Left to her own devices (literally), she scans youtube for videos of off-screen adults playing with toys (which depresses the crap out of me) and 1990s-quality offshore Flash video of the same "Johnny finger" song in various copyright violating incarnations. The song is horrific. Do not go look it up unless you plan on having kids and want to inoculate yourself now, but writing this out I wonder if it's not her looking to simply enjoy something rather than constantly be prompted to solve a shitty math puzzle so we can move on with the plot.
All of this sounds like I am an awful father but in reality we limit her daily screen time to no more than 24 hours.
Chorlton and the Wheelies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Ng7VMqet0
Noggin the Nog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bKAYH3Sl8s
The Trapdoor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eEXyg1lsZc
Bod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfFoj-gFP2M
Bagpuss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9beAp3TG2E
...and, of course, the Clangers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Golf34zPQ
(There's a new series of the Clangers being made. Haven't watched any, I'm too scared it won't be up to the standards of the original...)
Oh! And I nearly forgot the Magic Roundabout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3DcChXNyYQ
There's also Mister Ben (not sure this stands the test of time) and Ivor the Engine.
(And I have fond memories of Danger Mouse, but I'm not sure that's any good either).
Also I appear to have remembered a fairly small selection of the 'children's television on drugs' genre. See also: Banamaman, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Roobarb and Custard, Captain Pugwash...
While talking about children's television: it's not British, and it's slightly later, but any person of any age who doesn't like Fraggle Rock has no soul.
It was co-produced by a British television company (TVS), and had specifically filmed inserts that replaced the Inventor with a Lighthouse owner (the sequences were arguably better too, certainly less rambling and more focused).
But even if you ignore the inserts (others were filmed worldwide) it's still partially British
In return I give you: The Wombles!
Stone soup...
Is it a translated version of Donnie Murdo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-5hII715_s
If you're implying drugs were involved I think it's a tad insulting to the creativity and artistry of the people behind these wonderful shows.
Original post edited --- ta.
Here's the thing, though. There's a tradeoff between setting limits and teaching children what's right and wrong; and teaching them how to decide for themselves what's what. This is why kids of a certain age often get cash allowances, for example.
Kids are going to grow up one day. They will watch porn, and they need to know what's what -- what's bizarre entertainment and what's intimate, whatever its kinky-ness level, sex. They will watch violent movies, and movies that depict amoral, despicable situations. And this is fine: we're always flirting with the edge of our morality and our knowledge, this is how we keep growing as humans. "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth."
This why I have long decided not to have kids. I don't have the kind of generosity to host a little person that at first can't walk on his own, but is already his own person. I don't know how fathers do it. I often think my father should be disapointed that I didn't become a musician like him or some other kind of high-brow artist, but instead a "numbers person" as he puts it. But he isn't disappointed. And just I had been warned, when you're 10, dads know everything; when you're 20, they're total fools; when you're 30, they're even wiser than you realized when you were a kid.
My dad knows something mysterious about Being and Life itself I can only glimpse from watching soccer with him. Foolish as some of his life choices have been.
Congratulations on being a parent!
Absolutely, but it's mysterious and nuanced and a giant pain in my analytical brain. Allowing her to wander off with a phone or tablet can be a life-saver when things need to be done without any outside "assistance" but our daughter is highly susceptible to a condition I have named "iPad Face" wherein a screen held at arm's length or closer (how I laugh about what my parents' generation would say about eyeballs so close to a TV) can turn the happiest of moods into a dark sulk.
The other problem is everything needs to be taught by example, not by legislative fiat, which is another PITA and a bit of a challenge in These Modern Times. Looking forward to getting her interested in video games so she has another excuse to never go outside!
Some shows I like of hers:
- Miles from Tomorrowland, a family adventuring in space with bits of science and physics thrown in
- Lost in Oz, it's decades later and Dorothy's daughter is into making gadgets and stuff, ends up in Oz. There's only 1 episode now but it's about to be a whole series on Amazon
- Wishenpoof, another Amazon title , little girl can make wishes come true with magic but she's constantly discovering she doesn't need magic to solve problems
- Barbie Spy Squad, it's decent even though all the other Barbie stuff I've seen is pretty fucked-up.
You get Glados running the automated closet and plotting for world fashion domination, only to be stopped by the evil switch being turned off again, a large part of the first episode is modelled on an Indiana Jones temple exploration, they often handle things like batteries and glitter in the real size form (so the battery is about half the size of the people).. it's surprisingly funny.
Regardless, I'm using it as my alias from now on.
I wonder whether someone is working on that, it really sounds like a good and interesting idea. Is there a system to parameterize clothes? Hm.. I would have joined the closet if I was Barbie, despite the relation with the 'evil' switch.
What is this referring to, exactly? Videos of (adults?) playing with toys?
