When my kids were little, there were a few children's TV shows I wouldn't let them watch. Barney and Elmo were irritating, and Caillou was a whiner. My kids were already experts at obnoxious and whiney, so I didn't figure they needed the encouragment. (My favorites were anything that had music and no talking, like old Looney Tunes.) As they got older, there was the constant question of how much media should they consume and what was appropriate content for books, computer games, etc.? There was also the inevitable exposure to more material at friends' houses who had older brothers or sisters.  

I was raised nearly media free -- without a TV until I was 12. We were allowed to listen to Gilbert and Sullivan and Rodgers and Hammerstein, and read just about what ever we could get our hands on. This made me the biggest loser in the fifth grade. I could sing the entire score from Oklahoma! but I had no idea what happened on Party of Five or The X-Files. Recently I found out that celebrities like Madonna and Roseanne don't let their kids watch TV or play computer games. To make up for my childhood, I'm letting my kids, who are all too young, create Facebook accounts with a few rules, like hand over your password and friend me or I'm deleting your account. And I've promised that I'll ask before I post anything about them, so it won't be embarrassing.

American moms feel pressured to be quite vigilant about what our kids read and watch, and with good reason. There's lots of garbage out there. However, no matter how much I feel like I should monitor absolutely everything to make sure it's Disney pristine, I can't. I'll monitor our computer network, limit screen time, and nix the really bad stuff, which is usually easy to spot.  

It was a French copy of Little Red Riding Hood (Le Petit Chaperon Rouge) from our au pair Lucie that helped me chill out. Instead of Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood getting rescued by the woodcutter, the story ends when they're eaten by the wolf! That's it! I was looking for the next page, but the book was over. Imagine that as a bedtime story!

However, when you think about it, this ending is actually a pretty good lesson for operating online today. Don't give information to strangers. Consider the source and don't believe everything you hear or read.  If something looks suspicious, get out of there. And getting rescued isn't a valid Plan B. 

So, now I'm off to read the other book Lucie sent us, Michka. The language is more complex, so it's going to take a while to plow through the French. Maybe that will teach me how French kids do chores and laundry so I can get my own to follow suit.

"Tell me a story..." my kids ask every night.

Sometimes I say, "Once upon a time, there were three children who were really tired, so their mother put them to bed and they went to sleep.  The end."  After some loud complaining, I'll tell them a story about when they were babies, or my childhood, or my grandma from Sweden or their grandparents from Scotland.  Even if they've heard it a hundred times, they don't get tired of it.  It anchors them, reminds them that people just a few years before them lived very different lives in far away places.

This week in Lahore, Pakistan, the country is hosting its first Children's Literature Festival.  It's a collaborative effort between international children's publishers and educational agencies aimed promoting literacy in Pakistani children.  Children from across the country are invited to listen to their favorite books, enter writing contests, take classes on creative writing, write book reviews, and draw comics.  Educators can attend training on curriculum development and lesson planning.

In a country where just 66% of children finish primary school, literacy rates for women are still less than 50%, and tribal and religious conflicts frequently disrupt schooling, this festival will help train teachers and underscore the importance of educating the next generation.

Education expert Dr. Arifa Syeda Zehra, said life would be colorless if there were no stories because we interpret our world through stories.  Everybody makes sense of things in their own way, but if you have stories, it helps.  And the bigger the collection of stories, the more tools you have to interpret your life.

I would agree.  My kids would agree.  And stories also make everything more fun!  

There was a TED conversation sparked in Australia this week on the top five things you can teach to a five or six-year-old to help them become kind, caring, humble human beings.  

There were a lot of great suggestions, but these are my favorites:

1.  Golden Rule:  Treat everyone the way you want to be treated.  This makes it easy to ask, "Is that how you would want to be treated?"

2.  Learning is fun!  We read about everything and try to figure out why kites fly, birds sing in the morning, and what happens when we mix paint with our toes.  We've created a huge, fun "To Do" list and we check things off as we do them like learning yo-yo tricks, baking bread, and visiting the dump.

3.  We claim good behavior as a family trait by saying, "We (insert last name) are hard workers.  We (last name) aren't liars.  We (last name) always try our best," etc.  When we make mistakes, we help each other remember who we want to be.

4.  Travel.  Nothing makes you more willing to try new things or makes you more sensitive to other people than having to figure out life in different places.  We all learned to buy a loaf of bread with hand gestures.

5.  Our favorite game is "I love you more than a (fill in the blank)!"  Six-year-olds are incredibly creative and usually come up with something like a garbage truck, septic tank, 1,000 snakes, or flying dinosaurs.

There are more great ideas on the TED site, but I'm sure you've got your own.  What's your favorite way to teach character to your kids?  

I am excited about a new opportunity for our children to become bilingual.  It is called Lango.  What is Lango?

Lango offers dynamic and engaging Spanish, French, Mandarin, and many other language classes and summer camps to children.  Lango classes teach children a new language in an immersion based setting using songs, stories, games, dance--even yoga to engage children in their new language.

At Lango your child will:

• Learn a foreign language
• Make developmental strides
• Gain an appreciation for other cultures
• Make new friends in the classroom

Lango's dynamic classes incorporate original music, dance, games, storytelling and more to keep kids immersed and engaged in their target language.

With experienced and fluent teachers, kids follow the adventures of the "Lango Kids", a multicultural cast of characters who appear in the original workbooks, songs, and other fun learning tools.  Students learn through a series of activities -- "adventures" that mimic those of the Lango Kids

Who has been to a Lango class?  We would love to hear from you.