Children’s Programming
My favorite program for smaller kids is still Sesame Street. It teaches letters and numbers and counting and sharing and helping others and many other things kids need to learn.
For older kids I love Between the Lions - they have a great approach to phonics.
For older and younger kids you can’t beat The Wiggles for an excuse to get up and dance with your kids. Can you point your fingers and do the twist?
Blue’s Clues is great for problem solving and critical thinking skills for the younger crowd, but I don’t like the new guy as much as I liked the other one. We very rarely watch Blue’s Clues though because of the commercials - I much prefer public programming so they aren’t exposed to commercials just yet.
Caillou gets on my nerves - he whines way too much.
Cyberchase teaches good math skills.
We don’t do Thomas or Bob the Builder or Maya and Miguel very often as I can’t see a lot of education coming out of them. There are good lessons about how to behave, but I try to minimize the TV and these just don’t seem to be good ways to “spend” our small allotment of TV viewing.
Dragontails and Clifford and Arthur do get watched occasionally though, even though there isn’t a lot of education in them. We also liked the spinoff from Arthur where Buster went around the world with his dad visiting places, but it doesn’t seem to be on much anymore.
My Big Girl gets to watch about ten minutes of Hi 5 in the mornings if she gets ready with No Drama.
We also have some videos - my favorites are the ones made by Leap Frog, but we also have a few Wiggles videos, and a Sesame Street Learning to Share video, and all of the Mei Mei videos.
My kids don’t watch that much TV, but what little they do watch I try to make educational.
What are your favorite shows and videos for your kids? Do you watch TV with your kids or do you use that time to get other things done?
I must admit that before we traveled I let my Big Girl watch so I could get other things done - the exception being Between the Lions as I liked to watch that with her so later in the day I could reinforce the phonics rules they talked about. But with my little one for the little bit she is watching (so far just the last 30 minute of Sesame Street) I want to be there with her to talk to her about it so she doesn’t just get completely absorbed into the TV. It’s amazing how fast this precious little girl has taken to Elmo. She gets all excited and claps her hands and squeals with delight when Elmo’s World comes on.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:53 am
I don’t have children yet, so am not totally up on all of the best childrens shows out there. At this time, I am planning to try and not have the TV on a lot, and keep the focus educational shows when it is, so I am looking forward to everyone’s insights on this topic.
What I can add, though, is that I read a book called “The Tipping Point” a few months ago. It focuses on what it is that tips new ideas into trends. They did a whole section on the thinking behind Sesame Street (and why it works) and the development and market research of Blue’s Clues. I found it pretty interesting.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:09 am
We dont have any children, but I just had my baby
shower and We recieved Baby Einstein videos I have
heard they are great. I too am a big fan of Sesame
Street.
Have a great weekend RQ and fellow bloggers!!!
Lid 11/18/05
http://www.ost.redthreadkids.org
April 28th, 2007 at 10:10 am
I love Hi-5! Sometimes even if the girls aren’t in the room I put it on for myself. LOL. We went to their concert once and I enjoyed it as much as the kids. I have all the episodes taped. Actually, I like a lot of kids shows, like Dora and Blue’s Clues and Sesame Street. I wish some of the newer shows were on when I was little. My favorite was the New Zoo Revue…we actually caught an old episode of that on TV once and it was fun to show my daughters what Mommy used to watch. It seemed so OLD, though!
April 28th, 2007 at 10:12 am
I am so thankful to hear someone else say Caillou whines too much!!!!! YAY!! I do really enjoy Arthur. It’s very real life to me. Families need to work together. You don’t always get your way. Little sisters will get on big brother’s nerves, and vice versa. It doesn’t sugar coat too much. My little one’s aren’t as little as they once were, so I don’t mind mindless tv when they get home from school. They need a mental rest, in my opinion, before they tackle homework, etc. Also, in the evenings we enjoy Andy Griffith. I know, you are all probably thinking, what???? But, there are such good life lessons in that show. And we ALL enjoy it, and we all laugh!! Again, my little ones are all in school though, and sometimes we just need a good laugh.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Ok. I think I may date myself here. Has anyone heard of Raffi?? We borrowed the videos from my niece (who is now in college) and my son (now 12) ADORED them! Raffi was much like the Wiggles, I guess, with lots of wonderful music to sing with your kids. They were one set of videos and CDs that I never tired of hearing.
As for children’s programming, although not very educational, both of my boys loved Arthur. However, when they learned to read, I have to say that they were THRILLED to be able to read the Arthur books. Seeing the TV show made the stories familiar,and helped to foster the reading of those books independently.
Seasame Street doesn’t seem as educational as I remember it to be. I loved the Electric Company as a kid. Sometimes that is shown on NOGGIN. Between the Lions, is wonderful, but my kids were too big for it when it first aired.
BTW, Thanks RQ for all that you do. This is my first post outside of the forum. Congrats on your new little one!
April 28th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Great topic RQ – and congrats on your new little one!
