In-Doctor-inated
Reuben just spent the last 45 minutes sat next to Papa engrossed watching Doctor Who!! Admittedly, he was engrossed in his mother while she provided supper, but the signs are very promising!!!!
Reuben just spent the last 45 minutes sat next to Papa engrossed watching Doctor Who!! Admittedly, he was engrossed in his mother while she provided supper, but the signs are very promising!!!!
Nah, sorry, it’s not a patch on Iggle Piggle and Upsy-Daisy.
Yep, just you wait. You’ll be chanting ‘Yes, my name is Iggle Piggle, Iggle Piggle Wiggle Niggle Iggle’ along with Derek Jacobi in no time.
In the short term Susan and Jill are right – get ready for whatever form of brain washing CBeebies is putting out. ( I actually wish we had restricted kiddies TV a bit more when my youngsters were at that stage ).
However things do look up latter ! My son, 8, now insists that I watch Dr Who with him, and is even willing to wait a day to see it on watch again if I’m not there. ( Daughter, 7, is hiding behind sofa, but has to watch also as how else would she know what this weeks games about giant wasps in the playground are about ).
My only advice is this: Never *ever* allow a CD of kids nursery rhymes etc into your car. Find music you like that they also go along with. The alternative is like feeding gremlins after midnight – you have been warned.
My word, you’re absolutely right about nursery rhymes. My son will grow up with everything from Mozart to the Prodigy, with a healthy dose of HeartFM thrown in for good measure.
We do limit TV/DVDs, except in two situations: either he is ill and inconsolable, or we are extraordinarily pressed–as in this weekend when we were emptying out a room of all items and needing to keep 2 year old from playing football underfoot….which he was to near disastrous results. Otherwise TV exposure is brief and infrequent. Er, except YouTube….. The AAP (I think that’s the acronym for the Association of American P(a)ediatricians) has pretty stern warnings about exposing children under the age of 2 –or was it 4?–to any television or video input. Any. Apparently it interferes with how their brain is being wired. Whatever. We just try to avoid it. But all it takes is a brief exposure and the little sponge is ready to sop it all up and then squeeze it out over and over again. Choose wisely.
As for nursery rhymes…. You can’t avoid them, nor do I think it wise to. Yes, we played him classical music all the time when he was too small to indicate a preference. Now he perfers mostly highly rhythmic worship music, Gwen Stefani (he chants ‘Eat bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S’), Maroon 5 (!!), and anything else with interesting rhythm. But he also enjoys nursery rhymes and asked for that tonight at dinner. Frankly, they are relatively educational (most of them, although one of JoMo’s favourites, Goosy Goosy Gander, has appalling lyrics about kicking someone who doesn’t pray down the stairs!), if only for the inherent love children have for rhythm and rhyme that is highly repetitive. Yes, wee ones love, adore, crave repetition. Most of them teach things related to counting, alphabet, up/down, opposites, alliteration, etc. A mom I know from India but living in Oxford asked her mother back in the home country to send her a CD or tape of nursery rhymes in her native language. Surprise–she was shocked to find out that they don’t exist in her native language. Nursery rhymes are largely a European (and generally English) phenomenon. In India, the closest equivalent is Bollywood tunes–that’s what young children absorb and recite. Hmmm…. So, don’t ban nursery rhymes, but do find versions that you can tolerate at the thousandth playing! Choose wisely. JoMo loved going to Sing and Sign (baby sign language to music) and Monkey Music (dreadful name, but fun). The Monkey Music CD’s are actually very nicely done and highly tolerable. And then there is always this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WvXFUg2Ls . . . .