I am very proud to say that sonshine boy watches 0 hours of tv a day. Even if he does, it will be well under 30mins on the YouTube. He is one of the rare kids who has short attention span when it comes to the television. Of course, he has his favorite shows like Thomas the Train, Chugginton and can sit through an episode but even then he would rather play his educational pc game or iPad then to watch shows. But having said that, he can clock up to 2 hours (break in between) on the iPad- and I'm certainly not proud of that!
I knew very well this would happen the minute mr iPad steps into our house. So I made a pact with the boy & this is how I control his usage.
I liken iPad to fire, it's a good servant but poor master. Hence I consciously make the iPad serve us rather lord over us. Here's how. I created 2 types of folders and named them 'weekend' and 'education'. Under the 'weekend' folder are those arcade or what I call, mindless games which the boys (including the papa) oh so love to play. No points for guessing which folder angry birds come under. And of course, under the education folders are all the educational games these includes maths (mostly), spelling, Chinese etc. N knows he can play the mindless games only on weekends but he's allowed to play educational games during the weekday (this applies to daddy-o as well! Or rather he can't play in front of N on weekdays). That's why I am more tolerant when he plays up to 2 hours on iPad a day. He thinks he is playing but he's actually practicing his maths and reading skills. I've discovered that he has also been Learning as he plays! Good for me! :p
I think in today's world, resisting technology is impossible. It's like resisting television, but the more you resist the more excluded you are from this world. But like television, it brings us good knowledge but all kinds of evilness as well. It's how you use it, how you control it. Just like, well, fire.
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