OTOH, I've been thinking off and on about how to start a channel since it's clearly a great way to pay for kids' toys based on the one show we watched where a kid and his dad assembled a gigantic Spider-Man drivable car.
To be completely fair, I subscribe to more than a few blacksmithing, metalworking, machining, woodworking, and other heavy-duty crafty channels, and there's little-to-no chance that I'll ever get a lathe or a mill.
There's your self-licking ice cream clone. I wonder why it's so pleasurable to watch these kind of unboxing vids. Mirror neurons?
It's not all unboxing though, whole stories get acted out with toys and different camera angles and lots of editing. There's a lot of elaborate music video reenactments too, like the songs from Frozen.
Also 'findable' : The Clangers (charming 1970s show from the UK); Mr Men; Shaun the Sheep; Mr Benn.
All of these are 'gentle' but fun, and not really educational per-se. Even though you'll end up watching all of these again-and-again, Shaun the Sheep remains entertaining for parents too.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipper_the_Dog
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clangers
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Men
My wife and I are working through the old Tom and Jerry cartoons with our toddler, and we are shocked to see how much blackface there is. Like, okay, I get it was a different time- but the quantity is shocking. Episodes where it doesn't even have to happen, they'll just quickly mock black people and then get back to the plot.
If you want a complicated viewing experience, track down Clampett's "So White An' De Sebben Dwarves", which is positively bursting with energy and love, for both the craft of animation, and the jazz scene of the day... and a whoooole lotta visuals that just aren't okay any more.
Kids aren't dumb, they just lack refined thinking models adults develop as they grow up. Eg: I think we all have experienced reading again something we read young and loved and finding a lot more meaning in it.
(I'd still avoid showing some things to them of course.)
At first, it's about a robot and another robot doing stuff. Then they're on a journey. Then the desire for friendship. And hospital. Then (gradually) the idea of different motivations comes in. Perhaps some ecology. Then conflict, etc.
All the while, my daughter is delightfully more interested in robots and space travel than standard 'pink princess' fare.
Of course, YMMV.
My favourite example of this comes from comics:
Try looking at Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run (issue #20 or 21 of volume 2 - the 1982 revival). It's a masterpiece that is well worth reading as an adult.
Now try looking at early 80's X-Men. While e.g. Days of Future Past is good, one of the reasons some of the arcs like Days of Future Past stands out so much is that many of these series were so full of excessive amounts of tedious exposition recapping things that just happened and reminding about and explaining things to the reader all the time, and the standouts were the few exceptions that treated the reader as a person with somewhat more mental capacity than a goldfish.
At the time, I didn't see the difference. I enjoyed X-Men and Swamp Thing equally. Now, going back and looking at those old X-Men issues is - with a few exceptions - almost painful and only worth it for the nostalgia.
We'd make a "movie night" of it and watch it together, bunched up in the sofa, with some cheese doodles.
The 20 minute episodes were just about short enough to keep their attention. (At age 3 & 5.)
It's sweet, fun, no violence, no words (almost). Used to be quite popular (outside anglophonic countries I guess)
The subtitle of the show was (is?) "Lach- und Sachgeschichten" (roughly "stories to laugh about and stories to learn from") hinting at the format: some clips were pure entertainment and some were educational. The show is still running though the format has changed a bit over the decades I think.
[0]: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PNRrOGJqUI for an example of a 1990s explanation of how the Internet works (with live action re-enactments of DNS resolution and data transfer).
My kids will come and tell me when it shows up in between all the braindead stuff because they know I'll sit together with them. Same goes for Tom&Jerry (eh, the part about me sitting down to watch TV, not the part about hidden references.)
Edit: oh, and I found the Winnie the Pooh audiobook from before Disney bought it and turned it into another educational timewaster. Kids have learned to like it as well.
This is likely in part deliberate. A significant amount of Teen Titans Go seems to be about taking potshots that those who enjoyed the original cartoon. Like 'Revenge of Slade' and its entire plot being a poorly disguised lecture on how fans of the first cartoon shouldn't want this one to be more than randomness for really young kids.
Which of course means anyone actually in the target demographic would have no clue what half the episode means. It's simultaneously confusing to young kids and infuriating to older viewers at the same time.
You're totally right about the Johnny Finger song too. It's at least 30% of all youtube-kids content.
pbs kids is much better "educationally", meaning i guess the danes and the article author would hate it. the point of numbers and letters at an early age is not some parental obsession "achievement" but rather acclimation to things critical to life. you can't read -- whatever the hell you like to read -- if you can't spell, and for us, the sooner our kids can read themselves the better.
Amazing that Google thinks that unboxing videos of products paid by the companies to the "entertainers" is good content for developing minds. I was under the assumption that app was curated, but it must not be.
Amazon's Freetime Unlimited with a Kindle and a soft case has been the best setup so far. Lots of educational stuff from PBS, but they can also mix in the Pokemon or super hero cartoons.
