Unplug! 101 Ways to Pull Your Kids Away from Television

Book excerpt: This is a book full of ideas to help lure your kids away from the enticing glow of television and into the world creativity and imagination. It's motivational and practical - a good resource for anyone who works with kids - parents, teachers, grandparents, homeschoolers, group leaders, and baby-sitters. Prefaced by a chapter of statistics and references to current thought on children and television viewing. 101 activities, supported with catchy graphics & easy instructions, are offered for kids varying in age up to preteens, by former television producer and teacher of Romper Room - the longest running children's TV show in the country - from 1953 to the late nineties. Today, television is the number one activity for both kids and adults. Studies show that children devote up to 42 hours per week viewing television (depending on what study you're willing to accept). A recent study by the Journal of Science, March 29, 2002, concludes that the more time kids spend watching television, the more likely they are to behave aggressively in future. "Kids would be better off if they watched LESS THAN one hour a day on average," said lead author Jeffrey Johnson of Columbia University.