This week for Opinion Saturday I’d love to hear what DVD’s and children’s shows you feel are worthwhile for preschoolers. I don’t let my kids watch tons of TV, and I like what they watch to be worthwhile. I’ve had a chance to review a few new kids shows lately and will soon be writing my impressions of several different shows– hopefully later today, so stay tuned. But first, let’s hear from you! You have until Tuesday evening to tell me which shows you and your children like best. The person who shares the most helpful information will get the Golden Keyboard Award. So hit me with your best thought!
Mary Ostyn
To me, the worse thing about TV is the commercials. If I let my kids watch a channel with commercials, they develop a big case of the “galloping, greedy, gimmees”. That is why we stick to PBS or Noggin.
Funny thing is, if they ever see one of those infomercial type commercials, they come running to me telling me about what new kitchen gadget or dust bunny clearer they are going to buy me for my birthday 🙂 because I just absolutely must have it.
For current shows – I am a fan of Backyardigans. It has such catchy music and it is all about using your imagination to act out scenarios, mostly from history. It has encouraged my little guy to learn more about Vikings and such.
My children LOVE Miss Pattycake DVDs from Integrity Music. She is a perky lady with a bright green jumper and funky hats that loves to sing songs and share the gospel in a way that toddlers adore and understand. When my firstborn was just 27 months old he could explain the true meaning of Easter thanks to this lady’s explanation of it in “Egg-Strava-Ganza!” Anyone who can accomplish that in such an engaging way has my thanks. We got to see her live last September and my 5, 3, and 1 year old were all thrilled. My fourteen month old refused to leave her lap during picture time! She woke up every morning asking for “Pat.” Check out her website http://www.misspattycake.com.
We also enjoy Praise Baby for young toddlers and Cedarmont Kids music videos for older toddlers and preschoolers, as well as the Beginners Bible video series. no list would be complete without Steve Green’s Hide ‘Em In Your Heart and my kids also love the Donut Man. There you have it. My list of preschool gems.
One of my favorite shows for the kids to watch is Little Einsteins. It comes on Disney Channel in the early morning, so we record it and watch it later. It’s perfect for when I’m schooling my oldest and the two younger kids have finished school already.
I don’t have to worry about what the kids might see on this show, because they are learning about music (classical music, of course, for the child who drinks their sippy cup with their pinky out!) and the pictures used throughout the show are also classical art pieces. They enjoy the show and are exposed to classical art and music in a fun way.
Several times my dd has been singing a piece by Mozart (with different words that went along with the show) while cleaning her room! Bonus!
We are quite partial to Kipper the Dog. My son even sports a British accent when repeating themes from Kipper. It’s really a pretty simple cartoon with lots of fun adventures and has really stimulated his imagination.
We also love Richard Scarry and Franklin. And recently picked up the Baby Einstein Orchestra from the library – and the 3 year old LOVES it.
Reading Between the Lions on PBS has aided each of my 3 children in practicing and applying their phonics lessons to real reading.
I loved Charlie and Lola on Disney for the delightful relationship between siblings; I don’t think it’s still on though. Too bad because it was my favorite!
Zaboomafoo on PBS is a fantastic program for animal science! Except for the occasional reference to all things evolution, the show is a “don’t miss” around here.
All these programs are commercial free.
Be wary of programs in which the children are rude to one another or disrespectful of adults. Basically, anything you aren’t willing to live with yourself shouldn’t be shown to a young child in any steady diet, given the way they mimic what they see and hear as they do. There’s enough folly in them (and us) just by nature; we don’t need to be whetting or feeding their appetite for destruction.
We don’t watch a lot of TV but my preschooler enjoys Backyardigans and Wonder Pets. We watch them on channels which do not have commercials in between the shows.
If we were looking for a little excitment, Veggie Tales sing alongs were great. The songs were catchy for children (though maybe a bit too catchy for adults!!) and the bright colors caught my kids attention, and they were up and moving in no time.
For times that they needed down time, Dora the Explorer worked well. My boys would usually sit, watch and follow along with the story.
I feel that both shows had a positive message, and though they no longer watch Dora, at 5 and 7, they have made maps and toilet paper roll binoculars and pretended to be explorers.
