Top Five Programs on Television for Pre-Schoolers

While television in the past has been known for 'rotting' minds and making children less active, there are programs nowaday that promote exercise, learning and more importantly getting out and being just plain active. with a slew of programming on nowadays for children everywhere, I've compiled a list of what I feel are the five best baby and toddler age programs on television.

Lazy Town

The best way to describe Lazy Town is to simply say it's a program about a small town (that can be from practically anywhere) that is called Lazy Town. The whole story line began when a girl named Stephanie comes to Lazy Town to stay with her uncle. Stephanie notices right away that everyone has the energy of a sleeping slug in town and her uncle tells her about a superhero who wore a number 9 on his jumper. It makes it appear quite clear why the town is named as it is, however, Stephanie is not too happy with how lethargic the other children (who are puppets for lack of a better description) are.

Meanwhile down underneath Lazy Town the 'bad boy' Robbie Rotten takes notice of Stephanie and her desire for activity. In fact, he begins to panic as she clears away a special tube mailbox and shoots a letter straight up in the air in hopes of contacting this number 9 hero. However, as the letter goes up into the air ship you see the hero within wears a 10 - the follow up to 9.

10 introduces himself as Sportacus much to Robbie Rotten's displeasure and he assists Stephanie in getting Lazy Town to be anything but lazy. Through a series of musical songs, different moral lessons like brushing your teeth and eating fruit (code name: sports candy) the show goes well beyond just being active. It teaches the importance of a healthy diet, the value of friendship and the equally important teamwork.
Lazy Town originated in Iceland, the creation of Magnus Sheving, who also plays Sportacus in the television series.

Dora The Explorer

For the past few years Dora has been teaching children more than just basic spanish words. In fact, beyond this little child teaching language, the show features basic map instructions, such as following directions in order to reach their ultimate destination - be it Dora's house or a sporting event. Dora is a cartoon above all else with catchy, easy to remember songs like, "Come on, Vamanos! Everybody let's go!" using the spanish wording right along with its translation.

Dora The Explorer features a small story line but nothing that is really important to the story. Each adventure starts out with Dora introducing herself and her companion, Boots The Monkey. The story progresses into the duo having to go somewhere else for any number of reasons, such as Dora having to go home for her mother's giving birth (which we learn at the end of the show are twins). Dora and Boots have three spots on the map to get to their location. They start out singing the places in order in a way that is easy to remember, such as, "Bridge, Forest, Dora's House" (merely an example, mind you). As they progress through each area a little band of insects play a triumph song and Dora marks off where they're going, such as "We've crossed the bridge. Next comes the Forest!" However, along the way Swiper the Fox may come and try to steal something of theirs to prevent them from completing their task. This reinforces the 'stealing/swiping is wrong' rule.

As Dora and Boots make it to their destination, they complete their task and perform the "We did it" song in triumph. Then comes the small recap, with Dora asking the user what their favorite part of the quest was, then in turn responds with boots.

The Backyardigans

The Backyardigans are rather newish to children, but, already well loved for their uniqueness and musical spectrum. The Backyardigans, unlike other animations on television, are computer graphics. Yes, just like Shrek and Finding Nemo, only on a much shorter scale.

The program has no plotline except for five young animal children (such as Pablo the Penguin, to name one) share a large backyard and many adventures that take place right within that small perimeter. How can these children have adventures in a small area? Simple. This program is about using the imagination to see beyond what is there.

These little children not only sing a wide variety of styles of music such as bebop, country and even rock, but they also weave vague bits of historic accuracy into their stories: such as an adventure in ancient egypt and even an excursion on a pirate ship to find buried treasure.

While the number of children vary depending on what the episode is about, the children display all the right ways to play well with others and make their time together worthwhile. At the end of each episode the children return to reality for snack time, which is always hosted by a different parent per show and the snack is almost always something healthy.

Blues Clues

Blues Clues is definitely one of the older and best programs on Nick Jr. Having gone seamlessly from one host to another citing them as brothers, Blues Clues is basically a guessing game, when you get down to it with various lessons that you learn depending on the show. Some instill waiting, how to make that more fun if you're little such as singing a song, "wait.. wait.. wait!" instead of whining and getting anxious. Blues Clues also shifted into beyond a person in front of a green screen to a three dimensional puppet-like show for a while that was named Blues Room.
Blues Clues features songs that little children can easily pick up and remember and has numerous memorable characters like Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper, along with their two children Paprika and Cinnamon.

The program is somewhat fantasy, however also on occasion features a deaf person signing. While it's often normally unnoticed by others, at the end of the program during the end song Joe or Steve sign "thank you" as they sing.

What else does Blues Clues feature? Matching games, season learning and even a large variety of color games - expanding beyond just the standard rainbow colors. Mixing colors to get blue green, for instance.
Blues Clues has been a favorite of children for quite a few years and no doubt will remain one for quite a while longer.

Little Einsteins

Everyone who has watched television or has small children knows that according to research young children advance better when given classical music to listen to. That is the basis of Little Einsteins. Music. Secondly art appreciation.

Little Einsteins are four children, one a conductor, one a ballerina, one a singer and one an instrumentalist who have a flying rocketship that takes them on adventures far and wide - all surrounding one particular classic song and artist. What kind of artists have they used? One of the most memorable episodes I remember watching with my daughter involved Van Gogh's Starry Night. They incorporate the music to fit with the art style as well they can, however, they sometimes give the classical music lyrics. However, most of the times the children pick up on the sound and in no time flat your little one will possibly be humming "Fur Elise" out of the blue.

This also teaches children that not all music has lyrics and stresses the importants of giving proper credit to these geniuses of past.

Little Einsteins have games they play on these adventures, such as guessing what instrument is playing based on sound. This reinforces a child to listen carefully so that they can identify things properly.

The show ends with the children going on stage and applauding the musician, naming the song and composer properly, then applauding the piece of artwork and the respective artist. The show plays out in certain ways like a small orchestra, however, is very addicting to little ones... and even us kids at heart.

Children's Programming has sure increased from the days when Sesame Street and Romper Room were number ones. With all the technological advances such as 3-dimensional programming, these shows not only delight the young ones, but also give the parents a chance to learn some new things too, such as the case with Little Einsteins. Each of these programs has some small similarity to the others, but is genuine in its goal to teach the young. For those parents who think these shows won't amuse you, give them a try and maybe you soon will be singing along with your little ones. While setting a child in front of a television for long periods of time isn't considered a good idea, at least you know if you have to there are excellent programs for your young ones to learn from - almost like pre-school at home.