OT - kid videos/tv shows
We've pretty much kept our 3 year old boy away from screens thus far. But he is getting exposed as he visits friends and relatives and is now occasionally asking to watch something at home. Anticipating that we will eventually succumb and allow some screen time I have been looking at what is out there.
It pretty much seems to be garbage.
And suggestions as to what videos/tv shows are out there for a 3 year old that are not overbearingly silly, low quality and sometimes just stupid?
August 20th, 2023 at 8:49 AM ^
You have that about right, seems 90% of stuff is trash.
I have a few suggestions, though.
Baby Einstein, toys and puppets doing things, they have educational themes spun through it like the planets and colors. My kids prefer the 'classic' version from the 90s to the newer stuff.
For some fun songs, Super Simple Songs on Youtube is pretty solid. They are just cartoons that go along with the classic kids songs.
From the parent point of view: avoid A for Adley and anything to do with Ryan from Ryan's Mystery Playdate.
PBS kids is a good option via their app or just on TV in general.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:00 AM ^
We're leaving to drop off our two children in Ann Arbor for their junior year. Why do I mention this? Well - Baby Einstein is the reason. We had the series - and, though we never "just sat them in front of the tv for extended periods of time - we did have them watch.
Two other points - if I may.
First - use the second language option - just exposing a child to another language at this age is helpful - and - they'll learn to "just understand" another language, rather than translating it in their mind.
Second - bring your child / children along to everything you do. My thought is - a parent can't introduce a child to enough things at this age. When ours were younger - we would spend an after at the Art Institute of Chicago (usually in the winter). The kids were in a stroller - and, we would position the stroller facing a work of art - we'd have the children look at it for a minute or two - and then, move to another painting / sculpture. This would go on for a hour or two - and, we'd head out.
Also, if there's a "hands on" museum - like Science and Industry - when a child reaches five or six - that's another great experience.
Until our children were so advanced in sports that we needed to "divide and conquer" - taking each of them to their respective practices, games, etc. - we'd do everything together. And, asking questions - getting the children to communicate and talk about what they see, touch, think - was a ton of fun for us - and, we hope the same for you.
Go Blue!
August 20th, 2023 at 8:52 AM ^
Bluey! Without a doubt this is the absolute best! You will find yourself watching it with the kiddos around, not that I've done that, no...
August 20th, 2023 at 8:55 AM ^
Absolutely. Bluey is great because it’s almost catered to the adult as much as it is to the kids. My wife and I love the show almost as much as our 2 year old.
August 20th, 2023 at 3:54 PM ^
M Go Bluey!
August 20th, 2023 at 9:04 AM ^
Bluey is the best...every adult has to watch 'The Grannies' episodes, too funny!
August 20th, 2023 at 9:11 AM ^
I've heard Bluey described as the show you actually want to watch with your kids. That is a lie. Bluey will turn into the show you want to watch; your kids may just join you.
However, Bluey does have a dark(ish) side. You are never going to live up to the standard set by Bandit and Chilli; don't let yourself get sucked into that mental trap.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:29 AM ^
My wife and I are in our mid-40s and our kids are both in high school and Bluey is family viewing here all the same. I will put it that way. The "Whale Watching" episode made my wife and I look at each other and say, "We did that too, played each other and pawned kids off on one another...."
August 20th, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^
My wife and I had this exact discussion a few weeks ago. Our three year old is starting to watch Bluey and we definitely get a kick out of it as well, but both Bandit and Chili seem to have a near endless supply of energy, patience, and creativity in keeping their kids entertained and happy. I know it’s just a cartoon, but my first and only question is always “HOW?!?!”
Its unrealistic to ever expect that we can be exactly like them as parents, but it shouldn’t stop us from aspiring to it on a day to day basis.
August 20th, 2023 at 3:12 PM ^
I choose to think about it like this: Each episode of Bluey is ~10 minutes. We’re viewing little snippets of their day, so while it may seem like they’re doing a lot, they’re really just focusing a short bit of time each day specifically on playing those games with Bluey and Bingo… and also it’s just a cartoon
August 20th, 2023 at 1:54 PM ^
It blew my mind when I realized Bluey was a girl...
August 20th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
Just want to be the 1000th person to chime in with Bluey - it's fantastic.
