First math lesson

I'm not a huge fan of my daughter watching T.V. or movies or whatever. I'd prefer that she does "something productive". That said, she is allowed the maximum "healthy" limit set by some government organization of two hours per day. It does seem like a LOT of T.V. for a four year old... however, allowing her to have that time allows me some quiet time while my two year old has his naps a couple times a day. So... that's how we roll.

I'm allowing Lil to choose whatever shows she wants to watch (mostly PBS, always pre-approved by me) for her time. Some shows are longer, some are shorter. I want her to get the idea that watching four long movies is not the same amount of time as watching four short PBS shows. Here's where the math comes in.

T.V. Bucks. Each "buck" is worth 30 minutes of T.V. time. She can choose what she wants to watch and I tell her how many T.V. bucks she needs to pay me to watch that show. Pretty simple. The more advanced she becomes in math, the more complex we'll make it.

As of right now, I'm rounding out the minutes of the show to the nearest 30. Ex: 23 minute show --> 1 T.V. buck + 45 min. show --> 2 T.V. Bucks + 40 min. show --> 1 T.V. Buck = 1 hr. 48 min of T.V. time --> 4 T.V. bucks.

Every morning, she receives her four T.V. bucks... unless she does something to lose one. T.V. still a privilege , not a right. When she's out of T.V. bucks, that's it. She has to wait until tomorrow. She's learning a little bit about math, and a LOT about budgeting.

It's not exact as of right now... but when she's older, I'm sure she'll be counting whether or not she should have change coming back to her ;).  Hopefully, by then, we'll be so consumed with other activities that she won't be thinking of the T.V. as much as she does now.


P.S.  The funny part is... yesterday, she only had 1 T.V. buck left, but she wanted to watch a long movie. I told her that she didn't have enough T.V. bucks left to watch a long movie. A few minutes later, she asked if she could do a craft. My brain says, "YIPPEE!! She's moving on to something else other than T.V." After sitting at her desk for about 5 minutes, she comes back to me and presents me with a handmade T.V. buck. She decided that since she didn't have enough T.V. bucks to purchase her movie, that she'd make herself some more. It was very creative. She was a little embarrassed. She knew. It was pretty cool that I was able to talk to her a little about government and how you can't just print money when you run out. Not a bad result for wanting to watch some T.V. We had a lesson in math, budgeting, and government. I'm happy.