We LOVE Charlie and Lola at our house. It is my daughter’s favorite show. It’s so imaginative and is a great example of a siblings relationship. It still comes on Disney channel and you can get DVDs as well. It’s also entertaining for adults which is nice when your child likes to watch something over and over and over. Hope this helps!
We allow Blue’s Clues and Dora – I really can’t take the Backyardigans and oh my, the Doodlebops are the WORST.
I love Zooboomafoo. The Curious George cartoon and Clifford are also favorites here.
We limit tv consumption – the big event is an evening (or morning if I really need to get something done) movie. Finding Nemo and Spirit are always at the top of that list.
We don’t have cable so I’ve been hitting my library for “educational” videos for my younger two, to keep them busy while I’m doing school with my olders. We like the Reading Rainbow videos–it’s like someone reading a picture book to them, but also there’s a mini-documentary to go along with the topic. We also have videos that read three Dr. Seuss books in a half-hour, and many videos on animals, although those don’t hold their attention as well.
I was glad to hear your reader’s recommendations–I’ll keep my eyes open at the library!
Jeanne
Peep and the Big Wide World
Richard Scarry’s “Best Ever” videos
Reading Rainbow
Between the Lions
Veggie Tales
Curious George (the PBS cartoon, not the movie)
Zaboomafoo
Curious George
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Max and Wooby (okay, Ruby!)
Also, Bean loves to watch Winnie the Pooh (not a show… but you can probably check out the movies from the local libary)
We even watch different scene selections from Mary Poppins… that’s probably the most favorite, actually.
Another GREAT source of entertainment for preschoolers are audiobooks. We have a decent selection at our library. I love that Bean can sit quietly and listen to a children’s book read while flipping through the pages. It’s every bit as entertaining to her as TV, but I feel less guilty about it because I figure it will reinforce and encourage her budding interest in reading on her own.
My little boys love “The Upside-Down Show” on Noggin. It is really clever and I find myself chuckling at the antics of Shane and David. It defies description—they use improv, pantomime, gobs of imagination. If you are looking for something *strictly* educational, it probably isn’t for you.
Sometimes, a kid’s gotta just laugh.
We love Veggie Tales.
We also really like Wonder Pets, but it is a cable show, so there are of course, commercials.
I *think* they are coming out with a Wonder Pets DVD.
We like the show because it’s literally an opera for toddlers. The hampster, chick, and turtle sing about saving the day. They “rescue” other animals by helping them share ect.
My son’s only two, but he really likes to sing along. Another good thing is that it’s not *too* flashy or fast. It seems to be fairly good about not overloading the senses.
We have a few guidelines when it comes to children’s programming.
1. What is the “Sass and Whine Factor”? (ie disrespect) 0-5 scale with 0 being no sassing nor whining and 5 being intolerable sassing and whining.
2. Are life lessons taught in each show in a clearly evident manner?
3. What is the “Annoying Tone Factor”? 0-5 scale with 0 being normal tone of voices used in communicating and 5 being intolerable over the top tones.
4. Does it display diverse personalities, genders, ethnicities working together for a common good?
5. Does it respect each member of the family unit. Father, Mother, siblings, and extended family?
Thomas the Tank Engine is #1 around here. It teaches life lessons such as kindness, helpfulness, friendship, and honesty in a thorough manner. It gets a 1 on the “Sass and Whine Factor” scale and a 0 on the “Annoying Tone Factor” scale. Totally has #4 in the bag and #5 doesn’t apply to trains.
After Thomas we like:
Little Bill (love the respect factor and diversity in that show)!
Little Bear (great family relationships)
Little Einsteins (fabulous for music education. scores a 4 on the “Annoying Tone Factor”)
Sesame Street (of course!)
Curious George
I grew up in a TV/Movie-free family and we maintained that throughout the first 5 1/2 years of our marriage. In the last 6 months we brought TV into our home. We have learned that though boundaries are a must; quality children’s programming can enhance educational and life skills.
I was so excited to see this because we have just purchased two new dvd’s and they are awesome!!!
