Screen Time — Why Not?
Screen Time for kids? — An ideal parent in an ideal world with an ideal child would definitely say NO. But how many of those ‘ideals’ are ticked in our lives? In mine — None! But still, would I go out and say YES? Maybe not!
So I stopped answering that question. I started looking at optimizing screen time, let's face it, it's here to stay.
Don’t mistake me. I'm no Hitler mom who is only going to get her child to watch ‘educative’ programs, but I am going to try to find something to learn in what my son shows interest in.
While the screen is not the only one to credit for these learnings, I am listing down a bunch of things the screen has enabled to a great extent -
- Language & Communication — Little Y is 2.5 years old, but he can comfortably converse with an adult in English for hours. Where did he learn the words? The context? The sentence formation? The tonality? From a zillion of those videos on Youtube where kids are talking about random things. (P.S — He also said ‘random things’ the other day and surprised me). We also watch videos in different languages — Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu & even Russian — there’s always something new to learn.
- Logos of Cars — When we can only own a couple of cars, ask me how Yajur knows the logos of more than 22 Car brands. Yes, we spend most of our lives in the parking lot, but a Rolls Royce will not roll by when you want to learn logos will it? Thank you Internet & screen time, you have made my son’s ‘intense interests’ really intense!
- Numbers — When a counter tells you how many balloons/bubbles you pop or how many eggs you need to put into the cake mix (thank you Kiddopia) — you begin to understand the application of numbers. And learning numbers with Yajur has never been more fun. Now we join one dot to the next just looking at the numbers to form awesome illustrations and no paper wasted!
- Music — While wheels on the bus is going to be an all-time favourite, this little boy enjoys tunes that I haven’t seen other 2-year-olds grow up with. He watches multiple versions (obviously parent-approved & kid friendly) of Bimbo by Jim Reeves, Fix You by Coldplay, Sugar by Maroon 5 & more! And the best thing — he can recognize these songs within seconds.
- Logic & Clarity — Whether it's fitting the right wheel to the car in a puzzle or just skipping an ad in the video, there is logic involved and it's amazing to see a little brain process it so well. While most children of this generation will be able to do this without any trouble, the idea of learning ‘why’ to click on one button and what happens when you scroll the other way is an interesting development.
If you reached this portion of the blog, you must think that I encourage screen time for my little baby. While that is not entirely untrue, I do give him the choice — and just today when I asked him — will you watch TV while I finish a bath he promptly said no Amma I will watch later, now I will play. 😇 I smiled ear to ear. Now no amount of ‘judging’ me for allowing screen time matters. I rest my case.
Originally published at https://yajurchronicles.com.
