Kids TV. Some of you must watch it, lets rate it... - Page 2

[rocketmom]

yammer too funny. I have found it odd that he lives alone etc...

[RasJane]

Yammer---:LOL
I think it says something the way Bob has named his vehicles.

We don't have cable (no PBS either) so ds watches videos. He is allowed one while I shower and one while I make dinner if he doesn't want to help--or if it is a dinner he can't help with. He actually really likes Caillou and Mr. Rogers. I have learned to like Caillou because he is really cautious and slow-to-warm like ds. So when we do something new that Caillou has tried I remind him of Caillou's experience. He warms up a lot quicker. Caillou got my son on x-country skis!!
But, as much as I even like having an occasional video to watch while cuddling with dh, I think I might just toss the boob tube out when we move next month.

[TheMoMo]

Ds is 3 1/2 and his favorites are 'Blues Clues' and 'Maggie & the Ferocious Beast', both of which I like a lot too. Personally, I also really like 'Kipper'...I think it's charming, but ds doesn't really care for it, so I've been known to watch it alone

Other than Blue and Maggie he doesn't watch much TV...he has a few favorite videos (Muppets and animal shows) that he watches occasionally.

Maureen

[Mamax3]

When our set is on it is on PBS, HBO family, Disney, or TLC and sometimes Animal Planet.

Our favorite shows are Sesame Street, Sagwa, Dragon Tales, Kindergarten (HBO family, this one is my fav), Out of the Box (I hate the song at the end).

My friends will say "did you see such and such on t.v. the other day" and I say "no, I was watching Sesame Street".

[ladylee]

We own these tapes of children's shows (which means they have my stamp of approval

Kipper--so simple, so sweet and therefore wonderful!
Go Exercise with the Teletubbies-for the scenes of the British football team boggling "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." I love that.
Wiggles--we're big fans--great, silly fun & great for body awareness. She and I dance around when it's too hot to play outside. Especially great is "Wiggly Wiggly World"--Tim Finn formerly of Crowded House & Split Enz does a song, and there's a beautiful song called "Taba Naba" by Christine Anu that we love ...

We barely ever watch TV--but Zooboomafoo is great, isn't it? And I've seen Dora the Explorer & was impressed.

[merpk]

lilyka, I'm with you about "Arthur" and the meanness. Which is a shame, because the show has good points. But we don't want them watching it anymore because of the mean-spiritedness of a lot of the characters.

We've stopped putting on NickJr shows in the house, for the most part, though I did like "Blue's Clues," "Little Bill" and "Little Bear." Don't like the commercials in the house. We've watched some of "BC" again, though, since the new guy started ("Joe") because we watched the first one that they showed at night and the kids really like him. (He is kinda cute ... )

"Zaboomafoo" is a favorite, and after dinner DH & the kids curl up on the couch for "Wild Discovery," which while not a kids show specifically, is a lot of fun.

My kids don't love "Barney," but I don't understand how so many folks are so anti. He's purple, he's happy, and he's unconditionally loving and accepting. How bad can that be?

"Between the Lions" and "Reading Rainbow" are the last two regulars in the house.

On a slight off-topic note, re "Reading Rainbow," DS#1(4yo) recently has been interested in "Star Trek," which we sort of let him see (with supervision, and a finger on the fast-forward button). So he recognized LeVar Burton ("Geordi" on ST:TNG) from "RR", and said to me, "Is that LeVar?" He was fascinated about LeVar Burton seemingly on a spaceship and then how does he do the "RR" shows and why are people calling him another name and why does he have that thing on is eyes but he doesn't wear glasses on "RR". It's been a great lesson for him in the reality and unreality of the media ... which we all tell our kids about but I don't know if they really get it. He's getting it now.

- Amy

[merpk]

Oh, yeah, how could I, I forgot about "Cyberchase," DS#1(4yo)'s current favorite. Forget favorite; it's all he talks about this week. Since he started watching that show, he's displayed all the behaviors that make us question whether or not we should even have a TV: whining about watching anything else, constantly singing the theme song, and not wanting to leave the house for fear he'll miss the next one, which is the most disturbing.

Anyway, it's real thick with the math, which is good, but can be very dark, which is bad. But a good show generally.

- Amy

[mamaduck]

Only PBS or approved videos. I can't stand to have them watch commercials.

My oldest likes CyberChase the best now. A year ago it was Mr. Roger's (mainly for the factory tours) and Dragontales. A year before that it was Zaboomafoom.

Dh lets him watch Scooby Doo videos and the Star Wars movies, both of which he loves passionately. I suppose it is good for them to bond over something that is on both their levels at the same time!

My little one likes Sesame Street and Little Bear videos. The one longer length movie he is passionate about is Shrek. His Daddy also appreciates that one a great deal.

It seems like pretty much the only time I watch TV myself is when there is laundry to fold.

[GruppieGirl]

My dd and I love to watch Bear in the Big Blue House (I grew up on Jim Hensen's Muppet Show), Out of the Box and Trading Spaces. Ok, the last one is more for me, but my dd just loves the music.

