My husband and I agreed that our daughter wouldn’t start watching videos until at least two years old. That translated into frustration, lack of free time for us, adaptation, and above all, playing and reading all the books again and again. And again. Before letting her watch anything, we watch on our own toddler/preschoolers TV shows du jour. Some of these shows are rude, disrespectful, consumerism-oriented, and have no real educative purpose.
So, when Peppa Pig was out, I found that some of our favorite book characters were animated in a slow, easy-on-the-young eye frame-per-second movement.
I’m talking about…Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy! It is hard to find non-anthropomorphic cartoons about animals with exquisite rhyme and repetition, perfect for the language acquisition skills that happen around two years of age.
After a few months, close to 3 years, we discovered Mr Rogers. What a national treasure that man was! We found videos either on www.misterrogers.org or Vimeo.
Another firm favorite is Cosmic Kids Yoga.
After these years, we know how to read her mood after watching. Well in advance, we let her know that screen time will soon be over. If there are tantrums, screaming, shouting, we’ll think twice about watching that particular video again.
I installed only one application on the tablet, Khan Academy Kids: massive content, free with no ads. Literacy, math, social, emotional skills, this application has absolutely everything covered. In my opinion, this is the ultimate learning application for preschoolers. I wrote about how a study showed that the Khan Academy Kids application improves pre-literacy skills in this article.
When I find something new to watch, I like to see a review on Common Sense Media. Next on our watching list is Puffin Rock (Irish animation with Chris O’Dowd’s voice).
Now that I’m looking over my recommendations, I realize that most of them have that old-school animation/TV show slowness, which I suppose is not a terrible thing for the budding brain of a child. As we are already galloping through a new century, I have no doubt life will try to make us move into a faster, ever faster routine.
Update January 2021: Dinosaur Train on Netflix, and I can cook! series from BBC. We tried a few recipes, and crispy fish fingers are our favorite.
Update February 2021: Bluey on Disney Junior. This show is the #1 favorite for the entire family. All three of us are watching it. It looks like a combination between Mr Rogers and Lawrence Cohen, the author of Playful Parenting.
Update November 2021: Pettson and Findus episodes based on the charming books of Swedish author Sven Nordqvist.
Update November 2022: Frog and Toad playlists, Frog and Toad Are Friends and Frog and Toad Together, based on the wonderful stories of Arnold Lobel.
If you want to read more about some more recommendations, other articles are about:
- Books for 0-6-year-olds
- Books for 6-9-year-olds
- Four Compassionate Picture Books For Children About Death
- Mummy, Where do Babies Come from? A Few Books to Spark a Gentle Introduction to a Sensitive Topic
- The Wisdom of Children’s Book “The Missing Piece meets the Big O” in Describing Relationships, Breakups, and Self-Discovery
- Wimmelbooks
- Shopping Recommendations