Watching my son, who is just over 2 1/2, it occurs to me he is significantly more advanced than my daughter was at this age. I think that my daughter and son were both winners of the genetic lottery when it comes to intelligence, and I think they are fairly evenly matched in that area. Looking back, the major difference is what they have been watching on TV.
Before I go any farther, and before someone jumps on this, I DON'T make it habit to make the TV a babysitter. I do monitor how much they watch TV and what they are watching. Now, having said that.... The major differences are that my daughter grew up watching Barney and Big Comfy Couch, and my son has grown up watching Blue's Clues and The Wiggles. I don't think he is doing anything that any other average 2 year is not capable of. His biggest TV influence has been Blue's Clues. I did a little research as well as watch a documentary about the show and apparently they take 8 to 10 months to create every episode. That includes the research, writing, sign offs by several child psychologists and then children that are their test audience. Also, they air the same episode every day for one week to give the target age group repetition that helps them retain what they are watching. The other influential show is an Australian show called The Wiggles. The first time I saw this show I would have bet money that they were just the human version of the TeleTubbies - questionable sexuality and all. However, after actually watching a few episodes (with an open mind), they have some brilliant musical talent as well as some great children singers and dancers. If I am not mistaken, most (if not all) of the children on the show are kids of the cast and crew. I don't know if my son is attracted to this show because he is musically inclined, of if this show has been influential in helping that talent develop - or both or neither :-) Gary Just some Sunday morning thoughts as I sit here and watch the snow storm develop that is about to dump 7 inches of snow on us as well as a coating of ice on top of that. PS - It is a good thing I actually read over these mails before I send them. I just noticed that I accidentally pasted a term concerning "organ size enhancement" (not the actual term!) into the subject line. Just before I wrote this, I was adding to my Mailwasher filters and still had that one very descriptive term in the Windows clipboard. How embarrassing that could have been ! _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
