Something else that has come along with her development spurt are new shows. My girl has always liked certain shows, but gets bored with the same episodes and even same shows after a while. She likes new, different and varieties.
So when she was home sick for two weeks and we watched a lot of TV (because she was too sick to do much else for a lot of that time), she got very bored with the same old shows. She had seen the Dora and Diego episodes that were On Demand way too many times. She was feverish and listless and BORED.
One afternoon, I realized that I had to find her some new shows to spark her interest and keep her entertained while she couldn't run around. It occurred to me that her recent development meant that she was probably ready for some shows at the next level. Remembering that I'd heard good things about the PBS shows, I checked what was playing on that channel.
And welcome to our world, Word Girl!
It's got language and vocabulary! It's got a female a superhero! It's got bad guys and a monkey sidekick! It's got fights (that aren't too violent) and witty humor! It's a win for everyone who
This week's question of the week is:
What shows are your kids watching these days? Or what shows to plan to move to when they are ready for the next level?
We've just traded our nightly routine of Dora and Diego for Super Why and Word Girl. Instead of WonderPets, we watch Animal Mechanicals (on The Hub). Rarely do we watch a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when we could watch Sid the Science Kid.
What about in your house? Do your children become bored with the same old shows? Do they watch shows that you enjoy too? And any good recommendations for my daughter?
10 comments:
We've graduated from typical preschooler tv to old shows and movies a while back. Lost in Space, Errol Flynn films, the classics of Harryhousen, and Superman. He. Loves. Them. THe stories are more complex than Dora and Max & Ruby (but not by a whole lot sometimes) and he does love a scary bad monster (that's not *THAT* scary).
We love Dinosaur Train (PBS) and Backyardigans. Dinosaur Train is great for nerd families like ours, plus you get the fun of hearing your preschooler pronounce "Quetzalcoatlus" and correctly use the word "hypothesis." Backyardigans is just plain fun and super clever.
I was going to suggest Super Why. My emerging reader loves Between The Lions, too.
Both my kids love Caillou. At 5, my little guy, who's fascinated by how stuff works, has just gotten into How It's Made. Which makes mama very happy because I could watch those all day.
Oh, and there's The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That, which I confess to not having watched with them enough to know whether I recommend it. And we love Sid.
Hmm. On Demand, I'd give Little Bear a try. And Frances. I think I love them more than the kids.
We try to do some not-specifically-kids stuff sometimes, too. My little boy is obsessed with cars (and his big sister likes them too) so they like to watch Pass Time (it's a game show on the Speed channel). Modern Marvels has some interesting stuff sometimes (there was Monster Trucks episode On Demand for a while). And we TiVo gymnastics meets for the Munchkin.
Good grief, it sounds like we watch TV all day. Totally not. But if kid TV is to not drive the parents bonkers, too much repetition is key.
Noah (6)is into documentaries right now. Particularly if they are about dinosaurs. We are on the 3rd run of Walking with Dinosaurs which is a wonderful BBC production. He also enjoyed Life of Mammals and Life in the Freezer two other BBC docos.
He is finally getting bored (thank Christ!!) with the old Thomas and Bob, but that is what Zoe is into right now. They are both pretty happt to watch all the Thomas's they don't have on YouTube, which is something I take full advantage of. Chuggington is still a hit with the both of them, although I personally find those kids voices particularly annoying.
I do need some other programs for boys that are not too violent or manga-ish, but find there isn't a lot out there that isn't
I recently caved and let Pumpkin start watchin Ni Hao, Kai Lan. I have nothing against it, really, but it isn't great. They don't do much Chinese, and the stories are sort of silly. But she's loving it.
We have also started watching Jack's Big Music Show. Now THAT one, I love. It introduces all sorts of music, and is just fun.
We've seen some Sid the Science Kid, and I might bring that in when she gets bored with Kai Lan. I like Super Why, too, but Pumpkin hasn't really taken to it. Which is weird, since she is constantly having me spell words for her to read.
We don't watch much TV with Bear. He gets to listen to Pandora on the ipad and play about 10 minutes worth of games at night. (Plus more in the morning while I'm getting ready for work.)
On weekends he has been watching the DVD that comes with the international Sesame Street cd and some of the Scholastic videos. We usually do 20 minutes on weekends.
Next up is to show him DVRed baseball to translate the idea of baseball from books into reality!
Yes, we're uptight parents. How did you know???
I once in a while feel a twinge that he has no idea about Thomas videos or that Dora has a tv show. But I usually get over it.
Charisse says:
Mouse is on a Mythbusters kick - that might be a little aggressive for Pumpkin, but it's really fun to watch something actually *with* her that I enjoy! She also loves So You Think You Can Dance and Project Runway (we Tivo and skip all commercials). We also have old Muppet Show episodes on DVD, and Schoolhouse Rock too.
Cartoons, she likes Dinosaur Train, Sid The Science Kid, and Olivia. She's pretty much over SuperWhy but I have great pictures of her at 4 watching it all dressed up as WonderRed. I am NOT going to be adding iCarly to the mix, especially since I read Cinderella Ate My Daughter last week.
DS doesn't really watch TV shows but he loves movies. Right now "Coraline" is one of his favorites - it is actually pretty sad and dark in certain parts, but the kid loves it.
Oh, my boys love Word Girl and Super Why. They also like Word World ("Let's Build a Word!"). And anything hosted/narrated by David Attenborogh. They are science geeks.
Tate discovered Dino Dan at a friend's house. He's back into a dinosaur love fest. Dino Dan is a live action show and the kids are bigger but so far there isn't any of that tweener meanness that I can tell. Just a kid who sees dinosaurs and like to learn about them. Little Bear is back in the rotation (yay!) but he's cooling from the Backyardigans fever he was in.
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