Age Appropriate TV (3 Yr Old)

These web sites should be helpful:

www.commonsensemedia.org

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/preschool-tv/a...

http://www.pbs.org/parents/tvprograms/pbskids/

My 3y/o girl likes Mickey Mouse, Backyardigans, Jack's Big Music Show (love, love this one!! My husband's a musician), The Wonderpets, and Yo Gabba Gabba. I hated Yo Gabba Gabba at first, but it is so educational and funny that I can't stop watching it! Great social and emotional values in it too. She also loves Barney, and she has learned so much from it!

PBS. Almost all of the shows on their are educational. My daughters both love Super Why. The characters have a problem, then they use a familiar story to solve the problem. The kids are to help the characters find the hidden super letters along the way. It's a show focused mainly on reading and phonics. Dinosaur Train is another one that my oldest loves. She knows more about dinosaurs that I do! Curious George teaches math, Sid The Science Kid teaches science (The other day my 3 year old starting talking to me about intertia! She had learned about it from Sid), Clifford teaches lessons about good manners and how to be nice, Sesame Street you already mentioned... In all honesty, you'd be safe with anything from PBS. They have the added bonus of NO COMMERCIALS! Hooray! :)

Well, I wouldn't let her watch anything for more than an hour per day. Why no Dora or Diego? They're fantastically educational programs, and they DO speak English. Learning a few Spanish words certainly won't hurt her either. My boys love both of those and actually learn from them. I think maybe they've picked up 2 Spanish words in the last 4 years -so it's really not an issue.

Thomas is FANTASTIC! It's a wonderful show for really young kids. The trains all have distinct personalities and they do have good lessons about how to treat others, face fears, ask for help, etc. I've been deeply immersed in Thomas toys, books, videos and the tv series for over 3 years now and I highly recommend it as "safe" viewing for any child.

Franklin is a very sweet show about a turtle and his friends, and Max and Ruby is wonderful as well. Both highlight kind treatment of others and doing the right thing. We've always liked The Wonder Pets and The Backyardigans because they're sweet and they have a great sense of adventure involved. Both really highlight teamwork! It really just depends on which one of these I've mentioned is on as to what mine get to watch on any given day.

Why no shows that don't speak English? And Dora and Diego are GREAT shows. I really don't understand that though...my kids love to watch the shows that teach them different languages. My sister's boyfriend is like that, and thinks that my niece only needs to learn English...and it will only hold her back. Really any shows on PBS, Nick Jr, Sprout, Disney Playhouse, etc will get what you are looking for, but don't have it on all day. I would just encourage you to expose her to more languages than just one or two.

* My kids speak a little Chinese, French, Spanish and Korean. They learn sign language in school and are fluent in English, whining, and smart mouth :).

I do home childcare and the only TV time we do is PBS....never all in the same day, but my kids love our standard Sesame Street, Super Why, the new Cat in the Hat show, Sid the Science Kid, Curious George is a big fave here..and Calliou (I am not so sure why they LOVE Calliou..but they really really do!)..and as other said, NO commercials.I can not tolerate any commercials for children.

I will try to record some holiday specials of other shows for special occasional, then I can skip thru the commercials. But another fave of ours, that we have the videos of (used to be on PBS for a while, but I have owned the DVDs for many many years) is Signing Time, children's sign language DVDs. My kids absolutely love these..the songs, the live action, plus if you buy a 3pk, it comes with a CD of the songs from those 3 movies..so we listen to those as "background" noise or dancing time songs ALOT. They call them "Alex and Leah" movies...I highly recommend!

My 4 yo LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. There is a new interactive video that just came out. It comes with a Mickey Mote that lets kids interact with the video. Getting my son this for Christmas.
Anyway, Thomas is fine and teaches some good social lessons. It is rather low key, and my son outgrew it pretty quickly. He also went through a period of liking "Max and Ruby" and "Special Agent Oso". Might give those a try...

Most preschool shows have some sort of lesson in them, sometimes it's social and sometimes educational. My little girl just finished Timmy Time on Disney and the lessons were how to be a friend and ask for help and how to move on when something doesn't go the way you want. She's not a fan of Chuggington which comes on after, so she now in her room with a DVD, sounds like The Rescuers, it's hard to tell she's singing too.

Anything on the morning runs of Disney and Nick Jr. are pretty preschooler friendly about 30mins in length or sometimes two 15min segments(like Timmy Time). PBS Kids is pretty good too. My daughter's really big into musical shows, Wonder Pets, Little Einsteins and Backyardagains.

The best things for me is I watch with her. She's 4 now so we've seen everthing those 3 channels have to offer preschoolers. You can start a new show every few days, watch for a few episodes that will help you and her decide. My daughter's pretty vocal when something is about to come one that she doesn't like. Also sitting with her while something is on can give you a chance to talk to her,explain things to her on her level maybe even add your choice of lesson. If you are an Italian speaker you can even be asking her things in Italian even if the show is in English, it could help expand her language learning.

