Screen Time and D's Review of Learning Web Sites

Ah, to reduce screen time or not, that is the question!

I recently had the wonderful privilege (thanks C.!) of attending Gordon Neufeld's latest conference in Vancouver.  This year's theme was Rest, Play, Grow.  One among hundreds of useful notions I brought home from this superb event, was the questioning of our use of screen time: in front of the computer or TV. 

Gordon believes that true growth (developmental) and learning only truly occur when children are at rest and filled up with love (unconditional acceptance, with all their needs met double!).  Yet, he bemoans, we make them work all the time, work for our love, work for attention, work to compete in and manage peer social situations, work for grades, rewards and approval, work for outcomes, rather than truly be at peace, secure in love and safety, and at rest, so that their minds can truly process, play with and come to understand their world and the part they play in it.  Gordon recommends that children need several hours a day of free play, alone play, a safe resting time, with no screen time.

What role does screen time play in your household?

In ours, I've tried to keep it minimal.  I believe our son watches a fair amount of TV shows and movies at his dad's.  Plus, he's a pretty over-scheduled little dude.  What with living in a joint custody arrangement, switching homes every other day during the work week, and alternating weekends, as well as having to transition between 2.5 mornings of pre-school, to the socializing with our home daycare kids, and then if he's lucky a few evenings a week of down time.  Now his dad has him enrolled in three evenings a week of extra-curricular classes, and one Saturday morning!  So with this in mind, I try to limit screen time if only to provide that wonderfully free-flow creative place that occurs when he's left to his own thoughts and devices.

We watch one movie every one to two weeks, either fiction or nature / science.  I may put on a short video during the day, if no naps occur, extremely infrequently, to get a "break" for myself.  Finally over the last two years, my son has experimented with three "learning" websites on line.  Which he pretty much self regulates now, using one perhaps once a month.  Many have claimed that reading websites have helped their children a lot.  I think that if Daniel spent more time with them, this might be the case for him.  So far, their influence has been hard to see, one small element in the wonderful variety of learning opportunities that my son experiences all the time.

Poisson Rouge is definitely worth checking out, with no advertising, or character /  brand recognition, pleasant sound effects, and an endless assortment of different types of games, learning tools, experiences with site, sound, shape, movement etc., this very simple site can be entertaining, introduce all kinds of concepts to a child, and give them practice in navigating on the computer, using a mouse to click, drag etc. and encouraging a little early "internet ethics".  The site starts on one page, designed as a play room, and by clicking on each toy or play thing, you are taken to different pages, each with another array of things to click on.  In other words, in order to find your way around, one must always go back.  Some beautiful simple ideas here.

http://www.poissonrouge.com/

Many have recommended Star Fall, and I do too, with it's phonetics, games, read longs and early readers, there's and endless supply of levels, and approaches, which, after two years, my son has still not exhausted.  At first he was not at all interested in the simple phonetics exercises, but now, after gaining more real time knowledge of sounds, sight words and the power of reading / writing, I notice he's going back to these exercises as if to consolidate what he already knows.  Star Fall introduced my son to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, which fascinated him for ages.  He asked if he could watch the ballet, and this opened all kinds of other doors!  Also his interest in Greek Myths was peaked by their over-simplified version of Theseus and The Minator.  Now, he is well versed in the discussion of different versions of stories: comparative lit!!!

http://www.starfall.com/

We encountered Brainpop and did the trial - I believe it's the first two levels you get for free, and then you have to pay.  Another, largely phonetically based reading site, I like the fact that it introduces whole sounds right away:  'ee' for example.  It has funky animation with aliens etc., and cool sound effects, but relies mostly on rote learning, and that infuriating trick of making kids feel like they are interacting with the computer, like Dora shows: "Say, "ee"!___________Good that's right!"  Yeeechhh!

https://secure.brainpop.com/trial/step1/

I love my son's review of the two. "I like Brain Pop because I think the animation, sound effects and ideas are cool, but it's totally directed by the computer, you have to do what they tell you, and have no choices.  I prefer Star Fall because it's open ended, you can start or quit any activity, say whether you liked it or not, choose what kind of reading / learning you want to do, and choose any level you want.  That way is definitely better for learning.

Oh, boy, I have to tear myself away from the SCREEN!  And do some real time work!!!!!
AAcchhh!  Chow for now.