Purchasing additional cable programming has never been easier than it is now. These days, with so much potential in TV watching, many people enjoy the ability to simply order new packages that can bring additional channels and special programming. It’s quite simple – for example, if you live in the Washington area and would like a larger cable package that includes local channels and new programming, simply look into
Direct tv Washington , and you should be all set in no time. This can be particularly handy if you have a family and are hoping to find more shows appropriate for your kids. For example, here are, in many people’s opinions, five of the top educational shows for young programming, all of which you will likely be able to enjoy with your new TV packages.
• It’s been around for quite a while, but Sesame Street is still the standard when it comes to TV that can both educate and entertain young children. Created with the idea in mind to capture the attention and enthusiasm of young kids while educating them in numerous ways, Sesame Street remains as effective as it ever was. Many claim that the show is extremely helpful in preparing young kids for social situations in early schooling.
• Bob The Builder is a bit of a newer show meant for slightly older children, and which has its own set of educational values. The show features “Bob,” the animated contractor who is constantly looking to build things and find solutions to problems with his friends. It is fun for kids to follow Bob’s tasks, and the show emphasizes teamwork and problem resolution.
• Dora The Explorer is one of the very best kids’ shows on TV, as it is run in a sort of interactive way in which Dora, the animated host, asks her audiences to help her solve problems and find her way through her continual explorations. In this way, the show teaches problem solving, and in addition to this, Dora’s constantly upbeat attitude is a great influence on developing children.
• Bill Nye The Science Guy is a bit of an older show that is no longer running new episodes, but which can still occasionally be seen on PBS and other networks. This show featured host Bill Nye presenting everyday science in a way that was both entertaining and educational for kids.
• The Penguins Of Madagascar – This is a newer show on Nickelodeon that essentially functions as a spinoff of the popular animated film Madagascar. Though the show is woefully inaccurate in that few of its animals could be native to Madagascar, it can still function in a lightly educational way for young children merely by teaching a bit about the animal kingdom and geography.
Are there other shows that you find educational for your children?This guest editorial was brought to you by tvbydirect.com.
Recommend
Comments (18)
i love dora. i miss watching it hahah.
i also like the backyardigans, the bad guy ALWAYS turns good. i think it's awesome. you can learn a lot from franklin and yo gabba gabba equally. when we had directv preston learned so much good stuff from yo gabba gabba. he even learned that you have to wash your hair, brush your teeth and clean up your toys! :)We don't have cable, never have and never will. We get the local channels and all we really watch is PBS. In the morning my 2 year old DD watches "Sesame Street" which is such an awesome show, very entertaining for me too. Whenever she learns a new word she'll sing like "A A A A apple, apple is a word that starts with A!" (with whatever word/letter) that she learned off of SS. She's also learned counting from it and can count 3 objects as well as recognize numbers 1-10, not even in order!
She absolutely loves "Word World" and "Super Why," both shows that teach her reading skills (and yes, she can already recognize several letters and some words). Her other favorite show is "Wild Kratts," I think she just likes the animals.
ETA: I always watch these shows with her and participate in the songs :)
my little angel is so particular about what she does and doesn't like to watch but here are the shows she likes
Olivia
Ni Hao Kai-Lan
Sesame Street
Plaza Sesamo (seasme street in spanish)
Super Why
and one about a baby chick (also in spanish)
oh she also love to watch the first episodes of Teddy Ruxpin (but we have that on DVD)
I hate Dora and Diego. The Spanish is inaccurate (a friend of mine is of Spanish heritage, and also teaches the language with her husband, and she was the one who has pointed out many inaccuracies in the shows).
And the Penguins? Really?????
Sesame Street, Thomas, Franklin, Arthur, Yo GabbaGabba, Backyardagains and Handy Manny are the favs in my house. And of course anything and everything VeggieTales.
@LadyGwenivere@xanga - i keep telling people that about Dora and Diego, like people don't really speak that way and no one believes me, they're all like then why would they put it on tv lol
but if your kid likes Thomas you should check out "Day Out With Thomas" if you haven't already http://www.ticketweb.com/promo/dowt/index.html thats the link for the tickets and schedules
but it's really cool you get to actually ride thomas the train,meet Sir Topham Hatt, learn about real trains, and do arts and crafts.
my niece is a huge Thomas fan and when we took her she was just over the moon with joy
@diaryofawanderingsoul@xanga - we have done Day Out With Thomas 3 times, and I have pre-booked tickets already =) I am getting "I Survived a Day Out With Thomas" shirts made for next year! The best one I ever went to was out in Calgary Alberta at the Heritage Park.. We got to ride Thomas through the city and they actually brought him in on the tracks, not a truck.. but that was like 8 years ago.
