Fact: we have probably watched more TV in the past nine months than in my children's entire lifetime up to this point. Once upon a time, my littles-who-are-now-the-bigs watched one episode of Daniel Tiger (that's 22 minutes on Netflix) once a week. Once a week! Man, I had it together back then.
Well, then third child came along, and we settled into one episode of Daniel Tiger every day while Mommy made lunch (and took a breather from the morning). Then, we discovered that all of the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood seasons are on Amazon Prime, and they started watching a show in the afternoon sometimes, too. Not every day, maybe, but more weekdays than not. This is the period of time in which I felt guilty over screen time, but 1) not enough to cut back, and 2) not enough to feel judge-y of other parents whose kids watched TV.
So here we are now. It turns out that having four kids under seven years old, and moving twelve hours away from home, and being pregnant again, altogether requires a little more "breathing room" for said Mommy. Sometimes, they watch one show in the morning and two shows in the afternoon. It's still only about an hour a day, but when I realize how much of what Toby says comes directly from a television show, I wince. But only a little. They play, they create, they draw, they sing, they run, and when the weather's nice, all four of them would much rather go outside with chalk than watch TV. It's all good. No judgment here, for me or anyone else.
The big question, then, is what do we watch?! Daniel Tiger and Mr. Rogers, obviously. When we first moved to Minnesota, a Mr. Rogers episode from 1985(ish) with Yo-Yo Ma was the only thing that would calm Silas down (he did not handle the move well, emotionally), and there were days when he'd watch it two or three times in a row.
Well, then third child came along, and we settled into one episode of Daniel Tiger every day while Mommy made lunch (and took a breather from the morning). Then, we discovered that all of the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood seasons are on Amazon Prime, and they started watching a show in the afternoon sometimes, too. Not every day, maybe, but more weekdays than not. This is the period of time in which I felt guilty over screen time, but 1) not enough to cut back, and 2) not enough to feel judge-y of other parents whose kids watched TV.
So here we are now. It turns out that having four kids under seven years old, and moving twelve hours away from home, and being pregnant again, altogether requires a little more "breathing room" for said Mommy. Sometimes, they watch one show in the morning and two shows in the afternoon. It's still only about an hour a day, but when I realize how much of what Toby says comes directly from a television show, I wince. But only a little. They play, they create, they draw, they sing, they run, and when the weather's nice, all four of them would much rather go outside with chalk than watch TV. It's all good. No judgment here, for me or anyone else.
The big question, then, is what do we watch?! Daniel Tiger and Mr. Rogers, obviously. When we first moved to Minnesota, a Mr. Rogers episode from 1985(ish) with Yo-Yo Ma was the only thing that would calm Silas down (he did not handle the move well, emotionally), and there were days when he'd watch it two or three times in a row.
Silas, amidst the constant chaos of our rental house, mirror-imaging Yo-Yo Ma
on the TV with his Duplo cello.
For a while the boys loved Wild Kratts, but the show contains some (very mild) villains, and my older boys found it particularly humorous to emulate the bad attitudes of said villains. We finally had to ban it altogether, to make the point that we don't speak to each other in such tones of voices. Fortunately, the Kratt brothers have an older show, also about animals, called Zoboomafoo, that is real-action and clay-mation and quite harmless (if a little stupid). My crowd has mostly lost interest now, but it was a favorite for several months.
In the spring, Isaac came across an Irish show called Puffin Rock, about the sweetest little family of puffins and their habitat. It is toddler science at its best, gentle and wholesome, and even my bigger boys adore it (even though it's really more suited for the younger crowd). This is one I highly recommend, if you prefer your television-watching to be peaceful and not overly stimulating. (Like almost everything mentioned in this post, you can find it on Amazon Prime.)
We have largely avoided Veggie Tales, as I think they're better suited for older kids, but in a moment of weakness I showed the boys one of the silly song DVDs, and they are hooked. It's longer than the average PBS show, so it's still a special-occasion thing. But they love Larry's Wonderful World of Auto-tainment (which is essentially another silly song collection), and since it includes old standards like "You Are My Sunshine" and "15 Years on the Erie Canal," I feel like they're getting a little bit of elementary-school music education in by watching it. (Grasping at straws much?)
Last but not least, the whole reason I thought to write this post in the first place: this week somebody in a Facebook group mentioned a show called Creative Galaxy (again, Amazon Prime), so I thought we'd check it out. It's written by the same lady as Daniel Tiger, and a few of the voices are done by the same people. It is very, very similar to Daniel Tiger in pacing and problem-solving, but the characters are (completely benign) aliens who live in a galaxy of art. All of the planets feature a different art medium (painting, museums, fabric, sculpture), and the main character is a Daniel-esque little alien-boy named Arty. The kids and I all loved it. I only watched the first half of the first episode, but already they'd learned about pointilism and Seurat and the value of art in making a place beautiful. The episode descriptions for the rest of the season look very promising. Toby woke up from his nap yesterday asking for "Daniel Tiger in space." :)
I'm afraid that if you don't have Amazon Prime, this is a particularly unhelpful post for you. But if you don't have it, you should. Free two-day shipping on everything, plus all the shows and movies and music. This is not a paid endorsement.
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