Recently my dd started asking to watch Barney. I have NO idea where she got this from because Barney and his Stepford children tend to scare me. Is this the first bad habit she picked up on the "streets?"

[youngnhappymamma]

my ds's ages 3 3/4 and 2 like to watch just about anything I would let them! aGH!! But we really only watch a hanful of shows on tv...mostly PBS and Disney and Animal Planet and TLC and HGTV. No nick jr because of all the evil commercials. Their favorites are Out of the Box, Stanley, Between the Lions, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Steve Corwin, The Croc Hunter (their abosolute fave!!!), Trading Spaces (my absolute fave!!!), Hometime, and Suprise Gardner. We watch on average 2 hours of tv a day (although we are having more and more days where it is less and sometimes even none!! Hurray!!) We also have a bunch of videos, their favorites being Veggie Tales, Blue's Clues, Maisey, and ANY dinosaur video (mostly documentary types from Discovery or PBS, but my favorite is Bonehead detectives from Discovery Kids).
I am so disapointed in PBS these days...more worldly and less educational than when I was young. We get two PBS stations and the shows are awful....Sagwa (my kids like) teaches nothing that I can tell, Caiou teaches kids to be whiney and they don't every have to say please and thank you and if you cry and whine enough you get what you want, Seasame Street isn't even as educational as it used to be...it's now just filled with Elmo talking ot his gold fish about junk!!!!! And what does Arthur teach that some cartoon on some other station doesn't? And what's with all those ad's? (ie this show was brought to you by Kix, or Chuck E Cheese, etc.....it's not even commercial free!) Our PBS doesn't even carry Reading Rainbow (except on saturadays, I think at some weird time) or Mr. Roger's.............I'm so disapointed!!

[ladylee]

And I forgot about The Rainbow Fish--not a television show to my knowledge--but one of our favorite videos...

[Goosefeather]

I'd say :

Magic School Bus
Kratts' Creatures and Zoboomafoo
Little Bear
Art Attack (a must !!)
Old Sesame Streets (really really dislike the new ones)
Popular Mechanics for Kids and Zoom


Don't like Caillou (soooo whiny and we have it both in french and english )

Personally, I'd like to see "The Electric Company" again, I have great memories of that show and another show that i can't remember the name of. It was on tv saturday mornings and had Vincent Price and a very funny witch .
Edited to say : "Found it ! It was The Hilarious House of Frightenstein!"

And what about Schoolhouse Rock ? I keep having the "Conjonction Junction" song in my head

[ladylee]

Conjunction junction, what's your function?

[Goosefeather]

:LOL:LOL:LOL:LOL:LOL:LOL:LOL:LOL:LOL

That also reminds me of "I'm an Amendment to be" in
The Simpsons... sooooo funny !

:LOL:LOL

[Jish]

Anyone else's kids like JayJay the Jet Plane? My four year old loves it, but I find it annoying. We have a couple JayJay books that are Christian based, but the show leaves that out.

My kids also like
*The Teletubbies
*Blues Clues (we all LOVE Joe!)
*Bob the Builder (Where did it go? We can't find it anymore)
*Oswald(?????)
*Dora the Explorer

The boys usually watch somewhere between 30 min to 1 1/2 hours a day. It all depends on how long it takes me (and the boys) to get ready and organized.

BTW, I also noticed the one sided sexual tension between Bob and Wendy. I get the feeling she is hoping for him to one day notice her. I have to laugh everytime she says "Oh, Bob" in that breathy voice.

[berryMO]

TV, good and bad

We only allow our kids to watch PBS and a few childrens movies that we get at the library. I find that if they watch more than about 1 hr at a time they get cranky and hyper a bad combination to get them to follow any directions.

I think a little TV of good quality has helped with language skills and learning new things. Even new ideas to add to their imagination world.

One bad thing that I have noticed with too much tv is they become dependent on being entertained and don't use their imagination.

I have been trying to ween my kids of tv by school age. This sounds a little mean but I let them watch the same set of shows every day and have not introduced new ones, hoping they will get board with them and we can just let the whole thing go gradually. It is working to some degree. They are now board with Barny.

[merpk]

ladylee, thank you for reminding me. We have "Kipper" tapes, too, and I love them. So sweet ... and the music/soundtrack is really sweet, too ...

If I can recommend a videotape series, a company called Vermont Storyworks makes videos about farms that are particularly special. One is called "Let's Go to the Farm," which is about an hour long, maybe 45 mins, and really wonderful. Doesn't talk down to the kids, and shows the workings of a dairy farm through the year. The other is "Animal Babies," about 30 mins, also beautiful. And the music soundtracks are lovely, too (a personal quirk of mine).

They also have a movie about camping, but we weren't too impressed with that one.

If anyone wants the phone number to contact them to order the videos, let me know, I can dig it out.

- Amy

[ladylee]

Thanks for that recommendation, Amy-that's definitely something Isabel would like. I'm going to run a search on it...