Not many homes in North America are without a TV nowadays.  One survey actually says that 98% of households in the U.S. have at least one TV. When I was growing up, I didn't have a TV of any consequence in my house.  My mom used one with the VCR to preview the CES seminary videos, but we couldn't get any of the basic channels. I grew up without watching much TV and believe it was the best thing for me.  I didn't get to watch Sesame Street or Mister Rogers, but I also didn't get to watch the filth that was on some 20-40 years ago.

As I grew up, my desire to know what everyone was talking about at school when they would ask, "Who do you think shot J.R.?" was deep and burning. But since we didn't own a TV and I was just too busy, I never found out who shot J.R. and I'm not even sure I recall what show J.R. was on or who he was.

Fast forward many years and now I'm the mom and my children are around my knees.  We do have a TV, cable and extra channels. We actually have three TVs.  I "had" to let my children watch Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, but I didn't let them watch the other stuff. Most of the time they watched videos because I was too tired to do much else.  (For nine years straight I was either pregnant or nursing a baby, and I will admit I used the TV as a babysitter.)  But I eventually stopped being pregnant and nursing and realized how much we knew all the Disney movies' soundtracks.  Not a bad thing to have memorized, but there had to be a better way to use the TV.  All this time I knew that we had the History Channel, the Learning Channel, A&E, PBS, Discovery and other great stations, but I didn't know how to use them.

In walked my husband with yet another gizmo - a digital video recorder or DVR.  The brand he bought was Replay TV.  There are other brands out there (such as TiVo, which we now own too) and they work the same way.  I will explain how these things work in simple, non technical mumbo jumbo, girl words, but first we must take a break from our regularly scheduled program (pun intended) to talk about the facts.

Pros and Cons of TV Watching

You don't have to read the hundreds of reports on the evils of sitting in front of the TV or any other screen hours on end in a vegetative state to know that TV can be used for not good purposes.  There are studies that are out on the internet, done by reputable companies, universities, non-profit groups and other that can show statistic after statistic how bad TV is for our children, our families, our schools and even our society.  Actually, the only proof you need is to sit down with the TV guide for 10 minutes and try to find wholesome shows that the entire family can sit down to watch.  (You can't use the BYU or PBS channels as the only column you read--that's cheating.)

If you want the studies, you can either Google "television viewing habits" or better yet visit these few websites.  Many of these sites have great ideas on how to control viewing habits and the benefits of TV.

• Canadian TV Viewing Habits (1994-2000)
• TV Statistics complied by TV Free America
• Harvard University Gazette "Television viewing affects school success" Sept. 27, 2001
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension Bulletin #4100 Family Issues Facts "How Television Viewing Affects Children"
• "Chilling Television Statistics" by limitv.org

The statistics can be down right scary when you read them, but as with most anything that is on this earth it can be used for good too.

There are children and adults out there who are visual and auditory learners for whom watching and listening to something helps that concept sink into their mind.  I personally have a human tape recorder living in my house.  He only needs to watch or hear a program once and it is forever being repeated at random times.  See how this could be used for good as well as for bad?  I need to be very careful, and our family has decided that we are going to control our TV viewing and use it for good.

Digital Video Recorder

Now let's bet back to that gizmo my husband brought into my house so many years ago. Let me explain how one of those machines work. Your cable or satellite feed is put through a computer hard drive and stored for you to retrieve later.  This is just like a standard VCR concept, record to view later, but here is the best part: you don't have to remember to change tapes and it (the computer) can hold many hours worth of recorded shows for play back whenever you are ready to view it.  Our original machine, which was purchased back in 1999 has a total of 30 hours, but our new TiVo will hold over 100 hours of recorded material.  WOW!  (Please do your own consumer research into what brand of DVR you purchase.)

When you are done viewing a show you can delete it (or you can copy to VHS) and it will free up that amount of time on the hard drive for you to fill back up with more wonderful shows.

Now the news just keeps getting better.  The company you purchased your DVR with will download channel information to your box (done in the wee hours of the morning) and then you sift through the guide and pick those shows you desire to have recorded.  You will most likely have a one button touch for recording a show.  You will also get to set up different ways to record the shows you desire.

On our box, we have a Mr. Rogers Neighborhood slot.  It will keep the latest hour (2 episodes) of Mr. Rogers to be played back at our leisure.  We have a Masterpiece Theater slot that will keep the latest 2 hour of Masterpiece Theater, no matter the channel or time.  We can even set up a slot that will record any movie with Jimmy Stewart in it.  We have options to guarantee a show, which means it will not only be recorded but not recorded over.  Or we can set a show to record only if there is room on the hard drive and only kept as long as there is room for it.

But what do you record?

I have yet to count the number of channels that came in our "package" deal when we hooked up the system, but I know I have to have the card when I want to find a certain channel.  I had to come up with a better system than spending hours going through the newspaper TV listing to find the shows I wanted to record and most of the time I couldn't tell what the show was about by the title alone.  Thanks to the Internet I now have an easy way to check my regular channels.

I have an email subscription to all the "education" channels newsletters that we find valuable.  In those weekly or monthly emails, I usually get a listing of the educational programs that channel will be showing throughout the week or month.  I then go over to our DVR and push my one button record for those shows I think we will enjoy watching.  It does take a bit of my time, but a whole lot less than putting in a tape, making sure I set the timer on the VCR right and then managing all the thousand tapes we have recorded and never seen.  Or the hours spent pouring over the smut and drivel in the local TV listings.

