The common theme here is 'time with your kids'. Structured or not, it's what they crave.
Sillygirl: I started reading to my kids at about 6 months old-about the time they could sit up. Simple cloth baby books and just "ooo! elephant!" stuff but it became a habit to the point that, by 18 months, my daughter would grab a book, slap the sofa and demand 'Read!'
Around the same age, they noticed the 'movement' on the tv and my son would actually stop drinking his bottle when the theme from Cops started.
Generally, though TV for them was Barney in the morning (ugh) and some tapes for quiet time-but those tapes were dance-along, sing-along ones.
Now, time with your kids is always a good thing, but it can have some strange results: my son, at 16 months, decided he wanted to play Nintendo. Not only did he know to turn the tv on and put it to channel 3, he knew to hit 'reset' when the game ended. This was from sitting in Daddy's lap every night after Daddy got home from work and played.
We continued reading to our kids until they were about 4 and they learned to read to us. As they grew and got familiar with their books(lord have mercy, kids get attached to the same damned stories ad nauseum!!), I'd leave words and phrases out and they'd say them as I pointed. It was a wonderful 'us' time and I really think gave them an edge. And, my daughter devours books now, at 14. My son's a computer game geek
