In the wake of the Kaiser Family Foundation's newest report on media in the lives of young people, a four-part opinion series at the New York Times: http://bit.ly/dB7ijR
I appreciated that most of the contributors responded with balance regarding this topic. I admit that I feel vaguely guilty when I turn on Super Why! or Leap Frog Letter Factory for my not-quite-two-year-old to keep her attention while I attend class online or take a shower in the morning. I must say, though, that my child now knows the alphabet and all her letter sounds and recognizes all the capital letters and several of the lower case. She has added castles and other fairy-tale elements to her pretend play, and she sings and dances to a variety of musical genres. Yes, my husband and I read to her daily. Yes, we sing the childhood classics with her. Yes, we play with alphabet and song concepts in our daily activities. However, there was nothing quite like, "The E says, 'Eh!' The E says, 'Eh!' Every letter makes a sound, the E says, 'Eh!'" to help her make that necessary connection. And I refuse to feel guilty about that.
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I appreciated that most of the contributors responded with balance regarding this topic. I admit that I feel vaguely guilty when I turn on Super Why! or Leap Frog Letter Factory for my not-quite-two-year-old to keep her attention while I attend class online or take a shower in the morning. I must say, though, that my child now knows the alphabet and all her letter sounds and recognizes all the capital letters and several of the lower case. She has added castles and other fairy-tale elements to her pretend play, and she sings and dances to a variety of musical genres. Yes, my husband and I read to her daily. Yes, we sing the childhood classics with her. Yes, we play with alphabet and song concepts in our daily activities. However, there was nothing quite like, "The E says, 'Eh!' The E says, 'Eh!' Every letter makes a sound, the E says, 'Eh!'" to help her make that necessary connection. And I refuse to feel guilty about that.
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