Oh and I don't think that everything has to be educational, as long as it's not teaching bad things it's fine, they've got tons of time to get the education part.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Yo Gabba Gabba has got to be the worst for rotting kids brains.
That said, I think most of the content on Treehouse is fine, it's all in what you do with it. I like to get my daughter to explain the shows to me; the characters, why things happen they way they do, which characters she likes/dislikes and why, how things work in the world of the show, stuff like that. She's being analytical without realizing it, and having fun at the same time, so its all good.
Personally, I think kids are far, far, smarter than what TV shows pander to them. Blaming TV for what ails kids is shortsighted, IMHO.
Will take your point on Yo Gabba Gabba as I mentioned it to someone we had over for diner last night and she looked at me like I had 3 eyes! With your comment I may have to skip this one on the PVR. I had taped a few episodes thus far as it is on at strange times. I looked into the show a bit after hearing some of the music which I was impressed by (the guest bands that is) and the show did seem to have good messages? No? Maybe let me know more about how you feel it rots kids brains as I would be interested in your take? Is it the overly silly characters or is there some off base content that I am not catching? The most recent show I say yesterday was teaching about a) be nice to everyone b) don't give up keep trying c) love one another. At the end of the show they sumarize the core messages that they had talked about? What possible rotting of minds am I missing here?
Ok, call me a bad parent, but I have about 10 episodes of "The Backyardigans" on the PVR right now. My 1 year old loves it. Dad loves it when I need him to just shutup for 15 minutes. In all honesty though, he gets bored with TV really quickly. Why waste time watching TV when there are cupboards with stuff in them that can be emptied out? I think the key to TV, is moderation. There are a few really educational shows on, but 4 hours straight of anything is too much.
If you want to rant about treehouse, watch an episode of Four Square. Now that, my friends, is freaky. You got the chick yelling Hitler-esque commands (HUP!!!) at 2 dudes wearing a unitard with a cup underneath. *shivers*
Ok, call me a bad parent, but I have about 10 episodes of "The Backyardigans" on the PVR right now. My 1 year old loves it. Dad loves it when I need him to just shutup for 15 minutes. In all honesty though, he gets bored with TV really quickly. Why waste time watching TV when there are cupboards with stuff in them that can be emptied out? I think the key to TV, is moderation. There are a few really educational shows on, but 4 hours straight of anything is too much.
If you want to rant about treehouse, watch an episode of Four Square. Now that, my friends, is freaky. You got the chick yelling Hitler-esque commands (HUP!!!) at 2 dudes wearing a unitard with a cup underneath. *shivers*
Yep, Four Square is one that the kids and adults can agree on as being unwatchable! Can't see it lasting much longer!
Didn't intend to "blame" Tv for anything, just trying to point out that the changes I perceive in programming trends could be one possible slice of the pie graph of reasons for an increase in attention related disorder diagnoses.
I guess I tend to be a somewhat dramatic writer at times.
And I promise this is the last Square One clip I post tonight. This one is friggin' great though. Math Propaganda!!
And photon, I agree, that is a beautiful looking show. Is it really claymation? Seems so smooth.
__________________
Last edited by Save Us Sutter; 05-27-2008 at 12:01 AM.
Didn't intend to "blame" Tv for anything, just trying to point out that the changes I perceive in programming trends could be one possible slice of the pie graph of reasons for an increase in attention related disorder diagnoses.
I guess I tend to be a somewhat dramatic writer at times.
And I promise this is the last Square One clip I post tonight. This one is friggin' great though. Math Propaganda!!
And photon, I agree, that is a beautiful looking show. Is it really claymation? Seems to smooth.
Interesting topic as I had never really thought about the treehouse programming too deeply, but this post has caused me to, so you did your job! Now back to adult programming for you!
You just have to pick and choose which ones to watch.. I mean most kids should only get a few shows a day anyway right?
Babar is still there and I like that one. Dora and Diego are not bad, Blues Clues is pretty good.
My favorite one for my son is Toopy and Binoo, total imagination show which he really likes.
My daughter is almost 2 1/2. She asks to watch Treehouse quite often, and we do let her watch it. For the most part, I PVR the episodes of shows that I have already watched and approve of. On the days we are at home for the whole day (not very many), there are wwo or three times each day we sit and watch a show together; ussually right after breakfast, and/or before nap time, and/or before bedtime.
The shows she likes are Franklin and Little Bear. She also likes Diego and The Backyardigans. I think Babar is also good, but my daughter doesnt understand the 'hard' lessons they sometimes try to teach and ends up quite sad, so we dont watch it yet.
our daughter also loves treehouse... She doesn't get to watch it often but love Toopie and beanoo, Deigo and Dragon Tales..
Most of it is harmless... I agree with the above posters that ruby and max is brutal as is that crazy thunderbirds Indian show.
My 20 month old daughter has recently gotten interested in TV. Before a commercial with piano music, a radio station commercial or lifetime channel identification caught her attention for those few seconds.
Then she started to realize there were dogs and cats on a lot of commercials so she started paying more attention to it.
The last two weeks she has really loved to watch Elmo and Farzzle. Elmo is annoying but it's for 15 minutes and she only really likes the Elmo parts if he's not on the screen she turns the palms of her hands up and says "Elmo where go?". She also likes Backyardigans which isn't that bad of a show. She likes to sway/dance to the songs. But don't ever think a kid doesn't learn from these shows as she's constantly asking "What's that" and has started to try some of the actions such as jumping, flying etc..
