The average U.S. household has at least one television set turned on for about 7 hours each day. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting a child's viewing to one or two supervised hours a day. Pippidis, who researched and wrote a fact sheet on helping children learn from television, says children cannot make objective evaluations, cannot form logical conclusions and cannot sort out relevant data about the things they see on television. If you are concerned about your family's viewing habits,Pippidis suggests keeping a log of how many hours children spend in front of the TV each day. Then read through the television section on Sunday evening and make your selections for the coming week.
Discussions lead by an adult can dramatically improve the value of almost any program.
Pippidis also suggests encouraging other activities. Encourage your children to explore other avenues of information. Take them with you to the library, look up answers in reference books and start enjoying the newspaper. Use television as a springboard for other activities, Find places on a map, explore nature or write down your child's dictated story. The magic ingredient is time spent together exploring and mastering the information and experience.