They are by leapfrog… The Letter Factory and The Talking Words Factory. Now I have been working on reading lessons with my 5 year old since she was 4(she seemed ready, and I never pushed), she struggled with the new sounds and would just give up. After watching the Letter Factory a few times she can now tell you what sound every single letter makes!!!!!!! This leading into putting the sounds together and even zipping right through a reading lesson with no frustration!! I rate these dvd’s a 10 out of 10! And they are only $10 each, not too shabby for educational movies. Oh they also have a simple but cute storyline, it keeps the kiddos interested while learning:)
Yesterday Maddie(5 yr old) was mad at me and to apologize for her angry words towards me she wrote this in a card, all on her own:
“Mom
Im sre
I love You
Love Madison
Mom”
I was amazed that she put the sre sounds to make the word sorry!!
Love Love Love those dvd’s!!
We are also a no cable family, and I tend to stick with PBS and videos from the library that interest my kids. My 2 y.o.’s favorite videos so far are live action train and construction equipment videos. WE have learned so much. So, your choice may depend on your little ones’ favorite activities and interests.
WordPress doesn’t like me today so after trying to post my comment 4 times and not succeeding, I posted my comment as a post on my blog http://casadegalletti.blogspot.com/2007/08/tv-shows-we-watch-and-our-opinions-of.html
We don’t have cable, so really the only TV my kids ever see if on PBS. Honestly, my favorite it Clifford. I like that the characters talk nicely to one another, and when they don’t they often apologize. I like Curious George, but we don’t watch him often; my son who apparently has a very strong sense of right and wrong doesn’t like it when George does bad things (which is often)! The kids also like Fetch with Ruff Ruffman – great show for basic science stuff.
The exception to that is Wonder Pets. They’ve seen it at my grandparents’ house a few times and can’t get enough of it! I must admit it’s pretty cute!
I second the Kipper videos, and one I didn’t see mentioned that is a BIGGIE in our house is the Beatrice Potter DVD set. they are fabulous and my preschooler loves them. They are great for big kids too! Easily bought on Amazon. I think they are basically the only two that we watch. Any of the schoolastic book videos are decent as well. They simply take a book and read it along with the pictures of the book. We have Make way for Ducklings and my preschooler really likes that as well. have you ever seen the website preschoolers and peace? It might give you some ideas for when school starts in your house.
Signing Time!
We LOVE signing Time here. http://www.signingtime.com/article_info.php?articles_id=2
We are another cable free household but I have heard this is on PBS in some areas. We have several of the DVD’s. They are fun colorful, catchy, and educational.
I really believe these DVD’s have helped our Ethiopian sons with adding new words into their vocabulary. The multi sensory approach..they see, hear, and do…seems to reinforce the words into memory.
I believe reading books and talking to your children is the best way of learning language but this gives reinforcement.
We have had a lot of fun w/ Sign Language here. All of our children have been blessed by these DVD’s.. I have been too.
Blessings,
Renee
PLANET EARTH!!! It’s so worth the money. WE bought it recently and it’s amazing and awe inspiring and my kids have been completely enthralled.
The last DVD is all about conservation. I would watch it with your kids as they field a variety of opinions about what can be done and one show has some pretty vehement over population critics, though their opinion is not the only one aired. That view has always bothered me. Especially when I read that california produces enough food to feed the entire US and that US grain bought at subsidy sits in store houses and rots instead of being distributed in order to keep from driving down prices. (Silent scream).
Anyway on to movies. We all enjoy the animated movies by hayoe miyazaki. Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, My neighbor Totoro, PRincess MOnonoke, etc. They’re not for every child though. They have stimulated deep and lasting conversations about the state of the world, spiritual reality, demons, and several other things that we were ready to talk about with our kids but not every one may think their kids are ready for some of the subjects. The way they work is as visual metaphors so you can see from how a character looks how they are on the inside.
We are not big TV watchers around here, but when we first brought our kids home from Ethiopia we all loved Little Bear and Franklin -in both of these shows the characters speak slowly and clearly which was great for both my toddler and my 6 year old trying to learn English. These still remain favorites. They both demonstrate great positive family values. We also love Veggie Tales.
For Movies, my almost 3 year old favorite – is the African Childrens Choir DVD – she loves to sing and dance along with them. Her particular favorite song is “You are the Shepherd” sung by the younger kids (5-6 year olds). We sing and dance a lot around here.
I have to jump back in and say that while I listed many worthwhile favorites, in the secular realm and quite worthwhile in terms of a happy child, my toddler is in love with Curious George, the Wonderpets (she calls it “ducks”), and Max and Ruby. We don’t have cable, so we’ve worn out the few episodes that are free to watch at NickJr.com.