If I can stand watching a show with her then I don't mind her watching without me from time to time. We have a few DVD's that I can set her up with (she can even set them up herself now) while I cook meals or wash heavy dishes. She likes to try to help and it's just too dangerous with her wanting to grab and help.

Good luck.

She is at the age where she could learn more than simply 2 languages, why limit her?

Dora and Diego are GREAT shows - especially for spanish
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan is great for emotional understanding and Chinese
Anything on Sprout, Noggin (Nick Jr), morning PBS and Disney Playhouse (mainly mornings)

My daughter speaks fluent English and more Spanish than I knew after going to school. She has also picked up some ASL, Chinese and Czech. She turned 5 in September.

I would suggest Super Why, or Word World. Word World is 2 12 minute in the 30 minute segment.

I have been working with my daughter on her abc's and these shows have really helped her. She is 2 1/2 and no one believes she is that young. She can recognize her letters and is learning to read as well.

Thomas is a good show. We don't have it on our PBS at all, but it does teach teamwork. I would say any show on PBS is a good educational show for kids, so anythiing there, you should feel comfortable leting her watch those shows. That is the only TV we have at our house so that's all i allow her to watch.

We stick to the Sprout channel. I have two boys, 4 and 1, they both love that channel and every show in it. We do limit there watch time to two programs (no more than 45 minutes). I think Thomas the Train is perfectly ok for her.

Thomas the Tank Engine sounded great when we saw it listed... DVR'ed it b/c my son LOVES T-the-T... boring! It isn't animated. The toys move along the tracks with voice-overs.

My son is 2.5 and really likes...
- Max and Ruby
- Dino Dan (live show about dinosaurs)
- Backyardigans

We don't allow much t.v., but when he's reading to wind-down for the night we let him watch one of these DVR'ed. All of these shows are on Nick Jr. at various times.

Spanish-speaking shows are great just for the record, but we don't watch Dora b/c the tone in her voice makes me crazy! It always sounds like she's yelling.

How bout Word World, Super Why, or Dinosaur Train?

They're all on PBS and aren't the type of show that just have a bunch of noise and colors.
My son is 2 and loves them.
He's learned the sounds each letter makes, and spelling some words from Word World & SUper Why.
As for Dinosaur Train, it's a really cute show and teaches about Dinos.
If you point out a Dinosaur to my 2 y/o he can tell you what kind it is.
Sometimes I don't even know what dino he is talking about.

But I'm with you, I don't let my son watch Spongebob, dora or anythin like that.

Thomas is fine. Kind of boring, but my daughter and husband like it. She also loves the backyardigans and Max and Ruby.

little Bill, Toot and puddle, oswald, super why, between the lions, Miss Spider, Franklin, Olivia, bob the bulider, Thomas is very good,
And I'm sure she can handle more than one language at a time.
Anything on Nick jr , except yo Gabba gabba.
Blues clues, Max and ruby, fireman sam. All are very good.

edited to add . Spongebob does not = Dora , sorry but that's a little wacko. Spongebob is a rude show that if you've ever seen it you hear yourself thinking " he just said what?" it's pure entertainment it has no educational value. Dora on the other hand teaches spanish, counting, colors, logical thinking and how to get along, and work together. Just because they are made by the same company it does not mean they are the same.

Ni hao kai lan is the best show i've come across on TV. Although they do speak some Mandarin Chinese the lessons in Ni Hao Kai-lan also helps to support social and emotional development for preschoolers through cause and effect problem solving. Watch a show yourself first before you introduce it to her (as with any TV show) too see if the lesson is what your aiming for.

Super Why on PBS is really cute! I recommend that. Thomas would be fine for her age. Good for you for being cautious of what your daughter watches. I'm the same way!

My girls are 2.5 and 5.5, and I only allow tv shows with some type of educational value. Besides the ones you've mentioned, one of their favorites is Word World on PBS Kids (right after Sesame Street). It's very cute. The main characters are all animals, made up of the letters that spell what they are "DOG", "SHEEP", etc. They usually have some kind of problem to solve, that involves building a word. My oldest is learning to spell and read the words, while my little one is learning her letters. It's a 30 minute show, which 2 episodes so it keeps their attention.

Those are the same ones that our daughter watched at that age. I miss Little Bear -- so sweet! And I concur on checking out commonsensemedia.org -- VERY helpful and gives age ratings, too.

i think you are a little too picky, i don't care for my own to watch dora or diego, but i wont deny it to her, learning to speak spanish, isn't such a bad idea, if she can become fluently bilingual, then it'll help her make more money in the long run