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<h1>Introducing Very Young Children to Media</h1>
 <h3>Dear Teachers and Parents:</h3>
 <h3> </h3>
 <span style="font-weight: normal;">Please add to the list below </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#film and video">full-length films and videos</a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Videos">shorter or episodic videos or DVD</a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">s, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#YouTube">YouTube</a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> or other online videos, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Audio">audio CDs</a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, and </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Television">TV</a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> programs (and </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Websites">websites</a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">) that are appropriate to introduce young children (pre-K through about 2nd grade) to the world of media (in the home or at school).</span><br />
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Please try to keep the list in some rational order (e.g., alphabetical) using appropriate headings and such, and by adding a very brief description to each entry. Thank you for your ideas!<br />
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<h2><em>Etiquette:</em><span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;"> </span></h2>
 <em>Please be respectful of all entries. If you feel a program is inappropriate or too old for this age range, please add a polite note rather than deleting the item entirely.</em> Note the last category is for <a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Older">older kids</a> .<br />
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<h2>Criteria</h2>
 <ul><li><h4><strong>Non-violent</strong></h4>
</li><li><h4><strong>Non-commercial</strong> (try to avoid stuff that includes ads or basically requires you buy The Toy, as well)</h4>
</li><li><h4><strong>Decent quality</strong> (i.e. no budget, Speed-Racer-quality animation)</h4>
</li><li><h4><strong>Age-appropriate</strong> content (i.e., for toddlers up through around grade 2)</h4>
</li><li><h4><strong>Non-hyperactive</strong> Quite a lot of stuff these days moves at a breakneck pace through MTV-rate editing and frantic camera movement. This list should stick to fare with a more reasonable pace.<span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span></h4>
</li></ul><h4><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span></h4>
 <h4><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">If you think another criterion is needed, please write the owner of the Wiki.</span></h4>
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<h2> </h2>
 <h2>Important Tips</h2>
 <ul><li>As possible, let your child make choices about what to watch.</li><li>Set a playlist or a time limit on viewing.</li><li>Watch with your child and discuss what you are seeing, or at least talk before and then re-engage at the end. Make viewing an active experience.</li><li>Use laptops or DVD player and avoid the whole &quot;television that can be turned on any time&quot; problem -- you can &quot;put away&quot; the others.</li><li>Especially right after watching for more than a few minutes, try to have activities that get your child up and moving to &quot;shake off&quot; the &quot;TV Haze.&quot; (Exerciese beforehand can also help them maintain alertness.)</li><li>For older children, have them watch media <em>after</em> schoolwork; studies show that watching TV right after school leads to less retention of what was learned that day.</li><li>A parent adds: Some of the &quot;scarier&quot; moments are actually great teaching moments.</li></ul><br />
<h2>Types of media listed (feel free to add)</h2>
 <span class="wiki_link_new"> </span><br />
<h3><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#film and video">Full-length film and video</a></h3>
 <h3><span class="wiki_link"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Videos">Shorter-format video</a></span></h3>
 <h3><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#YouTube">YouTube etc. online</a> <span class="wiki_link_new"> </span></h3>
 <h3><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Audio">Audio CD (e.g., stories)</a></h3>
 <h3><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Television">Television series and networks </a><span class="wiki_link"> </span></h3>
 <h3><span class="wiki_link"><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Websites">Websites</a></span></h3>
 <h3><a class="wiki_link" href="/home#Older Kids">For Older Kids or unknown age range</a></h3>
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Note one parent made a nice recommendation: <em>Start with video that you produce yourself -- video of your day, neighborhood, trip. stage plays or familiar stories with your kids on video.</em><br />
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<h1><img src="/i/anchor.gif" class="WikiAnchor" alt="Anchor" id="wikitext@@anchor@@film and video" title="Anchor: film and video"/>Full-Length Film and Video</h1>
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<ul><li>Annie the Musical (other musicals are also great for kids, Disney or otherwise)</li><li>Disney animated movies: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Bambi etc.<br />
The whole princess theme could be seen as negative, but I like them because they are classic fairy tales about good vs evil, and because the pacing of the films is fairly slow. Plus the animation is still state-of-the-art.</li><li>&quot;The Polar Express&quot;<br />
