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Kids and TV Blog Series

Karla Bond — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:36:55 +0000

This week I have written a blog series about kids and TV. I feel it is important to know the effects TV can have on our kids. In case you missed it here is a recap.

Part One: Good TV Habits

Limit the hours your kids watch TV. Set a good example by limiting your TV time. Set up a reward system by allowing them TV time for a job well done.

Part Two: Violent Programming

Be aware of what your kids are watching. At each stage of their life, TV programs can effect them differently if there is violence of any kind in the show.

Part Three: Know Your TV Ratings

It is important to know the many different ratings and what they mean. This is an excellent way to know if the show is age appropriate for your kids.

Part Four: Bad Influences

TV can influence our kids in a negative way. Commercials can influence them to make bad decisions. Obesity can also become an issue if your kids are sitting in front of the TV for hours at a time.

I hope that this series has brought to life some issues that maybe lurking in your house or that may arise. Parents it’s our job to make sure our kids are protected from what they see. Limit what they watch and how long they watch it. Let’s keep them happy, healthy, and active for as long as we can, they grow up fast!

Kids and TV: Bad Influence

Karla Bond — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:00:09 +0000

This is part four of a four part blog series

Did you know that the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that kids under 2 not watch TV? Yet they are finding that infants and toddlers are actually averaging two hours a day!

Older kids and teenagers watch a whooping four hours a day of plus they’re usually spending two hours in front of a computer or in a video game.

These kids who spend more than four hours in front of the TV are very likely be overweight – which is to be expected, they sure aren’t getting much physical activity, right?

Plus snacking while watching TV can become a huge problem, especially with the influence of commercials.

Commercials Make You Hungry

Kids who watch that much television end up seeing 400,000 commercials each year on average.

Think about that for a second. Think of the commercials you see on TV. If we can be persuaded by a junk food commercial or a beer commercial, so can our kids. Is it any wonder they want to snack so much while they watch?

Over-snacking turns into overeating which eventually turns into obesity.

Most kids under 8 years of age don’t realize that commercials are for selling products and could be harmful. What you can do is teach them about what they are seeing. Teach them about the products and ask them what they think of what they are seeing. Make sure to explain to them the premise behind commercial and their purpose.

The bottom line is that you may want to limit your childrens TV time so they can be more active, both mentally and physically and not be overly influenced by what they see. And when they do watch and want to snick-snack, help them to make healthy choices!

Kids and TV: Violent Programming

Karla Bond — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:00:41 +0000

This is part two of a four part blog series.

Are the good guys good?

Many violent acts on TV are often portrayed but the “good guys” For instance, I bought my son a Buzz Lightyear cartoon DVD which had some shooting in it. Now he runs around pretending to shoot people. Buzz is a good guy to young kids but look how it has effected my 2 year old. These type of programs can confuse the the difference between right and wrong.

Infants(up to 18 month)

Infants time spans are short when it comes to TV. At this age they aren’t likely to pick up any bad habits from TV shows. They primarily pay attention to colors and sounds. You will still want to be cautious because at this age in development they may imitate what they see.

Toddlers

At the age of 2 and a half is when children can become full time TV watchers. They pay more attention to what is on the TV and begin repeating actions and words. They are prime into their development and what they see on TV could stick with them throughout their lives.

Preschool age (3-5)

At this age children are wanting to learn more more about what they are seeing on TV. Cartoon violence with fact action and vivid colors are easy to get their attention. If they watch an action cartoon, such as Spiderman or Superman, they are liable have more aggression after watching it. These types of cartoons really need to be limited.

Elementary age (6-11)

This is a critical time for children and TV. They are slowly starting to progress to family style adult shows or younger children shows rather than cartoons. These shows could influence them in way you may not approve of. Children may imitate violent aggression if they believe it is reflecting real life situations.

Teenage years (12-17)

By this time your children may be limiting themselves on the amount of TV they watch. Their social skills have kicked in and they are less interested. You just want to keep an eye on the types of show they are watching and make sure they know what they are watching is fictional and not real life.

Parents Job

It is up us parents to make sure our children are not exposed to violent behavior on TV before they fully understand the difference between fiction and real life. Use parental controls on your TV if you must. Make sure you are watching your adult shows when they are not around. While TV isn’t the only way children learn violent behavior, we can certainly do our best to protect them from it.

Kids and TV

Karla Bond — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:00:10 +0000

This will one of a four part blog series.