I’m surprised that no one mentioned Sesame Street. That is my 3yo son’s favorite (minus Elmo’s world – we usually skip that part). He is also a huge fan of Little Einsteins & Charlie & Lola (on Playhouse Disney).
We are a combination digital cable/TiVo family, so fortunately, we are able to record things for our kids to watch after they earn enough TV points (they do chores to earn points and can put them towards TV time if they wish – it helps to limit the amount of time they spend in front of the TV).
The favorite shows in our home are “Little Einsteins” on Disney and “Dora the Explorer” on Nickelodeon. I really like “Little Einsteins” because it teaches about music and art, as well as a bit about different cultures.
At night time, the kids like to watch a bit of “The Goodnight Show” on Sprout. It shows 15-min episodes of various PBS shows like “Sagwa” and “The Berenstein Bears.” It’s nice and mellow for them to watch after dinner and often teaches about a theme, such as “Friendship” or “Being Helpful.”
The shows that are forbidden in our home (because they are like nails on the chalkboard to my husband and I) are “Barney” and “The Teletubbies.” Sorry to all you fans of Tinky Winky. 🙂
We are a combination digital cable/TiVo family, so fortunately, we are able to record things for our kids to watch after they earn enough TV points (they do chores to earn points and can put them towards TV time if they wish – it helps to limit the amount of time they spend in front of the TV).
The favorite shows in our home are “Little Einsteins” on Disney and “Dora the Explorer” on Nickelodeon. I really like “Little Einsteins” because it teaches about music and art, as well as a bit about different cultures.
At night time, the kids like to watch a bit of “The Goodnight Show” on Sprout. It shows 15-min episodes of various PBS shows like “Sagwa” and “The Berenstein Bears.” It’s nice and mellow for them to watch after dinner and often teaches about a theme, such as “Friendship” or “Being Helpful.”
The shows that are forbidden in our home (because they are like nails on the chalkboard to my husband and I) are “Barney” and “The Teletubbies.” Sorry to all you fans of Tinky Winky. 🙂 That baby in the sun just freaks me out!
My kids love watching Sesame Street and I love letting them watch it. My two-year-old especially loves Elmo. My four-year-old loves the whole show. My seven-year-old claims not to like Sesame Street anymore because it’s a “baby show” but I catch him sneaking a peak all the time anyway. I like Sesame Street because it’s educational, it shows diversity and it is fun. I love that most of the characters that are on the show were on the show back when I was a kid and watched it. It’s fun to tell my kids how things were back when I used to watch it, like how nobody, except Big Bird, knew about Snuffleupagus and everyone thought he was just Big Bird’s imaginary friend. It’s fun to find old Sesame Street clips on YouTube and watch them with my kids. My kids especially love the DVD “What’s the Name of That Song?” with the Sesame Street characters. Sesame Street is our family’s favorite children’s show.
On a lighter note, I wanted to add that my girls love Veggietales and 3-2-1 Penguins (made by the same people as Veggietales) a lot- especially my youngest.
OK, my previous comment keeps disappearing…
Suffice it to say, beware if you’re going to watch Noggin.
We had a close call the other day when it was left on by accident….I came in to turn off the TV and thankfully the kids were out of the room. What I saw was horrible…without getting graphic, it showed two teen girls…(yes, it’s what you think…)
I know God was protecting my little ones from seeing this…so please, please if you’re going to watch Noggin, make sure there is no chance it can be seen in the afternoon.
It’s bad enough when scenes like this are on TV, but to show them on a kid’s station make me furious!
Sorry…since this was so recent, I felt I had to warn others!
Blessings!
My husband bought the DVD “Sesame Street Old School” for *me* for Christmas, but I’ve had to relinquish ownership to my three year old. You just can’t beat the original Sesame Street, and it’s something I actually love to watch with them instead of just tolerating it.
I always found Bob the Builder to be a favourite with our preschool boys, and of course Thomas the Tank Engine. We have a fair number of Wiggles DVDs that are still in regular rotation, too.
Wow! I can’t believe no on mentioned MR ROGERS! He is my all time favorite. His programs are quiet, educational, realistic and model excellent behavior and attitudes.
