My 10 Favorite Little Kid Shows on Netflix

Note the TV behind my beautiful little ones. It always looks like that. And by "that" I mean "on".

My kids watch TV. Sometimes a lot of it. Okay, most days, a lot of it. Okay, okay, every day they watch a lot of it.

It all started when my oldest, Trey, was about 16 months old. Like a lot of you, I'm sure, I needed some way to distract him so that I could get some stuff done around the house. What did I turn to? Horton Hears a Who! It's the first thing Trey ever sat down and actually watched. He loved the beginning sequence with the thistle barreling down on and knocking over the helpless flower, releasing the speck into the air. I think it was the music that drew him in. He really got into it, yelling, "Oh no!" as the poor flower hit the ground.

He's been hooked ever since.

So now, two and a half years later, he and my little girl, Ally, watch quite a bit of it. Which means Mommy watches quite a bit of it. Thankfully, cartoons have come quite a ways since I was little, especially the little kids' ones.

One of my Education professors at BYU-I taught us that children don't learn without human interaction--they don't retain knowledge very well without talking about it with someone like a parent or a teacher. I've noticed a lot of new cartoons engage kids by having the lead characters talk directly to the audience. Trey and Ally don't usually respond, but they’re paying attention, and I think it helps them understand the subject matter better than if it were simply presented to them. I haven't consulted any scientific research, though; these are just my observations. So don't take my word for it, but they seem to be learning to me.

Plus the music is so much catchier than when I was little! And a lot of these shows use music as a teaching tool which helps kids retain new information because the tunes are easy to memorize. I often find myself singing along because they have a good beat and melody and are a lot of fun. Trey enjoys singing them, too, and seriously, what is cuter than a 3-year-old singing his little heart out to Super Why?  

To paraphrase Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, you don't have to play down to kids, just play with them. If it's something you'd enjoy, they'll enjoy. It seems like cartoon makers have taken this to heart nowadays, and for good reason. Not only is it better for the kids' minds, but it makes it easier on parents who have to listen to the same episodes over and over and over....

Following is a list of my 10 favorite little kids' shows found on Netflix (we don't have cable or anything, so Netflix and Youtube are our TV). The criteria I've used to rate them is based on how much my kids love them, how educational and uplifting they are, and, of course, how much I'm able to enjoy them as well.

10. Art and Music

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Okay, some of you may think I'm crazy for including this BabyFirstTV show on a list of shows that adults can find enjoyable, but I really do! I love art but am not so artsy myself, so I love watching other people create it. This show demonstrates drawing and shading, sand art, shadow stories, clay figures, and more. The Bonnie Bear segment is where I lose interest, but overall I find the show fascinating.



9. Peep and the Big Wide World

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Trey hasn't watched this one a whole lot, but I think it's worth adding to my list because it's cute, it teaches basic science concepts, and most of all, one of the characters, Quack, cracks me up! You know that friend you have who's a bit of a know-it-all and can tell you how to do everything but drags his feet when it comes to actually doing anything himself, but you love him anyway because you know when it comes right down to it, he'll do anything for you? Plus he has random moments of pure hilarity that bring tears to your eyes? That's Quack. And I love it. The characterization is a lot more raw, realistic, and relatable than in other shows where everyone is on one of two emotional levels, either overly happy or a little bummed out (have you noticed that in preschooler cartoons?). 

8. Peg + Cat

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Now, math was never a strong point of mine growing up and certainly not something that I enjoyed, but I've learned to appreciate its usefulness over the years (not Calculus by any means, but Algebra and Arithmetic for sure). And as my kids' at-home tutor in the years to come, I don't want my negative experiences with math to rub off on them. So I'm thankful for shows like this one that introduce math concepts in a fun and appealing way. Peg is so adorable, and even though problems sometimes "totally [freak her] out!," she's able to pull herself together, think it through, and solve it. And it always turns out to not be as big of a problem as she first thought.

7. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

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Remember Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and all the characters with which we grew up and loved? Well, they had children, and now my kids will get to grow up with them and experience the love found in the neighborhood in a whole new way. It's such a neat way to carry on Fred Rogers' legacy into the next generation! And it's so stinkin' cute I think it's actually better than the original. Daniel and his friends interact with the audience and teach them short songs to remember important lessons like, "When we do something new, let's talk about what we'll do." This show would be a great tool to use when dealing with behavioral problems or making new transitions in life, for parents and children alike.