If you can get past the smarmy christmas spirit theme (and if it doesn't offend your religion - we're agnostic so it didn't offend us) I think it's a pretty good film for kids. It is a series of adventures that<br />
the kids have to basically take on themselves, without adults to solve problems for them. Pretty good.</li><li>Miyazaki is our all-time favorite:<br />
Younger kids can enjoy Ponyo; Panda Go Panda; My Neighbor Totoro<br />
A little older: Kiki's Delivery Service<br />
As they mature and can handle some peril and guns: Howl's Moving Castle; Laputa, Castle in the Sky<br />
Incredible, but parental judgment required: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind; Princess Mononoke; Spirited Away</li><li>&quot;Whisper of the Heart,&quot; a quiet film about coming of age (recent favorite at our house)</li><li>Canadian Broadcasting has great animations, our favorites are Ishu Patel; Co Hoedeman</li><li>Other animators to look for: John &amp; Faith Hubley and their daughter Emily; Gianini &amp; Luzzati; Lotte Reiniger (cut-outs of fairy tales)</li><li>Peanuts stuff: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Snoopy Come Home!</li><li>Moomin videos (also the comics)</li></ul><br />
<h1><img src="/i/anchor.gif" class="WikiAnchor" alt="Anchor" id="wikitext@@anchor@@Videos" title="Anchor: Videos"/> Videos on tape/DVD of a shorter nature</h1>
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<ul><li>Sesame Street<br />
Especially the &quot;old school&quot; series from the 1960s. These are often available on YouTube but of very poor quality there.</li><li>&quot;Signing Times&quot; by the Azevedo family, totally brilliant</li><li>They Might be Giants</li><li>Here come the 123s, and ABCs</li><li>Harold and the Purple Crayon series</li><li>Thomas the Train Engine videos</li><li>First few seasons of The Muppet Show</li><li>David Attenborough's Life on Earth series (Birds, Mammals, etc.)<br />
Really top-quality stuff came from Attenborough over the years, and he has a sense of humor that adults will appreciate</li><li>Other animal documentaries and series: Eyewitness; Readers' Digest animal videos; Anima Mundi, gorgeous animal images with music by Philip Glass</li><li>Sprout</li><li>The Scholastic Storybook videos - good for very young kids</li><li>Miffy &amp; Maisy (old, 2-D) - good for very young kids</li><li>Hello Kitty -- surprisingly pedadogical; my kids learned the street signs and enjoyed lessons on manners</li><li>Raymond Briggs' &quot;The Bear&quot; is really nice</li></ul>*<br />
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<h1><img src="/i/anchor.gif" class="WikiAnchor" alt="Anchor" id="wikitext@@anchor@@YouTube" title="Anchor: YouTube"/>YouTube and other online content</h1>
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<ul><li>The Elephant Song by Eric Herman<br />
He has other videos but none come close to this animated video in popular appeal. Kids love to listen to Herman on acoustic guitar as he mis-identifies animal after animal in song and is corrected by a little girl.</li><li>The Mole: <em>Krtek a oslava</em> (in Czech) and other languages such as Der [Kleine] Maulwurf (German)<br />
This gentle cartoon from Prague contains no dialogue. Do a search -- there are many! Watch out as there may be one called &quot;the little mole&quot; (in a different style) that is not of this series and contains less appropriate content. Can buy DVD.</li><li>Pingu<br />
The dialogue is gibberish in this charming clay-mation series, so it's perfect for kids of any language.</li><li>Bolek i Lolek, a non-dialogue polish cartoon series from the 1970s that you can rent on Netflix</li></ul>*<br />
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 <h1><img src="/i/anchor.gif" class="WikiAnchor" alt="Anchor" id="wikitext@@anchor@@Audio" title="Anchor: Audio"/>Audio CDs</h1>
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<h1><img src="/i/anchor.gif" class="WikiAnchor" alt="Anchor" id="wikitext@@anchor@@Television" title="Anchor: Television"/>Television Series and Networks</h1>
 <ul><li>Noggin<br />
<strong>YoGabbaGabba</strong> &quot;like skittles on the brain&quot; can be a powerful force...<br />
<strong>Little Bear</strong> is sweet and gentle...<br />
<strong>Ni hao kai lan</strong> is cute and often has lessons about sharing and friendship that I can see he really contemplates, this provides an entry point when similar probs arise I can refer back to it.</li><li>PBS Kids</li><li>Classical Baby<br />
Awesome animated series from HBO</li></ul>*<br />
<h1><img src="/i/anchor.gif" class="WikiAnchor" alt="Anchor" id="wikitext@@anchor@@Websites" title="Anchor: Websites"/> Websites</h1>
 <ul><li>Starfall.com</li><li>sesamestreet.org lets you create a short playlist for a nice amount of short episodes</li><li>A website for alternative films for kids with many good recommendations, mostly for older kids: http://altfilmskids.blogspot.com/</li></ul><br />
<h1><img src="/i/anchor.gif" class="WikiAnchor" alt="Anchor" id="wikitext@@anchor@@Older" title="Anchor: Older"/>For Older Kids<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;"> </span></h1>
 <h1><span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Add here resources that are not really appropriate for introducing the youngest children to video and television.</span></h1>
 <ul><li>Pee-Wee's Playhouse -- I gave the entire two seasons to my girl for her 7th birthday -- does this put me in the Bad Momma category?</li><li>Good for mixed audience (e.g., my 5- and 9-year-olds): Fairy Tale, a True Story; The Last Mimsy (some mild peril); Pokemon 4-Ever (kind of a Miyazaki copy with an environmental theme); The Borrowers (some violence, but comic); Paper Bag Players; Pippi Longstocking; The Way Things Go (kind of Rube Goldberg sculptural installation); Sailor Moon (pretty intense anime); anything at the Int'l Children's Film Festival</li><li>Max &amp; Ruby</li></ul><br />
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