10 alternatives to telly 

We’ve been banging on a bit about kids and television recently. But now that we’ve established just how much time children are spending in front of the box, we have to ask - what harm does it actually do?

A recent study has revealed strong evidence to suggest that young children who watch more than two hours of television a day show clear signs of bad behaviour, lower social skills and disrupted sleep patterns. And it’s not recent news that increased TV watching is linked to childhood obesity.

So, there’s proof: television is bad for children. In April, a psychologist advised MPs that children under three shouldn’t be exposed to the telly at all, and that children between the ages of three and seven should watch just 30 minutes to one hour each day. But what can we do to change our habits and stick to these guidelines?

The telly is a convenient tool for entertaining children, particularly now that the nights are drawing in and it’s harder than ever to get kids outside, but for anyone worried about its ill effects we’ve come up with 10 alternatives - Ideal for entertaining younger children, without them getting cold and wet:

Read a book - Booktime has lots of useful help to encourage reading with your child.

Board games - although it may be a while before your kids are getting the bonus 50 points for using up all the Scrabble letters, there are plenty of board games designed especially for younger children. The Early Learning Centre has a good selection of children’s games.

Play a CD - your child might be attracted to the television because of the background noise it provides, so why not try a CD instead? Amazon has a good children’s music section and hundreds of story CDs.

Cookery - the TV might be a good way to keep kids busy while parents get on with preparing a meal, but children love to join in with cooking. The BBC has a Cooking with Children mini-site with advice and recipes.

Invite friends over - children sometimes turn to the telly for company, so inviting other kids around to play is a good alternative. Plus, you can take turns with other parents (and have a break.)

Plant some seeds - the BBC also has a Gardening with Children mini-site with some suitable projects. We like the idea of young children having a better understanding of where vegetables come from, particularly as it seems that eight-year-olds know little about meat and dairy foods.

Get a dog/cat/hamster - research shows that owning a pet boosts children’s health and pets are known to teach children about responsibility and altruism. Petmag has some useful information for choosing a pet.

Involve your child in housework - encourage your child to help around the house. About has a useful page of age appropriate chores, though they’re hardly selling the idea with the wording.

Make some noise - musical instruments for children are pretty affordable, but it’s more fun to make your own.

Paint a picture - if a traditional paint brush gets a bit boring, try this useful list of alternative painting projects.

We hope we’ve given you enough ideas to wean your kids off the goggle box for a while, but we’re sure there are loads of other good ideas out there. We’d love to know if you can recommend something better, so please drop us an email or leave a comment.

TOP IMAGE - by Flickr user Tom@HK
LOWER IMAGE by Flickr user gemmafactrix

Title image by dbking