I think they are 4 main categories to describe quality kids shows. Of course there are many different ways to break it all down, but these are the ones that stand out to me.
I will be discussing all 4 categories this week, so make sure to come back every day to read and comment if you agree or have any other categories you put your shows in.
My first category is my most important (also because I’m a teacher).
Educational Shows
My son is 2 years old. Do I expect for him to learn only from watching TV? NO- of course not. Although I was so surprised that after watching “Super Why” on PBS he could now identify the letter” O”. I know I had sung the alphabet to him many times, but had not yet started with letter identification. I was so impressed and thought I had never given it that much thought.
The power of presentation. I love when kids are having so much fun with something- they don’t even realize they are learning. I know Sesame Street is a famously great show for teaching letters, numbers, feelings and other values/manners. I think if I were to sit my son down with flash cards, he may not be as interested as he would if I were a big yellow bird, or an animated boy that can dive into story books. I appreciate the writers and developers of shows that take the time to make learning fun. Many of the shows on PBS that we catch are the ones I find most educational.
It’s not just about letters and numbers though. He is really into dinosaurs at the moment and PBS just debuted a new Jim Henson show called Dino-Train. It doesn’t have letters and numbers flashing across the screen, but there is real life dinosaur information in the show along with the Paleontologist that has small lessons in between. He is usually sad when the show is over. He loves carrying his dinosaurs while watching, and I know that he is retaining information from it.
Parents are kids best teachers. I don’t want the TV to be his first teacher, I want it to be me. But as a supplement to what we do on a daily basis I will use other forms of visual and media aids to help further along his learning.
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Written on September 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 am by Erika Silva
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