Is television really a waste of time? This is one of those topics that cause a lot of controversy, half people say yes and the other half say no. To me though I think it is valuable in more ways then one. Here is a list of why:

If you homeschool you may want to watch the discovery channel, this is filled with so much to learn. Recently my family and I watched quite a few shows on Egypt, so much that my son asked to go to the library and borrow more Egypt movies from the library. There are many shows that families can benefit from, another one that comes to mind is Dora The Explorer. Once again this is one of those things that people would say that is just a cartoon, but it is not. Dora The Explorer actually teaches children on television different words in Spanish. Granted she is not going to have your children speaking fluently in Spanish but she will teach them words. In all honesty no one learns to speak fluently in one afternoon either. It normally takes several if not many years to learn another language. Dora teaches the children through singing and having fun, with a little story to keep your children entertained.

As for a waste of time, it helps me at night. I currently have it on now. No, I am not watching it but I need it for the noise. I can not stand a house that is too quiet, at least this way I feel someone else is with me keeping me company.

Yes, during the day I must admit I am a soap junkie. I actually have a schedule and when it comes on I know right after that I need to start dinner. But during it I get to take a break, whether I am sitting their glued to it or sitting in the other room on the computer I still watch it. At night I watch certain programs such as CSI, Gilmore Girls, or Law and Order other friends watch the Survivor shows, The Nanny or Smallville, it is just recreation.

If you are wanting to learn to cook or just want to improve your cooking there are several channels dedicated to just that. Flip on your television and do a search, whether it is a juice sirloin or a mouth water crisp fruit salad drizzled with chocolate sauce there is definitely something to learn.

As you can tell there are many uses for television and in future blogs I will go into further detail about them. But from this small list I hope you can see that you can learn something from them as well as use it as recreation. Flip on the television and see what peaks your interest.