So last night, I let my first grader stay up until 9 (no school today anyway) because he was totally into "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" He was really trying to answer all the questions! I thought it was a great use of TV - we got to talk about the questions together.

Oy, I'm glad my kids' preK hasn't asked me that. :0X And I also hope that when my kids are spouting off their (rather extensive) knowledge of animals, they attribute it to "learning it at home" rather than to "watching 'Stanley.'" ;0) Actually, we've discovered a new show, Pinky Dinky Doo, that has REALLY enhanced my daughters' vocabulary with some pretty unusual words!

I'm with TCM on "however much time it takes..." I don't think that's a fair question, honestly. I'd be concerned that they would blame behavior problems on TV without thinking about other issues like speech/language/hearing, etc. you know? That said, we're working to limit our son's TV time too. Which makes it hard because that's often the only time I get to write!

Okay, I'm surprised that the pre-school would want to know, you know, how many hours of television the kids watched.

Of course, I agree with you, totally and would have probably filled in the application with something, like...whatever time it takes me to shower, eat breakfast, clean the house and get dinner done! They wouldn't like me, anyway ;o)