Educational television programs comprise most of my daughter’s television viewing. Programs that emphasize reading, science, math, social skills, vocabulary, and similar topics reinforce and augment her education.
We also allow her to watch some television for pure entertainment. The shows are primarily on the Disney and Nickelodeon channels.
Not that surprisingly, she is learning from those programs as well.
For example, my daughter loves watching Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. There was an episode where they explain what reverse engineering means. The plot line includes the main characters reverse engineering a machine they find in their yard after watching a television program about reverse engineering. She has seen the episode twice.
The result?
Ooh, what is that? That is chewed gum in a bag. I found it in my pantry cabinet amongst cans of pineapple.
Why? That is exactly what I asked my daughter after she told me the what. She said she was saving it. It was the best gum in the world, and she was going to find out how to make it.
Where did she get the idea to keep the gum? Her answer was one word – television. She said they called it reverse engineering.
Now, I know she is predisposed to this type of concept. I mean she is constantly drawing blueprints, building things, making things and trying to solve problems. After all, her father, brother, and uncle are all engineers of various types.
It is just appealing to her.
However, she knows the term and execution of reverse engineering only because of Phineas and Ferb.
It is not a bad thing for her to learn. It has made my house a mess on more than one occasion as she is trying to apply it to several items around the house.
Now, if I can only figure out from what program she has learned some of her not-as-nice expressions 🙂
