Speaking of kids and TV....

[Amy2]

Well, I decided to try something new. I have found that when DS is allowed to watch television, he becomes obsessed with it and wants to watch one show after another. It's becoming a huge pain, asking him to turn it off all the time. He watches "apporpriate" shows, but is now becoming interested in branching out to networks that we don't allow (has anyone seen the "new" Scooby Doo on Cartoon? We don't allow this channel, but he is a Scooby Doo FREAK and is dying to watch it.) Anyway, I decided this morning that I would simply put a limit on how much time he is allowed to watch, and then there would be no discussion. We had a family meeting, and talked about it and decided that he was allowed to watch one hour a day. We got out the tv guide, and highlighted what he wanted to watch. One half hour in the morning, one half hour in the evening (surprise! Scooby Doo!) I told him that this way he would know when he could turn the tv on, and when he had to turn it off. Cross your fingers that this works, or I may have to throw the damn thing out the window! The television, not ds.
Amy

[Lynda/WA]

When we got the N64 DS became an addict. What we did was tell him he could earn unlimited Nintendo time by reading to himself, me or his younger sister or me reading to him. One minute Nintendo for every minute education. We also gave him time for other things like playing with educational handheld games. He has one that runs through the multipication table and some that do trivia type questions (GeoSafari et al). Many of these he could do in the truck while running errands or during the hour it takes to drive to Grandmas. He had to write the times on a paper on the fridge. I did catch him fudging a bit but it made him work for it. On days off he got 1/2 hour of free time.