Television

When I was dating my husband (way before we were even close to serious), I told him when I got married it would be on 3 conditions: 1) I wanted to home-school my kids, 2)I didn't want any kind of game consul in my house, and 3) I didn't want a TV. I think he now wishes that he didn't agree to such a list, he has even told me that he wishes that he had come up with a contingency list too. Sorry honey but there is good reason for my list. That being I like TV too much.

I would call it my Achilles heal, and is the one thing I would change about my home-schooling experience ... well sort of. You see everything I know about science is from Bill Nye, ENERGY IS POWER. And I learned a lot of good social habits from channel 9. Like how to listen. I specifically remember a show where they talked about how to be a good listener, give the other person your full attention, don't ever look at your watch or act like you need to leave, repeat back to that person in your own words what they said. I've used those steps ever since I learned them. Years later my mom was telling me that she learned this new skill called "drive by listening" and I thought to myself I've been doing that for years, thank you channel 9.

On the other hand I probably spent way to much time in front of the TV, I am just grateful we were only allowed to watch educational channels like pbs (although we didn't' always obey that rule), and that we didn't have cable. You see I am easily sucked in by Television. I know there are much better ways to spend your time, but the allure is at times is too tempting. So my solution was not TV and it worked great for the first few years of my marriage, and then came hulu, and netflix. So I guess I am going to have to exert some self control anyway.

When I comes to home-school and TV, that's a hard one for me. It definitely has some benefits, but day long marathons are also not a good thing. I guess each parent has to decide what to let into their own house.