When we brought our 2 1/2 yr old home from China in 2001 my office held a baby shower for me and one of the gifts was a Barney 123/ABC video. It was only about 20 min. long and my daughter loved it! She would watch the same video over & over if we let her. Within days she was trying to sing along with the video. While she was fostered in China her family let her watch Tom & Jerry cartoons. It was tough finding them on local tv. She also liked Between the Lions, Arthur and the Wiggles, she didn’t care much for Sesame Street.
Now at the ripe old age of 9 she has quite a movie collection - mostly the Disney ones. I have to admit we did let her watch too much tv! We have since cut back on her viewing time. Now her favorite shows are anything on Animal Planet and Discovery. Fortunately she enjoys reading more than watching. If any new movie is about to preview (like Narnia) she wants to read the book first so she can compare it to the movie.
I was one of those moms who always said “no kid of mine will be plopped in front of the tv†- easier said than done. Especially since I worked full time and SAHD wasn’t much fun playing girlie games. Thank goodness we were able to overcome this.
We also have several Raffi CDs – used to have to do the ‘Brush your Teeth’ routine to get DD to brush her teeth!
April 28th, 2007 at 10:24 am
My daughter loved sesame street when she was little, and the nostalgia factor or her loving a show I watched when I was little was a plus for me. She moved from that to the Wiggles, which is totally not educational but I consider it toddler/preschool aerobics as she moved constantly while it was on. She really isn’t much of a TV kid and I mostly watch the news these days, she loves music and dance and if she asks for a video, its usually an exercise video that she wants to do with me (I guess it’s a good incentive to get me exercising). She’ll be in Kindergarten in the fall and I’ve heard they use “between the lions” during quiet time so maybe we’ll try that this summer, if we’re inside.
I hear other kids her age talk about movies and full length videos all the time, but the only one I’ve seen her watch all the way through is “High School Musical”, which of course, just like the Wiggles she dances her way through.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:30 am
3X, I have been collecting The new Zoo Revue for
Allison, I loved that show too.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:31 am
We like to watch Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go! I like it because it gives kids a jump start of foreign language skills. It has also helped me with my Spanish. I’ve also heard this fall Nick Jr. is coming out with a Chinese girl show like Dora the Explorer. I’m trying to find out info on it and will post a link as soon as I find it!!
April 28th, 2007 at 10:49 am
My DD loves the Little Einsteins. It’s the next step after they graduate from Baby Einsteins. Very educational! Their latest dvd adventure takes them around the world and to the Great Wall of China for a dragon kite parade. She just loves it and it gave us a great opportunity to talk about her homeland China.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:50 am
3 year old can have a connection with someone she does not know. So, with all that said, I am voting for Sesame Street. Besides, Elmo IS awfully cute.
April 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am
We love Zoboomafoo the leaping lemur! My son knows more about animals than I do! He wants to have his own nature TV program when he grows up so he can teach kids about animals too. I must admit many of the kids shows I just can’t sit through but this one is one we watch together.
April 28th, 2007 at 11:12 am
We watch little Einstiens, JOJO and Mickey mouse clubhouse. DD really loves music and we are a Disney family.
Personally I think Little Einstiens is my favorite. Today the show was about China.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
We love the Veggie Tales (I know they are not on TV- and they are Christian based), I just mention it becuase they are videos that will be allowed in our home. Good lessons on kindness and so on and the silly songs just crack me up!
I am with RQ that I don’t want our future children to see too much TV and avoiding commercials is important. And we are don’t want our kids to watch the shows on the Disney Channel. I flip by there occasionally to see what is new and I just hate how many of their shows have the following pattern 1) all parents are stupid 2) all kids are smarter than the parents 3) too much fashion obsession 4) the kids should be able to do what they want because the parents are stupid 5) repeat.
That said I do have many of the Disney Movies and those are fine, but I can’t stand the cable channel.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I don’t have kids yet…but my nieces and nephews love Zooboomafoo (formerly known as Kratts Kreatures). I have to say the episodes are as interesting for adults as kids…which I imagine is hard to do! PBS always has great programming.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
We’re a big fan of Noggin as it is a commercial free station. Our daughter loves “Little Bear.” I thought it was a bit dull at first but I’ve really come to appreciate the storylines about imagination and friendship. Little Bear also has a fairly decent vocabulary and our daughter will freely toss around, “Curious…. Very Interesting… I’m investigating…” which I’m sure she’s picked up from him. Our daughter has yet to latch on to the Wiggles but she likes Jack’s Big Music Show and Laurie Berkner - both on Noggin. And I can’t NOT mention Mei Mei as everyone in the house can sing and dance every song on the Sing and Dance with Mei Mei video (although I still can’t get the hang of that Ri Ke Ze dance….)
Joanie
April 28th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
My two favorites are Barney and the Teletubbies………………..kidding! =)
April 28th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
The educational stuff is a given…
However my absolute favorite is and always will be LITTLE BEAR!! I love the sweet stories, the calming music and all the characters!
Great for snuggling together just before nap time!
