A post just asked what we all watched as kids.
Personally I loved ABC After School Specials and remember TO THIS DAY the impact the moral messages had about not trying to fit in, and being kind to animals and all kinds of stuff. Some were really sad and "heavy hitting". And then of course there was Little House on the Prairie with all the hard working tough life lessons, discipline, respect, tragedy, sacrifice, family values etc.
Now I sort of pull the blinds on things. My kids are 5, 3 and 2. We don't have cable and I "feel" "no shows are good for kids anymore", but I wouldn't really know at this point. Are there good character forming shows like this out there for pre-teens and early teens?
Any your kids love?
To clarify, we've outgrown the little kid shows (my 2 year old still watches Word World and Sesame Street), and don't plan on getting back the Nick Jr any time soon-for "down time" the kids (3 and 5) watch Godzilla and He Man right now---(Not all that Moral since they get lessons during the rest of the day with no TV, and they hardly ever watch any TV :-0) But I'm thinking when they are a bit older and can follow complex narratives, like shows for 8-12 year olds.
Sadly no. I dont' even let my kids watch nonanimated Disney. THe only one they watch is Phineas and Ferb anyway.
I do think one of the channels has I Love Lucy and Bewitched on it. I dont; get whatever channel that is though
Stay away from the "teen" Disney shows. They're horrible. In my opinion, they teach kids to be sassy, bratty and disrespectful of adults. Watch 5 minutes of any of those shows and you'll see. (My niece watches them constantly and is such a snarky little brat. Ugh!) The old Noggin channel which is now Nick Jr. is pretty good, but you'll need cable. PBS has good ones too like Curious George and Arthur, but as your kids get older, they'll tire of them. The 8-12 year olds are the ones who want something a little more grown up. We've been recording shows like the Brady Bunch, Shirley Temple, etc... for our 8 year old. Good luck!
My kids are 10 and 13, and to this day (in fact, just yesterday) they LOVE Arthur. Yes, the Aardvark character. Just LOVE it. They were sitting out here with the remote and the instant Netflix queued up, and watching several episodes in a row (they had just finished lunch and cleaning their rooms).
:))
If you can find it, Franklin is also a fantastic show. He's a turtle. I think the show is Canadian. You can find the books in the bookstores, but my son used to watch the TV show when he was younger. (Theme song: "Heeeeyyyy, it's Franklin! Comin' to ooouuur house. Heeeey! It's Franklin, comin' to yooouuuur house. " )
nope. not that i have noticed. pbskids, disneyjr, sprout, and nickjr are about the only things i see that have any sort of lessons. and those are academic, not moral. i'd love to have my kids watch something with a message to it.
Yo Gabba Gabba has great messages about sharing, recycling, being a good friend, etc. Without cable, you're left with pbs kids. Most of the preschool shows are more about education, but there are always great morals in shows like Clifford, etc.
I'd get some dvds of great shows like Gaba Gaba, Blues Clues, even Little House On The Praire for your 5 year old! I learned a ton of lessons from that show!!! You could also read her the books. My mom read us these and one of the best lessons that learned from her reading these was to trust your parents and not question them, especially in an emergency. That year, when our house caught on fire, I was told to get my sister. She wouldn't wake up so I dragged her heavy-butt out and down stairs blindly even though I had NO idea what was going on. I heard "get your sister out of the house!" And I did.
We just got the book for my 10 year old and I can't wait to read it to her!
I don't leave it all to tv since it's not so out there any more.
I highly recommend getting netflix, it is basically the only thing we watch. It has all the old shows and you can watch stuff before they do. They have streaming you can watch on your computer or get them through the mail. They have little house, Brady Bunch. We've been watching Lassie, Flipper. I agree the shows now are just people being mean to eachother and teens acting like grownups. Good luck!
I remember the after school specials too. At the time they were pretty controversial! Lots of concerned parents debating about what was "appropriate."
Makes you wonder about some shows aimed at teens today, like Glee for example. A lot of parents think it's way too graphic for young people (the same type that balked at the after school specials) but my teenage daughter and I have some of our best conversations while watching that show. Why? Because however silly and campy it is it deals with very real, relevant teen issues.
Glad I have a DVR so I can record the good stuff, however infrequent it may be!
You can get some of the "older" sit coms like Alf- remember the alien guy that wanted to eat cats? At your local library or netflix. Totally appropriate for the 5-12 year old set. Funny, and clean. Mork and Mindy. We went for 5 years w/o TV at all and it was great! We only got it back when my son was born so I could watch something in the middle of the night while breastfeeding. Netflix can also recommend series like Little House and some of the stream to your computer or through a wii (so I am told). Your library is a Treasure Trove of possibilites. Even if your own library doesn't have a lot, Interlibrary Loan is a beautiful thing. And need I say Free?
One more thing: Good for you for watching what your kids are taking in!
