Too Much Media

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Yesterday Shy had Chess club right after school and then swimming after dinner. (All that activity and she still didn't sleep through the night)

Anyway, she loved Chess club. She has learned the names of some of the pieces and knows that they move differently depending on the piece. I guess they had older kids playing with the younger ones kind of teaching them the game. They have this twice a week after school, and she is looking forward to it. I am definitely buying a chess set this weekend so we can teach her more at home. I use to play a lot of chess in my younger days and having someone to play with now will be wonderful.

We picked her up at school at 4:00pm and then it was home. She had time to do her homework before we had dinner at 5:30 and then it was off to swimming. She is making such great progress there. We feel it is important that she be a good swimmer especially now that we live so close to water, and she has certainly learned a lot in these classes. Last night she was able to swim from the edge of the pool out about 20 feet or so and back again. She did this without any floatation assistance or anyone holding on to her. Her form wasn't anything spectacular, but swimming that far on her own will certainly keep her out of any trouble when we are on the cruise chip next month, and by this summer she should be an even stronger swimmer.

After swimming it was back home. Into the shower to get all of the chlorine washed off, and then it was just about time for a story and bed.

So what does the title have to do with that. Well, there was a story on the news about how many hours of media input children are getting these days. By media they were referring not only to television, but to computers, Ipads, smartphones and all of those types of devices. At some ages they were averaging over 10 hours a day!!!

I am happy to say that the extent of Shyanne's media exposure is much more limited. She gets a little TV and computer time in the morning after she is ready for school, and then she gets a little more after she comes home from school on the days when there are no activities. But on a day like yesterday, I know total media exposure was less than one hour, and in my opinion that is a good thing.

Today she is having her very first "friend from school home on a play date after school" event. I will fill you in on how that goes tomorrow.


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