April 28th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
My son is 3 & we watch more than I thought we would… but mostly educational stuff. We only watch PBS or videos (which we have a wide selection of). Favorites…
Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Miss Pattycake (Christian preschool videos), Boz (ditto), as well as some of the others that have been mentioned.
My son also loves Kipper the dog, which has absolutely NO educational value! ;)
April 28th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
My 4 yr old loved baby Einstein and teletubbies. Tubbies are wierd but she loved them for the first year. After that Elmo’s world, wiggles. Now, she like Dora, Blue, Diego go, Franklin, Bear and Berinstein Bears. I will allow her to watch movies which she can stay still long enough to enjoy with the family. Her current favorites are, Polar Express, Annie, Willie Wonka (the old version) and Frosty.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I had forgotten about Zaboomafoo - we like that one as well. My big girl also has a software program with Zaboo in it.
And I had forgotten about the Berenstain Bears, we occasionally watch them, too.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
My two girls 3 & 4 would watch TV all day if I let them. So I limit TV time in our house. But there are three education shows I like.
_Zoboomafoo
_sesame street
-Between the Lions
My husband hates Disney! He believes that they distort history with their movies. He is a big history buff!! So there is absolutely no Disney in our house. I must agree I really am not a Disney fan either.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
We got our first Mei Mei dvds about two weeks ago. We have Mei Mei 1, but my daughter really loves Mei Mei Sing and Dance. (I don’t get the Ri Ke Ze song either.) She is more into copying the dance movements than singing the songs, but I can now mumble my way through the Happy Birthday song in Chinese.
As far as shows, DD doesn’t watch much. Maybe Arthur or DragonTales if she is sick. Sesame Street if she is visiting my in-laws.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I never let Kylie watch The Wiggles, they are too annoying and luckily she hasn’t shown an interest in them.
I must disagree with RQ about Bob the Builder and Thomas. I think both are very educational. Kylie loves both and has learned a lot about tools and trains.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Veggies Tales are on our local NBC station……
My 3 yr old loves Sesame Street and has a different favorite each week. She occasionally drifts to Dora or Diego, but once the new factor wore off she went back to the street.
We love the Wiggles- we went to a concert last fall and hands down it was the best concert we’ve been to for a long time. My DH is a musician and appreciates that they do all there own stuff.
Another favorite is Higglytown Heroes on Disney. This is onle of the only kids programs that has the children interacting with adults….and the adults are the heroes. It gets 3 cheers from our house!!!
April 28th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Interesting thread. When my son was little, he watched all the ones that you mentioned. He really loved Max and Ruby — I wasn’t too fond of it. But it was fairly gentle and discussed sharing.
He’s now seven and well, ahem, I guess I am not the good mom I once was. hE REALLY HAS AN OPINION.
He loves anything that involves star wars or avatar or sponge bob. Star Wars is the favorite right now. And since it was my husband and my favorite when we were kids, I am so far ok with it.
But just recently, he’s been very much into the Discovery Channel which is great. He particularly loves Deadliest Catch and really Mythbusters.
What gets me though are the commercials. They have stuff on like viagra! ARRRGH.
Hann23
April 28th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Sesame Street is # 1 in our house. My big girl even asks me to replay the ones I record on our cable box for Katie. She still loves it! The best videos I think are the Baby Einstein videos. They have one called Baby Wordsworth that teaches first words and they have other language ones as well. Both my kids love them!
April 28th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I agree with everything already posted here. I don’t think anyone has mentioned Magic School Bus. Its a cartoon on TLC narrated by Lily Tomlin (sp?) and is a science based show. My dh thinks it is a little hippie but I love it. It is based in a classroom and when the kids have trouble understanding a concept like evaporation or the body’s blood stream, their school bus shrinks like magic and zooms into whatever they are studying. My 5.5 year old is crazy addicted and is now explaining to me why volcanos errupt and shouts about the process of evaporation when she sees pasta boiling.
We also really love little einsteins, Dora and I am sure we will be hooked on the new Nick show with the little girl from China. Thankfully with Tivo my kids only watch what MOM records. They don’t know how to get regular TV on yet. If you are a new parent and don’t have a Tivo, I would highly recommend getting one!
Shannon
April 28th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Sesame Street was big here but now it is all about Peep and the Big Wide World. Love it! My…um…I mean our favourite episode is called “A Peep of a Different Colour” which teaches about what happens when you mix colours. “Stuck Duck” and “Hide and go Peep” are other favourites. It is a great show appealing to all ages that teaches science - the weather, phases of the moon, gravity, seasons, colours…all sorts of topics are taught in a very enjoyable fashion. It is narrated by Joan Cusack. A must see for sure!!
April 28th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
my DD#1’s favorite (she just turned 4) are the Angelina Ballerina videos. While they aren’t exactly educational, they do teach proper (Brittish) english and teach good morals/values. She really enjoys them. That is about all we watch - try to watch it with her and explain/reinforce the lessons being taught. We try to limit TV/ video watching to a few Angelina stories every couple of days (no more than 30 minutes at a time.) I have to admit, though, when I have a chance to watch Everyday Italian and Barefoot Contessa, she will watch with me. (I think she was the only 3 year old that knew what ‘piping’ was and knew to roll a lemon with your hand to make it produce more juice, etc……………………..)
