The Great Experiment

Okay, I admit it I'm not perfect. I let my child watch television, and not just educational television. He watches Looney Tunes, Johnny Quest, Scooby Doo and, and we already know -- Star Trek. Now, it is not that I advocate this t.v. watching. Oh no. I was the one counseling friends and family members on how bad television is for young minds. I was so proud of the fact that my little Thee didn't watch television for the first two years of life -- not much at least. And then as I started online teaching and Thee got more intersted in the mesmorizing moving pictures, the enticing music and the constant action, I realized that I could get more done with the television on. Its presence in our day has taken over like a noxious weed. We have it on constantly. Grades are due today, and after today...that's it. NO MORE T.V.!

We've got big things planned for the summer: a garden at Nana's and Papa's; weekly trips to the zoo; a vacation on the lake in Minnesota; walks to the library; nightime concerts in the park with a picnic basket; and lots of cooking and crafts.

When I was a kid we had one television in the living room, and it was never on during the day. When we came home from school we turned it on to watch cartoons, but then it went off after snack. We had more important things to do. Television was something you turned on when there was nothing else to do. It was an inferior activity as compared to being outside, playing with friends, making brownies. Of course, the programming and technology was a bit different. We had three channels, one of which didn't come in very well, and we were always "fussin" with the antenna to get Channel 3 to come in. We even tried balls of tin foil.

Today, if the television is off, everybody around here thinks it's broken. Why would you have the television off?

Publishing this on the blog will help us with this little experiment. We will do weekly updates on our Great Experiment and track our results. I think that Thee and I might do just fine...I'm a little worried about Daddy. Yep, Daddy has to participate too. Thee thinks it should apply to the computer as well. I agree, but I thought we better keep it simple and I was afraid, Daddy might leave us if I took away all electronic media. So here we go.