Watching television, especially documentaries, doesn't have to be a mind-numbing experience. Rather, it can help foster a sense of curiosity and serve as a launching pad for kids to explore their interests. Here are some easy tips for making TV watching active and educational.

1. Before watching a show, have kids create a list of what they already know (or think they know) about the topic, and another list of questions they'd like answered by the program. Then view the show together. After the program, discuss what your kids learned from the show — either new information or facts that cleared up misconceptions. For any unanswered questions — or new ones that arose — challenge kids to search out the answers.
    
2. Have kids draw a picture of their favorite part of the program and write a short summary (two to five sentences) describing why they chose it.
    
3. Give kids a minute to write the first words or phrases that come to mind when they hear a TV program's title. Then have them redo the activity after viewing the show, and compare their two lists.
    
4. Have kids create a 30- or 60-second news feature about a program. Grab a microphone (a hairbrush works just as well) and a reporter's notepad, and ask kids to act out their feature like a breaking news bulletin, pretending the topic is something very few people know about.
    
5. On a sheet of paper, draw a horizontal line with "fiction" at one end and "non-fiction" at the opposite end. Ask kids to name programs and decide where along the spectrum each show belongs. Be sure to discuss how some programs contain elements of both. Then while you view a program, ask kids to note the fictional and/or non-fictional elements.
    
6. Discuss the camera angles listed below. Then have kids watch shows to see how they use these different camera angles. Ask kids to explain how the different camera angles make them feel about a show and its characters.
    
   • High Angle: pointing the camera down to show an object from an extreme angle higher than eye level, making the object appear smaller.
      
   • Low Angle: pointing the camera upwards to show an object from an extreme angle lower than eye level, making the object appear larger.
      
   • Panorama: showing something in an extreme long shot and moving the camera across the scene to show a wide expanse.
      
   • Time lapse: showing something change by taking brief shots of it over a long period of time.
      
   • Close-up montage: showing a sequence of short shots, with each shot showing a detail of something at close range.
      
   • Aerial shot: showing something in bird's-eye perspective, usually shot from an airplane or helicopter.
      
   • Rack focus: focusing on something in the foreground and then changing focus to blur the foreground object and sharpen focus on the background objects.
      
7. Talk about the many reasons why TV programs, including documentaries, are made: to educate, to inform, to entertain, for self-expression, to persuade, and, of course, to make money. Help kids understand that the program may have multiple motives, pointing out the techniques used to support particular motives. For example, there are many techniques a producer can use to make an individual look strong or weak — placing the individual in various locations, selecting emotional background music, shooting from different camera angles, etc. Then while viewing a program, ask kids to talk about the feelings the show provokes and the techniques that were used to elicit those responses.
    
8. While viewing a program, have kids create a list of the experts and locations that are shown. Then have them find other material either about or by the expert(s) and find the locations on a map or globe.
    
9. Ask kids to tell you what they liked and disliked about a TV program. Then discuss what they thought was the most important problem or event in the program.
    
10. Ask kids to pick what hour of the day they think has the most commercials targeted toward children. Throughout a week, have them count the number of commercials and the number of promos and graph their results. Discuss why stations air commercials, why they air promos, and why certain times of the day are better to target children.