The TV moratorium seems to be working.

AnnapolisLari

I know Kristie is working on this, too.

DS has not been allowed any TV after 10am this week. I shamefully admit that he's been a lot better behaved and more into doing things.

 

Goose51504

I think I'm going to try this with P on the weekends. She's been watching far too much TV for my liking, since Cullen arrived. She doesn't watch more than an hour a day during the week b/c of being at daycare/preschool, but she's glued to it on the weekends.

What kinds of things are you doing with M, after the moratorium is in place? I taught P how to pay "Go Fish" last weekend, which entertained her for a while. She likes to color and play with playdoh, but that only lasts but so long.

neesernicole

We used to always do TV after bath and then get in bed and read, etc. It was just the Wonder Pets so nothing toooooooooo stimulating but it became increasingly harder to get her to wind down. Now, we go straight from bath to her bedroom and bedtime has been much better.  We just read a lot more books and that's not a bad thing at all. Anyway - just wanted to share our tv moratorium experience too.

Kapalua

I need to work on this, too. I always justify it b/c he's not fully paying attention half the time. But, I do think it could be making him crazy.

katie277s

Good for you!  If we notice that L gets whiney when we ask him to do things if the TV is on, it goes off.  He loves to lay in my bed and watch a movie, so he knows if he's a good boy he can watch 1 movie in our room.  Lately, he's been so into playing with his cars and trains that he hasn't asked to watch TV in a few days. 

AnnapolisLari

So far this week, we've gone to see the local llamas, hit the outlet mall, fed sheep and goats at this antique store, gone to the park, gone to story time at the library, and dropped in on the fire station (they gave him a cool hat!)

At home, he's been obsessed with reading Go, Dog, Go, and doing jigsaw puzzles. He did a little over half of a 12 piece puzzle by himself, when before he was interested only if I did the puzzle and he watched.

Goose51504

Kapalua:

I need to work on this, too. I always justify it b/c he's not fully paying attention half the time. But, I do think it could be making him crazy.

Oh, P isn't paying 100% attention to the TV most of the time. She has a small TV in her playroom, which is on constantly. She'll watch a show or two, but afterwards, it's almost like she likes the background noise (kind of like what I'm doing now - TV on, but I'm totally not watching).

She's pretty good at independent play (plays in her kitchen, loves dress up, etc). I just feel guilty about the TV being on all the time and would like to do more fun stuff together.

Lari - your ideas are great! Thanks!

 

joseysbride

We've been working on this for a couple months, too.  The last two weeks of my maternity leave, Rory was really sick and I think all we did was watch Noggin all day.  After that, she pretty much expected it, and we had to put a stop to it.  She gets to watch two shows per day; one in the morning and one while I'm making supper in the evening.

She doesn't even ask to watch tv anymore in the morning, but she does in the evening.  It is great.  In the beginning, I would usually have to suggest a few other things for her to do to get her mind off it, and she really has started to love doing puzzles and matching games.

joseysbride

That's another thing...if she asks to watch a show, and then she goes to something else and isn't paying full attention, we turn it off.  This ticked her off to no end at first, but now she doesn't really even notice.

I like to have a coloring book and markers handy for her whenever she wants them because I can't always get stuff for her while nursing (I just let it sit on the dining room table most of the day), she loves jigsaw puzzles, games (candyland castle game, zingo bingo), and blocks.

Dimplz

I wish I could do that but DS would drive me crazy if the TV were off all day. He didn't watch TV period until after 18 months though and that was because I just needed him to focus on something else for a change instead of being destructive. Now, if the TV isn't on, he will terrorize our cats because that's so much fun <insert eye roll here>.

I plan to bring out the paints and play doh at about 10 am but that will only last about an hour and a half. It's pouring down raining today so all outdoor activities are out. DS doesn't have the attention span to read books or do puzzles (he has never had it either, even before he ever watched TV). I feel like a terrible mom for having him watch so much TV now but it keeps me from yelling at him all day for getting into something else.

AnnapolisLari

It's definitely a lot more "work" for me, but I'd rather read Go, Dog, Go again than go back to the TV.

His attention span will get longer if the TV is shut off. I can notice a difference in M already, and it's been 5 days.

veloelle

Does he bug you for TV time? I let DD watch PBS in the morning. She'll try to put in a VHS movie and I tell her no movies in the morning (this has been in place for about 3 weeks). 6 out of 7 mornings, I hear her messing w/ the VCR. She'll get a little sassy w/ me, but I'm wondering at what point will she stop. She's really good about turning the TV off when I ask, but the movie thing is another story.

Like you it seems we do a lot of activities on my days off, but around 4-5 she's still bored. "what are we going to do next, mama?" It's like, damn kid, we've been on the go all day long, I need to make dinner! I'm at a loss at that point when I need to actually get stuff done. Typically we've done crafts, played outside, ran errands/gone somewhere, etc, etc.

AnnapolisLari

I've heard a couple "I WANT DORA!"s, but he's been pretty easily distracted. I put the DVDs out of his reach.

He's been helping with dinner. I drag his Learning Tower into the kitchen and he's dumped the eggs into meatloaf and helped mix it, pulled the stems out of mushrooms, stuff like that. He loves cooking.

And when all else fails, we take a bubble bath. That can kill a good half hour, and he's clean.