My children enjoy his factory tours and the Neighborhood of Make Believe, especially. There’s just no animated, talking animals who can compare to this wise, gentle man.
And, I can sit and watch it with them very happily and not walk away with some inane tune stuck in my head! =)
Blessings!
Here are the shows that are/were my kids favorites through the preschool years.
Magic Schoolbus: science, adventure
Between the Lions: highly engaging reading lessons
Reading Rainbow: reading, some science, adventure. Children’s books mixed with real-world documentary.
Peep and The Big Wide World: science
Harold and the Purple Crayon: imagination, adventure. Calming to watch, we enjoyed the books too.
Max and Ruby: sibling relationships, life lessons. Toddler Max always gets in to mischieve, older sister Ruby often plays the babysitter. Based on the Rosemary Wells characters.
Cyberchase: discrete mathmatics. Technically for 8-10 year olds but this has been my preschooler John’s favorite show since I introduced it to him more than a year ago.
Charlie and Lola: life lessons, sibling relationships.
Veggie Tales: humorous presentation of christian-based morality. I love listening to my kids giggle as they watch this.
Hope this helps!
Here in Europe we get Sky from the UK, and the BBC equivalent of PBS has the cutest shows! I don’t know if any of them are available on BBC America or on DVD, unfortunately. Balamory is my favorite, set in a colorful town in Scotland. I think I’ve seen it on DVD. Big Cook, Little Cook is a cooking show for preschoolers. Come Outside is the adventures of a grandmotherly lady who pilots her small plane and brings her mischievious dog along.
One I haven’t seen mentioned here is one of my daughter’s favorites: Lazytown. It’s a mixture of human actors and puppets, and its theme is healthy living…exercise, eating well, friendship, working hard, even one on getting enough sleep. The irony of watching a TV show about how you should stop watching TV and play outside amuses me, but it is still a worthwhile message and a highly entertaining, fast-paced show.
What about Little Einsteins?
Sarah loves The Backyardigans and jack’s Big Music SHow. We are more than happy to let her watch them because the show is just right for her age (3 years old).
The Backyardigans teach kids about imagination and has shows which are based on morals (no lying, be good to your friends, etcetera.)
Jack’s Big Music SHow is pretty much that-a music show. It has puppets and people that interact with each other and have music clips in between. With watching this show, she’s learned to dance and appreciate all kinds of music.
last but not least, she is allowed to watch old reruns of The Lawrence Welk SHow. We put it on for a joke one night “knowing” that she would hate it like we did as kids—WRONG! She loves it. She can be in the worst of toddler moods but when this comes on, she’s a totally different kid. We still don’t like it but what you won’t do for your kids!
Oh, I can’t believe I forgot Little Einsteins. 🙂
Ok, I definately have to second the Leap Frog letter factory!! Both of my boys know all of the letters and sounds, just from watching that dvd. One of my friends gave it to us after it did the same for both of their kids, and their friends’ kids as well!
We are also really big fans of BOZ. VERY good values and the kids just love his songs….you can find it at the Christian bookstore.
We love veggietales as well…they also have a line of dvd’s called “Larryboy” which is a superhero version of one of the characters-my boys love it.
Good luck!
Charity
We watch very little TV and are very picky about what we do watch. Mostly DVDs. Other than that mostly just PBS. Our kids don’t watch commercials at all.
Couple of favorite shows….
Miffy – great for math, counting, adding, subtracting, sets. Very cute and not really fast moving graphics. My 21 month old loves it.
Zaboomafoo – great for learning about and respecting animals.
Mr. Rogers is an old favorite…my kids especially like the parts where he visits factories and we see how things are made.
Winnie The Pooh – Lots of these on DVD…both educational and just plain cute stories….The Blustery Day.
Leapfrog – Talking Letter Factory….love this one, teaches the sounds the letters make, though just the hard sounds for letters like “c” and “g”…..”c” as in cold.
Couple of movies we really liked….
Rolie Polie Olie and the Baby Bots…..very nice story about the Polies adopting 2 baby bots…..I really like the way they explained about the baby bots staying in the mother ship (lots of babies waiting for families) while waiting for a family to love them. Lots more to it than that, but not too much time to type right now.