A hint on signing up for these subscriptions: use a separate email account (there are many free services) because a few of the channels will send spam.  Also, when you sign up look for the "education" or "teacher" pages and sign up on those.  You will get wonderful additional notices like study guides or secret websites that will only enhance your TV viewing.

A list of educational channel websites:

•  Cable in the Classroom  EXCELLENT resource!!! for Canada
•  PBS Teacher Source
• A&E (Arts and Entertainment TV) Classroom page email sign up for classroom updates
• History Channel Classroom page (you will find email sign up on classroom page) Their Classroom features are a great place to find a unit study topic.
• Biography Channel
• Discovery Classroom page
• National Geographic Channel email sign up (please look carefully for "for educators" box)
• C-Span Classroom page
• Ovation The Arts Network Teacher Zone (click the correct box)
• SciFi Channel Classroom page
• The Weather Channel Classroom page
• BYU-TV

One thing I have noticed is that most of the wonderfully put together educational shows are on cable networks and are shown at some very inconvenient times.  PBS is notorious for showing "Cable in the Classroom" shows between 2 and 4 in the morning, while the commercial learning channels have wonderful shows late at night, way past my children's bed time or while we are sitting down to a family dinner.

Here are some wonderful things we have been able to record off the TV and watch at our leisure, but more importantly learn a bit more about.

Vikings, Lewis and Clark, the Wright Brothers, how tires are made (Hands on History), how a jet engine is made (PBS NOVA), about the Huns (the History channel's production about Barbarians), and the list goes on and on and on. 

When we first got the box, I thought how am I ever going to fill 30 hours?  Now, with my new TiVo I keep wondering what am I going to have to cut out. 

Another feature that our family finds very convenient is the pause live TV feature.  As you are watching a live TV show you can push the pause button because someone is at the door, the phone rings, the baby needs a diaper change or someone talked over the dialog. This comes in very handy while watching BYU-TV during General Conference.  This feature also lets you view programs that might have commercials with the pause button pushed when a commercial comes on and then you can fast forward through the filth and join your show again. 

It truly has revolutionized the way our family spends our leisure time.  My kids are often asking if there is another educational program they can watch. If you know how to use DVR they can help you educate your children, especially those who need to see and hear it.

DVD Clubs

DVD rental clubs are all the rage right now.  It is a very simple and convenient concept.  Think of it as your local video rental club without the driving time, late charges and hours spent looking for that video that you can't quite remember the name of.

These clubs work very simply.  You provide them with a credit card and they charge you a monthly rental fee.  You can then rent as many DVD's as you can watch during that time period.  They will send you the DVD in an envelope with the return envelope attached and it comes to your own mailbox.  You don't have to drive anywhere to pick it up!  Once you are through watching the DVD you simply slip the DVD back in the envelope, take it out to your mailbox and watch as the mail carrier takes it away.  When the company receives that DVD the next DVD on your list is sent to your home.  Each club has a maximum of how many you can have out of their warehouse at one time depending on the plan or program you have.  Most clubs have a 2 or 3 DVD limit for their very basic plans.

The turn around time depends on how far away you are from their regional warehouses.  I have a warehouse just 60 miles away from me so I can get the next DVD in two days. Another club I belong to is two states away and it can take four days to get the next DVD.

Most of these clubs have a very wide variety of categories that they stock.  One of the clubs I belong to, Netflix, has so many genres and categories that it can get mind boggling when you are just looking around, but their search feature is very helpful.  Some categories include resent releases, television, children's, drama, sci-fi & fantasy, foreign, classics and much more.  Even these genres are broken down.  Each club has its own unique way of categorizing movies, but once you get the hang of it, finding DVDs is easy.

Once you have decided on the DVDs you wish to view you add them to your queue and they will then show up in the order you added them.  You can then go and mess around with your queue, moving DVDs up or down according to your whims and wishes.  I find this a great service when we are studying a certain subject and I want a DVD to help me explain or show the concept in a different and usually more technical way than I could. I will move that DVD to the top of my queue and we will view it and then move on. 

Each club has its strong points and it negative points.  Bestwebbuys.com has a page that will help you comparison shop if you are interested in the DVD rental clubs.  One company they do not have on their list is Family Pass. Family Pass bought Mentura, which specialized in educational DVDs.  On their “about” page they say they, “initially focused on K-12 educational videos.  Soon the library grew to include a wide selection of religious, Hollywood classics, blockbuster new releases and television favorites."  They strive to only stock wholesome family entertainment as well as thousands of educational DVDs and CD roms.

Most of the bigger clubs offer a free trial for the first month and if you look in your local major newspaper Sunday advertisements you can find a special sign up offer.

Libraries

Every community should have a good library, but we don't live in a perfect world, so not every community has a library like I have in my town.  We are able to borrow movies and much more at our library.  The only draw back is a seven-day turn around and if I put it on "hold" then I get it when it becomes available, which doesn't usually correspond with when we want to view it.  My other problem is grabbing the correct pile to return it so I am not charged late fees.  But free is an excellent reason to use your local library.  Become friendly with your librarians and they might be able to help you find those gems among the shelves.

Yes, TV is a two edged sword, but like any sword, if the swordsman knows how to use it, he will not be careless and let it rust, nor will he abuse it and let it lose its sharpness.  He will care for it and it will be his delivery from ignorance and evil all the while sharpening his knowledge and love of the world he lives in.