Our lost childhood? - Module 1

B2 First · Multiple Matching · First Expert Coursebook, Pearson Education

You are going to read an article in which different families give their views on how children should spend their free time. For questions 1–10, choose from the sections (A-D). The sections may be chosen more than once.

A The Thomases

Our children like to chill out in front of the TV or play computer games just like every child all over the world. But parents also need to give their children the chance to try out as many different things as they can afford. Both our boys play football for a club and their school, so they train a couple of times a week and play at the weekend. Charlie also plays basketball and the drums. William learns the electric guitar and Laura sings and has kickboxing and trampolining lessons. But we make it clear to them that if they want to improve at something, they need to work hard and keep doing it over and over again. There's only Friday when someone is not out. It's spent eating pizzas and deciding on the logistics of how and when we are going to get the children to their different classes over the weekend.

B The Luckhursts

The best thing you can give your children is time. Proper time. Not a few snatched minutes here and there while you rush them off to ballet or violin lessons but time spent talking and listening to them. These days children are packed off to all sorts of lessons at an ever younger age. They are expected to achieve more and more younger and younger, and are made to feel a failure if they don't reach the targets set for them. I encourage my kids to play the piano but only for fun – that's just as important. Childhood is the only time in your life when you can play and not have the worries that adults have. So why are we trying to rush it? I think the rivalry between parents at school is particularly depressing – as if anyone cares whose child learns to ride a bike first or learns to read before anyone else!

C The McGraths

Here in Britain, we tend to complain that children don't play in the garden and go out on their bikes the way we did. Computer games and the internet have taken over from playing outside but, although I worry about this, I doubt I'd have been riding bikes if we'd had the internet. Maybe as adults we're scared of the world they're growing up in because we don't really understand it. In any case, since I separated from my husband, it's not easy to keep the children constantly entertained and I'm happy for them to go on the computer because it gives me a break. Both my kids love computer games. Natalie spends a lot of time on Facebook and, actually, it's a good way for her to keep in touch with her friends in Spain and keep up her Spanish at the same time.

D The Clarkes

If my kids had their way, they'd be on the computer the minute they got home from school but I try to keep an eye on this because we do have rules about how long they're allowed to spend playing games on their computer. When they're not doing this, the boys play football together and Julia does cheerleading and goes to a youth club. She wants to go ice-skating but the nearest rink is a bus ride and a walk away, and I'm worried that she's still a bit young to do this on her own. I can't afford to send my kids to extra lessons. In any case, too many people push their kids into doing something because they themselves used to do it or wanted to. Living your life through your kids has its own dangers, in my view. Julia loves horses but riding lessons cost a fortune, so that's out.

Our lost childhood?

Last week a group of teachers, authors and psychologists said video games and 'pushy parents' were robbing children of their happiest years. But is that true? Here we speak to four very different families.

an attempt to limit the time spent playing computer games?

the practical difficulties of getting children to their activities?

the pressure that many children are under to succeed?

a suspicion that the activities which some children go to may not be their own choice?

the benefits to children of having access to a computer?

worrying about letting children be independent?

the value of playing music for pleasure?

the difficulty of being a 'one-parent family'?

the link between practising new skills and making progress?

a negative view of competitive parents?

Which section mentions

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