The Little Einstein’s Great Big Huge Adventure…geography and music good for several age groups I think.
The Blue Planet Series seems to be good, we’ve only seen a couple so far….these are for older kids though (our 6,7 and 9 year old love them), our 21 month old watches bits here and there as he plays through the living room.
There is probably more I could type, but I’m not at my usual key board and the going is slow….and even more importantly, it’s time for our night time “ba ba” and rock and cuddle in the big rocking chair.
Mom to 5, including 3 from Korea and 1 from Ethiopia
Goodness, I feel so old. My kids watched Sesame Street (which I still love to watch with any foster babies), and I have to admit, Barney – that big doofy loving safe friendly innocent show. I don’t care what you say, Barney was a good friend to my preschoolers. To this day? I can be captivated by any Winnie The Pooh video and remember so vividly snuggling my babies on my lap and at my breast while watching a tender friendly tale of Silly Ol’ Bear and dreary Eyeore and the ever proper Christopher Robin, not too mention the wonderful bouncy flouncy trouncy Tigger and timid little Piglet.
BOZ is a hit with our four-year-old. During her recent hospital stay following surgery, we had our first chance to meet the big green bear next door. Fun days. BOZ is now her favorite (when she gets to watch TV).
Our two year olds love Little Einsteins but their most favorite is not on television. It is “Boz the Bear”. There are only four or five DVD’s out but you can buy them on Amazon or at any Christian bookstore. Boz was created by one of the same guys who created Barney (they don’t like Barney) but Boz is all about how God created the rainbows, colors, numbers etc. It is very Christ centered and the girls love his songs and it is completely animated. It teaches you how to use your imagination and they really push reading books. We love Boz in our house!
We turned off our TV this month and I think it’s staying off until they’re in college.
We read together, play games, sing, make up dancemoves — tell me about a video better than that?
whoops, gave you the wrong website address. This one is the right one.
We only do videos as we don’t have any TV reception (no cable, can’t even get PBS). My son is very easily scared by kid vidoes, he’s terrified of Veggie Tales even at almost 4 yrs old. But he loves nature videos and can happily watch a TRex hunting and eating other dinosaurs or a shark video. I finally figured out he doesn’t like anything talking or acting human that isn’t supposed to…like a talking vegetable. It took me awhile as a parent to just let him be himself and choose what he wanted to see instead of what I thought was a good “kid” thing. Frankly, I love Veggie Tales and wanted the excuse to watch them. 🙂
He loved Pooh for awhile and that’s all he would want to watch. Now he loves Diego, which I didn’t see anyone else mention. He loves animals and each episode centers on a different animal. While a little formulaic to watch as an adult, it’s great for preschoolers. They are interactive and completely safe as far as content. And semi-educational…I certainly never knew as much about chinchillas, maned wolfs and anacondas pre-Diego. 🙂
My boy absolutely love the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! Also, he likes Handy Manny, and the Little Einsteins 🙂
All 3 of my boys love Sesame Street! We watch it every day and have had several Sesame Street birthday parties as a result. My middle son had 2 Elmo parties in a row! (They even had a couple of shows about adoption!)
We don’t have cable, so PBS is our favorite. No commercials and educational.
We also love Between the Lions, as a reading teacher myself I find some of the things inaccurate, but the kids get a lot from it and it encourages them to learn more.
without a doubt, my son’s favorite “kids show” is Arthur. He loves Arthur. We also have about a million Arthur books, and when we go to the library, we always get Arthur books. Arthur is on here at 4pm and he gets to watch it most days.
We love Little Einsteins in my house. Between the music, that my daughter now reconizes when we are in stores. She heard a piece from Bach last week on the show, and then heard it in Macy’s this weekend and was so excited. She also loves learning about the art, and asked me to find one of Monet’s water lily prints for her room! What 5 year old does that!
I love it because it teaches her more about sharing, doing things for other, working hard and going above adversity.
Kipper was such a rare and wonderful, beautifully gentle show that I weep at the thought that we own every one of the dvds and there are, apparently, no more forthcoming. It used to show on Nickelodeon, but alas, no more. If it still shows anywhere in Britain, I may be tempted to move there.
