What Are Your Children Watching?

Letting your kids watch TV is a pretty dicey thing anymore; in fact, I remember when Madison was born two years ago, and I made the gilded promise: "We're not going to let her watch any TV ever; it's only going to be classical music and Shakespearean plays for my little girl!"

Of course, as an English major, I know that most of our soap operas today owe their raunchiness to Shakespeare, but anyway it becomes inevitable - you're spending your first weekend home with the little one while wifey is working, and if she's active like mine is, you think to yourself, "Wow, if I could just put her in the bouncy seat in front of the TV so I can have ten minutes of peace and choke some lunch down, I'd be in heaven!"

So it's begun, your kid is watching TV. Besides - and I don't want to sound like a defeatist - but in this day and age, your kids are GOING to encounter the grand idiot box, it's inevitable. The most important things are limiting and restricting that time, as well as monitoring what gets pumped into your kid's brain. Believe it or not, there are some pretty good shows out there, and being an English major and teacher, I've been able to compile some shows that are actually pretty good for language acquisition.

NOTE TO SELF: speaking of language acquisition, that's the time in your child's life when you need to stop watching the Simpsons, as much as you may love them (a rather guilty pleasure of mine). Your son or daughter repeating Micky Mouse or Goofy is no problem; them repeating either Homer or Bart is.

Anyway, let's look at some good and bad shows, and I'll actually point out some particulars for each one. Also, keep in mind that I'm basing the value of these shows directly on the opinion of my very bright and precocious two year old, who has far better taste than I do.

The DoodleBops. Ack. Not evil...I suppose...but this is an example of what I call a "flash/bang" kids show. Though it usually has some pithy, insignificant message about being good or doing the right thing, this show is all about flash, bang, dance numbers, and just plain goofiness. Even though there is a lot of singing...which in a kid's show, is good....it's not the kind of singing your kids are going to pick much up from.

Now The Wiggles are only slightly less silly than The Doodlebops, but the show itself has a lot more to offer. I actually went to their website, and learned that most of the core group actually majored in Early Childhood Development, so that smacks of a little more planning and precise plotting. This show is full of music, and I'd call it good music because the lyrics are simple and repeat precise vocabulary, making it easy for kids to pick up. Plus, a lot of their songs and skits revolve around "it's cool to go to the doctor", or "fruit salad; yummy yummy", or how it's important to eat your veggies, so there's some good subtexts there. One thing I was really impressed by this show was its holiday messages and Biblical references. They've done numerous songs about Noah's Ark, did all the traditional, Biblical Christmas hymns during Christmas, and some good Easter stuff that had no Easter Bunny in sight. It was surprising to see this aired on secular TV; Disney no less, so that was a big plus in its favor.

Okay, all joking aside, avoid the Teli-Tubbies like the plague. Not only is the language here terrible...the only discernible English words are "Uh, Oh" and "Bye-Bye", there's something oddly addicting about the show to kids that unsettles me. Madison has only watched it a handful of times, and it's always unnerved me the way she got unhinged when it went off.

Besides, that "sun baby" freaks me out.

Thomas the Train is an excellent show for a variety of reasons. First off, they've resisted the temptation to go digital and animated, and they are a fully functional, live action model show. I think it's good for kids to see things that AREN'T computer generated. Secondly, there's a lot of great singing; good, easily recognizable lyrics backed by GOOD music for kids: pianos, trumpets, instruments like that. Plus, it's very story oriented - which you're going to find plays a huge part in the "good shows". Unlike Tele-Tubbies, The DoodleBops, and even sometimes The Wiggles, Thomas has a story, plot oriented narrative with characterization, motivation, and resolution. Good stuff.

Little Einsteins are great, and one of my daughter's favorite shows. This show springboards off the popular VCR/DVD series Baby Einsteins, which I highly recommend as well, because of the eclectic combination of classical music, literature, and art. Honestly, my daughter stared popping out her first words after she watched the BE series consistently, and I'd say 40% of her cognitive sentence development has come from LE. Good narrative format, classical music, and very interactive as well.

NOTE: BE is supposed to be somewhat of teaching tool; in other words one video is all about the orchestra, so as the instruments pop up, you sit and name them for your child, and so on with their other videos. It's most effective this way.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is another one of my daughter's favorites; she's absolutely glued to this one most of the time, and again - very good narrative story format, they do a lot with letters and numbers and counting, and very interactive as well. It has a lot of good visual cues, asks kids to make cognitive, critical decisions - fitting shapes into the correct holes, that sort of thing. Later on in the day, Madison will repeat the episode and it's question, along with Mickey's most used question when SHE's trying to find something: "Where can it be?"

Charlie and Lola is really great too, although it's a little higher-end. A year ago, my daughter cared nothing for Charlie and Lola, now she's really starting to get into it. I give it high marks for - once again, a structured, ordered narrative format - and it does some good stuff with brother/sister relationships. And hey, it must be smart, because the whole thing is done in British, and British accents just sound so cultured and sophisticated. Makes me think of John Cleese.

Between the Lions is a great show. Madison was originally attracted to it because of all the words floating around the screen, but as she got more active she pulled away from it, but that's because this show is really for toddlers and up. Anyway, how can you give a show about Lions owning a library, that has vowels, syllables, and Sir Gwaine's Word of the Day bad marks?

Wonder Pets is a new show my daughter recently picked up that she ADORES. The pets themselves are a little "over-cute" in a slightly nauseating way, however, it does harp continually on sharing, teamwork, being kind to others, and again has that story element. Plus, like Little Einsteins, there's a lot of learning going on: one episode, their journey takes them to Paris and they see the Eiffel Tower, another episode takes them to the Sahara Desert, and they learn about new animals every time because they have to rescue a different animal in every show.

Veggi-Tales is okay - good animation, good morals, obviously Christian backing - but a little too high end for my daughter right yet, she doesn't quite "get it" yet.

Johnny and the Sprites is okay. Sorta a "flash bang" show set to showtune singing. I'm not a big fan, nor is Madison. No real reason why, Johnny just strikes me as a guy doing a kid's show until he gets his big Broadway break.

Go Baby - the little baby in the lower left-hand corner - is done by the same guy (center)who does Wonder Pets - Josh Selig. It's not a full-length show, but it's very cute, and some good learning there too. Madison loves it.

Handy Manny is another one my daughter has come to enjoy, after being only lukewarm on it at first. I give it high marks for good singing, more narrative format, and it never hurts to present kids with early Spanish, and this show does a lot of that. Of course, it's weird to think that the guy who does Handy's voice also played Fez on That 70's Show, but then again, I never realized that Clifford the Big Red Dog, (another good show), was voiced by John Ritter, or that Bob the Builder s voiced by Whose Line Is It Anyway comedian Greg Proops.

Anyway, I got distracted. Are there any good shows left that Madison and I would recommend?

Curious George has been really good, very loyal to the classic books, and she loves the monkey, because gosh darnnit - he's just cute! The only beef I have to pick with this show is they've gone and named the "Man in the Yellow Hat", (Jim, I think), which I think they just should've left alone. Oh well.

On a parting note, I should mention that I've been reading to Madison since she was four weeks old - old, classic poetry when she was too young to notice, and then when she started getting old enough, appropriate books. We've saturated the kid with books, poems, storyboards, so it shouldn't be imparted by this that TV will teach your kids all the words they need to know. These are just some recommended shows that have strong literary foundations.

Anyway, what do your kids like to watch?