We love almost every show on PBS and Qubo.
The others? I tolerate for entertainment, and not for education.
As far as networks? Cartoon Network is the very worst, followed by Nickelodeon, then Disney.
Sesame Street <3 Lol Dora the Explorer is so annoying. BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY! I miss that show haha. You forgot to mention Magic School Bus (: They show reruns on qubo now hehe
My son loves Curious George and the new PBS Cat in the Hat. They are our "getting ready for work & daycare" shows.
Old school Sesame Street, sure.
I loathe Dora. It's a show that uses yelling to keep children focused which, in the long run, can't be a good thing.
My husband and I are amassing a collection of shows for our little one to watch.
Wishbone, Bill Nye, Arthur, Reading Rainbow, Babar
I have the full list written out elsewhere, but these are the highlights.
I watch Sesame Street with my baby grand son. My own children didn't care for it, so I taught them both to read before they entered school myself. The latest research shows infants learning speech by watching "lip reading" from parents or care givers. I think reading to children, plus teaching them ourselves in formative years, letters, phonics, and basic math, gives them a heads up when they are ready to enter school. I do like the baby Einstein series.
I don't have kids, but I now know I never will have to get cable to find educational TV for them to watch. I chose to not have cable while going to college in Philly since it's well, expensive. Sometimes on the weekends there isn't much on, so I might watch Qubo. There is also PBS, and all the networks play educational TV shows in the morning (I watch Animal Atlas this morning, and learned hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs!). And then there is MiND which won't always be child appropriate, but some of the stuff could give them amazing exposure to foreign cultures and the world beyond since one of the channels primary runs NHK World.
I noticed even when I am "home" with my parents, I don't really watch the cable channels anymore.
Waitaminute! This post is from Direct TV. What?! It is an advertisement. Boooooooooo!!
Phineas and Ferb is the single best show on television... for people of all ages. The can-do if-you-do-your-best mentality of the main show, combined with cartoony antics, mild and comic villains, and a 15-minute runtime make it ideal for kids. The situational humour and pun humour make it very enjoyable for the adult audience. Perhaps not ideally suited to the youngest (5 and under), but they don't really view television so much as be close to television.
I love the Penguins of Madagascar. Fantastic show, quite funny, and again with a positive problem-solving can-do-it-if-we-try attitude that kids need to be exposed to as much as possible.
You mention Sesame Street on your list, and I have to say that is one show that I have been very disappointed with in recent years. They seem to be more into making political statements and being perfectly ethnically aware than they are in giving out solid advice or role models. The muppett characters themselves hardly seem to do much anymore besides provide a background for the human actors, and the flavor-of-the-week theme. Honestly, if I was going to show this one to children, I'd go back and buy several years of it from the 80's and 90's and show them.
Bill Nye is interesting... because kids actually don't learn anything from it. Yep. Been checked. I've substituted in a large number of elementary school classrooms, and the amount of movies left for subs to show is just ridiculous (but that's another story)... but anyways, Bill Nye is a very common one. However, if you actually ask kids after watching the show any simple question about it, they usually cannot recall even the simplest of "educational" details. I remember having to give a class of third graders a 10 question fill-in-the-blank quiz after showing a Bill Nye episode on rocks. The first question was simply "name one of the three types of rocks". 1 child of the 22 got credit for that question... and there were three possible correct answers! I ended up reshowing the movie, pausing it at specific points, and asking students the questions verbally, and then replaying specific parts that were of importance to their future content (I flipped open one of their texts to find out what they would be studying next). I got much better results that way, and most of the students had decent recall even at the end of day, when I ask them a question from the day's topic before they head to pick up their backpacks... long story short, the point is that merely putting on Bill Nye is by no means educational. There is too much crash, boom, distraction and distortion for the facts to be retained... and they also switch scenarios/topics much too quickly for most elementary students to catch up. If you want to watch this for value, either ask your child questions about it afterwards, or watch it with them and pause it a lot... at least for the elementary grade levels.
It is harder to find, but there is an older science show called Beakman that was much better.
@Endrath@xanga - a friend of mine is a science teacher.. he says that Myth Busters is better at teaching science then Bill Nye.
I try not to rely on television shows to teach my young children educational or social skills. I prefer for them to learn from actual people in real life. During our weekly game nights, my oldest gets one episode of old-school Sesame Street to watch before bed. I refuse to let him watch any of the new ones because Elmo pisses me off.
My almost 11 month old LOVES the Little Einstines. It teaches him about music, musical instruments, geography, numbers, art and teamwork. I love watching the show myself due to all the music they play. Lots of classical piano pieces.
I don't think television is necessary for educating young children. Thanks anyway, Direct TV.