Also in the “makes my children speak with British accents after watching” category, as well as the rare and gentle category, is Charlie and Lola. This show features two siblings who actually ~~get along~~! Yes! They are kind to one another and have fun with each other! And they are funny (very important)! So we love that here. Even my teens love it.
Lastly, I have to put in my bid for Little Einsteins (not Baby Einstein, which I have no personal experience with). The show manages to pack in so much information and culture without being overbearing, while remaining fun and sometimes silly. I don’t know that my toddlers will know the difference between a Kandinsky and a Monet because of it, but I like to think it plants the seeds of true art appreciation, and who knows what will bloom in the future because of that?
I don’t let my kids watch anything that has the potential of driving me insane so that quickly eliminates Barney, Teletubies and Sesame Street. We have checked out many DVDs from our library: National Geographic, Magic School bus, and Nature series to name a few. My 2 and 4 year old (I’m reluctant to admit) are fans of Sponge Bob, and other such trifle fare, but thanks to neat settings on the DVD’s, they always watch it in either French or Spanish. So far they haven’t complained. I don’t feel quite as guilty sitting the little ones in front of a video, while I try to get some homeschooling done with the older ones, if they are getting a language lesson in the process. That foreign language option transforms other-wise brain-dead shows into a language immersion program! 🙂
For sheer cuteness and creativity, you can’t beat Pingu! I find it as entertaining as my 2 yr. old.
For pre-schoolers learning letter sounds, I’ll second (or third, or whatever) Leap Frog’s “Talking Letter Factory”. Fun and effective! I could also “ditto” several of the other shows I caught when scanning down the comments, such as Backyardigans (it really does have a remarkably wide age appeal, and those characters sure have some dance moves goin’ on!), Blues Clues, Little Bear, Franklin and Signing Time (which we’ve just gotten recently).
I haven’t seen PBS’s “Caillou” mentioned. My kids adore it. Simple, sweet. (The only Caillou I haven’t liked was a video about family that attempted to incorporate an adoption theme and did so badly, in my opinion.) Most appealing to the 2 – 6 crowd, but my older boys don’t mind it somehow.
A few others I didn’t see that I really like for ages 4 – 12 or so:
–We have 2 Kingdom Under the Sea DVD’s that are great, with truly excellent, colorful animation, and really well-done spiritual message. “The Red Tide” is the one I like most. It’s adapted from the Noahic flood story, with strong themes of redemption, compassion and faith.
— My kids like “The Safe Side: Hot tips to keep cool kids safe with people they don’t know and kinda know,” one of a couple of videos produced by John Walsh and the lady who created Baby Einstein, which aims to present this potentially scary topic effectively in a silly, fun, non-scary way. It’s the kind of silliness that’s too over the top for an adult to take to many times in a row, but appeals to kids.
— How about good old School House Rock?
{I don’t know what category to put Dora in… My 2 y.o. is so completely obsessed with Dora that I almost can’t take it anymore! She has, on countless occasions, actually told people that her name is Dora or even Dora Princess! She doesn’t even have to watch the show to feed the obsession, of course: In a store, you cannot even go into the hardware department to find Dora Relief. There she is! Good show, but Dora’s voice is annoying and this Mama’s had enough!}
Oh, rats. I just made a comment and don’t see it. Is your spam filter hungry again?
Well, that made it through. Maybe the other’s in your junk folder or something…
Dang! I’ve posted 3x and it never shows up. I see others are having the same problem. Grrr…
Oh sure! THAT works!!! :oP
ah darn it… i to have posted multiple times… then it said that a duplicate post was detected… but nothing is appearing… and now my long post is lost…sigh… maybe it ended up in your spam box
We also like The Letter Factory, Veggie Tales, and Between the Lions. I’ll add to that Wishbone and Barney. I know, I know. The GOOD thing about Barney is it has a definite beginning, middle, and end~it’s not a jump around to sooo many different subjects so fast kinda show. (((((HUGS))))) sandi
I forgot to also share that with my children, their natural bent kept them going in different directions with videos. My first son LOVED a Moody Science video with butterflies we found at the thrift store. My second son enjoyed picking out the fix-it-yourself videos from the library! You know~how to lay a roof, how to lay a floor, plumbing, etc. He also liked a series of construction vids made for kids, but I can’t remember the name…. (((((HUGS))))) sandi
Wonderpets is all princess is allowed to watch