Watching Documentaries

[Paige]

Do you think there is a learning curve or a training period before children are able to watch documentaries and get something out of it, and hopefully enjoy it, or is it more of an age and maturity thing? My son is 9 and he does pretty well watching them and he is actually interested in a few. We've been watching them occasionally- about 1 every week and a half or so- for the past 8 weeks. He hated them at first but I'm not sure if he's just getting better because of exposure or he simply likes these better than the first ones but lately he's been interested and it is sparking good conversations and he's definitely been learning some from them. I do try to pick kid friendly topics.

 

I just pulled my 6yr olds out of school and they were (not) watching their first documentary this afternoon. I spent the whole time with it today telling them to be quiet and pay attention. I finally told them to just go away and play somewhere else because they were getting so disruptive and my son was having a hard time listening. We didn't try to watch it all at once- maybe 30min at a time. Is it unreasonable to expect them to be able to watch a documentary at this age or is it something that they just need more exposure to? I wouldn't mind sending them to play somewhere else if they aren't going to get anything out of it but I don't want to give up on them too easily either. If I had let my son quit watching at the beginning of the year we wouldn't be having these good conversations now. On the other hand, I would never expect my 3yr old to sit and watch, so I'm unsure whether the 6yr olds should be grouped more with the 9yr old or the 3yr old. :bigear:

[lionfamily1999]

Imo, it's too much, and that's a WONDERFUL thing.

 

~Julie, who wishes she had not trained her children to sit quietly and watch tv

[regentrude]

I would not expect a 6 year old child to sit still for 30 minutes of a documentary - unless it was in an area that interested them especially.

At that age, I would go with short videoclips of a few minutes.

This said, a lot depends also on the quality of the documentary. My 11 y/o loves watching, but some are just utterly boring - even I don't want to sit and watch.

Are the kids interested in the topic at all?

[Paige]

My son is interested and likes most of them. We watched one on dragons today and one on Stonehenge a couple of weeks ago after we studied Stonehenge and he still talks about it. Thanks for your thoughts. I'll probably just tell the girls to play somewhere else from the start if they aren't into it and are disturbing the rest of us. Or maybe I'll let my son watch 1 every once in a while during their quiet reading/nap time.

[skueppers]

I would imagine it depends on the child and on the documentary.

 

My 5-year-old (almost six) can watch nature documentaries for fairly long periods if they interest her. My 3-year-old isn't interested, and I wouldn't expect (or particularly want) him to be.

 

My daughter became interested in nature documentaries soon after she turned five. We've watched quite a few documentaries about animals and dinosaurs since then. Examples include:

 

Walking with Dinosaurs

Parts of "Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth"

David Attenborough Wildlife Specials

The Life of Mammals (also David Attenborough)

 

Since starting Kindergarten this fall, we've been including documentaries in our school program -- we watch them for 20 or 30 minutes two or three times a week while we eat a snack. We've watched documentaries about penguins, the Antarctic Ocean, a (homeschooling) family's travel and work on the Antarctic Peninsula, Australia (mostly animals and geography), and the Great Barrier Reef.