American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends children under 2 years old not to watch TV or computer; children over 2 years old should not watch more than 1-2 hours/day and considered to be selective.

To make the period of time watching TV/computer becomes more meaningful to parents and their children, parents should:

– Be a good example: parents need to limit their own time watching TV / computer. If children see  parents sitting to watch TV / computer for hours, they will imitate.

– Take note of the appropriate television programs for the whole family to see, they can be favourite educational programs that your children or family like to watch. To ensure consistence, parents should preview and can consult these program ratings in magazines or reference sources. This is not too complex because recommendations for ages and audiences also frequently appear at the beginning of the program.

– Watch TV with your children: If parents can not see from the beginning to the end, at least you need to see with them the first few minutes to imagine the shades of that program.

– Talk to your children about what they should see on TV / computer, share ideas, beliefs and your standard values. If you disagree with the content of the program on TV / computer, then you shutdown and see this as an opportunity to discuss whether your children think like: “If the child, what will you do? ” or “what do you think about their actions in the movies?”, “According to you, is this acceptable?”. In this way, parents can use TV / computer to explain to children about these dilemmas. Let your children know how to ask questions and absorb through the content of the television program.

– Set up a “ NO” date to limit the time of using TV/ computer.

The photo is the trip of the students of Kindy City International Preschool at Family Garden ecological garden

– Propose other interesting solutions: When children want to watch TV / computer but you want to turn off, just offer other options for children like coloring, doing puzzles or reading books etc…

Parents should also discuss with friends, other parents and teachers of “their rules of watching TV/computer” as well as useful programs that they may introduce.

It takes time to form the habits. The most important thing is that you need to be patient and consistent in teaching kids to form good habits.