I wrote my post on TV watching late at night when I should have been sleeping. It’s late again and I should probably be in bed again, but I had a small tangent I wanted to make.
In that post, I stated that Kris and I are both the type of people that can get hyper-focused on a subject, sometimes to the (seeming) exclusion of all else. I say seeming because obviously, with a family, that’s not entirely true. The point remains, there are times that even when I’m talking to someone about something else, reading other things, or doing other activities, my brain is only thinking about a particular subject. I can research things to death. Then once I’ve had my fill of it, I often drop it and move away.
Meredith seems to be similar. As a very young baby or toddler, maybe a year old, she figured out how to open a jar lid. She spent over an hour, just sitting and unscrewing that lid, then handing it to me to put the lid back on. Rinse, repeat. I got tired of the “game” long before she did, but kept at it because I could see how fascinating it was for her. She’s always been like that, where she will figure something out and then just practice and repeat it over and over until she’s had her fill. I know that many kids like repetition, so I don’t think she’s alone in this. You hear about kids who want the same story read, the same movie watched, etc.
Back around her third birthday, I wrote about her fascination with Egypt. When she showed an interest in Egypt and her pyramid, I didn’t just leave it at that and let her stumble around to figure things out on her own. That’s not what I believe life learning is about. We got books from the library, rented movies, found games, and looked at pictures. Some of the things I offered she rejected outright and others she ignored. But there were some she was very interested in and these led to more and different interests. In fact, the TV watching now may have indirectly been started from the interest in Egypt, since it was through a show we borrowed from the library that she really started to realize how cool TV could be.
So what does this have to do with TV? Well, it got me to thinking. What would I do if she was interested in any topic besides TV? I would explore it with her. I would approach it from different angles. I would try and find out what fascinates her about it. But mostly I would try and enjoy it with her. I don’t want to fall into the trap of trying to turn everything into a learning experience either!
So, what if her interest right now is TV? Not because it’s easy to veg out and become overstimulated by it, but because she really loves to watch TV. What is it about the TV that she enjoys? The stories and characters? The fact that anything can happen? The characters moving on the screen? How can I expand this interest?
I’ve decided to treat it like I would any other interest. I would love suggestions! Maybe she would be interested in making her own movies or writing her own stories. I was thinking maybe I’d get a blank notebook and invite her to help me go through old magazines and cut out pictures to paste in the book, then make up stories to go with the pictures.
Last night when she asked to watch Three Little Pigs, we made puppets. This morning we acted out a puppet show. Later I made a movie of her doing a puppet show on her own. I plan to make her a puppet theatre with some of the boxes we have. Another day, I might show her how to make a claymation movie or have her be the videographer and we can figure out something to make a movie of together. Later in the day, when Kris and I were distracted by making food, she did wander into the TV room and turn it on. But she was out every few minutes wanting food or water or just to talk. She came out for good before the show had even ended. Then around three (which is her tired time every day), she asked me if I would lay down and snuggle with her and watch a show with her, so of course I did.
I’m actually a little bit excited now thinking of things we can do that expand on TV as an interest. And I’ve realized that even if she isn’t interested in trying most of the ideas out and just wants to watch TV right now, that’s okay too. I do trust that when she has her fill (and especially as the weather gets nicer and Kris and I have the house back together the way we want it), the TV will likely be off again most days too.
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