Your television can actually be a wonderful learning tool.  The key is to make wise choices about how you use television.  Television can be a great tool, or a bad influence, based on 3 things:

1. How much you watch

2. What you watch

3. How you watch

How much you watch: In the early years, limit your child’s TV-time to 10 hours or less a week – even if you only watch educational PBS Kids programming.  These early years are vital to your child’s development and later school success.  Your child needs a balance of activities to stimulate her imagination, thinking skills, motor skills, and social skills

What you watch: Choose TV programs according to the same rules you have your child’s friends.

How you watch:

The way you watch television is as important as what or how much you watch.  

• Watch TV together: When possible, watch programs with your children so you can help them understand the material. Join in the program's activities along with the kids!
  
  

• Mute and refute: Mute the ads, or at least talk about what you’re seeing.  “Do you think that basketball star gets paid to say he likes those shoes?”
  
  

• Talk back!  Don’t insist on watching TV quietly.  Play, sing, and talk with your TV. Ask your child questions about what he’s seeing. Then listen to his answers.  This is a great way to start a conversation with your child, and to “check in” with how he feels about what he is watching.
  
  

• Pause and predict: Use your VCR.  Tape your favorite shows; then pause the TV and guess what will happen next. Predicting is a powerful literacy skill.
  
  

• Extend what you’ve watched with every day activities.  If you see the Teletubbies jump up and down, practice the word “up” by going up the stairs, picking up your baby, lifting a doll up in the air.  If you watch a Caillou episode about taking care of pets, visit the zoo or the pet store, or teach your child how to properly hold your own pet. (Try the Learning Triangle)

 What’s on PBS Kids