It’s morning and I’m letting the kids watch one more half hour of TV before we head to the gym. And in the interest of using this time effectively, here is the Kids TV Quiz (Parents Edition):
- Steve or Joe? Oh please, is there even a choice? Steve, all the way. Steve is goofy and fun. Joe is just useless.
- Caillou: whiny kid or accurate picture of a 4-year-old? Um…are those choices opposites? Accurate. Although I’d say he’s younger than 4; I have a 4-year-old around and she could kick Caillou’s ass.
- Wiggles: hit or miss in your house? We have never seen the Wiggles.
- Po or Laalaa? How could I possibly choose? I guess I’d have to go with Laalaa, because she was Sophia’s favorite for a while.
- From which show you find yourself humming or singing the theme song most often? Dora the Explorer
- Dora: explorer stars or no? Ugh, what an obvious marketing ploy. But the stories are more varied now.
- Most annoying commercial aimed at kids? Ha ha! Trick question! Ti-Vo! Ti-Vo! Ti-Vo! Also, if we don’t zap the commercials fast enough, we’ve taught Sophia to yell, “Oh no! Yucky commercials!”
- Best activities has kids TV inspired your kids to do? Sophia wants swimming lessons because Caillou learned to swim.
- Worst activities has kids TV inspired your kids to do? Well, this isn’t kids TV, but…ever since seeing cheese puffs in Toy Story 2, Sophia asks for them all the time.
- Nick Jr. or Noggin? I have TiVo; I haven’t the slightest idea of what shows are on which channels.
- What do you watch on the Disney channel? I avoid the Disney channel with a passion. TiVo taped Buzz Lightyear for us, and since Buzz is Simon’s favorite character, we sat down to watch it. Not only was the show awful, but I had to keep my finger on the FF to zap the thousands of commercials. The Disney channel is too much work with no payoff.
#1 by darby at March 12th, 2004
I wish we had a TiVo! I knit, because it keeps me from going mad during commercial breaks.
I posted my answers over on my blog.
#2 by Beth at March 13th, 2004
Perhaps it’s because Vic is still under 2, but I have no idea who Steve and Joe are unless one of those refers to the host of “Blue’s Clues” in which case, I like that guy, yeah.
Caillou – arrrgh. Watched 2 episodes, have never put it back on for Vic.
Wiggles – see Caillou.
Po or LaaLaa – again, h7ave only seen 2 episodes but I like the purple one, whichever that is, and the littlest one, he’s cute.
Theme song hummage – “The Big Comfy Couch”
Dora – have never seen it
Commercials – so far, Vic only watches KQED so there are no “proper” commercials. I think I’d vote for McDonald’s pseudo-commercials or the NBC News infomercials that turn up on public TV though.
Best activity – I think Vic figured out how to jump from watching Boohbah.
Worst activity – Learning to turn the TV back on after I’ve turned it off.
No Nick or Noggin here, only PBS/the KQED Kids cable channel
No Disney either.
#3 by Poesy at March 14th, 2004
My children have grown out of most of these.
It’s now Disney ‘movie of the week’, Discovery, History, Animal planet, Food network (yes my little kitchen chemists, plus Unwrapped is a really cool show), The Amanda Show, Lizzie Mcguire, Fairly Odd Parents, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Jimmy Newtron, Spongebob, Kim Possible, and Travel Channel.
#4 by towns at March 15th, 2004
Real question: talking Blue or no talking Blue?
Personally, I like Joe better than Steve, but the kids don’t seem to care. Even Steve recently admitted that Joe does a much better job than he ever did (I don’t think its much better, I just prefer Joe to Steve)
The Wiggles: come on.. you have to check them out! Our kids love them. They get up and start dancing around the room. Plus.. you haven’t seen anything like a Wiggles concert live. Imagine 3 year olds jumping around and dancing everywhere. Its very strange.
I like Dora and the boys like Dora.. but I was alittle disappointed when they added the boy cousin and the stars. I guess their demographic wasn’t growing fast enough and they had to widen it or something. I thought it was fine the way it was. I do like the new stories though.
You should give the Disney channel a chance. There is some good stuff on it early morning. Rolie Polie Olie is a HUGE favorite in our house. Bear in the Big Blue House is a great show as well. Out of the Box is one of the more creative kids shows out there. I will admit that we never watch anything after 9am on any of these channels, so I the later shows might be awful.
Funny thing in our house: Some of the kids networks show McDonald’s commercials. Zach (our 4 year old) thinks that Ronald McDonald is “Old McDonald”, you know.. he has a farm!