Surprisingly (or not), the kids sort of gravitate towards the more educational PBS shows.
Educational entertainment is more about parents than education. However, kids also like to learn things so interesting and educational are frequently linked when done well.
PS: If you actually want to teach kids to read then integrating subtitles and story seems like a great option.
...and those wouldn't be so bad if they were not terrible at teaching math or reading or morals.
As a child I never watched TV with any regularity but that and Sesame Street stick out in my mind above all the cartoons and other shows I watched.
From another angle, showing events with consistent and guaranteed moral consequences could be seen as mis-educating viewers that if people misbehave then benign forces will appear on the scene, putting things to rights and dealing out appropriate punishments and rewards.
Sadly, in the real world, this is far from often the case.
Obviously, you don't want kids to grow up thinking "great, I'll be a bully and a thief, I'll get what I want and nothing will happen to me," but neither would I want them to grow up thinking "I'll just go along with whatever shit unpleasant people throw my way because something bad will happen to them before long without me having to do anything, and my innate goodness will be rewarded automatically."
[1] NSFW: Purno de Purno episode called the "The big nude woman" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUIbD-SASjo
[0] http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/29/47221130...
Not full of sex references, but definitely politically incorrect dialogues and some swear words for good measure. I don't think it had any negative impact on my childhood ;).
I'm no child psychologist, but I'd even tentatively argue it could be damaging.
I remember being a kid and seeing both: shows that tried to teach me, and shows that were entertaining. I remember even young-me rolling my eyes at "educational" shows. Sure, some were great, but most of the time, I'd rather watch the entertaining ones, because I didn't feel like they were pushing something onto me.
Once I got into school, I realized "oh, it's more of this educational crap". I clearly remember being skeptical of whatever they taught me, because, once again, it felt like they were pushing something onto me.
The same thing with games (video and non). I hated games that tried to teach me things. There was a clear contrast of quality between entertainment games, and learning games.
I've started describing it to people as: British shows are designed to entertain first, and perhaps kids can learn something, whereas the US approach is THOU SHALT MAKE SURE CHILDREN UNDERSTAND RIGHT AND WRONG!.
I am raising Danish kids abroad myself so I have watched a fair share of the Ramasjang shows from here.
To be fair, Danish children's shows are often inspired by American shows, to the point where many of the characters are - visually - clones of popular American versions: Check out this bird from what is maybe the most popular Danish children's show ever (5 sec in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGOf_cV5ebc Looks like Big Bird. Or this popular show, Ramajetterne, which is visually completely like Sesame Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-jk_VuoJsg
Kids (or adults) don't learn from lecturing nearly as much as we do from modeling and direct experience.
For me, this article was more about the reaction of someone raised with sterile and condescending media presence now witnessing an experience that does not underestimate children's intelligence.
It is about what USA-nians consider "unhealthy" children's television.
Exactly.
Yes there is a time to spell things out, but by and large, kids learn by emulation. That's why the cliché "do as I say, not what I do" fails.
And more generally, that applies to adults as well. Most of us pick up more knowledge and life lessons from those who live it, than from explicit teaching. Sure a dump of information is good here and there at various stages of the mastery process, but that's a minority in the journey.
They where mostly products of the seventies and I would argue they where educational by not being pedagogic.
I am more annoyed by my youngest who watch YouTube kids. He is not just watching "ABC" but also shows about other children who play.
In some ways it's the same as the Danish shows yet filled with product placement stuff so I guess I kind of understand how Danish children shows must feel to foreigners.
At the end we probably shouldn't worry too much. At those ages kids don't really learn as much as evolve.
I'm Dutch but my wife is Danish. She does her utmost best confronting our kids with Danish TV (we live in Holland), so I understand a bit of what the author is on about. I was initially surprised as well.
Truth is, it _is_ entertaining! But most importantly, once you get past the absolutely amateuristic way things are shot (hey, the kids don't care, why should you?), there's a lot of depth to a lot of it. You need to let that depth sink in a bit before you can see the value of it.
For example, the article about Kaj and Andreea:
Probably most striking, though, is another thing lacking: education. Quite simply, there is none, academic or moral. “Kaj and Andrea”, a pair of puppets, are sweet friends, but also goofily flawed: Kaj is terribly self-obsessed, Andrea is warbling and neurotic. When other characters do something wrong, there is little of the obvious consequence-and-lesson resolution of American shows; the results are usually left to speak for themselves.
The lovely thing here is that it is educative, but it's up to the watcher to draw the lesson. Kaj's self-obsession is usually very funny and rather ridiculous. It teaches kids "wow, it's pretty ridiculous to be so self-obsessed". And at the same time it teaches kids that even if you're flawed, that's ok - both Kaj and Andreea appreciate one another and are appreciated and respected by the human co-hosts of their TV shows. This is something that I've not really seen anywhere else.
I'm not convinced that kids learn lessons like these better when it's spelled out for them.