Tot TV Watch

If you haven’t heard of SpongeBob Squarepants then I would guess that you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years or perhaps, under the sea. At first I just didn’t get it. Why is this yellow sponge character so popular? I still have no idea. What I do know, is that he has the ability to entertain all of the boys in my life-including my toddler, my nephews (2 and 7), and even my husband. I can’t speak much for the girls since there aren’t too many around here but my guess is they probably love him too.

It certainly isn’t the most educational show on tv, but SpongeBob and his ocean-dwelling friends do manage to get into quite a bit of mischief and, well, it’s funny. Let’s face it. We all need a little mindless entertainment sometimes, right? If you don’t believe me, just give the clip below a chance.

SpongeBob Squarepants, Nickelodeon

A few minutes into The Wonder Pets, you can hear them singing a catchy little tune that always gets stuck in my head:

Wonder Pets! Wonder Pets! We’re on our way,
To help a baby [featured animal], and save the day.
We’re not too big,
And we’re not too tough,
But when we work together we’ve got the right stuff!
Goooooooo Wonder Pets! Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

Every preschooler out there knows who The Wonder Pets are, but something about them just leaves me skeptical. Each episode of The Wonder Pets features three superhero friends: Linny the Guinea Pig, Turtle Tuck, and Ming-Ming Duckling. The three classroom pets work together to solve problems and help another animal in trouble. Almost all of the dialogue is in song and it is uniquely animated using photo-puppetry, which allows animators to manipulate photos of real animals to create the characters.

I applaud the teamwork theme because I think it’s a great life lesson, but this show still just rubs me the wrong way. I think my biggest gripe is the fact that Ming-Ming, the duck character, talks with a bit of a speech impairment. “R” sounds are pronounced as “W” sounds. Even though this is very common in toddlers, I don’t see why the creators of a show targeted to children who are learning speech would purposely give this as an example. The last thing I want to do is encourage my child to pronounce words incorrectly.

While I have not yet completely banned the show from my TV, The Wonder Pets are certainly not in the regular rotation. I can appreciate it for what it is, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Wonder Pets, Noggin, Nick Jr., preschool, toddler

I found yet another use for the TV tonight. Haircuts. When I couldn’t get my son to sit still long enough to cut his hair I plopped him in front of the TV and put on an episode of Noggin’s new show, The Upside Down Show. If I was thinking I would have put it on the “Barbershop” episode where Shane visits the very hairy room. While I admit this show annoys me at times (generally after watching 2 or 3 episodes with no break), it entertains my son like no other. I was amazed the first time I saw him pull himself up into the recliner and sit still for the entire 20 minutes the show was on.

Shane and David, played by Shane Dundas and David Collins, are not only goofy, they are pretty entertaining while they teach things such as relational concepts, problem solving, and new vocabulary. They encourage the viewer to push buttons on their imaginary remote control to control the characters on the screen. There are some really fun buttons on there that cause some pretty humorous reactions. For instance, the imaginary remote has buttons to fast forward, rewind, pause, turn things upside down, make them humongous or minute, rotate, and many others functions.

In each episode Shane and David are searching for a certain place, such as the barbershop or the art museum. After a series of wrong turns and mishaps they end up at their final destination where they always experience something “for the very first time”.