Kids and TV

What do you think of allowing kids to watch TV when they were still young? Personally, I think we should allow kids to watch TV but moderately of course! Apart from that, we also have to monitor the types of shows they watch.

I let Adam watch TV since he was 2 months old. I don't know if he could understand the show or not but he seems to enjoy it very much. He especially loved Dibo the Gift Dragon and My Friends Tigger and Pooh.. His eyes would be glued to the TV while his hands and feet wailing as if imitating the characters movement. Sometimes he even made noise as if he was interacting with the cartoon characters.

I found cartoon shows nowadays are more educational and would benefit them in the long run. Shows like Little Einstein, Word World and Special Agent OSO taught not only the kids but parents too :p This is so different from the cartoon from our days like Bugs Bunny, Road Runner where it all revolves around playing tricks and killing each other which of course without us realizing it, translates to violence.

Two of my cousins speak fluent English just by watching the cartoon shows. Their ranges of vocabs are even larger than mine. When I was their age (maybe till today), I am sure my English was not as good. Considering I may only afford to send my kids to the public school where the quality of the English teachers are doubtful (you should read some of the English teachers' blogs that I have read), I need to prepare my kids with good English foundation before they go to school. Some friends were making fun of me when I speak mostly English with my son saying we are in Malaysia and not in England. That's the point! If we are in England where everybody speaks English, I would speak Malay to my son.. As we are in Malaysia, I am sure soon enough he will be able to catch up on his Malay even with Terengganu slang..

Apart from shows on Playhouse Disney, I also bought alot of educational DVDs for my son. He could dance and jump while learning to talk. He could improve his motor skills and exercise at the same time. Of course I don't let him watch TV all day long.. There are times I would read his books to him and play other toys with him. Limit should be set since they were young so they would know that there alot of other interesting things besides the TV.

Personally, I do not approve Astro Ceria. I found the shows sometimes are not child appropriate. I have discussed about this with one of my friend and she shared how her 2 or 3 year old nephew said to his grandmother "nenek ni macam ibu tirilah" when she scold him. He learned it from watching Hikayat Putera Shahzan where they potrays stepmothers as the angry creature who would scold kids for no reason. This should not be in the mind of 2 or 3 years old. Apart from that, I found the voice over for some of the cartoons that were translated into Malay are very boring. They use adult's voice for kids characters. So not appropriate!

As parents, we are the one responsible to mould child and get the best out of them. If you believe kids should not watch TV at all or you think Astro Ceria is the best channel in the world, so be it. Only you know your kids and only you know what is best for them :)

Cheers!