April 28th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Oh the TIVO rules and I forgot to say that earlier. Pop right through those commercials and get to the good stuff. Cuts down on the TV watching for sure.
April 28th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I LOVE the whole Leap Frog DVD set. I have to say that the phonics one is a favorite! My pre k son knows almost every sound! He does attend an awesome pre school- but the video reinforced his knowledge and made it fun through song. Last night we were writing ( he was writing- with my help) his Christmas list- ( yes I know- way early! But any chance to get them to write! :) ) and he could not remember the sound for R. He started singing the song and before you knew it- he remembered- R says- ‘rrrr” R says rrr- every letter makes a sound and R says rrrrr!!!!!
I do allow my kids to watch 30 minutes of “their choice” tv once a day (within reason). With three boys in the house- Star Wars or Power Rangers tend to be the show of choice. However- my younger one still does love the Wiggles and Thomas the Train.
I think everything in moderation is good. As an early elementary school teacher- you would be surprised to hear what I do at school. So many kids watch HOURS of tv- and a lot of it is inappropriate as well- I mean really inappropriate for kids of this age. :0
April 28th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
About a year ago we discontinued our cable and subscribed to Netflix. We primarily rent nature videos, which we find the whole family can watch together and enjoy. There are parts of these videos that can be scary for my 5-year-old (i.e. when a predator eats its dinner), but we’ve worked through that and now she just loves them. She’s learned so much (and so have we) about the world and her place in it. She’s become quite the little environmentalist lately, which I think is really swell.
April 28th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
TV, that’s a hard one. For one, DH and I used to watch way too much TV and when it’s winter we can couch surf with the best of them. We deliberately do not get cable (though I miss The Daily Show).
Re: Kids TV. When DD was 2 she used to love Teletubbies and Elmo. When 3, she moved on to Dora (which we now have on DVD due to too many commercials on CBS) and Diego. She also likes Arthur which I agree has some good social situtations from which to learn, but not a whole lot else, though there is an emphasis on reading.
Sorry, but Blues Clues annoys me.
Sesame Street is good but mostly we have the 20 minute videos because we are not morning TV people generally. I must recommend Let’s Make Music with some of the dancers from STOMP!
Zaboomafoo is a big hit. She loves animals. And we let her watch CyberChase almost every day after pre-school (she’s now 4) when we get home, just so we can have some decompression time.
Other shows occasionally make their way in e.g. Curious George, Dragon Tales, but we really try to limit it.
Videos: While we do not care much for Disney, we have not completely eliminated it. Too much emphasis on girls and beauty and getting the guy as the main theme, and too many blue eyed blondes. We did get the updated Rodgers and Hammerstein (Disney) Cinderella from the library however. A number of characters are African American including Cinderella (Brandy) and the Queen (Whoopi Goldberg), and it was a good opportunity to point out that Cinderella’s skin was not the “wrong” color. Another video that I haven’t seen anyone mention is Big Bird in China; DD loves it and you/she can learn how to say “I love you”, hello, good bye in Chinese. Kinda fun. Lastly, and call us bad parents if you want, but the kid loves the video “The Santa Clause”. We limit it to once every couple of weeks, but the requests have not gone away yet.
One more thing, we have a CD of SchoolHouse Rock, covers of the original songs from the show. “Three is the Magic Number” can make you cry if you are at certain points in the wait. But there are other cool songs: I’m Just a Bill (up on Capitol Hill) and Energy. We try to do a lot of music listening generally and that is often our big dance time. We are lucky that she loves Bob Marley and Woody Guthrie.
‘Nuff said.
PT
April 28th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
When you have a boy it’s hard to avoid Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder, and I’d respectfully disagree with RQ about the educational value of these shows. Learning about values, compassion, how to treat people, work ethic, etc. is just as important as academic skills. As a college-level educator I actually see more of our students struggling with things like work habits and ethical behavior than with academic skills.
And I agree, Between the Lions is the best literacy show out there! Sesame Street still rocks, of course. What I love about Lions is that it’s so humorous for adults too.
I also think it’s fine just to kick back, relax and be entertained sometimes, so long as the entertainment is in keeping with your own values. Part of what we need to educate our kids to do is cope with reality, and the reality is we live in a visual, media-saturated culture. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. All things in moderation.
There are some really wonderful children’s programs out there nowadays–better than when we were kids, actually. And with TIVO or DVR, we can zap through commercials we don’t like. Our son does watch, and he also loves reading and is reading above grade level, so it’s not a problem. Some of the kids’ programs give us wonderful opportunities to talk about our values and priorities.
April 28th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
My baby (18 mo) LOVES, LOVES Teletubbies…I will admit that I like it because it is VERY quiet with no annoying songs to get stuck in your head. I also like it because of the repetition….they do a whole scene and then repeat it, so baby gets it. She also loves Sesame Street. For my 5 year old, it’s Berenstein Bears and Little Einsteins. They both like Higglytown Heroes. When my big girl was little, she liked Wiggles, but would not think of watching them now…so baby doesn’t get to see Wiggles!!
