Good TV/DVD Programs for Young Children

Nowadays, TV has become part of our live and there is hardly any families without this black box at home. There is a countless number of TV programs available for children and it's good to be careful and selective on the shows. Good shows can help to supplement our teaching and reinforce the good values. Avoiding long hours of watching TV is also necessary to prevent the strain and deterioration of the eyesight. I typically set the limit to about 30 minutes as I hope that my children (unlike me) will not need glasses, and definitely, not from a young age!

Some programs my children love to watch are:

• Barney - a purple dinosaur from imagination who is a playmate cum teacher. The show is very musical and instills good values like good manners, cleanliness and loving each other. It is typically more popular among girls and children can start watching from age 1. My girl loves Barney a lot! Highly recommended.


• Elmo from the Sesame Streets is a little red puppet who talks in a funny way. Together with other characters like Ernie and Cookie Monster, it is able to attract little children from age 1. Amazingly, before you realize, your kids will have already mastered the ABCs and 123s!


• Thomas and Friends - Thomas the tank engine is one of the most popular characters among boys! Adults may find the TV program quite monotonous but somehow the kids enjoy it. Besides, the standard of English used is quite high especially in terms of vocabulary. My boy is a big fan of Thomas (and my girl as well!). He owns quite a number of Thomas goods including the TOMY series of train playset, books and jigsaw puzzles.


• Bob the Builder exposes the children to the world of constructions (building/fixing houses and roads). His crew members include Scoop the digger, Dizzy the cement mixer, Lofty the crane, Roley the steam roller and many others. My kids start enjoying this show from about age 2.


• Little Einstein is a very good program that my son enjoys watching from about age 4. The 4 characters travel on a rocket that brings the kids to places around the world to accomplish a mission. The children learn about famous spots, cities and countries around the world, musical instruments, famous artists/composers and their works, and basic skills of reading music scores. Highly recommended.


• Dora the Explorer - a bilingual (English and Spanish) adventurous girl who solves problem together with the children along her journey. It often touches on protecting wild animals.

There are other types of programs which is more educational to stimulate the infants' brains or teach the children how to read etc., that I will share in another article in the future.

Just a side note, as my personal preference, I refrain my kids from watching programs that show violence like fighting and shooting (for example, Ben 10 and Power Rangers). I also dislike characters like Barbie doll that introduces materialism to the kids.