August 21st, 2023 at 6:17 AM ^
I watch Bluey with my 4 year old regularly.
August 20th, 2023 at 8:55 AM ^
Nothing wrong with letting your kid laugh a little. Peppa Pig, Bluey and Paw Patrol are favorites in our house.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:02 AM ^
Bluey. Super Why! introduces them to letters and sounds in a way that seems fun, and my kids like it. Bubble Guppies has good songs. Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood offers a lot of help with social/emotional processing. Once your kid gets a little older, if he’s into animals and the outdoors, he might like Wild Kratts. My kids also went through a big dinosaur phase that was nothing but Dinosaur Train and Dino Dana.
August 21st, 2023 at 10:27 AM ^
You've just listed every show our kids have watched growing up.
In the past 6ish months or so, we've transitioned into a phase where they now exclusively watch Dude Perfect, That's Amazing, and anything involving trick shots. I like the creativity that it has spawned, as they now spend hours on end trying to recreate trick shots, bottle flip challenges, and dice-stacking...but the constant thudding of the bottles being flipped starts to get on your nerves.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:19 AM ^
Love Bluey, but also like some old school reading rainbow.
Keep him away from YouTube.
August 20th, 2023 at 12:31 PM ^
Totally agree on You Tube. My kids use You Tube Kids and that seems pretty decent.
August 20th, 2023 at 6:54 PM ^
Yes, avoid YouTube at all costs. Even YT Kids. It's all algorithmically driven to take them down rabbit holes and feed their nascent addictions, whether to weird videos of adults playing with toys while using baby voices, or spoiled little Russian girls terrorizing their parents, or teenagers playing video games and begging for likes and subscribes. If I could go back in time a few years, I would have never put YT on the iPad...
Unfortunately, it's too late now, and my 7-year old is probably going to turn into a needy, emotionally stunted man, with a fetish for vaguely Eastern European women, who's remarkably good at Minecraft. Worse things, I guess.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:28 AM ^
Bluey
August 20th, 2023 at 9:29 AM ^
My kids are 20 and 23 now so we're a long way from watching those shows but when they were little, we watched all the Wallace and Gromit shorts. Your son might be a little young still to understand but you will like them. We also loved Oswald, the octopus. You can probably stream it somewhere. It's very easy to watch.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:40 AM ^
Bluey!!
August 20th, 2023 at 9:42 AM ^
Octonauts is pretty good. Lots of educational material in the shows.
Daniel Tiger is amazing
Bluey is amazing
August 20th, 2023 at 2:45 PM ^
My son is already sick of Octonauts but it was my favorite show for him to watch. You will learn a lot about obscure animals too!
August 20th, 2023 at 9:44 AM ^
Bluey.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:48 AM ^
My kids are 6 and 8, and until recently we successfully limited their show consumption to whatever they could find in the PBS Kids app. A couple of favorites are Wild Kratts, Ready Jet Go, etc. they’re all somewhat educational and entertaining. They could also have some autonomy cuz we just said choose whatever you want on the app.
also Bluey is truly the best.
August 20th, 2023 at 10:01 AM ^
Little baby bum may be too young for him cocomellon is very entertaining.
on YouTube, he’ll love Bluppi and Handyman Hal. Chuggington is good if he is into trains.
our twin grandsons turn 4 today. They are extremely active, but get treated to videos. Naturally they like trains and dinosaurs.
these are some of their favorites.
Edit if he likes to dance, try some Danny go videos
August 20th, 2023 at 10:21 AM ^
BT nailed it. Little baby bum is great, probably best up to age 2 or so (from the kiddo perspective). My oldest daughter (nearly 3 yo) now LOVES cocomelon. Bluey is awesome, but more advanced, probably for like 4, 5 or even 6 yo.
Word party is a good one, but again my oldest lost interest at about 2.
August 20th, 2023 at 8:23 PM ^
Logged in to say fuck Blippi
August 20th, 2023 at 9:55 PM ^
Logged in to upvote
August 20th, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
Not sure about three-year-olds, but Phineas and Ferb is very popular and pretty funny to both kids and adults
August 20th, 2023 at 10:23 AM ^
My kids loved it.