April 28th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
My 18 mo old LOVES, LOVES Teletubbies………….I like it because it’s a quiet show with no annoying songs to get stuck in your head….I also like the repetition……baby also likes Sesame…..my 5 yr old will watch it…….she REFUSES to watch Wiggles anymore, so baby is out of luck there….they both enjoy Higglytown Heroes…big sis likes Little Einsteins. They both LOVE Laurie Berkner…I like her too….her music is COOL.
April 28th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
My girl loves the Wiggles. All singing, all dancing. Her favourite character is Captain Feathersword. And Henry (and I cannot stand Dorothy’s voice!). She is able to follow most of their dance moves, and has quickly picked up words from the ‘repetitive’ format (which as an adult, drives me nuts, but I am not the one learning here). I think the other thing that she loves is the Big Red Car - as her other favourite show is Top Gear, a UK car show.
She isn’t very interested in the Mei Mei videos, or Sesame Street, but we do look at them occasionally, just incase her ever expanding vocab makes it interesting for her. No Bob or Thomas, mostly cause they don’t interest her at the moment, though she does like her Bob phone, and will play with it for hours. But even then, her Wiggly drum is No. 1.
I usually watch the Wiggies with her, as we practice the words to the song, and the dance moves. Its hilarious.
Oh, and the Wiggles also have Aussie accents, so their pronunciation is kind of desirable here in Oz. I guess I’d rather she didn’t develop a cute little sesame street accent just yet - she can do that later!
April 28th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
My daughter likes Miss Spider and SUnny Patch friends. It is great because Miss Spider adopted all different kinds of bugs and they all live together as a family.
The Wiggles was the first show that she loved, and will all be special in our house. I don’t think I could go to a concert without Greg wiggle in the show. Even my 4 year old asked who is he? when the new wiggle took over (couldn’t they have at least given him a different colored shirt- there are other colors than yellow!).
Dora was the next big hit. She was saying words in spanish before she could speak english. Now Dora is totally out.
Her favorite show now is Charlie and Lola on Disney. She lets out the most amazing belly laughs watching that show. She must have a great love of British humor. Sometimes I feel like I am living with Madonna because she speaks with a Brittish accent.
April 28th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
I’m not saying we never watch Bob or Thomas, just that it doesn’t happen often. My Big Girl has lots of the heavy equipment characters from Bob, and some tools too.
I’m glad I’m not the only one with a problem with Disney. Too much materialism, too many princesses, too many dead parents, too much chasing after a guy. Other than The Wiggles we stay away from it.
And yes, I forgot about Big Bird in China - we all enjoy watching that one.
I watch a lot of the cooking channel, so my big girl also knows a good bit about cooking and loves to help in the kitchen.
April 28th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Thirdtimearound and RQ, I have to say that this is the first time I have seen any other anti-Disney people on a forum. It thrills me to not be alone. We are a Disney free home. For many reasons, some of which were mentioned. We also are cloth diaper users, although I did have a diaper service, couldn’t keep up with the twins.
We don’t do much TV here, but my kids enjoy Dragon Tales and Between the Lions.
I do remember Raffi from my nephew. Wish I could find some of his tapes.
-akina
April 28th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Glad to hear so many people like Zoboomafoo. Our big girl just discovered it and we love it- she has learned so much about animals.
I’m also a fan of Wonderpets- maybe even more than big girl. ;) It’s so funny!
April 28th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
akina - Check out iTunes for Raffi
eastandwest - we will sing “What’s gonna work? TEAMWORK! over and over and over again in our house!!
April 28th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
We have 4 kids ages 7,6,3, and our newest : ), 17 months old. Hubby and I haven’t had “TV” in over 10 years. We do have a television - just not hooked up and I use it for showing DVD’s that support our home schooling. My kids have only watched TV if we go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house (once every 2 years, we live overseas), and I cannot say they are missing a thing! I think if they even had the option, they would rather play outside, read a book or make Lego creations.
We have been watching Little House on the Prarie since we are studying that time period right now, and the kids love it (me too!) We are also doing the Signing Time series, our youngest has hearing issues and the kids love learing sign language.
April 28th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
My little one loves the Wiggles and Sesame Street. She calls Elmo “nana” which I think she got from the theme song “lalala…Elmo’s world” she doesn’t say “l” so I think that why she says nana.
We took her to see the Wiggles in Kansas and she didn’t “get” it but enjoyed it. Maybe next year she’ll understand the characters are on stage and not just on the monitors!
April 28th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
RQ and akina glad to see other people are anti Disney. It is hard to find people that are not in love with disney. My almost 5 year old keeps asking to go to disney and complains that all her friends have gone. Poor thing, I feel bad but we will never bring her. Dh and I tease that disney is like Americans MECA. Everyone must make their pilgrimage before they die. So funny! It least I think its funny!
