Thursday, August 16, 2007

cartoons

Cartoons have sure changed since I was a kid. NJ and I watch Dora the Explorer every morning at 7:30 am. I think it's kinda creepy that Dora asks me a question and waits for my reply. "What part of the trip did you enjoy?" pause, stare, total silence for at least 15 seconds, then, "I liked that part, too." "Go, Deigo, Go" has the same format. I guess cartoons are trying to be more interactive. The characters ask, "Do you see the "fill in the blank" ? Where is it? They do seem to be more educational too. I think it's funny but also good that before a cartoon starts on the Noggin channel it tells me what my child will learn. Your child will learn problem solving skills on Dora and interpersonal and intrapersonal skills by watching "Little Bear" and "Oswald".

I am embarrassed to admit it but my life has become a series of cartoons. The Noggin channel is playing in my house all day long. One of my favorite cartoons is "The Backyardigans". I used to make fun of this cartoon before NJ was born! Speaking of Backyardigans, does anyone know what animal Uniqua is? A salamander or bug? She is pink, so I am assuming that she is a girl. Sometimes she talks with a boy voice though. She seems to be interested in boy things too. Maybe she's just a tomgirl?? It's like the "Pat" clip on SNL.

7 comments:

Achtung BB said...

I have often wonder what Unique is too. I'm ok with my kids watching Dora or Deigo, since it does teach them. Nibbles likes playing Dora on the computer now. Right now I would suggest "Little Einsteins". It teaches the kids about classic art and music as well as culture. Woogy and Nibbles love it.

f o r r e s t said...

I heard on NPR or some other radio show the other day that some state like Georgia did a study on the effects of these baby education videos and cartoons and found that it had no effect on the development of language and other smarts. In fact they stated that kids who watched these video had fewer words in their vocabulary at a certain age than those who didn't.

shakedust said...

Little Bear is Golden's favorite. Just joking, she actually can't stand it. :)

I heard about the Georgia study too. That specifically pointed to Baby Einstein, actually. I think they speculated that it was mostly due to the fact that Baby Einstein doesn't use conversations to train babies to learn language skills.

T said...

I'm not a fan of "Little Bear" either. It's boring.

Backyardigans are okay. I didn't like them at all at first, but I got use to them. I think Uniqua is a girl, but it is a lot like Pat from SNL!

I always got the kids to respond to the tv for Dora and Deigo. That's fun to watch when they are toddlers! :)

windarkwingod said...

I watch Shin Chan!

Portland wawa said...

Woogy liked Dora too until about a year ago, now Dora is "stupid mom". Sydney loves Dora, Backyardigans, but as BB said, little Einsteins is her favorite. Blues Clues is very educational too, and little boys love Blues Clues.

I know what you mean about watching too much. Last week, I watched 3 hours of a movie and the rest of the week, it was kid stuff. I will get the song from Dora or Wonderpets stuck in my head for days.
Uniqua is definitely a girl, no doubt. She isn't as feminine as Tasha though. Her voice sounds like a young girl of color, if you know what I mean.

roamingwriter said...

Wow, I'm way out of the cartoon loop, but I think I'm okay with that. ha! I guess it's not good for kids to watch reruns of Friends or Seinfeld, huh?