Television watching - at last
TV turns your kids brains to mush, it's official. If they watch more than 21 hours a day they get fat and lose motivation for school. But you know what? Mums need a break sometime.
So, it has been some disappointment to me that er pupo has shown no interest in tv. The most I've had out of him is about 10 minutes at a time (unless he has been sick, where that can go up to 20 minutes as he is too tired to protest). He loves Bagpuss beyond measure. But that is only a 15 minute show and when they go out of the shop into Bagpuss' imagination for cartoons he tends to wander off.
However. Aha! Success! Last night, he woke up - a poop had been the culprit but I'll spare you the details. He had no intention of going back to sleep and since we were watching a DVD of Rigoletto, I took him through. He was captivated. Now er pupo loves music and dances constantly, sings along when he can at the top of his voice - including to the radio in supermarkets, which is a teeny bit embarassing - and there is always music at our house. His dad plays him opera and they dance together. Even when I was pregnant, he would jig about inside me when he heard music.
So, last night. He started by gaping fascinated at the screen. Then he started to dance, then before I knew it he was singing along. When the soprano had her aria he just began to scream as loud and high as he could to imitate her! When we got to the "impending disaster bit" he started nodding frantically and saying "no no no" (It was Verdi, so impending disaster is inevitable). I am quite sure he didn't understand the story, but I think he got a sense from the music that something bad was happening.
Opera is a lot like kids' tv - bright costumes, big make-up, exaggerated gestures and music, music, music. Forget CBeebies, I'll need to find some Rossini dvds for his birthday. But we'll not put away Bagpuss just yet. The only risk is he'll be chatting to the other kiddies down the beach in 18th century literary italian! Come to think of it, he'll sound a lot like my hubby speaking English when he first met me!
So, it has been some disappointment to me that er pupo has shown no interest in tv. The most I've had out of him is about 10 minutes at a time (unless he has been sick, where that can go up to 20 minutes as he is too tired to protest). He loves Bagpuss beyond measure. But that is only a 15 minute show and when they go out of the shop into Bagpuss' imagination for cartoons he tends to wander off.
However. Aha! Success! Last night, he woke up - a poop had been the culprit but I'll spare you the details. He had no intention of going back to sleep and since we were watching a DVD of Rigoletto, I took him through. He was captivated. Now er pupo loves music and dances constantly, sings along when he can at the top of his voice - including to the radio in supermarkets, which is a teeny bit embarassing - and there is always music at our house. His dad plays him opera and they dance together. Even when I was pregnant, he would jig about inside me when he heard music.
So, last night. He started by gaping fascinated at the screen. Then he started to dance, then before I knew it he was singing along. When the soprano had her aria he just began to scream as loud and high as he could to imitate her! When we got to the "impending disaster bit" he started nodding frantically and saying "no no no" (It was Verdi, so impending disaster is inevitable). I am quite sure he didn't understand the story, but I think he got a sense from the music that something bad was happening.
Opera is a lot like kids' tv - bright costumes, big make-up, exaggerated gestures and music, music, music. Forget CBeebies, I'll need to find some Rossini dvds for his birthday. But we'll not put away Bagpuss just yet. The only risk is he'll be chatting to the other kiddies down the beach in 18th century literary italian! Come to think of it, he'll sound a lot like my hubby speaking English when he first met me!
posted by ex_pat @ 8:18 PM
2 Comments:
At 11:35 PM,
Anonymous said…
Glad to hear the boy has real taste (first time I've had a look here for a while - and it's about the potential of opera. Fantastic) x
At 1:36 PM,
ex_pat said…
Hey, great to hear from you. Still singing? Can you come give er pupo a private show? Was thinking about last night watching Kathleen Battle. You'd be much better :)
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