First of all, what is going on with the Hallmark channel? It’s on and off (mostly off).
YoYo TV has so many problems I don’t know where to begin. The singing and dance routines are so fast, it seems more like an opportunity for the usually two adults to look beautiful than a chance for the kids to have fun trying to follow along. The mascots are just plain stupid and a bit creepy. But most of all, they talk down to the kids using queer falsetto voices and in what they actually say.
Sesame Street is so much better with respect to this latter point. My wife and I often find ourselves chuckling and smiling along with the little skits put on by the the Sesame Street gang. Most important, our daughter just likes the show better. She gets real excited whenever Ernie is on, and jumps around at the start of the program.
It’s a fascinating book that deals with a wide range of subjects, including a fairly long discussion on the creation of Sesame Street. That show is so good because they worked so hard to make it right, with countless Harvard educators, psychologists, studies and observations of children all used in shaping their direction when creating the program. It’s no coincidence it turned out to be such a phenomenal success. I doubt YoYo uses nearly the same degree of background study. On the other hand, according to the above book, one program that actually improves upon Sesame Street based on further serious study is Nickleodean’s “Blues Clues.” I’ve never seen that but it sounds good.
As for my family, I was basically forbidden TV as a child and my wife and I likewise forbid it for our daughter (though she probably watches it all day at nanny’s house). Different strokes. . . We don’t want her sitting in front of the boob tube and believe she can get an equal or better education in other ways. But, if one isn’t so puritanical as us (damned troglodytes), I can see how there apparently is merit in shows such as SS and BC.
We’ll call our company tomorrow about the Hallmark Channel (after the typhoon is over- hopefully).
Couple of comments about what Mother Theresa wrote. That’s a bit scary about Sesame Street. It reminds me of the first time our daughter had a McDonald’s french fry. Then another one dipped in ketchup. Not long after this experience, I found myself imagining the scientists at Mickey D’s hard at work over the years to get things exactly right.
YoYo TV is only thirty minutes. And my wife and I are there for the 9:30 p.m show to watch it with our daughter. We talk and even sing along (I sometimes do the dances but that’s something I don’t want to tell too many people). I wouldn’t mind adding an additional thirty minutes for Sesame Street. But I think I would cut things short at about this level.
My problem with Yoyo TV is that in everything, they control what the kids do. The only freedom of expression is when they ask the kids questions. It’s totally a show-off for the adults where they can parade how “ke ai” they are. An example of how this contrasts with Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues is that no adult on these programs is dressed like a kid who is in the role of being an adult. Some programs, such as The Big Comfy Couch feature adults playing child-like characters, but you would never see Maria, for instance, walking around with her hair in high pigtails and ribbons. This, however, seems to be the popular hairstyle on kids’ shows on Yoyo TV…at least for the grown women sporting them. Watch the art programs where the adults tell the kids to make their clay models look exactly like theirs (notice most of the kids who participate in this are old enough to have the fine motor skills to achieve this…there are rarely any preschoolers who participate in this portion of their programming). Watch the song and dance where the kids just follow the adult actors without getting to sing a word themselves.
They talk to the kids in patronizing tones. The kids seem to just be there to remind you that this is a program aimed at children. They’re not much more involved than the furniture.
Anyway, in my opinion, TV is like dessert. It’s perfectly fine to let a child have a serving of an hour or two during the day, but letting them overindulge on large doses or feast their eyes on junk like Yoyo TV can be detrimental to their well-being.
YoYo ‘content-free’ TV is poop. It really is. My son liked it when he was 2 but by 3 he was bored shitless.
All they do is sing and dance to one crap song after another.
I’d like my son to watch sesame street…alas we don’t get it.
And YoyoTV doesn’t last long before a swtiching away occurs.
I also do not think TV is a bad thing for kids. My son and I are watching Pool right now, and talking about which ball the guy will try to knock in next…TV can be interactive. We talk a lot during TV shows and movies.
Sesame Street is about the only thing worth watching on Hallmark. But I still miss it.
We watch the Disney channel mostly, although the two year old prefers Yo-Yo TV unless the Wiggles are on.
I know what you’re saying. From product placement in the movies to endorsements by athletes and celebrities, it seems that behind everything in life today is a calculated attempt to get you to buy something. But at least what they’re selling on Sesame Street (aside from all the toys, dolls and tie-in products) is just the alphabet, and counting and education. Here’s an excerpt from The Tipping Point:
Following the above quote the book explains that the creator of the Muppets, Jim Henson, actually ran a very successful advertising shop before being hired to help create Sesame Street. Big Bird is actually a variation of a giant dragon Henson created for La Choy commercials; Cookie Monster was first a pitchman for Frito-Lay; Grover was first used by IBM; and so forth.
I think Imani makes a good point, too, about how the adults act like normal adults on SS and they act like stupid/cutesy idiots on YoYo Tv. No wonder so many Taiwanese women grow up and still try to act little girl cute. But aside from that stupidity, I doubt YoYo attempts to teach nearly the breadth of subjects that SS did/does, or does so half as skillfully.
