Our favorite children’s educational shows
Kids today have it awesome when it comes to educational programming.
I grew up on Sesame Street, which of course was and still is a great show for children with lovable Muppet characters and a beautiful young woman named Maria 
, The Electric Company with its future Oscar winners (Morgan Freeman) and mute Spider-man (while everyone else spoke, he only communicated through comic book speech bubbles), and 3-2-1 Contact, which focused on science in a fun way and had a catchy opening tune.
I’m not complaining about the shows I watched while growing up. Rather, I’m in awe of just how far children’s programming has come since the late 70′s and early 80′s. While I used to rush home from school to switch the knob (yes, the knob – any other old timers remember this?) to channel 13 (The Public Broadcasting Service) and hope that I wasn’t too late for my favorite shows, our nanny can choose between two channels - Nick Jr. (formerly known as Noggin) and PBS Kids Sprout – completely dedicated to children’s programming, depending on which of the literally dozens of shows my son Alexander is interested in watching at that moment in time.
The goals of today’s shows are pretty much the same as those of shows I watched in my youth, but there are so many more choices of programs which span a much broader variety of topics. Thirty years ago, my parents would never have dreamed that there would be a television show in the United States that teaches young kids how to speak Chinese; today Ni Hao, Kai Lan not only teaches children Mandarin on television but also in video games and talking toys you can find in national retailers like Toys R Us, Wal-mart and Target!
While Alexander is pretty much content just watching whatever show is on at the time, he of course has his favorites that always seem to calm him down or lift him up when he’s not his usual cheerful self.
His absolutely favorite show on either channel is the Good Night Show on Sprout. The show is hosted by Nina, played by Michele Lepe, who encourages viewers (referred to as “Sproutlets”) to participate in games, crafts, songs and yoga lessons and teaches both Spanish and sign language. The activities tend to center around a particular theme for that night and are interspersed with brief episodes of various cartoon shows such as The Berenstain Bears, Kipper and Dragon Tales that focus on the same theme.
Nina’s co-host is a star-shaped plush puppet named Star, who embodies the spirit of the child viewers by asking questions related to the show’s theme or activities and leading them in bedtime activities such as brushing your teeth (with the “Brush-a-brush-a-brush-a-brush Song”) or washing your face (with the “Rub-scrub Song”).
As a parent, I’m particularly impressed by the fact that the show is teaching not only Spanish but sign language as well. I’ve heard that signing is especially useful for young children who have not yet learned how to verbally communicate their needs and emotions so it’s admirable that there’s a show that focuses on that skill.
I also like that the show exposes children to yoga. I’m not a yoga practitioner myself – nor do I ever want to be – but it’s heartening to see shows open children’s eyes to activities they might never be introduced to in school. I would highly recommend this program to other parents of young children.
Alexander’s other favorite show to watch is the Sunny Side Up Show also on Sprout. As you can probably guess, the show takes place in the morning. Broadcast from “The Sunshine Barn,” the show leads Sproutlets in song & dance, games and storytelling and encourages children to create art by inviting them to send in their masterpieces which could be selected for display on a future episode.
Each Monday, one of three hosts – Kelly, Sean and Dennisha, who replaced the recently departed Kevin (Kevin Yamada) – takes over the entire week’s full hosting responsibilities, which include interacting with Chica, a chicken puppet that acts as a co-host for the show and only communicates in “puppy toy” squeaks.
The central feature of the show is a celebration of the day’s birthdays. The host opens the segment with a unique “Happy Birthday” song (Alexander absolutely adores this song) and then shows a number of custom birthday cards created by Sproutlets’ families.
Alexander also loves to watch Wonder Pets on Nick Jr. He was a fan of the show long before I even knew of its existence – for a while, I was wondering just who “Ming-Ming” was. I probably would choose this as my favorite children’s show due to the creativity of the production, the musical nature of the program, and the focus on geography and cultures as well as the various themes of teamwork, friendship and altruism.
Wonder Pets revolves around the adventures of the three classroom pets – Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle and Ming-Ming the duckling – who receive distress calls from animals in danger from around the world through a tin can pencil holder (it shakes when there’s an incoming “call” and the noise of the pencils against the metal act as the “ring”) and go to rescue them by way of their “Flyboat,” which they piece together from various classroom objects like a frisbee and magic marker caps.
All the while, the three animals sing a catchy tune about the benefits of working together to defeat the limitations inherent with being small. In fact, most of the dialogue is sung such that the show could be characterized as operetta, which is not surprising considering that Larry Hochman, nominated for Tony Awards for his work on Spamalot, the revival of Fiddler on the Roof and A Class Act, composed the score with music direction from Grammy-winning record producer Jeffrey Lesser, who oversees the ten-instrument live orchestra that performs each episode’s score.
By the end of each episode, the Wonder Pets and the viewers have learned a bit about a new geographic location and its local culture as well as new ways in which teamwork can help people accomplish great things. Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming always celebrate their accomplishment with an obligatory stalk of celery before heading back to the classroom.
