| 6. Facilitating Understanding: Parents can sit with children and help explain what they watch. Each episode of Sesame Stories has an educational aim such as sharing, cooperation, self expression, listening to others; self respect, respecting other people, understanding others’ differences and similarities, environment protection, helping others, and the importance of reading. Help your children understand the aim of each episode and how they can apply to their life. You can ask your children to summarize the programs they watch by asking for explanation or drawing a picture of what they watch or briefly writing about it. This helps children analyze what they watch and develop their linguistic and comprehension skills. 7. Differentiating between Reality and fiction: Not everything children watch on television is real or true. It is important to help children differentiate between reality and fiction so that they do not imitate things they watch on television, which can be harmful to them. 8. Encouraging Reading: You can also encourage children to learn more about topics on TV by reading. Sesame Stories introduces children to other peoples and civilizations, which assists in widening children's horizons and knowledge of diversity. You can encourage this further by helping children read stories about children in other parts of the world. This may help break the isolation barrier, which many children feel because of the current situation. 9. Encouraging children to watch programs about different cultures: You can encourage children to watch television programs which show the way other boys and girls live around the world. This encourages children to know others' ways of life and how people are similar and different in many aspects of life. Watching Sesame Stories helps children understand the way children live in different places. Help your children know more about these places in Palestine and around the world, and inspire them with hope that they may be able to visit them. 10. Following up watching TV by doing things together: In Sesame Stories, many ideas are presented, which you and your children can do, such as going to the library, reading, drawing, cooperating, sharing things, and keeping clean surroundings. Therefore, do carry out the activities shown in the program after watching it with your children. |
| Sesame Stories Tips for Parents Dear Parents: The accompanying video tape is a compilation of episodes from the new Palestinian television series, Hikayat Simsim, designed specially for your children. Hikayat Simsim presents children with educational messages fostering concepts like pride, cooperation, diversity, and mutual respect. Here are some tips to help your children get the most out of watching Hikayat Simsim and other television programs. Enjoy Hikayat Simsim! 1. Watching TV Together: Watch television with your children. Talk to them when television program ends. Sometimes the whole family can gather to watch television; however, we must not forget that many television programs are not designed for children such as the news, scary movies, and talk shows. Sesame Stories is specially designed for children and adults; therefore, you can watch it with your children and enjoy it together. 2. Selecting the Right Programs: You can help your children choose the best programmes to watch. Some programs, such as Hikayat Simsim, are educational and can help foster learning while also being fun and entertaining to watch. 3. Setting Limits: Parents should set limits and rules about what children are allowed to watch on television. 4. Monitoring Violence: Watching violent television programs is highly damaging to children. According to studies, children who watch violent programs tend to be more apprehensive and suspicious as well as aggressive. You can help make sure that your children do not watch violent television. Certain programs, such as Hikayat Simsim, have no violent content, and instead stimulate creative thought. 5. Making Television Interactive: After watching television, you can ask children about what they watched and about new words they learned. Doing this can help make watching TV a way to develop children’s linguistic and thinking skills. When watching Sesame Stories, you can ask children about what they learned and about their favorite stories. Also, test their memory by asking them about what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a program. |
| These viewing tips were written to accompany a home video of Sesame stories, but they are relevant for all television and video viewing. Please feel free to print them and use them! |