The Joy of Children’s TV Shows - It’s A Good Thing
I know. There is a lot of conversation about screen time. From warnings about too much television and screens for young children to video game, cell phone and computer use for older kids and teens, it’s a big topic and I guess there are many different ways to look at it. On the list of screen activities, television and young children is one I’ve heard people concerned about. Rather than being a source of active screen time as with a computer or video game, it’s passive. Or is it always?
If you think about it, when a parent takes a child to live theatre where they are watching a production( passively) for close to two hours and need to sit completely still, it’s considered exposing a child to culture but if the child watches the same amount of TV in their living room where they can sing and dance along and ask questions, it’s sometimes considered “less than.” Granted the experience itself of going to the theatre is different than being in the living room, but it still might be interesting to consider.
We’ve always had lots of outdoor time, have read countless books and played lots of games, but TV does hold a special place in our hearts here – especially nostalgic talk about early-ish childhood TV.
TV actually can be a joint, social experience. It can be the centre of jokes and conversations. It can be a jumping off point to talking about and doing all kinds of other things. Using TV to avoid interaction and parental responsibilities isn’t what I’m talking about but TV programming itself is full of the creativity, both practical and functional, that leads us to new ideas, conversations and activities. It has benefits.
Aw, the memories…. my kids are older so I’ll be dating myself with these titles.
They can be physical …
The dance routine G and I had down to a pat for The Wiggles “Romp Bomp a Stomp” which ended with us jumping off the couch in unison😁..
It seemed there were a lot of shows with musical aspects so the dance routines ( I wasn’t always part of them😉) and just spontaneous dancing and movement were almost inevitable.
They can link us to books and and stories …
What a great way to add to the experience of classical nursery rhymes, fairytales and folktales…
We loved these. I think we had 5 beautiful, classic Nursery Rhyme books and sometimes we’d get all five out at once and compare the different versions and illustrations. The kids loved it when a familiar nursery rhyme came on a show and many times, a fairytale or folktale would be introduced to us on a show and we’d either look to see if it was in one of our books or sometimes find it at the library. They memorized so many rhymes, poems and songs completely naturally.
We enjoyed watching Franklin or Berenstain Bears episodes and then reading the picture books.
Watching Stuart Little and The Wizard of Oz movies led to wanting to read the novels.
They can lead to lots of singing…
Oh my goodness, the songs and instruments that were used. We had two baskets of instruments out all the time filled with jingle bells, maracas, homemade shakers, rainsticks, wooden sticks, tambourines, horns, little guitars, recorders, djembe drum and harmonicas that would come out throughout. There is so much music in kids’ shows, either as a focus or in the background and such a range of styles.
So much science can be learned in a really unintentional way…
Hats off to Magic School Bus, Cat in the Hat, Peep’s Big Wide World, Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch, Curious George and our own Canadian Kratt Brothers 👍who brought us Kratt’s Creatures, Zoboomafoo ( our favourite ) and Wild Kratts. These shows absolutely fueled interest in science and nature.
So much *everything* can be learned in a really unintentional way…
Perspective and ingenuity from G’s much loved George Shrinks, where a boy who is extraordinarily smaller than everyone else finds incredible ways to navigate the world and live a normal life
Nature, gentleness and beauty from Little Bear
Friendship, family and conflict resolution from Franklin, Timothy Goes to School and always Berenstain Bears
Fantasy and travel to another reality on Harry’s Bucketful of Dinosaurs, Cat and the Hat and Magic School Bus
Shared experience and identity with family …
L had each of us linked to a Backyardigans character. (I think my character was Tasha, the bossy one😊).
We would all find humour in reciting some of the sections of the show. S could do a seriously good rendition of the Curious George theme song and had much of the Wizard of Oz movie down pat, accents and all.
A springboard for dramatic play, conversation or questions …
Racing to the kitchen after watching Land Before Time movies to get some Bran Flakes to spread around to be leaves or “tree stars” on the living room floor, G would enthusiastically get as many model herbivorous dinosaurs out to gather around to eat. Carnivorous dinosaurs would be positioned in the background, carefully stationed in different places, lying in wait.
L carefully set up tea party after tea party for her stuffed animals with her little dishes after watching the Backyardigansepisode about Tasha’s tea party.
Art projects and instructions …
Mr. Maker and others would inspire on interest in trying the project of the episode or possibly inspire getting out the materials for something new.
Critical thinking …
Bursts of critical thinking would happen in the car on the way here and there, based on themes and characters in dinosaur shows and movies. When G was 3 or 4, he suddenly announced from the backseat that shows and stories just weren’t fair to dinosaurs that were carnivores. They shouldn’t always be seen as the bad guy. It wasn’t their fault that they were always hunting. They had to hunt for survival. What choice did they have? Maybe other than sharp teeth, they didn’t even really have those mean faces. Palaeontologists couldn’t really know they had mean faces just from their skeletons, could they?
The Fox and the Hound movie led to him speculating about whether foxes were unfairly portrayed in books and movies. Were they really sneaky bad guys or just shy and quick? Maybe they were often drawn larger in books and movies so that they would seem more frightening than they would drawn at their actual smaller size.
Appreciation of Characters and Plot…
The entire Land Before Time series was an absolute favourite of M’s. He loved the different characters, anticipating what would come next, waiting for the next movie to see where the plot would go. It has had great nostalgic value. A couple of years ago, there was a Land Before Time marathon advertised and he cleared his Sunday afternoon and evening.
The Way Things Work…
Thomas the Tank Engine, in addition to characters with interesting personalities, provides so much information about how trains and railway systems work. This show directly inspired an evolving collection of Thomas tracks, props, machinery and characters which provided HOURS for the kids of building and developing related storylines.
If anyone is not familiar with the Canadian show Mighty Machines, it’s worth checking out. It might be a bit hokey with all the real machines and their character voices, lol, but we (yes, we) learned so much. From the salt mines to the airport to the harbour to the train tracks, there was so much valuable information about the uses and mechanics of machines. We loved it so much here, we ended up getting the “Best of” DVD. Parent and grandparent reviews on Amazon show that we are not the only ones and the learning is mentioned in almost every review.
Geography, History and Culture …
Are We There Yet? and many others take kids to other places and customs as do many other fictional shows.
This Is Daniel Cook and This Is Emily Yeung, shows about kids who go on site to explore the different jobs and activities, are definitely worth checking out. They transport kids to multiple places, meeting people involved in all kinds of neat things.
Artistic appreciation…
The range of beautiful animation and the evolution of technique and production is incredible. The kids would often talk about how far things had come and the technical differences between original movies and sequels.
Relaxation and Joy…!
The emotional effect on kids from watching well-developed characters and plot and beautiful animation or listening to fun or beautiful music is worth a great deal. The lightbulb moments when they’re watching how something works and they connect to another piece of knowledge they already have or are inspired to try to make something are priceless.
The value for kids doesn’t end with early childhood shows. At a relatively young age, they enjoyed other things we found to watch as a family. Things such as Dirty Jobs With Mike Rowe or How It’s Made were appreciated at a young age. NASCAR races led to G setting up intricate, imaginary car races, with a realistic understanding of the dynamics of racing. It also directly led him to learning double digit numbers and understanding ordinal numbers (“ Oh, the 48 car is pulling into 3rd position! Wait, no! He’s dropped back to 4th!”)
So, yes, as with many things, I think that TV shows and movies have definite benefits in a wide range of ways and if they offer the parents a chance to either get a chair repaired, laundry done or some time to relax, then that’s even better yet!
Did you have a favourite show as a child? Do your kids or grandkids watch shows or movies that you find value in?