When my two year old wakes up in the morning, one of the first words out of his mouth is “Chica,” in addition to “fruit bar” and “hungry.” When he says “Chica,” he means he wants to watch The Sunny Side Up show on Sprout. Chica is a cute little chicken puppet who plays one of the hosts. Sprout is the PBS preschool channel which offers Sesame Street, Barney, Caillou (his favorite), The Wiggles, and a few other educational shows.
During my two year old’s first year of life, we spent the majority of the day with the TV off. I would hear about my friends’ kids who would watch TV and I always said to myself, “We don’t need to watch TV.” Then my son would go visit his grandparents and while I didn’t like knowing he was watching TV, my mom would tell me how much he enjoyed dancing to the songs and seemed very engaged in the shows. After a few of those conversations, I decided to give in a little and we turned the TV on at different times during the day.
I saw him dancing with the kids on the shows and trying to sing the catchy songs. I even found myself singing the songs to him and dancing with him, on occasion. There is always a lot of laughter between us and I know those are great memories being made.
Since then, I have always enjoyed watching this channel with him because I know he loves it and I’ve found many teachable moments for him as we watch it together. I’ve also enjoyed the fact that he’s found something to keep his interest because while he’s watching TV I can get a lot of things accomplished without worrying why he’s being so quiet.
Lately, I’ve heard more than a few moms concerned about how much time their child is spending watching TV. I, too, share in that concern, and I don’t want him watching TV all day long. While I enjoy the things he’s learning, such as counting and his ABCs, I don’t like seeing him sit on the sofa in such a zombie state. If I get in the way of his view, he will do anything he can to look around me at the TV. And, trying to talk to him while Caillou is on is basically wasted breath.
Do you allow your child to watch TV? If so, what channel is a favorite in your home? Do you have a set schedule for TV time?
We watch Sprout too Jamie. Weston loves the Wiggles and is obsessed with Super Why. I typically turn it on after breakfast so that I can unload the dishwasher and clean up our mess! He also typically watches one show in the afternoon after his nap and snack. I interact with my son all day long, we sing, we play, we read, we go outside, we go and play with friends. I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with him watching a little tv daily. Great article!
Yes, he loves Super Why too and I love that we can work on our letters together when the big alphabet screen is up. I think the interaction part is KEY! Thanks for making me feel better, Steph!
I have a 4 yr old boy when he was a baby I ordered the babys first tv station on directtv and it had lots of programming at night that was soothing and helpful for keeping Carter calm in the bouncy seat while I got some housework done or unwound from a busy day. As he got a little older we started watching anything and everything sprout offered disneys toddler programming, and nick Jr (which was noggin then). I had to be careful and make sure it was something educatonal like Dora or something on nick. He is now.in love with bubble guppies. :). And even bough we now allow him to watch some bigger kids shows like phineus and ferb he still loves sprout. I can tell you watching the educational interactive shows developed his speech quicker along with shapes, colors, numbers , and more! I have seen friends.kids.that have not watched much tv and they do.not.have the vocabulary or social skills that my son and his friends that have watched.these shows!
I can see how it helps with the speech development, too! I’ve really felt like he started talking more because he wanted to repeat what they were saying on Sprout. Thanks for sharing your experience. 🙂
I know everyone has different opinions about TV for little ones. I am one of those people, maybe it’s my ADD, but I can’t have total silence. I have to have background noise, aka the TV, even if I’m not watching it. But I don’t let my daughter watch random TV. Our TV is on Nick Jr and occasionally PBS for the shows she really likes on there. She really has learned so much just from her educational shows. She will come up to me and say something that I know darned well I hadn’t taught her yet, because I wasn’t sure she was the right age or able to absorb it yet. She came up to me at 15 months and counted to 3 on her own, with no prompting. She will point things out and interact with the shows, dance to the music and sing along. She is barely 2 and she knows her alphabet, numbers, colors and so many other things that aren’t usually learned until preschool years, which is why I am starting to do preschool work with her here at home. The things she picks up from her shows are amazing and what amazes me the most is the details she picks up on. So while I think that little ones shouldn’t have a lot, if any senseless television, I think the educational shows on Nick Jr and PBS have taught my daughter so much!!
I am quite the opposite when it comes to background noise, but my husband is just like you. I love nap time because I know that there will be peace and quiet. My husband wants to have the radio and TV on at the same time. It makes me crazy, but works for him. 🙂 I’m glad to hear positive story about your TV experience.
I am not a morning person so my 4 year old will go watch tv so I can sleep a little longer. He loves mickey mouse and little Einsteins. I like to limit it to 2 hours or less a day. My 2 year old doesn’t watch much tv yet. He doesn’t like to sit still 😉
When our little one wakes up SUPER DUPER early, we put him in our bed and turn the TV on just so we can get a little bit more sleep. I know EXACTLY where you’re coming from. 🙂
we have 3 tv times of the day…our 2 year old wakes up at 6:30…so by the time we eat breakfast and get dressed its only 7ish-am! so she will watch a seseme street, sid the science kid or a barney(we dont have cable…only netflix) while i clean up breakfast, do dishes start laundry, feed our 4 month so on….then its turned off….then after nap Piper can be a bear while she is still wakeing up so we watch another 30ish minutes while she eats her snack and wakes up…then its off again…then as a part of her bedtime routine (bath, elmo, books, prayer, bed) we watch a 20min elmos world to wind down. that is our TV routine pretty much everyday during the week…on the weekends (with daddy:) we will watch longer movies (toy story 3, tangled, princess and the frog, etc…mostly pixar and disney movies). Not sure if thats good or bad…but i feel like it is an appropriate amout of tv time for our family:) and I feel she is always learing from the things we watch….and since we dont have cable our shows are VERY reguated:)
I think you hit the nail on the head! It’s all about whatever works best for your family! I like your routine. 🙂