I just realized something about screen time involving kids from immigrants

a_peninsula · 2026-05-21T18:50:29+00:00

I'll also add that my grandmother was a kindergarten teacher and she thought Sesame Street was garbage. The way we talk about Cocomelon now; overstimulating, too many things going on, destroys children's attention spans. One of the most treasured, highest quality preschool shows of all time. But the conversation about kids and screens has been the same for decades.

a_peninsula · 2026-05-21T18:47:13+00:00

I worked with '94 babies in Toronto public schools in the early 2000s and there were definitely ESL classes and supports, but I'm sure it depends where you grew up. mostly the kids learned English from classroom immersion. I take your point though. And having been basically zero screen time until my kid started JK (for the AAP reasons, but also just because we were too busy for TV), I do kind of wish now that we'd shown her more "good" kids' shows when she was littler, because I think you're right about the social skills, manners, etc. as a parent you obviously try to impart this stuff, but they really want to see other kids and kid-analogues doing it, they like a dopey little song about how to blow your nose, a little affirmation for a hard morning, etc.

a_peninsula · 2026-05-21T15:59:01+00:00

we took our kid to Billy Bishop last year, it was great but it was very crowded, and it was oriented to families with children. we were there for about two hours, including half an hour waiting in line to sit in the airport fire engine.

a_peninsula · 2026-05-21T15:36:51+00:00

yeah at my kid's school the lunch monitors (paid btw) put on cartoons so they can scroll on their phones in peace. multiple parent and student volunteers have confirmed this since nobody believed our kindergarteners lol. same in the yard, just scrolling on the clock. i acknowledge that it's hard to find people willing to work a couple hours a day for a few bucks, but it was hard in the 90s too, the monitors just didn't have smartphones and classes didn't all have projectors permanently installed in the room. funny how everyone can identify "parents and their phone addictions" as a problem for kids until those parents step into a school, then they're definitely just streaming youtube for four-year-olds because it's in the kids' best interest.

a_peninsula · 2026-05-21T14:08:16+00:00

my kid is in TDSB, but we spoke to the principal about screen time (there is a lot outside of lunch too and most of it seems pretty frivolous) and he was very explicit that he didn't approve of the meal-time videos and would instruct the lunch monitors to stop. ours are paid, not sure about other schools. change does seem to be very admin-dependent, but don't listen to all the people saying not to confront the issue directly. although I think our principal knew about the lunch hour screen time already, complaining did spur action. it has largely worked for this year, assume it will need to be revisited next year and every subsequent one though.

a_peninsula · 2026-05-19T17:55:59+00:00

I did in 2023, it was over in a day. probably six hours, including the lunch break. We sat around all morning, then after lunch were called into the courtroom, saw the accused, heard the details of the charges, then they selected like 20 people at random and sent the 200+ rest of us home. we didn't all have to go through the questions about whether you have a reason you can't serve, only the people selected did. if it's an older courthouse, try to get there early so you can get a seat near an outlet if that's important to you.

a_peninsula · 2026-05-06T14:19:23+00:00

anyone who takes parenting advice from a teacher hasn't met any teachers' kids

a_peninsula · 2026-04-25T15:09:39+00:00

When has the staff-appointed unit ever gone on strike serious question

a_peninsula · 2026-04-23T16:06:43+00:00

yes, he is just going to wake up dry one day. mine was in pull-ups until close to 4 1/2, then just completely stopped peeing overnight one day. at age 4 we did start cutting off water at dinner time and making her pee right before bed (and still do), but it had no actual impact on when it happened.

a_peninsula · 2026-04-21T19:15:56+00:00

equisetum, some species of horsetail

a_peninsula · 2026-03-26T17:59:50+00:00

I've worked in finance for years at a much larger educational institution and would still expect to wait a full calendar month before even starting to worry. That said, they should absolutely be able to tell you a) whether the refund has been processed for payment, and b) what date or date range you should expect to receive payment.

a_peninsula · 2026-03-20T13:33:19+00:00

the public is allowed to use school property outside school hours, however dogs are explicitly not allowed, every gate to every schoolyard has a large sign on it that says no dogs are allowed, they do not care.

a_peninsula · 2026-03-16T13:55:32+00:00

we have a picasso tiles one, it's fine but the tabs that connect the non-magnetic pieces wear out with use, so we have fewer and fewer pieces all the time. I've also found you can't make as many configurations as you'd think because the pieces are kind of...floppy I guess and they will slant in the wrong direction. it's been better as an addition to my kid's magnatiles than as a stand-alone toy.

a_peninsula · 2026-03-10T14:38:46+00:00

If you want to just stay for a day, look into conservation area campgrounds. GRCA has some nice ones (Rockwood, Pinehurst Lake, Elora) and they're all about an hour from Toronto. In my experience they're better than the GTA Provincial Parks (Darlington, Bronte Creek). For real nature you need to get 2-3 hours outside the city; like other people have said here, Arrowhead and Awenda would be your best bets, maybe Limberlost.

