Best children's shows

Mickey Mouce Clubhouse, Dora and Olivia dominate our toddler's TV time.

MMC and Dora both incorporate a lot of teaching tools with the entertainment.

Olivia drives me a little batty.

One she hasn't gotten into that our older daughter loved was Veggie Tales. Has some religious undertones but it doesn't smack in the face with it and the humor is actually pretty good.

 

I hate Wonder Pets, mainly because I think Ming Ming the Duckling's speech impediment is bad for kids.

My little cousins love Dora.

 

No love for Handy Manny? Our two-year-old likes that, Mickey and Dora, Diego and the Wonder Pets on Nick Jr. Probably loves Moose A. and the in-between stuff the most, though.

 

What about Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood?
Handyman Negri is a cool guitar player.

http://www.joenegri.com/audio/Caravan.mp3

 

This appeared on Yo Gabba Gabba, and I swear it's the greatest thing ever to appear on a children's program. Classic 2-tone ska style:

 

That's awesome. I be skankin' to that. Love the hat and the suit the guy is rockin'.

 

The Wonder Pets are good.
My wife hates how I change their song from "We're not too big, and we're not too tough," to "We're not too big and we're not too bright"

 

Every time that episode is on I have that song in my head for days.

 

The "Little Airplanes" studios is near my office in NYC and I spoke with some of the creators of the Wonder Pets when I checked out their gift shop. They do put a decent amount of thought into the show -- the episode in Venice had a lot of great little details. Plus the episode with the baby chimp was hilarious. On the downside, the same people created Oobi.

 

Probably typical reactionary me, but I quit letting my daughter watch when I read some study that kids TV programs hamper language development. One theory being that the puppets' and cartoons' mouths don't form words... and a human can only learn words by watching a human speak them.

I will say that my daughter loves books and pretend playing by herself (she's 3). After the initial protest from her, I figured out boredom can really be your friend.