April 28th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I forgot to mention that my daughter loves watching King of Queens (sitcom) and Grey’s Anatomy. Sure, KOQ is not educational, but it’s super funny and my daughter actually “gets” the jokes.
I think she likes Grey’s Anatomy because she is fascinated with doctors and medical stuff.
Oh yeah, and she loves watching Emeril on Food Network. She calls him “the cooking guy.”
What can I say, we can’t watch educational stuff 24/7.
The Baby Einstein dvds are wonderful, in my opinion. My favorite is Baby Gallileo. I’ve watched it a thousand times with my daughters and never tire of it.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
When we took our son to the children’s concert at the symphony, he knew all the songs already from his Baby Einstein videos and he absolutely loved the concert. Baby Einstein forever!
Disney is such a big part of our culture that it may not be realistic to keep kids away from it forever. Plus, the look on our son’s face as he explored the Magic Kingdom, and the way he talks about it even today, is worth it. It’s such a wonderful experience for children and families, and some of the classic Disney films are exquisite. I wouldn’t want to deprive my children of the magic that charmed me as a child. I don’t really understand the Disney bashing…is there something I’m missing? We all grew up with it, and how has it damaged us?
I had ultra-strict parents who forbid a lot of things that all the other kids got to do, and my siblings and I grew very resentful and, eventually, rebellious. So I’d caution parents to be careful about what you totally outlaw, because you might unwittingly just end up enticing your child to want that thing even more.
Truly harmful things, of course, should be outlawed–but I really can’t see the harm in Disney. Even my ultra-strict parents let us have Disney, and I cherish the memories of visiting Disneyland with my parents, who are now dead. Thank goodness I have those memories now. Disney is all about love and joy and imagination and fun, none of which are things I want to ban from our home.
Of course everyone’s entitled to their own beliefs, so I mean no disrespect to those who differ.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I’m sure we’ll eventually make the trek to Disneyland, when the girls are old enough to remember it. But we stay away from Disney programming as much as possible. For the most part it’s just a message that I don’t want my girls to get - the idea that you can’t be happy without a man, or that you must be pretty in order to be happy. My Big Girl has seen most of the Disney movies, her grandparents have made sure of it. But we don’t have them at our house. There are too many other shows with a much better message, so for now we stick to them.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
I can’t stand Baby Einstein. My dd (at 14 months) even left the room. We do watch JoJo’s Circus, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and some Sesame Street. We’re a Disney family and my dd enjoys the Sing Along DVDs.
Between the Lions is a great show. My sons used to love it and our dd will watch that as well. Today my dd (now 16months) sat through the whole Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and she enjoyed it. I plan to get the rest of those DVDs.
I don’t care for Dora but I’m looking forward to the Niahao Kai-lan show. My dd also enjoys the Bao Bei dvds.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
DD likes Dora. We watch Baby Signing time DVD’s and Baby Praise Collection DVD’s. She loves them all! Tonight she was watching her Baby Praise and when different animals or something would come up, she would sign what was on the TV.
April 28th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
TotoOZ
My daughter 4 3/4yo also loves Top Gear (British car show) in addition to Mythbusters and Iron Chef Japan. At the age of 3 she was making ‘replicas’ of the Ming Dynasty Emperors throne with playdough and wood at childcare - copying one of her favourite Mythbusters segments.
She is also a huge Hi-5 fan and sings and dances to them. We have been to the concerts 3 times - and she sits there enthralled not singing or dancing just staring and then rushes home to reenact the whole thing.
She loves a show here in Australia that has been going since I was a child ‘Playschool’ - which is not only a national institution but is educational. She learnt her road rules from one of their videos and became a backseat driver ’stop it is a red light!’ ‘that person isn’t wearing their seat belt!’
She is a huge Bob the Builder fan and the recent episodes have a ‘green’ theme to them, teaching kids to ‘reuse, renew, recycle’ and that has very much influenced her thinking. Also being very much a tom boy she loves building things - huge towers being a favourite - but with a feminine touch she decorates them - the most comical being a huge tower accessorised with a feather boa and Christmas decorations.
Magnolia’s Friend
April 28th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
My 15 month old LOVES the Wiggles. She does the Wiggles hand motions and dances with the songs. We bought her the Wiggles color book and animals book and she will look at them longer than any of her other books. She only likes the Baby Beethovan Baby Einstein video. She will sit through the whole thing, won’t watch any of the others-we obviously have a Beethovan fan on our hands!!
April 28th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I am curious how much TV everyone lets their kids watch. Our 2 1/2 yo just came home in December 2006, and until the last few weeks had NO interest in watching videos. Recently she’s loved the Sesame Street DVDs I have, and one Baby Einstein one (though I have NO idea why she likes it, I think it is boooooooooring). But she only watches the DVDs, since I’m not a TV person. The other day I needed to get a bunch of stuff done, and she watched about 1.5 hrs total of Sesame Street (spread out over the whole day), and I felt so guilty!! Just curious how that compares to others’ TV time. I haven’t even heard of most of the shows you are all talking about.
