Family Friendly TV for 5 Yr Old

Good morning J.! If your child is already a proficient reader, please just disregard the rest of this response. Did you know that over 75% of your child's brain development-for the rest of their life-occurs by age 6? In our home the rules are that on school days there is only 60 minutes of media (TV, computer, WII, Game Boys, Leapsters, Nintendo DS) and 120 minutes on non-school days. (Exceptions made for sickness and rainy days :-) I would just ask you to think about encouraging her to watch shows like Between the Lions, Electric Company, Word World, Martha Speaks, Word Girl. At five if you act excited by these shows they will love it (especially if you sit with them!) Also I have found because they have a limited amount of media, they are very careful with how they spend it. (Similar to how they make choices about their allowence.. it is different when it is their "own" !) The most wonderful thing I have found about our limits... is they do cry and complain when their time is up and "There is NOTHING to do". But when I stand firm, they find some pretty creative and interesting things to do to fill their time. Crafts, reading books with tape, playing with all the toys that they have. Sometimes they even decide to help me tidy up!! Call me "kooky", but this is just something that I feel passionate about.

Good Luck! Sorry if I sound preachy!
Peace,
B.

1 mom found this helpful

Lol!!! No matter how much you try to protect her from all that throught the tv. She still will hear about it from kids in school. You can't bottle a child from all that unless she is home schooled and no social life other than you and your husband.

My kids LOVE between the lions on PBS.

We love TNT, Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prairie, etc. Keep looking on Discovery, Animal Planet and the History channel. I was worried as I was working when we finally got cable. This is what they chose to watch.

Fetch on PBS is a great show that even I like to watch with the kids (and educational too).

Yeah, me too. You are so right. My daughter also love Full House & she is also 5.

Good question! I struggle with this too and my ds is a lot younger than yours.

I tend to stick with shows that I'm already familiar with like Mr. Rogers/PBS fare, Little House, Cosby - stuff that I watched as a kid. I also like documentaries because they expose "new people" and places. Game Shows....

You really just have to check out a TV Guide and see what programming is available because I've found Cosby, Family Ties, Brady Bunch, but they aren't on stations I normally watch.

But for a couple of ideas: check out the Hallmark Channel - they tend to run the American Girl series (which I hear is huge with the girls) and other family friendly fare and TCM - G or PG rated movies, uncut - which is really handy when you are trying to expose your kid to a musical. I used to DVR movies from the independent film stations just because some of them are in other languages, but now I can't get away with that so much because he's older and wants to play more.

I totally get your frustration! My husband asked the other day what happened to TGIF on ABC - and all I could do was chuckle because there really isn't "family hour" on television anymore - and -this was coming from the same guy who balked at the idea of me setting up the parental controls to limit what we watch/see during the day. Crazy times we live in.

Mostly I stick with PBS and Nickelodeon.

Daytime PBS, evenings from 6pm Animal planet or try DVD's

J.,

I agree with the other posts that there are great learning shows on Discovery, Animal Planet, and the History Channel. But, here's a word of caution: the commercials are not normally rated for children, so you will want to edit those out or have a child friendly program ready for you to switch to during the commercials.

-C..

My 6 year old loves "Drake and Josh" and "iCarly". Yes, it's more aged for Tweens but he loves the phyical comedy that they do. Also, we tape America's Funniest Home Videos for him.

My son is 5. I let him watch the following shows (with me). Zack and Cody (Disney); Dancing with the Stars (although the costumes were a little more revealing than I would have liked); Wipeout; Jon and Kate Plus 8 (although probably not the new season with the divorce issues).

J.,

I know what you mean about the stuff thats on TV today! Most of it is garbage! Some of the things I let my boys watch are: Leave it to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show, Little House On The Prarie, & How Its Made (Discovery Channel). Most of the black and white TV shows from the 50's and 60's are pretty safe and my kids always seemed to enjoy them.

My son always liked Zomboomafoo. I don't know if I'm spelling it correctly. It's about 2 brothers and a ring tailed lemur. They talk about animals in their natural habitat. I think it's on a Nickelodeon channel.

Hello - my kids also love the movies Annie & Sound of Music. Also, we watch Extreme Makeover - Home Edition...and my oldest is just turning 4!