A week or so ago, I came down to the toy room after my break to find my young friends sitting on the floor. I asked, what are you doing? To my surprise, I found out that they were watching T.V. The girls sat there for quite some time, giggling and pointing to our front window as they watched the non-existent screen. They were pretending to watch t.v. In our family home daycare, we do not have a television in the main areas where children are present. We do have a room licensed where there is a t.v., but we don't use that type of media on a regular basis in our program. (Perhaps we have utilized that option twice in the last year.) In my opinion, children spend enough time in front of the screen outside of our care. (We do however allow and encourage children to utilize computers and other forms of technology on a semi-regular basis.)
I find it quite interesting how much of the technology children absorb and create even in its absence. Take today as another example. A group of four-year-olds decided to make their own i-phones and i-pods out of Magnatiles.
"Look at my I-pod Ms. Amy!"
"We're texting each other with our i-phones."
"I'm playing Angry Birds"Technology is definitely having a HUGE impact on young children today.
3 comments:
I love it.
My daughter is constantly talking on her phone.
That is adorbale and also a little scray. I thought I had a bit longer than 4 years old before they would look like old pros at the texting thing!
Amy, I also chose not to use t.v. with my children, as they do watch it at home I'm sure. I have had children build t.v.'s out of blocks, and then "watch" DVD's, being quite detailed in their play. It is fascinating isn't it?My kids also make cell phones from small blocks such as bristle blocks, but so far no I pods. A novelty to my children is old rotary phones, some of them don't actually get what they are.
I much prefer my kids to enjoy creativity, and imaginative play when they are with me, then to watch t.v. Last year we did watch 2 movies brought by a child, but really the children soon lose interest, and go back to play. I feel so fortunate to be a daily witness to all this creativity and imagination in my children.
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