Children’s programming and travel
I just realized that I know almost zero about what the good movies and tv shows are for kids these days. I feel mildly in favor of Dora the Explorer because I think it’s good for kids to learn foreign languages, but other than that, I have no opinions on any of those shows. I haven’t even seen hardly any of those Pixar-type movies, though I’ve heard good things about The Incredibles and Ratatouille.
Is there anything particularly smart for kids on TV these days? Is Sesame Street still good? I’m concerned that they jumped the shark when they made Snuffleupagus visible to everyone.
—
ALSO: I’m gunning for one more mini-trip. We were kicking around the idea of Maui, but that’s awfully expensive and far away, and I don’t want to use tons of vacation right now because I’d rather save it for post-baby. Right now my best idea is Montreal (or Montréal if you want to get fussy about it. Or is it a grave accent? The acute looks right. My French is dismal.).
I’ve never been there, but it looks like a cool city, almost like leaving the continent but with reasonably short flights and an exchange rate that won’t make me keel over and die. Anybody been there? Any tips or recommended sights? We’d probably just go for a long weekend in October some time. I’d like to do grownup things, like museums and non-kid-friendly restaurants.
My daughter watches mostly “Sesame Street” and shows from the Baby Einstein series. It’ll probably be awhile before your little one is ready to watch a feature-length anything, so you should have plenty of time to screen that sort of thing.
I’ve never been to Montreal, but I’ve heard it’s lovely. My in-laws lived there for awhile in the ’70s.
I have found that most of what is on the Disney channel is good. Daphne went through a horrible Wiggles phase for awhile, but soon got over it. Don’t even try to watch the Doodlebops. Your brain will hurt. Charlie and Lola are pretty good. You can look them up. Daphne also loved all the the Baby Einstein series. I don’t think that it makes kids smarter, but it did help her appreciate music. We also really like Little Einsteins.
Daphne did not start watching Sesame Street until she was older. I would avoid anything on Nick Jr. Most of it is really annoying. The secret to Dora is that she screams her songs and the whole map song will get stuck in your head forever.
Start collecting the Pixar movies now. They are the best anyone has to offer. Most of the princess stuff is way to scary for little kids. Although, Daphne did watch Nemo a lot because she was really attracted to the color blue.
What I really miss is Mr. Rogers. He was so soothing and nice. All the shows now are really splashy. I miss the simplicity he offered.
Hope that helps. And please don’t think we are TV junkies. But, there are times when it is necessary to turn on the babysitter so you can cook dinner or whatever.
I second Holly’s opinion (of course!); Dora screams all the time. IT”S LIKE READING SOMETHING WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS: VERY TIRING.
The Einsteins stuff (Baby or Little) are the best thing ever IMO. And Sesame Street is still good.
All Zeke watches is “signing Time” and he knows a LOT of signs now. He totally loves it, although my husband and I are not quite sure why he loves it SO much. I was a Sesame Street kid, but don’t like it as much now (not just because I am an adult). I don’t like that Elmo talks in the third person and that Baby Bear has a lisp. I’d rather them all just talk normal so Zeke doesn’t think that he should talk in the third person with a lisp. I’ve put SS on for him a few times, but he just isn’t interested yet. We don’t really have any kids movies. I am trying to avoid that.
[…] Transformers Contact the Webmaster Link to Article ratatouille Children’s programming and travel » Posted at Aprille Clarke on Monday, August 06, 2007 I just realized that I know almost zero about what the good movies and tv shows are for kids these days … and Ratatouille. Is there anything particularly smart for kids on TV these days? Is Sesame Street still good View Original Article » […]
A second for Baby and Little Einsteins, especially Baby. Saved our stressed out butts because X would just sit in his bouncy seat and watch for up to an hour or more. Even now, at 2+, Baby Galileo is his most requested video.
And under least expected: Good Eats. Something about Alton Brown goes well with little ones.
As far as teaching another language, we bought Alexander the Muzzy DVDs (for French – he’s got stepsiblings in Nice), and he’s so crazy about Muzzy that his dads no longer let him watch it before school, since he can barely be torn away. How well they actually teach the language I can’t say. I second Good Eats – I started (didn’t get far) developing a children’s curriculum to go along with some of the episodes for one of my employers. There’s a lot of potential, though.
We let Ava watch the Planet Earth DVDs, which are amazing. At least up until the wolf hunts down and kills the baby caribou. She really likes Caillou, which seems to be some Canadian animated show. Very low-impact. But she doesn’t watch any TV programming.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12560124
Apparently Baby Einstein videos actually make babies dumber. The man who did this study says, specifically, that American Idol would be better for teaching babies language skills than these videos. It actually makes sense when you see his reasoning.
For the record, I recommend against American Idol at any age.
Early on, we read the American Academy of Pediatrics information that recommended NO television/movie viewing (including Baby Einstein stuff, which is marketed for babies) before the age of two. Apparently, the flashing images can inhibit nerve-synapse development. We just recently started letting Ava watch the Planet Earth DVDs and a few episodes of Caillou, a Candian cartoon that was on PBS. I know we sound like hard-core parents, but I think she hasn’t missed out on anything by not watching all the Disney/kid-movie crap.