April 29th, 2007 at 3:17 am
RQ, I had to chuckle because I am one of those people who doesn’t like to refer to our daughter as “princess” and I’m not into the whole girlie-girl thing. A lot of people think I’m strange because of that. :) Yet here I am defending Disney. Kind of ironic!
But I actually do agree with you for the most part about the programming on the Disney Channel. I do enjoy the classic Disney characters and movies, even though I agree that much of the Disney TV programming promotes shallow values.
I think our culture being what it is, the kids will be exposed to those values sooner or later, but at least when they’re a bit older, you can talk about it. When the kids are small, they just absorb things. So it makes sense to hold off on programming you’re not so crazy about, especially since there is so to choose from nowadays–pretty much something for everybody, as this thread shows.
One family’s favorite is often another family’s “yuck, you’ve gotta be kidding,” but that’s life!
April 29th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Oh, my Big Girl also likes “How it’s Made”, Unwrapped, and “Made in America”. I try to engage her during commercials so we don’t really watch them.
She also likes Mythbusters.
Oh, and I have to tape Dancing with the Stars since it is on past her bedtime. Just the competition night, she doesn’t care about the results show. She caught the first few minutes of it several years ago and just HAD to see it. I absolutely do not do reality TV - I’ve never watched Big Brother or Survivor or The Biggest Loser or American Idol or any other reality game show. But I find myself watching Dancing with the Stars.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Ages 3 and almost 5, We do Magic School Bus, Between the Lions, Cyberchase and Reading Rainbow for my almost 5 year old (although it needs pre screened b/c some of the topics are too mature), and then nature and science shows. And sometimes Little Einstein, I know it’s Disney but the emphasis on music and art is nice. Once in a while Sesame Street but they’ve kinda matured out of it. And the Big Adventure series is awesome.
We’ve characterized TV in our house into 2 categories, “good” the ones listed above, and “junk” which includes all kids TV that teaches social behavior (Little bear, Arthur, etc) and pure entertainment shows. Kids don’t really learn even the “lessons” from those shows unless parents point them out and discuss and reinforce them. My kids generally watch 1/2 an hour of TV a day, they’re each allowed to pick one junk show a week. We do have Friday night movie and pizza night though.
Our family room is open to our kitchen, so I’m generally watching with them, but from the kitchen.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:22 am
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention the signing time videos. We get them at the library and my dd almost 2.5yrs from china loves them. actually we all kind of like them. We have learned so much sign language and my daughter, being speech delayed has benefited so much from learning to communicate without frustration. Contrary to what you might think, I believe she has actually increased her spoken vocabulary because of them. we really need to go ahead and purchase all of them.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:46 am
During the week (when we are working) there is almost no TV. If there isn’t much homework we watch Dancing with the Stars the day after it is on, and on other nights we might watch Mythbusters or How it’s made or maybe the Food Network in the evenings, but for most evenings during the week the TV is usually off until after bedtime and then I get to watch what I want.
On the weekends there is a lot of TV in the mornings if we don’t have a reason to get up and get moving early. And that is usually the case in the winter. I tape shows from during the week and we watch those as well as watching whatever happens to be on PBS if it’s a show we like.
In the summer there isn’t as much TV because we stay pretty busy in the summer.
April 29th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Hi everyone
RQ interesting topic. I too am not a big Disney fan nor is my DD who is 31/2. I find there is a lot of violence in the Disney movies. My DD loves Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat. Unfortunately I have only seen it a couple of times on TV as I don’t think it is being produced anymore. Well we have one video that she will watch over and over. Not super educational but gives her some insight into her heritage. DD also loves the Big Bird in china video. She loves Little Bear and Toopie and Binou (canadian show I believe) I also think Cailou is a super whiney child and am glad Brianna is not interested. We have Treehouse in Canada which is also commercial free.
Annediapers
April 29th, 2007 at 11:28 am
We just found Harold and the Purple Crayon on HBO - because we just started getting it again for the Sopranos and Entourage ; ) We use the dvr and watch no commercials, but got totally sucked into the princess thing because of the sticker she got from the pediatrician at her 3 year old check-up. Ugh! Those bimbos are insideous and I can’t avoid them. I gave up and am hoping it will run its course.
HBO also has Storybook Musicals where they take a great story, the Caldecott winners from what I’ve seen, and turn it into a fullblown musical and the girls love it.
April 29th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Our daughter just turned three. She watches maybe ten hours of TV/ DVDs each week.
We love Hi-5, Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues in our house. We watch Hi-5 almost every day, and then sometimes she can watch an additional show in the afternoon. We sometimes watch Jeopardy together. :) We have DVR and I love that because we can pick what she watches, no matter when she watches it.
We also watch a lot of Mandarin videos. Our favorites are Follow Jade and the Mei Mei series. I’m really, really looking forward the the Ni Hao Kai-Lan series that will come out this August.
