippie freak about it who bans all electronic devices from the house and has my children play with sticks all day.
I want my boys to be able to relate to other kids their age and have things in common; and lets face it, media is a HUGE part of kids existance these days. I think my interest in the subject really sparked when I started teaching. I was absolutely astounded how much social interactions with kids have changed since I was in school. It seemed at times that kids simply didnt know how to play unless a media device was involved. I noticed this particularly seemed to be a problem with boys. Kids have cell phones, ipods, video games, TV's and computers. For some kids these devices combined made up a huge part of what they were doing all day. In this book, and others I have read on the subject, it is estimated that the average school age child is exposed to 42 hours of screen time per week. Thats like a full time job. The effects are just now really being researched and understood.
The book talks about how children seem to be lacking creativity in their free play and the main reason for this is the astounding amount of time kids spend in front of some type of screen. back in the day we used to pick things we did with our parents like going to the Doctor, a restaraunt, or shopping and invent an entire play scenerio around it. What educators and day care facilitators are noticing these days is that boys in particular re inact scenes that they have watched in movies. They play in a scripted form repeating actual lines from the movie or tv show. The type of play is focused on violence. For girls it seems to be primarily focused on dress up, make up or some type of superficial nature also depicted in movies and TV. Now the book does say that kids a few generations ago also had play scenerios revolved around TV and movies, the difference was they would use it as a spring board and come up with all kinds of imaginative, creative scenerios from their that were their own, and not something they had already seen.
The book also talks about how not only TV but commercialism and consumerism are targeting our kids and therfore us to buy buy buy, and the types of toys that are being sold do not lend themselves to creative play, which we are finding is so absolutely crucial to raising a well rounded forward thinking person who can contribute to our planet in a positive way. The key with toys apparently is to sprinkle in a few that are open ended toys. This means they do not serve one specific function, say as like a transformer does but rather they can be many things. art supplies, blocks, and general building materials. The open ended toys help kids to use their imagination and create rather than use a toy over and over with one intended function. The author suggests a good way to use these toys is to have your kids use them in conjuction with the specific toys that our kids want to play with.
There is so much more that the book delves into on this subject but the main highlights are the ones described above. I would definately reccomend this one for any parent interested in this subject, which I have to say is an important one with the world we are living in today. It has really made me take a look and re examine not only the amount of media Alro watches, but the kind of media.
I did try and take the book with a grain of salt because I really do believe that it is perfectly normal and according to another great book I have read, Raising Cain: it is very important for boys make up scenerios pretending they are their favorite superheros and fighting the good and bad guys. Boys love to use swords and sticks and this is a fundamental part of their growth. It is very much in their DNA to do so. The question is are they being imaginative with their play and are they able to play at all? A lot of the boys I taught just plain couldnt seem to do it, but the good news was they all got into it with a little help. So I don't think it's all a lost cause, just a great one to be informed about.
PS anyone intrested in this may also want to check out a really great article on the subject http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html
3 comments:
Thanks. I was just emailing Dax's teacher about that very thing.
I am trying SO hard to help Dax learn to love to read. We are very strict with the computer/Wii because if he could, he would play it 24/7. It's so frustrating as parent to get your kids to be kids, like we were. Ride bikes, roller blade, play basket ball, soccer, etc. Today, they rather sit in front of something and play mindless games or watch mindless T.V. Sam and I have come to a realization that it's so damaging to them. We TAKE AWAY our Wii for six months of the year. They can only play in the winter months when it's too cold out and at that it has to be weekends, otherwise, they would play the stupid stuff ALL DAY! We also will never buy cable for the same reason.
So, Loved the post. If you have any great ideas on how to get dax to learn to read, THROW them my way. I am up for anything. I actually thought about investing in a kindle. ONLY because it's "media" related and maybe that would spark his interest in reading from that sort of instrument.
It's hard for me to decide what to do though because I REFUSE to buy him a DS. He will NEVER have one because I know exactly what will happen with it. I am a mean mom but only out of love. I am afraid with the kindle though because I think they can get games on them and I DON'T want him to use it for that. What are your thoughts?
I "resemble" that stick comment missy!
Really interesting. I have heard you talk about limiting TV time for your kids, but this seemed to have some very sound reasons explaining why this is important. I feel like my kids are pretty well rounded in this area, but there is always room for improvement. Some days we don't watch hardly any TV and other days more. I have also heard about that Raising Cain book and wondered if it is any good.
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