It is Time to Turn Off TV

In our home, the TV is off during the week.  Only in the weekends we would turn it on to watch a family movie.  That’s about it.  The rest of time, Alex would read, draw, or go out to play in the park with his friends.  We have driven across country many times, from Los Angeles, California to Orlando, Florida.  My husband and I would prepare papers and pencils, a lot of them, for Alex to draw and write in the car;  also books.  Once, before he could read to  but was interested in how things work, we packed a DK Science Encyclopedia for him to look through during the week-long drive.  During the ride, he would flip through the pictures, and asked questions, and we answered him as much as we could, or we would read to him from the book.  By the time we reached Orlando, he had had a pretty good idea about how planes work.  During another across country drive, Alex further developed his drawing skill.  He could quickly sketch two cyclists paddled on the freeway with whom we had met earlier the day.  When he was six, he finished reading five of Captain Underpants series when we drove from Atlanta to LA;  on this past summer, again, when we drove to Atlanta and back, he finished reading the third and fourth Harry Potter.  These driving turned out to be great helps for the little one to focus. 

There are sayings that say you could always find answers from books, and there are saying that say watching too much TV would kill a person’s brain, well, let’s say a person’s imagination.   So, I would suggest parents to turn off their TVs and play with their kids, in order to have a real family quality time, which will be the fond memories we cherish the rest of our life.