1. I loathe Dora the Explorer. Dora is banned in our house. My oldest is very aware of this, and has apologized for watching it at other's houses (which I don't care about, so long as I don't have to watch it). I don't have issues with teaching kids, or kids tv in general. But I do take issues with people yelling as their normal speaking voice. Billy Mays as well as the entire cast of Jersey Shore grate the same nerves within me as Dora. Plus, my mother ran a home daycare. The half hour or so of TV time was generally reserved for Dora or Blues Clues. I got played out on these shows long before I had the desire to be a parent. Other shows I don't allow include SpongeBob, Yo Gabba Gabba (we listen and dance to real music, thanks), Angelina Ballerina, Max and Ruby, and the vaccination episode of Sid the Science Kid.
2. I don't like that certain food brands, books, and experts are trying to convince and encourage me to hide the healthy benefits of food to my kids. We are not close to being a super healthy household. But I'm not trying to hide the benefits of healthy foods OR the pitfalls of junk food. If I always hide veggies in other foods, how are my kids supposed to know they love them? If I make yummy chocolate brownies and hide that they are full of healthy zuchinni, they go into the world only knowing they like brownies. Completely oblivious that they also like a healthy, good for them vegetable. Be honest! Offer different presentations of foods kids aren't crazy about, but don't lie about their presence. My oldest has proclaimed her hatred of broccoli for a year or so now, but loves broccoli soup. Knowing the soup has broccoli gives her a push to try it in other ways.
3. I don't buy into the idea of pushing learning on kids. Stimulate your baby's mind with these DVDs! Teach your newborn to read! If you don't, how will they get the early acceptance to Yale before their 10th birthday? Maybe they won't. And maybe they won't want to. We are definitely closer to unschooling than prep school on the education spectrum. We try to help the kids learn by fostering their own learning goals and interests. I've heard people say that kids won't learn without structure and an adult telling them what to learn and showing them how. Maybe for some kids that's true. But like most things, learning isn't a one size fits all thing. My 5 year old loves letters. She knows how to write all of the letters (and asked to learn how to write without pressure from us), and regularly sits with a notebook asking us to spell things so she can learn to write words. She asks what words in books, magazines, and signs are. We tell her, and she works on sounding them out and memorizing them. She is going to attend homeschool classes at the zoo because she's asked to learn more about animals. Expanding on her natural desire to learn has worked well for us, and I'm not embarrassed to say that we haven't gotten any acceptance letters yet, and my 5 month old is illiterate.
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