Mrs Taplin said it was important to offer a support network for the child that focuses as much on their social and emotional skills as their schooling.
In the northern town of Velikiy Ustyug, famous under the tsars for the art of its silversmiths, Mr Taplin found a church given over to a display of pre-revolutionary photographs and trivia.
"I think the television business has turned out to be much more powerful as an advertising medium than people were thinking five years ago, " said Jonathan Taplin, a professor specializing in digital media at the University of Southern California.