April 29th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I’d say our kids average around an hour a day of TV over the course of a week. Some days it’s more if they watch a movie; other days it’s less if we’re busy with other stuff. We don’t have strict rules or set timers; we just try to keep things in balance. We’ll shift gears if it seems that they’re doing any one thing to excess.
This may not be the PC view, but I do think some of the worry about TV viewing is overblown. We have three grown godchildren who as kids watched what most people would consider “too much” TV, and they all graduated high school with honors, they’re excelling in college, and most importantly, they are really decent, loving young adults with good values. My husband and I both teach college and ironically, some of our best students tell us they’re TV addicts. (For that matter, my husband grew up as a TV addict and went on to become a college prof as well as a phenomenal husband and dad.) On days that I feel guilty for letting TV viewing slip beyond the usual, I remind myself of all that and calm down.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t monitor both quantity and quality of TV. Of course we should. One thing we do not allow in our house at all is reality TV, because we believe it promotes really twisted values. But I also don’t think we need to panic or feel guilty if we let our kids watch TV. I’m an “all things in moderation” type person. Balance is my buzzword.
I wouldn’t panic too much about the princess thing either. Part of what our kids need to do as they grow up is define themselves, which in some cases may mean exploring things they know we don’t particularly like. If we try too hard to control that, they may cling to it more. If we let things run their course, they’ll go through phases with things and move on. I had a brief spell of princess mania when I was about six, and now I’m the world’s biggest anti-princess feminist, so I won’t worry too much if our daughter goes through that phase. I will probably talk to her about why I don’t like it, but in the long run our kids have to end up choosing their own values.
That’s the part of parenting that’s scary. We like to believe we have total control over how our kids turn out, but the fact is, we don’t. Ultimately they will be the ones to make their own choices, just as we did.
April 29th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Fun question!!!
Elizabeth really likes Dora but LOOOOOVES Oobi!!! LOL!!! Who would’ve thought that a hand could capture a child so quickly!!!
Oh and she only watches 30 minutes to an hour everyday. I don’t want her to watch too much TV. I want her to play.
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April 29th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
My 2 1/2-year-old loves Dora, Elmo, and Cookie Monster. It’s funny–she learned about these characters from her diapers! We can’t watch Sesame Street because she has a fit if Elmo or Cookie Monster aren’t on. We have some Elmo videos.
When I was a SAHM, I let her watch one half hour of TV a day, but she really wasn’t interested in TV much until about 20 months (she came home at 10 months). That was the age she was when I rented Baby DaVinci and she loved it because her daddy had just taught her the song Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Before that, I (or she and I) cared for a friend’s little baby, and I used to put in a Wiggles video when I had to feed the baby to distract my daughter. She loves milk so much, that she used to have fits when anyone else in the house had any. She’d drink hers right away, and then would get mad when the baby still had some!
Anyway, she’d only dance around with the Wiggles for about 10 minutes. I didn’t put anything else on, since the baby was so little, and I just wanted her to hear music, not watch a program!
By the way, I only like the Wiggles videos that are ALL music!
My daughter does like WonderPets and Teletubbies, but we only play computer games–we don’t watch them.
She also loves the Maisy video that we rent from the library.
Now that she’s in daycare, I think she’s watching more TV. My husband says that Dora is on every morning when he drops her off. We only let her watch videos on weekends. The only weeknight TV she watches is American Idol. (Only Tuesday, and she only watches half of it before losing interest).
April 30th, 2007 at 9:24 am
We only watch DVDs at our house and only 1 (20 to 30) minute) DVD a day. My daughter is 27 months old and her favorite series is the Singing Time collection. We have all 13 DVD and they are great. I sit and watch with her (so that I can learn too). The production of this series is of good quality, including the music! We also have many of the CDs and listen to them in the car or dance to them in the family room. My daughter has learned much more than just Sign Language with this series. She understood emotions at an early age and I have to give credit to DVD that covers the signs for many of the emotions. She also understood “taking turns” before many of her peers. She has also learned Colors, Letters and Numbers and most surprising to me: Jumping! One of the DVDs has a very catching tune and the kids are jumping… she wanted to jump just like them Alex and Leah!
You can buy the DVDs at Amazon or directly from the Signing Time web site.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
My bio daughter is special needs so she is still at a 3 month level. The only tv show I’ve ever seen her engage in is the Backyardigins. I don’t know if it’s the bright colors or what but she will actually watch it and it always has a good message so I really like that one.
The other ones that I’ve seen that I think are pretty good shows are Sesame Street, Dora, and Blues Clues
April 30th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I’m not really up on the latest children’s programming as we don’t currently have any children.
My 30 mo. old neice in the other hand LOVES Little Einsteins, and Dora. Other than that my sister and her husband limit her to videos they have screened. This includes LOTS of Disney. Mostly the older ones. I think the most receint title they have is Beauty and the Beast. My neice’s 3 favorites are Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp and Aristicats (sp?). My brother-in-law is also really into Japanese Anime and they special order a lot of early childhood videos from Japan. I’ve never seen any of those.
My friend, who has her Doctorate in early childhood music education, says Jack’s Big Music Show is one of the best out there.