Tv Time: 150 Fun Family

By Debra K. Traverso

Today's parents have a good reason to be concerned about both the quantity and quality of the TV programs their children are watching. Now TV TIME offers creative, "take charge" methods that enable parents to use television to help their children grow. Instead of turning parents into TV police or kids into TV addicts, this guide gets children actively involved in managing their TV choices with easy-to-play games, dialogues, mind-teases, and memory quizzes. Television time becomes not play fun, but educational, with ingenious ideas that will entertain, inform, and stir a child's imagination and creativity--

Intriguing, interactive games that foster alertness while programs are in progress.

Fun-filled TV-inspired projects a child can do before and after viewing.

Video ventures that inspire expanded learning adventures at the library or bookstore.

Challenging TV games that improve vocabulary and spelling.

Activities kids can do on their own or with other children.

Before-and after-show fun that encourages independent thinking.

Mind-expanding, TV-sparked discussions that bring the whole family together.

AND MUCH MORE

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380797186
• ISBN13: 9780380797189
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

TV brings our family together thanks to this book

I'm a single mom with three kids. I work two jobs and take care of an invalid mother. As a result, my kids see a little too much TV for my comfort. With my busy schedule, I needed some way that I could let the kids watch TV without having to be there to monitor every moment, and a way that wouldn't require much of my time. This is it. I spend less than 5 minutes with it each day challenging my kids with a TV project, and I'm set to go do what I want. My hats off to the author for finding a way to use TV to actually bring us all together.

My kids love it

This book is great! My kids love it. I find the activities for older teenagers (15 and up) a little impractical for my kids, but they actually enjoy helping the younger ones since the projects are creative and involve TV. So either way, my kids are actually doing things together and learning! Thank you! Finally my TV is harnessed.

Practical and useful!

I found TV Time to be very practical. At first I thought it might be another book that assumes I have a craft store in my house, but no. Not much is necessary beyond cardboard, paper, crayons, pencils, books, and the usual stuff you find in every house with a child in it.

It works!

I was skeptical when I ordered the book, but it really does work. I only have to spend two minutes a day with the book to find a new idea and that quickly my kids are automatically using it in a creative and educational way. When I see all the pictures they color and projects they make now while watching TV, I don't feel guilty letting them watch anymore. One less reason to feel guilty about being an overworked Mom.

Turns TV into a "good guy" -- activities galore!

Journalist and mom Debra Koontz Traverso shares the same concerns that other parents have about the wasteland that in general characterizes TV for children. But she's not willing to throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater, preferring instead to use TV for the educational and mind-expanding experience it can be. So, she's written TV Time to help parents learn how to get kids actively involved in managing TV choices and making the most of them.With 95 percent of the households in this country sporting at least one television set, the medium obviously has an impact on a child's life. Although much has been written about the evils of children watching television, little concrete guidance has been provided for parents in palatable form .. until now, Traverso remedies this situation in her book by providing unique and fun ideas on how to transform the television into an educational tool by incorporating the fun of watching the tube with the stimulation involved in learning.And here's the best part: the book is divided by age groups, activities and subjects, so it makes an easy reference that can grow with a child as his/her TV selections change through the years. Most of the activities take less than a minute to read and apply, a welcome blessing to busy working moms who otherwise would feel angst about allowing their children to watch TV.The author suggests lots of easy-to-play games, dialogues, mindteasers and memory quizzes to help turn sitting in front of the TV into an active rather than passive experience. Traverso also suggests unusual and subtle ways parents can stimulate their children's thinking to critique content as they watch television, and she also helps them understand the subtle messages presented on the screen.Most educators would agree, it's a book that should be referred to each time the TV is turned on.