This focus on teamwork is especially useful for preschool-aged children, who tend to be self-absorbed, always in “their own little world,” but need to know how to get along with others by the time they enter school. My son is still a little young to understand these concepts but is quite enamored with the music and the art style – the show uses what Nick Jr. calls “photo-puppetry animation” in which photographs of various animals are cut up into pieces for animation purposes to create a semi-realistic visual product.
Wonder Pets is an engaging show that is interesting from visual, musical and thematic perspectives that I would highly recommend for any parent to actually sit down and watch with their children. It’s not one of your typical “kiddie” shows that is so saccharine as to be as compatible with adults as oil is with water, and the music is entertaining enough that you might be surprised to find yourself unexpectedly whistling the theme song while shopping.
Another musically-inspired show that Alexander has recently taken to is Yo Gabba Gabba!, a visually unique experience featuring cartoonish costumed characters like the Plex, a yellow robot, and Foofa, a pink flower-esque thing, who start each episode as inanimate toys in host DJ Lance Rock’s carrying case. Rock (played by popular Los Angeles-based indie musician Lance Robertson in a strange orange bodysuit) places the toys on a colorful multi-part diorama that brings them to life so they can teach children various lessons through song and dance.
Creator Cristian Jacobs’ background in the entertainment industry (he’s the lead singer of eclectic ska/punk/electronic/rock band The Aquabats) helped him enlist numerous celebrities to make guest appearances on the show. In fact, my introduction to the series was an episode featuring heavy metal musician and comedic actor Jack Black. Other celebrities who have appeared include Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, rapper Biz Markie, country duo Sugarland, and actor Elijah Wood. “Weird Al” Yankovic, The Killers and Weezer are among guests slated to appear in the upcoming season.
I would recommend Yo Gabba Gabba! just based on how much my son likes to see all the bright, if sometimes garish, colors on the characters and in the environments and listen to the unique, funky musical style. While I am at times disturbed by just how strange the show is – it’s almost as if Jacobs was high on psychedelics when he came up with the idea – it clearly taps into some part of the growing child’s mind as its popularity indicates most preschool age children like it as much as Alexander does.
The other shows that Alexander really enjoys watching are a bit more traditional. Zoboomafoo is a syndicated series from the turn of the millennium that features the Kratt Brothers (Chris, a biologist, and Martin, a zoologist) and their lemur friend Zoboomafoo, who starts off and ends the show as an actual trained lemur but transforms into a talking lemur puppet after eating Garbanzo beans or some other lemur food. He always describes an “amazing animal” he encountered on the way to Animal Junction by singing about its characteristics in the show’s signature song, “Who Could It Be?” In addition to teaching kids about various members of the animal world, Zoboomafoo also features a segment called “Animal Helpers” that features children’s efforts to help animals or protect the environment.
Caillou is an episodic cartoon series from Canada focusing on a young four-year-old’s fascination with the world around him. Caillou lives in a suburb with his mother, father and sister Rosie (they also have a cat named Gilbert) and often visits his grandfather on the other side of town. Some episodes follow Caillou to his daycare center where he plays with many of the children from his neighborhood, including some who are significantly older than he is. As is the usual case with children’s shows, each episode focuses on a particular theme or lesson, and Caillou always brings the viewer with him into a make believe segment in which he imagines what it would be like to, say, be a police officer, drive a construction vehicle or captain a sailboat.
Alexander gets a kick out of Dora the Explorer as well, mainly because of songs sung by Dora’s backpack and map. He especially loves shouting “Imma map” (his version of “I’m the Map”) while running around with a giant grin on his face. Dora’s a good show for the most part, teaching kids about the Spanish language and culture, how to categorize different objects and how to follow instructions. However, the pauses during the show for children to react and respond to the show are a bit disconcerting due to their duration – the Good Night Show uses a similar method to encourage interaction from the viewer but does not pause for as long a time so the break is not as conspicuous.
He also likes watching the similar Ni Hao, Kai Lan, which not only teaches viewers about the Mandarin Chinese language and Chinese values and culture but also guides social and emotional development via cause-and-effect problem solving. Often, one of Kai Lan’s animal friends will have some sort of pronounced negative emotional reaction to a situation which Kai Lan will attempt to remedy by observing the cause of the reaction and explaining to her friend, who clearly is letting their anger or frustration get the better of them, a different perspective or a better way to deal with their feelings.
The shows I describe in this post are just a handful of the amazing variety of programs available for young children on Sprout and Nick Jr. If you’re a parent of a young child and you don’t yet have these channels, I encourage you to contact your cable or satellite provider to see about getting them added to the channel line-up; if you do have the channels and either didn’t know about them or haven’t had the inclination to check them out, I encourage you to take some time to sample some of the shows with your children and see what they like. There are so many great shows that it would be a shame for your children to not benefit from and enjoy them.
Source: The New York Times