Dropping cable with a 4 year old?

[Ragnrok23]

Any advice on how to do this with keeping a 4 year old happy? Right now her favorite show is Fineas and Ferb, but also watches Nick Jr and disney channel.

I have a PS3 and a Tivo, so I am able to stream netflix. Just wondering how else I would be able to get her shows. Is it possible to watch Fineas and Ferb through Disney online using a PS3?

Thanks!

 

[sookie]

Should be less than one hour of tv a day at that, preferably none. I'd get rid of cable and buy her a used set of phineas and Ferb DVDs.

 

[maddiesmom0116]

I am about to do the same thing and DD6 will not be very happy either and she watches less then 1 hr a day during the week, some days none at all and maybe 2 hours on Saturday morning between breakfast and Gymnastics class. Even with that little amount, she was visibly upset when she overheard me considering it. I personally don't watch a lot of TV so I am wondering if it is worth $80 a month. DD has a lot of DVDs and Blu rays, so I will go that route and then we rent from redbox alot as well.

I also plan on hooking my laptop up to the TV to watch some prime time shows.

 

[fakereadhed]

Every time they do no tv week at school, after the initial panic when they hear about it, they play happily and actually have more fun. The kids will not suffer.

 

[imsayin]

I dropped it with 2 teenagers. It's worked out fine.

 

[cglaura]

I would start planning alternate activities to do at the times she would have watched her program...games, arts & crafts, etc. Distraction often diffuses tension. The first few days I'm sure will be tough, but then this will be the new norm.

Does your local library rent movies? Ours allows 2 out at a time for two days.

Maybe get some Phinneas and Ferb books, coloring books, etc?

 

[Jaime4004]

We dropped it about a year ago with a 6,5 and 2 y.o. No one misses it or mentions it. Just use netflix for their shows now...

 

[PIERCEDRN]

If you are not ethically opposed to torrent sites or usenet, you can download whole seasons of old shows and the latest episodes of Phineas and Ferb as they come out.
You could also set up a computer with a PVR card to record a slew of P an F episodes during one of their marathons and save them all to a hard drive. There are many different devices to stream media from a usb hard drive to a tv or PS3.
We are very close to not needing cable except for the PHILLIES who we must stick with comcast for.
BOB

 

[PIERCEDRN]

Should be less than one hour of tv a day at that, preferably none. I'd get rid of cable and buy her a used set of phineas and Ferb DVDs.

There is only one DVD out with a whopping 5 episodes on it.
Currently they are on episode 100+

 

[pixiewings71]

We have a 14 & 10 year old, they are fine without the cable. They thought they wouldn't like it at all but they really don't notice much. We use netflix and we also go to websites to watch full episodes.

 

[reginaastralis]

We just did a little over a year of no cable/no internet. My daughter was four when it started. She survived. If you buy the converter box, they have plenty of kids shows. locally, we get USF's PBS channel that is 24 hours a day kids shows, and Qubo. Juliette's favorite show was Animalia, and since we've moved and gotten internet back she hasn't asked for it once. Kids are pretty adaptable.

 

[LadyBeBop]

I have a PS3 and a Tivo, so I am able to stream netflix. Just wondering how else I would be able to get her shows. Is it possible to watch Fineas and Ferb through Disney online using a PS3?

Right now, no. However Netflix will stream a number of Disney Channel and Nick Jr shows...Hannah Montana, Suite Life, Wizards of Waverly Place all from Disney and Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go and Spongebob Squarepants from Nick.

Netflix also has an agreement with Starz to stream their material. And with Starz's agreement with Disney to show their recent movies, you can stream a lot of Disney movies. Just in the past week, they've added "The Princess and the Frog" to live streaming.

We need cable for other programming...but we use our streaming a lot more than our cable. However, when we were able to get live streaming through Wii, we've dropped HBO for Netflix ($5 cheaper a month). Don't miss it at all. In fact, we like our live streaming so much, we bought a Roku for our bedroom.

 

[MickeyDisneyFan]

Yo can stream the first season from here for free

http://tvshack.cc/tv/Phineas_and_Ferb/

 

[labdogs42]

If you are not ethically opposed to torrent sites or usenet, you can download whole seasons of old shows and the latest episodes of Phineas and Ferb as they come out.
You could also set up a computer with a PVR card to record a slew of P an F episodes during one of their marathons and save them all to a hard drive. There are many different devices to stream media from a usb hard drive to a tv or PS3.
We are very close to not needing cable except for the PHILLIES who we must stick with comcast for.
BOB

I need to figure out how all this stuff works. I'm not willing to totally give up tv (including Phineas and Ferb), but I'm so sick of paying that cable bill. What does it cost to do the Netflix streaming stuff? I do have a Wii.

 

[pixiewings71]

We pay $9 a month for Netflix, we get one DVD at a time and unlimited streaming. We can stream via our Wii or we can stream from our computer, either way works but we use the Wii more often. Keep in mind new movies aren't available via streaming so we like the one DVD at a time option for that reason.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We have the very basic stuff for like 10 bucks. Only kid stuff is PBS BUT DGS watches so little TV it does not matter. Way less than an hour a week. We used to have Disney and he did like it but pretty much got over it in about two seconds!

DGS used to spend a lot time with my MIL and she let him watch TV 24/7 and we just did not do TV at our house. Now he is with us almost all the time we just never changed the rule and it has not been an issue! Now wii is a differnt story!!!!

 

[D&DDisney]

We have never had cable or dish. Kids always watched PBS shows or Qubo. They have a lot of cute kid stuff on these stations so the kids really didn't miss it.
Now when we go to a hotel or visit friends who have cable it is like a treat for them to watch other shows.

 

[TheRatPack]

We homeschool so we are home ALL DAY and we don't have any sort of cable service or even local stations. We look up the news on the Internet if we need to know something, or listen to the radio. We have a shelf full of DVD movies we watch in the evening....otherwise everyone is reading, drawing, outside playing or playing something inside...etc. We haven't had any sort of TV service for about 6 months now.....and we're still alive...LOL Oh and I have 5 children from 5 to 16, and we do have a few video games as well.