NO TV

When my husband and I were first married we had free cable and DVR with our rent.  In our second place we had to pay for our DVR and by our third place (which by the way all these three homes happened in less than two years of getting married) we had nothing included.  My husband came from a family that watches TV, and everything on TV.  I came from a life of never ending motion and doing and really never sat down for TV.  My husband wanted the kitchen table in a line of sight with the TV and I didn't.  He got to a point where he would pick the shows he wanted to watch and just DVR them.  This way when he watched it was very specific and didn't take hours.

Eventually after several years of discussions, gaining a hectic crazy work life between the two of us to just pay the bills. having kids and not having cable we pretty much did away with TV all together.  My husband owns over 1000 DVD's which we have digitized and put in storage in our attic.  He watches those all the time.  We got used to redbox for a while and then even did away with that.  There is no money to go see movies so I haven't been to a movie theater in almost 3 years.  We do use the free Hulu.  Since we are not on TV normally and none of our friends watch our favorite shows waiting an extra month to see an episode is not a big deal.

I learned really quickly as a mother that I needed to be able to hear my children while they play.  I can't handle not knowing where they are in the home and having an idea what they are playing with.  They are still really young and I am afraid that they will hurt themselves.  So, naturally I don't listen to anything on the TV when I am home.  It is a silent atmosphere.  As a musician, I constantly hear sound while I am at work.   Loud sound.  I hear a piano between 4-10 hours a day most days.  You need a break from sound sometimes.  Because of that I learned that i needed to figure out how to keep my independent child busy while I got household chores done.

I started with coloring books.  She just isn't into that.  Once she did puzzles she started to get really focused and stay at a task for a while.  Since then I just add new activities through the week and her concentration level is seriously out of control.  It is amazing how long she will sit at an activity.

Her most recent discovery: sewing.  Um, I LOVE to sew.  Mostly quilt, but I could spend hours of my day everyday sewing if life allowed it.  Madalynn picks up on things that she sees me doing and wants to do them same.  Duh.  Doesn't every kid want to do what their parent does?  Dont' they want to be involved in something that clearly you enjoy?  I love the following quote:

"As your child’s first collaborator, you’re the first person who reacts, 

the first who asks a question, the first who notices a detail. 

Your attention shines a light on her work and shows it back to her. 

It helps her focus on what she cares about."

So, basically these posts are a journal of our journey to where we are.  We don't watch movies much with the kids, and that is ok.  I don't create backgroun noise in my house with the hopes that it allows her to be really creative.  I want my children to have a magical childhood full of play.  I am hoping that the lack of TV helps me reach that goal.  Don't get me wrong, about twice a month when I really need them out of the kitchen I turn on the TV.  However, I usually turn on a learning program on youtube and let them soak in something about a specific animal, or reading concepts, or something about history.  I will do a post a some point soon about how we use youtube in our house esp. for preschool.  

Hope you enjoy.