[sfbaymom2000]

I think the old Sesame Street and Barney are great. Kids like them, and they learn a bit, too. When they get a bit older, the Magic School Bus videos are wonderful. My older daughter has learned sooooo much from them...including stuff I did not know!

[Bexter]

Eric's the same age. He likes watching the Sprout channel. They have a lot of good, short shows like Thomas Train, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, and Bob the Builder.

[roselee]

Signing Time is the best. It teaches toddlers basic signs and parents can learn, too. It's really not annoying and quite cute.

[jlbl4902]

I think we have all of the Elmo/Sesame Street DVD's that they make and my 2year Loves them!

[Mihoshi]

I've got a 19.5 month old and we've been through everything it seems like! My biggest suggestion is to rent or Netflix a movie before buying it - because sometimes they just won't like something or find it boaring.

Baby Einstien's (or "baby crack" as my mother calls it) have served us pretty well. Every now and then we'll rent one he doesn't like (the Language Nursery and poetry ones have been duds for us). He did learn to count to 3 from the Number video though.

Little Einstien's keep his attention a lot better now. He likes to sing and dance and pays close attention to what they do. I've found it very educational on many different levels as well (whereas the Baby Ein's are mostly "this is red," "one-two-three," "here's a turtle" kind of videos).

I'm not sure what it is, but he gets REALLY into SpongeBob SquarePants - he will stand still and not move or blink while it's on. He'll bring me the movie and demand it be put on, and he's figured out the Nickelodeon button on the remote.

And Blue's Room (which is different from Blue's Clues) and Dora/Diego are big winners here too.

I've also gone on eBay and gotten old VHS tapes of Paddington Bear, Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, and all those old 80's cartoons.

[WhoKnew]

Have you ever actually sat through Sponge Bob? If not, you might want to. I find some of the disrespectful attitudes inappropriate for young children. Same was true with the Wild Thornberry's, although I don't see that on much anymore. Sprout is a great new kids network, especially for toddlers and preschoolers.

[numbr1dbcksfan]

My daughter was all about the Brave Little Toaster at that age!

[Mihoshi]

I remember the Brave Little Toaster, and Rock-a-Doodle!

And yes, I have seen just about every episode of SpongeBob SquarePants - it's been on since 1999 when I was in high school, and it was a huge thing here. My first college backpack was of SpongeBob and my graduating class motto was "I'm Ready! I'm Ready! I'm Ready!"

There are some episodes that I think are not good for any children, and on any other network I doubt they'd air. For instance, there is one where SpongeBob reads a curse word on a dumpster (only animal sounds come out when he says the word), a few where they dig up graves for various wierd reasons, one where they thought they'd killed someone and tried to hide the body, and there's a part in the movie where he stomps on Plankton and whipes him across the pavement while he screams in pain - but even despite the "bad" parts, I think it's a good show overall. It promotes friendship, hard work, persistance, sacrafice, responsibility, and other positive messages in most of the episodes.

The attitudes of some of the characters in the various Nicktoons (Angelica of Rugrats especially) I try to use as an example of how not to behave, we say things like "he hurt her feelings, that's bad" and "see, she did ____ and got punished for it." They do generally show consequences for bad actions, so I don't find them inaprpriate shows myself. But if you dump every show based on how each character behaves, you'll have almost zero tv options (at least with my tv set up) - even Dora has Swiper the mean fox who steals everything. Our area doesn't offer Sprout, so I imagine that many other parents don't have it available to them either.

[roselee]

Brave little toaster is great! I should go rent that one this weekend. I completely forgot about that one.

Thanks

[jamesrm]

my 2 1/2 year old daughter like Barney and the Einstein Videos (Baby and Little). however she sometimes hides whenever the LION ROARS.



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[stillwaiting]

My son LOVES Spongebob! Yes, there are some things that are not good for him to see, however, I explain...Mr. Crab is being mean, or Squidward is not being very nice to Spongebob. My son will look at me and say, "He's not being nice!". It is a way to teach him that WE don't act like that! Over all I love Spongebob...it is real.

He also LOVES Poot and Tgggr (Pooh and Tigger), B.E., Blues Clues, Tom and Jerry and the Pink Panther. With the later two I think he likes the music most of all.

He is never ploped down in front of the TV. He usually sits in my lap or lays on the floor with daddy and we all watch togather so if Sandy does tell Patrick to go be stupid somewhere else we say....that's not very nice.....(however, it is funny!)

[rjsmom]

DS loved the backyardigans then we ran across the Dooblebops. There has been no going back.