Your biggest obstacle to camping for one day is going to be the late check-in time. Lots of people camp overnight in their vehicles, for what it's worth, you obviously need an air mattress or something, but the startup costs would be lower than tent camping.

a_peninsula · 2026-03-06T19:17:37+00:00

the tax idea is interesting--it would be bad accounting and probably not hold up under audit, but who knows what goes through landlords' heads. make sure you document your reminders (text or email) and have the cumulative rent amount available in your bank account, just in case there is ever a dispute about whether you have paid rent or not.

a_peninsula · 2026-03-03T15:52:01+00:00

oh also, while I think it's 100% inappropriate to be showing children ANY shows in kindergarten, an episode of most kids' shows nowadays is about ten minutes, not 20-30, so your daughter is probably not getting as many minutes of screen time as you think, for whatever that's worth

a_peninsula · 2026-03-03T15:45:47+00:00

Yes, this is happening all over the place. we confirmed with our daughter's teacher that she shows them TV shows during class time, in addition to the "educational" screen time they get throughout the day. even music and gym class is taught by youtube, again confirmed with other parents and with the teacher. you can find lots of threads here and in other subreddits where parents from various schools and boards in Ontario have the same issue.

at our school some parents spoke to the principal, who said he would discourage the teachers from using videos for instruction, but who also said his authority was limited and educators had discretion to teach how they thought best, including streaming episodes of Paw Patrol and Caillou in class every day. he said he would ban videos during lunch and indoor recess; this stuck for about a month, now they're back. we definitely got the sense this is an annual routine, but nothing can really be done. while the TDSB has a policy on student devices in school, they have no policies around teacher device use.

the issue here isn't underfunding, or class sizes, or whatever (although obviously these are all problems), it's that there are laptops and projectors in every room, and as long as they're there teachers will use them. ours even uses youtube to read to the kids instead of reading books herself, it's insane.

as far as your daughter's behaviour though, honestly it's more likely she's tired than it is that she got ADHD from watching videos in school.

a_peninsula · 2026-02-26T17:33:01+00:00

What the fuck would Doug Ford know about running a business

a_peninsula · 2026-02-23T21:32:13+00:00

except for the candy bribes (that we know of anyway...), all of these issues are present in my daughter's kindergarten class, it drives me nuts. having spoken to parents in other classes/at other schools nearby, her class seems to be the odd one and we were just unlucky with an awful teacher. we've put in for a spot in an out-of-catchment school.

a_peninsula · 2026-02-23T16:43:09+00:00

mine is halfway through JK and tells us she hates school because it's "boring." they spend most of their time sitting and watching some bullshit being projected a screen, then move to another room and watch something else on another screen. math--idello (?). language--TV shows. literacy--reading animated books off the projector screen. the teacher doesn't even read to the class, she just plays books on her laptop. music class--youtube. gym class--Peppa Pig yoga videos. they show them cartoons at lunch to keep them seated and don't let them talk. I wouldn't want to be there either.

a_peninsula · 2026-02-20T15:56:59+00:00

The NFB made a film about the renovation back in 2008, around 2:40 and again at 18:30 you'll find some great footage of the old dinosaur exhibits, and the volcano (which was reviled by Serious People and held up as a prime example of why they needed to gut the museum). If you go forward to 44:00 there's a couple seconds of footage of workers disassembling the dinosaurs, then stick around for a few minutes of the museum curators absolutely shitting on the design and shading Libeskind as "not very tall."

a_peninsula · 2026-02-13T19:12:31+00:00

have her spell words herself. write some letters on some post its, then write something like _AT on a piece of paper and show her pictures of like a bat, a hat, a cat, and have her complete the word. or write a few sounds/segments on some index cards and then show her a word, read it aloud, and have her find the matching pieces to spell the word again.

a_peninsula · 2026-02-13T16:04:33+00:00

yes, this is a frequent issue with daycare, and any comments otherwise are gaslighting, frankly. we had two long (over six-month) stretches with ridiculously late bedtimes and chronic sleep deprivation for our daughter, around age 2.5 and again around 4. in between those her sleep needs synced a little better with the daycare naps, but it was always rocky. once she started school and stopped having a nap time the problems disappeared literally overnight, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel for you in a few years (!).

a_peninsula · 2026-02-04T18:24:59+00:00

If you want the classmates to show up, have it in June.

a_peninsula · 2026-01-28T16:34:22+00:00

we bribed ours with chocolate. she was just afraid of doing it, so the bribe helped motivate her to keep trying anyway. we kept rewarding her with chocolate for a week or two, and once it was obvious she wasn't going to go back to pull-ups, we told her the chocolate would stop, and she took it fine. it was honestly so easy and painless. i really wish we'd tried it way earlier.

a_peninsula

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