It’s the universalism and humanism that makes Sesame Street king. It includes everyone: white boys and girls, black boys and girls, Hispanic boys and girls, deaf people, white collar, blue collar
It seems that commercialism strategy worked for the Sesame Workshop. They used it on The Electric Company as well. Not sure if SquareOne TV or 3-2-1-Contact were theirs as well, but many educational TV programs break their shows into skits and shorts, lasting no more than a few minutes.
That’s a very interesting concept.
And is it just me or do the other programs they show on YoYo TV seem brainless and pointless? I mean at least the Disney Channel’s eye candy had some point to them back in the day…but I can’t see the educational points in Blue Cat, Doraemon, Doremi, et al. It’s as if when they are not doing the “Look at how cute we are pretending to be kids while making the real kids perform like lifeless puppets” show, they only just show even more mind-numbing garbage. I watched Yoyo TV because some of our school’s kids got featured from time to time and when I tutored, I had to endure it while the mother prepared dinner for me and the kids (talk about bonus perqs…yum, yum!).
YoYo TV is just another reason why I haven’t missed not having a television at home for nearly two years.
There’s no comparison at all between Yo Yo and Sesame Street. Lately my little girl keeps saying “yo yo, yo yo,” because she watches the show at nanny’s house, so I’ve started checking it out lately to see what she’s watching. From what I have seen Yo Yo consists solely of singing and dancing and acting cutesy, interspersed with cartoons. I don’t believe they have any educational content at all, whereas Sesame Street is mostly educational.
So what is the purpose of the show and what do people get out of it? I don’t believe the producers have any interest in educating children. Their purpose seems to be solely to create an addictive product that children will get hooked on so they can make money. And it’s successful at that. Our girl is wacky for the show. But it’s got music and flashing lights and colors, so that’s no surprise.
Is it good for her or bad? She craves it, it makes her happy and gets her dancing. Is that good? I like her to be happy and I like her dancing, but still it bothers me. I guess it bothers me because the show appears to be solely crass, stupid, commercial crap and I hate to see my girl fall for that. I play good music for her too and she enjoys that and dances to it. And she loves reading books, which seems like a much better activity.
Obviously one reason many parents like it is because it’s such an easy babysitter. Turn on the crap and the kids will hover around it like flies, leaving the parent free for other activities. Reading books or playing games with a child takes a lot more effort.
But is it actually harmful? I don’t know. Would regular prolonged exposure to Yo Yo shorten ones attention span, create an addiction and adverse effects if the child can’t get a Yo Yo fix, cause one to act insufferably cutesy and stupid, or other ill effects. I don’t know, but it’s definitely not educational TV.
I agree that there is nothing to compare as they are like apples and oranges, completely different. they educate different things.
As parents, it’s really a matter of deciding how much time we want them to spend in front of the goggle box. What stimulates my kid most is the next consideration for me. If yoyo is proven to be more stimulating so be it. I personally think what makes the child ticks best serves them best in terms of their brain development. This is based on one basic assumption that these are not-too-bad production.
I gave my son limited viewing for cartoons but he could watch Nat Geo, Animal Planet, Discovery, History Channel, and BBC Food as much as he likes.
His favourits are BBC Prime with Yes Minister, Dads Army, old british comedy and Simpsons on Star World. He also like watching Jay Leno’s tonight show as well…
A great series that I have found here is Preschool Power, available on VCD at FNAC. Both my students here and my niece Tristan (almost 3 years old) love this series. It features preschoolers doing all sorts of things such as getting dressed, pouring, scooping, cooking, dancing, and doing science experiments to music. It comes with dual English and Mandarin audio (you have unplug one of the audio cables or else you get both languages going simultaneously…I believe the English comes from the white cable) so whether your child is bilingual or monolingual, they can still enjoy it. It’s based on montessori methods and that by seeing kids doing things, your child will be inspired to try themselves.
I would try to pair the videos with an activity that we were going to do, for instance, there’s one skit where a girl spreads peanut butter. I showed them this part before we made a snack with peanut butter and crackers. They were even humming the song that went with it…or singing peanut butter, peanut butter over and over to the tune…as we prepared it. The first week the weather got cool enough to wear jackets, we did the first video where it shows the kids doing jacket flips. From that point on, all the kids with a little reminding of which side to stand on, were able to flip their jackets on independently. A classroom of 3-year-olds within the first three months of school.
My son is allowed to watch limited TV, about an hour a day. I’m not a great fan of it but as a stay at home mom after you do they painting and reading and siging and walking and parks you find you still have time to kill sometimes
I let him watch Sesame Street and The Wiggles on TV plus and for DVDS he has Pingu, Teletubbies and Baby Einstein (not because it has Einstein in the title Imaniou but because it is age appropriate and educational)
Also if Animal Planet or National Geograpic have nature programs he likes to watch those.