Kids and TV is a very important topic for me. I have a 3 year old that, like me, loves his TV. In this series I will cover the following.

Good TV Habits
Violence in shows
TV Ratings
Effects of TV and behaviors

Lets start with Good TV Habits

Limit TV Hours

One of the most important things to do is limit the hours they watch TV. In order for this to be successful you have to find them alternatives to watching TV. My son right now loves trains. So we went out and bought a mini train set for his room. We also bought him a rug that has streets and buildings on it to run his cars on. He can sit there for a couple hours and just play in his room.

For school age children, try banning TV during the week. TV is very distracting and they should be concentrating on their studies. You can record the shows they want to watch and let them catch up on the weekends if they choose to.

Set An Example!

Set a good example buy limiting your own TV time. This one is VERY hard for me to do. I try to record most of my shows and watch them at night when he is in bed.

Set up a Reward System

Use TV as a reward. If they pick up their toys or help around the house, you can give then an extra 5 minutes per duty they do. If they love TV they will jump on the chance to earn more time.

Be Aware

Make sure you know what your kids are watching. If they are in another, pop in on them to check. This is extremely important with younger kids. What they see on TV will stick with them as they are still developing.

Our next post in this blog series will be violence in TV shows.

Catch Up With Disney Show News

Katelyn — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:34:29 +0000

Do you have a favorite Disney show that always seem to air when you are working on homework or going to an after school event? Maybe you catch all the shows, but want to find out what your favorite stars are up to next. One of the best ways to catch up with Disney show news is to head to a fan site that keeps track of all the news. Here are a few of the fan sites we like to read when we are curious about what is going on:

Disnology -- This fan blog does an amazing job at keeping up with what the many Disney actors and actresses are up to. It also has a lot of show spoilers and news.
AOL Television -- AOL Television has a lot of news about Disney shows and actors along with all the other television news.
Disney Dreaming -- Another fan blog that keeps up with everything Disney related.
Disney.com - Watch videos right on the Disney site, take quizzes, play games and get news about your favorite shows.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr2STPtceEQ

Kids Choice Awards 2010 Air March 28

Katelyn — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:31:53 +0000

Adults have the Emmy Awards. Kids have the Kids’ Choice Awards. This year, the KCA will air on March 28th. Kids who want to be involved in the process can cast their votes on Nick.com. Voting categories include stars, shows and even favorite couples.

Since the show is for kids, it is a bit different than the elegant adult awards shows! Phrases like “green slime” are mentioned and smart nominees wear clothes that they can wash pretty easily.

Here’s a look at a fun moment from last year’s Kids’ Choice Awards:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yysbzT1TSWE

Top Ten Tuesday – TV Shows for Preschoolers

Katelyn — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:51:33 +0000

There are some TV shows for preschoolers that make me cry a little. They are loud and filled with way too many colors flashing on and off. Then there are some that I’ll catch myself watching intently. The characters and cute and funny. They make me care about them a bit. I hear myself saying things like, “Ruby is so bossy. She should know by now that Max is trying to help.” Then I realize that I never flipped the channel after the kids headed off to school and have been watching kids’ television for a good fifteen minutes by myself. Those are the shows I want to share with you today.

Here are my choices for the top ten TV shows for preschoolers:

Max and Ruby -- Like I mentioned above, I find Ruby to be a bit bossy, but I love silly little Max.
Dora the Explorer -- I don’t actually catch myself watching Dora, but the characters are cute, they teach a bit of Spanish and the kids learn some basic problem solving skills.
Ni Hao, Kai Lan -- These characters are the most adorable looking little guys and have sweet, simple story lines. Your kids can pick up a little Chinese while they watch, which is nice.
Wonder Pets - Although I like the Wonder Pets, I sometimes am annoyed by the fact that the theme song sticks in my head for hours on end!
The Backyardigans -- The story lines for these episodes are downright good. If you need to watch a kid’s cartoon show with your family, this is a good one to pick.
Curious George -- And now, for a show that needs no introduction…Seriously, though, this television show is just as delightful as the wonderful books by Rey. The segment where kids do experiments related to the show’s story makes parents happy and a monkey bent on mischief thrills the kids.
Martha Speaks -- This show is a great way for kids to build their vocabularies as they enjoy Martha’s antics.
Clifford -- Like Curious George, Clifford translates well to TV. This show has a cast of lovable characters and some great story lines.
Caillou -- Caillou is a curious, active boy who has a loving family. I like the sweet, gentle story lines.
Little Einsteins -- This Disney show helps teach kids a lot about music and has likable characters.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFtrS78z8WA

For more list fun, check out what everyone else is talking about for Top Ten Tuesday.

