So we’ve been through several show phases starting with the Backyardigans, The Wiggles, Sesame Street (Elmo’s World specifically) and now our “go to” guy of the month is Barney. Yes the hopping, leaping, goofy purple dinosaur, whose best friends are Baby Bop and BJ, and the dinosaur who has had all sorts of awful songs created about him. Let the innocence of childhood prevail because Gavin has no biases, he is just as happy to see Barney appear on television sometimes, as he is when my husband or I come home at the end of a work day. So I put on my educational hat and have rationalized why we continue to watch certain shows in our house. No matter what anyone says, these shows mostly involve real people or even animals that talk conversationally and have real personalities. They sing real songs, some which have been around for decades that we learned as a child and there is some element of promoting real life skills by teaching letters, numbers, how to have manners and how to be a good friend.
I can say, Gavin is honestly learning from this show. He loves trying to imitate the hand gestures to familiar songs like the Itsy Bitsy Spider along with the show. Even more adorable is that he loves the song Barney sings at the end, “I love you, you love me, we’re a great big family, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won’t you say you love me too.” Not only is he singing along, but he is giving these tremendous squeezes and wet sloppy smooches in the right spots, everytime. We sing it now before he goes to bed as part of our bedtime routine, which he emphatically requests multiple times over and again saying, “more YOU!” So Barney, right now I am forever indebted to you for how absolutely stinking adorable my little man is –every time we share this moment together.
In honor of our love for Barney we are giving away two DVD sets, the Barney Playdate Pack (3 DVD’s shown above) AND the Thomas the Train Playdate Pack (3 DVD’s)!
Comment under this post what types of shows you think are educational that your family enjoys.
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Giveaway ends June 27th, 11:59 p.m. EST.
These DVD packs were provided free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.
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1 2 3 Next »Thomas and Barney are actual favorites here, but the MOST beloved currently is Peep and the Big Wide World/Pocoyo.
We were BIG "no tv" pre actually having kids. Thomas sort of broke the seal, if you will. The adoration for Thomas was so apparent and organic that we couldn't help but let him indulge. That has lead to discovering other shows, because there's only so much of the same thing mom and/or baby can take. LOL
I know that lots of people say that kids don't learn from tv, and I sort of *want* to believe that. Unfortunately, in reality, my son DOES learn from tv. He actually picks up alot even from seeing something one time, so I just try to make sure everything he watches is something that I don't mind that he learns.
When there is tv requests that are over the amount of time we want him to watch tv, we "turn on" Pandora's Internet Radio via our Roku player that is hooked to our tv. It plays all kinds of kids music from Sesame Street to Ben Rudnick. They show the album covers when a new song comes on so it sort of tricks him to think he's watching tv when instead he's really just singing along as he plays.
Thanks Kim! I'll definitely have to check out Peep! Have you seen the display at the Children's Museum, I think it's the sand and water table room? Great idea about making sure it's something that you don't mind that he learns. I watched a few Disney movies recently and honestly though I love the humor, there are a lot of themes there I'm not too happy about teaching my almost 2 year old, even if they are subtle! Ditto on the Pandora! We use the Raffi channel and are huge Laurie Berkner fans!
I know there are a lot of people that don't like Barney, but my little guy loves him. We watch Barney everyday. I really believe that watching Barney has helped my son who has Down Syndrome learn songs, count, learn colors, shapes, social skills, but mostly it has really increased his vocabulary.
We also watch Micky Mouse, Play With Me Sesame (anythign Elmo), Bob the Builder and Caillou.
But he loves his music so we have CD's with Barney, and Elmo that he loves to listen to.
Caillou is a pretty popular guy with many of my friends kids! Glad you are Barney lovers, too!
We love watching the history channel. I also find Arthur to be good for socializing lessons.
nature shows
We like to watch Signing Time on PBS... my son loves learning sign language, even if we don't use it anymore (did when he was a baby).
I just subscribed!
Dora the Explorer!
I like you on Facebook!
We watch a LOT of the Food Channel. I have always thought it is so important for both my sons and my daughters to love to cook and to know how!
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