We were at my parents’ place last Sunday for our weekly family dinner. My sister’s family was there too, and we were all either eating desserts, talking or watching a Taiwanese drama serial.

Then there was an interesting part of the serial where the wife of a character was brought to a flat where she caught her husband red-handed with a mistress. An argument ensued with the usual climax ending with the wife giving the mistress a tight slap.

No prize for guessing it right. My son immediately came over to me and gave me a slap and said,”I slap you like in the show!”

The Power of TV illustrated. Children Learn What They See & Hear.

Lately my little son has the desire to “get inside the TV”.  It first started last week while he was watching Barney.

“Can you bring me inside there please mama?” he asked.

I was taken by surprise by that question.  “Why do you want to go in there?” I asked.  “Because I want three children,” he replied.  He meant he wanted to be the third kid in the show, as there were only two kids with Barney.

This week while he was watching Winne the Pooh & Tigger, he again asked, “Can you bring me inside there please mama?”

I asked him why and he said, “because I want to talk to them”.

“Oh, we can talk to them when they come to the shopping centres,” I said.  “We can’t go inside the TV because there’s nothing inside there.”

I then showed him the back of the TV.  “See, there’s nothing in there.”  I said,  “and Pooh, Tigger and Darby are not real people, they are fake.”

“How about me?” he asked.

“You?  You are real,” I said.

“No!  I don’t want to be real.  I want to be fake!” he declared, upset that he wasn’t the same as Darby or Pooh or Tigger.

Today, just before his nap, he told me “Mama I want you to buy me Darby but not the flat one.  But like us.”

I think he meant he wants a 3-dimentional Darby, not a 2-dimentional one like in the TV.

Or did he mean he wants a real Darby, not a fake one?!!

My little son came to me this morning and said “Doo-WUW! Do What You Want!”.

And he’s not even 3 years old!

For those who do not know, this “Doo-WUW” thing is currently shown on Singapore TV. Two good-looking youngsters are featured apparently telling audiences to “do what you what” or “doo-WUW” (which is the short form of “do what you want”). I nearly fainted when I saw the other tagline on their banner…you judge for yourself.

The trailer is rather short, perhaps a minute or so, but it is certainly catchy to the young. I can’t tell you more about this trailer or the main show because everytime this “Doo-WUW” thing comes on TV I barely pay any attention to it.

But obviously not my little son. He pays enough attention to regurgitate the words (I don’t think he even knows what he’s talking about when he says “Doo-WUW!”) in the same tone as spoken on TV.

My son’s little repertoire reminds me that really it is NEVER TOO EARLY to keep tabs on what TV programs our little ones are watching these days.

They really DO Learn What They See…and Hear .

(Here’s another parent airing her grievances about this DWUW thing …and more !!)

When my son came back from Joshua’s house yesterday, I took the very first opportunity to show him that very first Crazy Talk animation.

To say he was stunned was an understatement. He simply stood there speechless and watched while spotting a cheeky grin. When the clip finished, I showed it to him again.

This time, he replied to the animation as if it was talking to him! When it finished, I played it again and he replied to Crazy Luigi again!! And again next morning!!! Only thing is he replied differently.

Needless to say, I already think Crazy Talk 5 is money well-spent. The US$50 is a very good investment as he has already started asking for more of his favorite toys to "talk".

Only problem is, this time-strapped father needs to squeeze out even more time to produce more Crazy Luigis!

Well, there you have it!

I would say the Crazy Talk 5 animation software is not that difficult to use. I have no digital animation background and I guess if not for the fact that I wanted to choose my own image (instead of using the templates provided), the project would have been completed in less than 30mins.

What I did to produce this short clip were this:

1) Choose the image I want
(in this case, I used the image from the toy box of a toy I bought for my son recently)

2) Scan the image into my PC

3) Open the Crazy Talk 5 application

4) Import the image

5) Follow the simple instructions that follows from the Crazy Talk 5 software

6) Record my own speech & song (erm yes…..that was my tweaked voice and I sang that song..hehe)

7) Export to the medium of my choice (yes there is a "export to Youtube" resolution option)

And wala!

(Of course I am not going to confuse you with the little steps used in adding some titles and transitions. But feel free to drop me a comment if you really want to know how it was done)

I can’t wait for my son to come back from Joshua’s house to show him this crazy talk animation!

Stumbled upon this animation software which I thought looks very easy to use. My immediate thoughts are about bringing some of my son’s toy characters to life.

Afterall, he has always urged my wife or I to make his toys “talk”.

Let me check the software out and see if I can create any meaningful fun!

Well, we all know good habits beget good habits, bad habits beget bad habits. The Chinese puts it as “Jing (4) Zhu (1) Zhe (3) Che (4), Jing (4) Mo (4) zhe (3) Hei (1)”. It is almost impossible to keep children away from watching TV if we adults can’t keep ourselves from the goggle box for any considerable length of time.

The scene where an entire family is glued to the TV whilst having dinner is not an uncommon sight in countries where almost every family owns a TV (if not two or three or four…). To eradicate the problem, we must nip it in the bud. Adults ourselves must make it a habit NOT to turn on the TV as if we were switching on the lights at night. Or there are also some of us who like to switch on the TV to create some kind of background sound. These habits must go if we want to keep our children away from TV.

But the truth is, even if we ourselves aren’t hardcore TV addicts, our children may still be attracted to the box as bees to honey. What does one do in such circumstances? Well, there are no magic solutions. To pull them away from TV, we need to find alternative activities that would interest them enough to forget about the TV that sits in the living rooms.

What might these activities be?

For the curious and easily distractable 2-4 years old, we can try some arts and craft or anything that involves their little hands. Paper cutting, sponge painting, coloring, making faces out of paper plates, making crafts from ice-cream sticks and colored paper are all activities you could try. All you need is a little creativity. Playdoh is also q good activity for kids of this age.

For the school going children whose memory has developed to the point where they can remember the date and time of their many favorite TV programs, distracting them is a lot more challenging. You can consider setting up a reward chart, giving them points for not watching TV and letting them decide what prize they might get if they manage to keep their TV watching hours within certain limits. Or sit down with them to play some games. If all else fails, get them out of the house and into the outdoors for some well-needed exercise. Or sign them up for holiday classes. Once the TV gets out of sight, it gets out of mind.

The above hinges on the assumption that someone is at home to keep them away from the TV. If this is not possible, then get a TV that allows them to set how many hours the TV can be turned on per day.

At the end of the day, the TV is like a knife. Use it correctly, we can derive maximum benefits out of it. Use it wrongly, we can expect massive destruction. And this is not an overstatement.