A Look Back at Following the Stars on Twitter

Katelyn — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:06:13 +0000

This week, I encouraged you to have fun following the stars of your children’s favorite TV shows on Twitter. However, as MVChrissy pointed out, it can be hard to follow all your business contacts and the kids’ star content at the same time. She was wondering about setting up a separate account for her kids. Instead, I recommend setting up a kid star list, a business contacts list, etc. and reading just the tweets on the list you want to catch up with. Not only does this make it easy for you to organize all of your Twitter friends, it also enables you to keep up with what the stars are tweeting so you can quickly unfollow any of them that have an attack of teenitis and post inappropriate updates.

I started by talking about following the iCarly gang. This is an active group of tweeters, especially producer Dan Schneider, AKA Dan Warp, and star Miranda Cosgrove. If you aren’t following them and your kids are fans of the show, you are missing out on a lot of fun tidbits, like the fact that Miranda Cosgrove was running through the rain to get to her destination last night when her taxi dropped her in the wrong spot.

Next, I moved on to the stars of Hannah Montana. While Miley Cyrus abandoned Twitter, many of the other cast members are still tweeting away. Want to know where Emily Osment was today? Hanging out in the Verizon store in Pleasanton.

After that, I headed back to Nick to follow the stars of the new show Victorious, which is another project by Dan Warp. Because I follow these stars, I know that Victoria Justice loves Jersey Boys so much that she saw the show twice this weekend!

Last, but never least, I told you how to follow the stars of Wizards of Waverly Place on Twitter. While they aren’t the biggest tweeters in the bunch, they do sometimes get the urge. In fact, David Henrie has been downright chatty this weekend. If you want to get on his good side, just head over to Zips in Arizona and get that wizard in training some wings.

Now, I could wrap up here, but that wouldn’t be much fun, would it? Why don’t I leave you with one more star to follow instead? Yes, it is Mr. Joe Jonas himself from the Jonas Brothers TV show on @JoeJonas. Have fun!

Follow the Stars of Wizards of Waverly Place on Twitter

Katelyn — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:13:38 +0000

Do you want to impress your friends with your magical ability to tell what is going on with Wizards of Waverly Place long before they do? Want to be able to leak the news that Selena Gomez finished filming for the season and is heading for Madrid? You can. And you don’t even need a magic wand or wizard skills! You just need your Twitter account.

Ready to Impress Your Friends (or Your Kids) With Great Trivia About the Stars of Wizards of Waverly Place?

Selena Gomez, who plays the self centered but lovable Alex Russo, is on @SelenaGomez.
David Henri, who plays Justin Russo is on @DavidHenri. (He doesn’t tweet a lot about Wizards of Waverly Place, though. He’s working on directing his own stuff and is understandably into tweeting about it.)
Jake T. Austin plays Max Russo and can be found on @JakeTAustin.
Jennifer Stone, who plays the slightly clueless and fashion challenged Harper is on @comeagainjen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJGI3z0JzTo

Just tuning in? Catch up with the rest of the stars on Twitter series:

Follow the Stars of iCarly on Twitter

Follow the Stars of Hannah Montana on Twitter

Follow the Stars of Victorious on Twitter

Don’t forget to let me know if there is another television show you’d really like to follow on twitter. I’ll do my best to dig up any of the stars who tweet!

Follow Friday – Are You Following the Stars of Your Favorite Kid Shows Yet?

Katelyn — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:03:34 +0000

This week, I put together a series of posts on following the stars of some great kids’ shows on Twitter. If you still haven’t started following your favorite stars, maybe seeing a few of the things I found out this week will get you motivated to begin. The gang really has fun asking me what is going on with their favorite stars and things like what cereal a star is eating gets them all excited. “I ate those last week! Famous Star X is like me!”

First up is @Victoria Justice. A lover of awesome sweet treats.

Next, let’s check in on @MirandaBuzz. She taped Rachel Ray this week. I’m just a bit jealous!

What about @EmilyOsment? She just turned 18. Want to know why she’s excited about that?

And let’s wrap up the fun with @NickJonas from the Jonas Brothers.