That said it's not like she watches a ton of TV. She gets to watch one Elmo or Backyardigans a day and one Farzzle. A total of 20 minutes of TV. The time is pretty small in comparison to all the books we read to her every day.
I'm in the Treehouse is OK camp. Yes only in moderation and absolutely NO Max & Ruby.
My sons 3 favorite shows are Rolie Polie Olie, The Wonder Pets & Play with me Sesame.
Rolie Polie Olie won a Gemini Award for "Best Animated Program" in 1999. The show also won a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Special Class Animated Program" in 1999 and 2000. William Joyce (the show is based on his books) won a 1999 Daytime Emmy for Best Production Design for this series. James Woods even leant his voice to the DVD "Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun".
The Wonder Pets develops vocabulary and the concept of teamwork in pre-schoolers. The main characters are three elementary school classroom pets — Linny the Guinea Pig, Turtle Tuck, and Ming-Ming Duckling. They are a trio of heroes who rescue baby animals as they demonstrate the benefits of teamwork. A good deal of the show is singing, a 10-member live orchestra performs each episode, sometimes including other instrumentalists skilled in music from the region to which the pets are traveling during the episode.
The only issue I have with The Wonder Pets is that Ming-Ming kinda speaks in "baby talk" besides that I let my son watch this no problem.
Play with me Seasame is a 20 min show that encourages children to get up and get active. It features Muppets from Sesame Street, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover & Prairie Dawn for the most part. No issues here.
As others have mentioned the channels has both good and bad programming. Overall it's a great tool but doesn't replace parenting.
Ok, call me a bad parent, but I have about 10 episodes of "The Backyardigans" on the PVR right now. My 1 year old loves it. Dad loves it when I need him to just shutup for 15 minutes. In all honesty though, he gets bored with TV really quickly. Why waste time watching TV when there are cupboards with stuff in them that can be emptied out? I think the key to TV, is moderation. There are a few really educational shows on, but 4 hours straight of anything is too much.
If you want to rant about treehouse, watch an episode of Four Square. Now that, my friends, is freaky. You got the chick yelling Hitler-esque commands (HUP!!!) at 2 dudes wearing a unitard with a cup underneath. *shivers*
That show reminds me of the skit Mike Meyers used to do on Saturday night live where he was that german guy in spandex yelling out stuff like "Expand!!! Contract" and flailing about. It used to be scarier when the main guy was called "Captain Hup" and there was two other guys and a girl. Captain Hup would yell out commands and the rest of his SS troppers would goose step into line behind him. Then they'd all band together and carry the single female out of frame. Very sketchy.
The best kids show I've seen isn't on Treehouse but rather PBS and it is World World. Absolutely brilliant concept and some decent humour in it, unlike those boring bunnies Max & Ruby.
Berenstein Bears isn't a depiction of a functional family. In fact, I don't let my kids watch that one. Any show that shows the dad as basically a fool that can't help but screw up is off limits in my house.
Every word out of momma's mouth is a lecture. What a nag!
You should try listening to that damn turtle "Franklin". That kid is such a freaking whiner... wah, I lost my cardboard sword... wah, I lost my stupid stuffed dog... wah, my friend bear won't have a threesome with me and goose...
My kid watched Treehouse when she was younger and she seems OK now.
The only show I really couldn't stand, as in be in the same room, but reading a book, was Wee 3. Gawd I can't stand that one.
Anyways,for you people who don't think it is good for kids. You could always turn it to Retro Toons station for some good old Coyote and Roadrunner action.
Nice to have a thread on here for the parent set. It's amusing reading the various takes on these shows. Our kids are 3 and 1, and they are lucky to get 30 minutes of TV a day. But when they do it is Treehouse, or a Treehouse show on DVD.
Like others have said, we don't have much problem with the content. The nasty thing about Treehouse is that without commercials it is non-stop programming that changes every 20 minutes. So it's like crack to little kids - highly addictive. But if you ration the kids it's not too bad.
My 3 year old likes most of the shows but particularly Barney, Backyardigans, Franklin, and Toopy and Beeno. Personally I can't stand the Backyardigans and think it's just drivel - but the rest of the shows do have their virtues in terms of the messages/lessons they teach.
The programming is consistent with small children. And they do learn,
but as with everything else, you have to be the parent. Ration the TV
to them.
Dora had my daughter counting in Spanish, and learning other words
as well. To the point where she could recognize people were speaking
in Spanish. It also taught her the idea about other languages, and
that not everyone understands English.
Other shows, like Little Bear, teach the lessons like sharing, giving,
kindness, cooperation, and so on. Some try to establish the concept
of respect for others.
As for Ruby, I want to buy a squeaky Ruby doll just so I can kick
it around in defense of poor Max.
My girlfriend has a 3 year old daughter that loves Treehouse. We'll pretty much let her watch whatever she wants, but we had to draw the line at "Into the Night Garden". This is by far the stupidest thing going. It's basically these mini-teletubbies running around doing what can only be described as random garbage. No lessons, just crap.
As an adult watching Treehouse, I always amuse myself by thinking about what it would be like if the food chain kicked in on these shows. Like if one day, Little Bear just annihilated all of his friends, and chased the girl around the forest. Or if the turtles on Franklin acted like the ones in Devonian Gardens that just stay in one position for 5 minutes and then climb on the other turtles and push them off rocks. That's real life.
