Interestingly, I watched your segment just after I read an article entitled “Getting Kids to Switch Off”. It was all about how kids in North America get a failing grade for physical activity, due, in part, to our fascination with sedintary pursuits. And, contrary to some beliefs, I don’t count Wii as real sport.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not Amish nor Luddites – we watch TV, we have DVD-players in our vehicle (only allowed to watch them on long trips). I appreciate that some video games are educational and I myself enjoy the occasional video game.

My friends take all video games away from their children during the summer. During the school year their kids can play on weekends only for 2 hrs.

One interesting challenge we face is “age level appropriateness management” with multiple kids. (Wow, I should be an engineer.) We have four kids between the ages of 4 and 9, and the whole gang tends to gather around the monitor during Computer Time. As a result, we’ve found our little ones sometimes lose interest in games more appropriate to their age and gravitate toward what their older sibs like. I wish I could offer some ideas on how to deal with this (short of separating them during computer time, which would be difficult), but we haven’t come up with any yet.