Today the boys wrote a description of an elephant. The assigment in their English textbook asked them to write a detailed description, as if they were describing an elephant to someone who had never seen one themselves. They were asked to consider sights, sounds, the way the animals move and even smell!
Well, they have seen live elephants once at a zoo, when they were two and a half. I remember the occasion well. At the time of seeing the elephants it was near the end of the day and R was more concerned about getting H to carry him than with looking at elephants. If R, aged 2.5 was fussing to be carried, you can be sure that J was too.
Since then we have visited a different zoo, but they don't have elephants there. So how could the boys describe an elephant in detail? A photo wouldn't be enough, as you can't get a sense of movement or sound from that. So for their piece of descriptive writing they must have relied on what they have seen on TV. J in particular wrote a very descriptive piece, maashAllah.
Without seeing elephants on TV I don't see how he could have written it.
So, when it comes to TV I think it can have its uses, in opening our eyes to sights and sounds of the creation we couldn't otherwise experience. It is all about using it sensibly I think. Of course we can just as well watch this stuff on the internet as well these days, so when i say TV I'm including that too!
U chose this library book last week. I read it aloud a couple of times, and Ia has read it to herself too. The cat in the story reminds us of our own cat! Especially the bit where it says that Mog saw that it was raining in the garden so she went to the street as she thougt it would not be raining there.
