Children's T.V can be pretty controversial, but one thing is for sure, children love it and as long as it makes money it isn't going anywhere.
There are numerous reasons for and against children watching television. This is about how to make it useful and use it to help your child's learning. Some of the benefits include giving children a wider
knowledge of the world (turn on the Discovery channel), teaching children about other cultures and places they might never get to see otherwise. How else could a city kid learn about the jungles of South America or the Wild of Africa, let alone simple things like life on a farm (not all of us have access to city farms).
At an age where children are susceptible to what everyone else is doing it can be very encouraging to have a show like Lazy Town which is all about living healthy and being good, children want to imitate. Rather than just use a tv as something to keep the children from under your feet 24 hours a day, and risk their eyes actually turning in to squares (as your parents always promised would happen). Use it to your advantage...
Discuss: Everything in a show is up for a discussion, why did X do that, was that wrong or right? what should they do now? how do you think z feels?
Observe: Children learn by what they see, are they practicing their numbers, have them look out for numbers they see on screen, or look out for letters that match their name. You get the idea. Kind of like I Spy but for tv.
Use:Incorporate what they have seen on tv in their play else where, and vice versa. Basildon Boy 3 loves Wall-E and likes to make spaceships out of some magnet toys his mum bought for him. Seeing how much he enjoys it - she bought some more which he can use to extend his play learning opportunity. On the other hand he aslo loves Dinosaurs, so as you can imagine, getting to see a film about Dinosaurs was great for him. Another favourite is also Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear is a treasured toy.
Have an idea what your child is watching and their reactions to it. If you don't like it, or see what your
child's behaviour changes as a result of watching it, then turn it off! Just because it was made for children doesn't mean it is appropriate (I'm thinking of the film : The Incredibles at that comment, which I just can't get to grips with).
Some of my personal favourites for young children at the moment include Lazy Town, Charlie and Lola (I am convinced that it convinced BB3 to eat tomatoes and sweet corn!) and Pocoyo (Stephen Fry narrates wonderfully).