Rating TV Shows

This was one of the things we did yesterday while attending the stomach ailment. I went through a list of pre-schooler programs that Sienna watches regularly and asked her to rate them.

I don't use TV for baby-sitting and she goes to school full time. TV viewing is banned for her in the evenings during the weekdays. Saturday is occupied with a full day of activities. So in retrospective, I don't know how she managed to watch all these on this incomplete list. And I don't know how she managed to sing or ham every single theme song of these programs. Now she came up with some quite accurate evaluation of her likes and dislikes, statistically.

Angelina Ballerina
Based on the enormously popular books by Helen Craig and Katherine Holabird, it's about a remarkable little mouse dreaming of becoming a ballerina and a better person... Like what Angelina has, Sienna asked Dad to make her a ribbon with pencil as the stick.

Backyardigan
Another program from Nick Jr. An animated musical series. 4 little friends use their imaginations to transform their backyard into a 3-D landscape, and together they embark on amazing epic journeys. Very good colors and music.

Babar
A moral elephant character preaches the animal kingdom through a series of incidents in and around human housing facilities. It bores me. The same to Sienna, I figured. One star is a good enough compliment. Mommy is with you on this one.

Barney
Sienna used to like it better. I guess she is growing out of it. And I am happy about it. Never a Barney fan myself. Don't like the image. Don't like his flawless preaching. To me, "B" as in Barney somehow fits the profile of the kind of social deviant that starts with a letter "P". Dare me! Devil me!

Bear in the Big Blue House
Sienna watches this a lot because it's on at the dinner time. Interesting that she only gave it a 3-star rating. That's the one where Sienna talked back to the character on TV saying something like, "Hey, your baby brother is not real. He is gonna be a toy just like you." Looks like she did rate according to her taste not to her habit.

Berestain Bears
An ideal happy bear family with 2 kids living in an almost ideal bear country community. Sienna has a whole collection of books by Stan & Jan Berenstain. And she loves the pink-dressed Sister Bear character. Surprised me that's all the stars she wanted to give.

Big Comfy Couch 
Things that happen around a couch where Loonete and her dolly sit around all day long. Have to get back on this one. I forgot to ask her rate this one.

Blue's Clues
A fair judgement. A bit too juvenile for Sienna's taste.

Bob the builder
Sienna doesn't get to watch much of it. But every time she does, she likes it.

Boohbah
Very accurate rating. Teletubbie-like, but much much less likeable. It really turned Sienna off when they come to greet her Sunday morning. She would change a channel to watch "Sagwa, the Chinese simese Cat" on TVO Kids

Corduroy Bear
A special friendship between a little black girl named Lisa and her corduroy bear, set in her high-rise apartment residence. This is where Lisa got teased as ""Lisa, pizza." Prompted by that, I teased Sienna "Sienna, banana." And she teased me back, "Mama, pasta."

Crazy Quilt
Sienna loves any craft show including a cooking show on Channel 8.

Dora the Explorer
Currently, the overly-popular show about how Dora and her best bud, Boots the monkey, explore the world together in north pole, volcanoes, beaches and even a huge rain forest.

Dragon
A claymation series about Dragon and his animal friends. She watches every day at dinner time. But that's all she can give. And I can see why.

Farzzle's World
One of my favorites. I wish she could have rated it higher. It's an animated series that presents the everyday world of Farzzle, its a 2-year-old sole character, from his point-of-view. Simple and clean lines. Witty.

Four Square
I love, love this show. So does sienna. An interactive show that allows pre-schoolers to explore four separate art forms: song, rhythm, poetry and dance. 4 Segments include the Do-Whahs in the song segment; the Beat Team doing patting, clapping and stamping in the rhythm segment; Toronto poet laureate, Dennis Lee reciting the fun-filled poems in the poetry segment; and the energetic dance troupe, Corpus, in the movement segment. Our 3-memeber family experienmented a song segment with Rachel when she was riding in our car. Rachel was the director.

Litlle Bear
Little Bear explores the world under his mother's watchful eye. Curiosity and imagination lead to exploration, experience and independence with his little animal and human friends. Not very exciting. I understand her rating on this one.

Madeline
The one most favorite show of hers right now, even though she only gets it sometimes. She would have given it 10 stars if allowed. She loves the original book and can recite it in entirety.

Max & Ruby
My all time favorite as well by Rosemary Wells. Sienna loves it too. I made especial comments on Max & Ruby here.

Mole Sisters
Gentle adventures by the very gentle mole sisters. Very nice and quiet. Gets a bit lonely when you watch too much of it.

This is Daniel Cook
A live action pre-school series that follows it's six-year-old host, Daniel Cook everywhere. He explores, learns, and creates with everyone from chocolatiers to musicians, and from firefighters to dog trainers. Very original idea. But I just don't think Daniel Cook is cute enough; he might be smart and everything.

Timothy Goes to School
An enthusiastic five-year-old raccoon's adventure when he goes to the kindergarten for the very first time. By the same author of Max & Rubby. Don't understand why this one is so far behind in its charm and appeal. Sienna gave a 3. I would give about 1 or 2, the most.

Wiggles
I am very pleased that Sienna made the right choice between Wiggles(5) and Barney(4).