Media is neither good or bad. Last week I talked about media in our marriage and a little bit about our family and media but today is all about Rex and media.
Rex loves cartoons! Right now he happens to be watching Veggie Tales while eating lunch. This is not a normal thing at all. I can't remember the last time he was eating while watching TV. Today we had a crazy time and he asked to watch a movie and I didn't have a problem with it. Plus it's Veggie Tales.
We have a limit (during mommy in charge time) that he is only allowed to watch one movie/TV show each day and some days we don't watch anything. When daddy gets home things change and the TV is on within minutes of being home. Rex normally doesn't care that the TV is on because of our daily activities. He plays or helps me cook unless daddy is watching adult cartoons then he is more interested.
This past winter I found us watching more TV than I planned ever to let my children watch. So once it started warming up I decided that I was going to change that and spend more time doing other things. Whether we were playing outside or spending time inside because of the heat we would not be watching TV. Most days and weeks we do really good.
I feel like allowing children to watch TV, play video games, or spend hours on the computer will be teaching our children to grow up and be lazy. Allowing children to waste hours doing these activities will ultimately turn them into unmotivated adults (most of the time). If we as parents don't train our children to be self motivated and wanting to learn and grow in their relationship with Christ as well as their education we are not doing our job effectively.
I do believe that we can use media to help us in this. I love reading Women Living Well and other blogs that are encouraging and lifting me up also teaching me things not only about myself but also ways to help grow my family. I follow some blogs that teach about how they do homeschooling which helps me see different way so that I can decide how we want to do our schooling. Also watching movies or educational shows help Rex. Veggie Tales teaches the morals that I want to instill in him along with scripture and other important things. I love Letter Factory and I didn't even realize how much he was learning from it until on day we were at a store and he started picking up letters and saying what they were and their sounds! He's 2! This kind of media is great to help kids learn but like everything else in life it needs to be in moderation and followed up with other ways of learning.
As Rex gets older we will have to set boundaries around media and set good examples so he can live a healthy and successful lifestyle. We will screen what he is allowed to see and what he is allowed to play. We are starting that now and I'm praying that God will get our hearts on the same page as to what is acceptable and what isn't. Until then I rely on the verse from the Bible that says, 'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it" Proverbs 22:6.
Being able to homeschool and train up Rex in the right way to go (for our household, not everyone will agree with everything we do and that is fine) will ensure as promised by God's Word that he will not turn from it when he is old. So that is my goal! Teach Rex the right way to live and to not watch things that are inappropriate, to not spend your days wasting time in front of media, and to grow and learn in all areas of his life.
What do you do to handle the overload of media our children are exposed to? Are you setting the example you want your children to follow?
I'm linking up with Women Living Well for Media Mondays. (I'm a week behind but still writing anyway!)
Rex loves cartoons! Right now he happens to be watching Veggie Tales while eating lunch. This is not a normal thing at all. I can't remember the last time he was eating while watching TV. Today we had a crazy time and he asked to watch a movie and I didn't have a problem with it. Plus it's Veggie Tales.
We have a limit (during mommy in charge time) that he is only allowed to watch one movie/TV show each day and some days we don't watch anything. When daddy gets home things change and the TV is on within minutes of being home. Rex normally doesn't care that the TV is on because of our daily activities. He plays or helps me cook unless daddy is watching adult cartoons then he is more interested.
This past winter I found us watching more TV than I planned ever to let my children watch. So once it started warming up I decided that I was going to change that and spend more time doing other things. Whether we were playing outside or spending time inside because of the heat we would not be watching TV. Most days and weeks we do really good.
I feel like allowing children to watch TV, play video games, or spend hours on the computer will be teaching our children to grow up and be lazy. Allowing children to waste hours doing these activities will ultimately turn them into unmotivated adults (most of the time). If we as parents don't train our children to be self motivated and wanting to learn and grow in their relationship with Christ as well as their education we are not doing our job effectively.
I do believe that we can use media to help us in this. I love reading Women Living Well and other blogs that are encouraging and lifting me up also teaching me things not only about myself but also ways to help grow my family. I follow some blogs that teach about how they do homeschooling which helps me see different way so that I can decide how we want to do our schooling. Also watching movies or educational shows help Rex. Veggie Tales teaches the morals that I want to instill in him along with scripture and other important things. I love Letter Factory and I didn't even realize how much he was learning from it until on day we were at a store and he started picking up letters and saying what they were and their sounds! He's 2! This kind of media is great to help kids learn but like everything else in life it needs to be in moderation and followed up with other ways of learning.
As Rex gets older we will have to set boundaries around media and set good examples so he can live a healthy and successful lifestyle. We will screen what he is allowed to see and what he is allowed to play. We are starting that now and I'm praying that God will get our hearts on the same page as to what is acceptable and what isn't. Until then I rely on the verse from the Bible that says, 'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it" Proverbs 22:6.
Being able to homeschool and train up Rex in the right way to go (for our household, not everyone will agree with everything we do and that is fine) will ensure as promised by God's Word that he will not turn from it when he is old. So that is my goal! Teach Rex the right way to live and to not watch things that are inappropriate, to not spend your days wasting time in front of media, and to grow and learn in all areas of his life.
What do you do to handle the overload of media our children are exposed to? Are you setting the example you want your children to follow?
I'm linking up with Women Living Well for Media Mondays. (I'm a week behind but still writing anyway!)
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