August 20th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
“Mom!!!! Phineas and Ferb are making a title sequence!”
August 20th, 2023 at 10:20 AM ^
If you have Apple TV then Stillwater would be a good one. It’s well thought out, generally focuses on teaching children how to deal with emotions, and avoids leaning on stimulation.
August 20th, 2023 at 10:21 AM ^
Ms Rachael on YouTube
August 20th, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
If you're a masochist, go ahead on throw on some Blippi and see how much you can take.
August 20th, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
I hear where you’re coming from OP. We have a six year old and a three year old, so we navigated this with some recency.
To echo what some of the other posters said, PBS Kids is an easy and efficient way to filter for appropriate programming. I have yet to find something I object to on there. Just download the free PBS Kids app to whatever device you’re using, and away you go.
The three year old loves Daniel Tiger, and the six year old loves Wild Kratz. Both watch Sesame Street together
Unless you’re hyper vigilant, YouTube is the devil for kids. There are definitely some good videos out there like other posters have mentioned, but there’s so much trash and crap, it’s easy for a kid to get sucked into watching a video where an adult is playing with toys they are trying to push. Heck there are even kids pushing toys on YouTube, like the little POS Ryan (“Ryan’s World”).
August 20th, 2023 at 10:42 AM ^
I dont understand why no one has suggested “Game of Thrones,” “Succession” and “Breaking Bad.” Grow your kid up with a healthy exposure to ideas for world, financial and market domination.
All the sex, backstabbing (literally and figuratively) and drugs will go right over a 3yo’s head.
August 20th, 2023 at 8:07 PM ^
In all seriousness, we let our kids watch The Simpsons at an early age and they both have good senses of humor and turned out to be fine adults.
August 20th, 2023 at 11:20 AM ^
Daniel Tiger on PBS is the only one I can stand. And it's good, with good lessons.
August 20th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Oh also the kid gets a healthy dose of Michigan sports. Mostly football but also softball hockey baseball and basketball ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ probably like twice a week or so
August 20th, 2023 at 4:54 PM ^
Be aware that you might see an Orji in the endzone. I remember when you would also see a Butt.
Back in the day you would see a Hyman on the ice
August 20th, 2023 at 12:05 PM ^
I came here just to make sure all the Bluey comments were upvoted, I already knew it’d be mentioned before I opened the link 🤣
August 20th, 2023 at 12:26 PM ^
Everything on Netflix for kids is total garbage. Most of Disney+ also.
My kids LOVED Mr. Rogers, and we loved that they loved it. We had the DVDs and it was their favorite thing to watch. Now they’re 7 and 9 and we’re struggling for quality programs.
We still limit screentime and are trying to instill a Friday night family movie night, but it’s hard to find the right options.
I realize I haven’t helped much. Same dilemma you have basically.
Also, Paw Patrol is garbage.
August 20th, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
All Dogs Go To Heaven (except the class traitors in the Paw Patrol)
August 21st, 2023 at 9:52 AM ^
Netflix is good for nickelodeon shows. My elementary aged kids have enjoyed Henry danger; Nicky, Ricky dicky and dawn; bella and the bulldogs. I've watched those shows with them and rarely find anything objectionable and tend to be well written and produced.
Canned laughter sucks, but what can you do?
August 20th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
My kids are 7 and 9 so here are some shows they have loved.
- Octonauts
- Daniel Tiger
- Bluey
- Wild Krats
- Paw Patrol (yes, totally absurd concept)
- PJ Masks
- Odd Squad
One thing I would recommend avoiding at all costs is Ryan's World. It is pure garbage, mostly just him opening gift wrapped toys but never really playing with them. I blocked that from my kids' You Tube Kids app.
August 20th, 2023 at 12:51 PM ^
Ryan’s world is awful. If going the You Tube “family programming” route both Ninja Kids and Kid City are pretty good. At a minimum they are not creepy, that in itself is a win.
August 20th, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^
I literally searched google for that reason yesterday. “Unspeakable” made the list for a perma ban. The amount of idiots running around with a camera creating mindless content is truly astounding. It’s equally astounding how little minds are drawn to them.
August 21st, 2023 at 9:53 AM ^
I banned that early because I couldn't stand the mom's voice. Just awful.