6. Super Why!

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 I love to read and I love books, so a super hero who uses books to save the day is right up my alley. The show follows the Super Readers who run into a problem then look in books to find the answer to that problem. I love how this teaches kids to transfer knowledge from one situation to another and that it specifically encourages kids to use the stories they read to find solutions. And it has an awesome revamped version of the ABC Song which is way cooler than the old one. I seriously have a hard time singing the original when I could sing Alpha Pig's instead. I hope Trey isn't the only one in kindergarten singing it, or he's going to feel a little silly.

5. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 

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Who doesn't love Mickey Mouse? This classic cartoon character has been revamped with a whole new setting but the same dear friends. This Mickey interacts with his viewers, teaches them how to solve problems and socialize with others, and boasts music written and performed by They Might Be Giants (oh yes, I definitely find myself singing along with it). Netflix currently has only one episode, but we have been able to find quite a few of them available on Youtube.

4. Jake and the Never Land Pirates 

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This knockoff of Disney's Peter Pan follows some new friends of Peter, the Never Land Pirates, and the same zany antics of that old codfish, Captain Hook. Peter Pan is one of my favorite stories ever, and I love the fun new characters that still stay true to the original story. The characters often address the audience, and I love how they always wear their life jackets when in a small boat or on a surf board and helmets when they're skateboarding or sledding. I remember thinking that I didn't need to wear a helmet because my TV role models never did, and Trey is just the opposite. He always has to wear his helmet while riding his trike outside, and that's not something I've stressed at all with him, so I don't know where else he could have got that but from Jake.

3. Curious George

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Talk about educational! George teaches his audience so much about everything--numbers, dancing, going green, animals, food, different cultures, dinosaurs--just about everything under the sun. And most importantly, he teaches how to solve a problem, which he finds himself in in every episode. And Trey really is learning! One time, we were at my in-laws', and my hubby was outside with Trey. Trey walked up to the pump and said (not in so many words but enough to get his point across), "This is a water pump."
   Shocked, my husband replied, "What did you say?"
   "It pumps water to the house," Trey explained.
   "Really? Where did you learn that?"
   "George," he said.
   Now when a 2-year-old learns what a water pump is from a picture drawn in the dirt with a stick for a monkey, you know that's a good show!

2. Justin Time 

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This Canadian show follows a regular kid with a big imagination. He and his imaginary friends, Squidgy and Olive, go on adventures all around the world, learning about different countries and cultures while also teaching my kids about all sorts of things like good manners, how to juggle, and that they need rest to do their best. This was the first show Ally ever requested, and it's still a favorite despite having watched each season at least 10 times.

1. Dinosaur Train 

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This is the show from which I personally have learned the most, and my husband also enjoys it. They have discovered so much more about dinosaurs since I was in school! Like some had feathers to keep them warm. Yeah, I didn’t know that either. And it also taught my nephew, who was 3 at the time, what an hypothesis is. Imagine walking along and all of sudden this preschooler jumps out in front of you and says, "I have an hypothesis!" then rattles off his idea that he can test. They use that word a lot always followed by the definition and doing so obviously made an impression. Trey even calls the show Hypothesis Train although I haven't heard an hypothesis from him yet.


Since I watch a lot of these shows with my kids, it's neat to be able to recognize the creativity sparked by them, like when Trey climbed to the top of his dresser to save Gretel (a goat from Justin Time), or Ally walking around saying "Yo ho!" from Jake (which sounded more like "Ho ho," and if I hadn't known better, I would've thought she was playing Santa). It's fun having this dialogue open with them.

Plus I think it's important for us as parents to know what our kids are watching because a lot of it, even on the Kids version of Netflix, is not very uplifting (don't even get me started on some of the shows from Cartoon Network!). Our children's minds are very impressionable, and we need to safeguard them from anything that could have a negative effect on them. Seriously, if your kids are having problems with aggression or bad language, I'd examine what they're watching. Maybe some new guidelines need to be enforced.

Maybe my kids watch too much TV, but at least I can feel good about a lot of the shows they're watching and know that some good is coming from it.

Taming My "Piles of Ridiculousness" Part 1--Laundry

Oh yes, even your closets can look like this.

When I was first married and without children, I remember my sister-in-law warning me that I wouldn't believe the amount of laundry I would have to do once I had even one kid. I kinda laughed to myself and thought, "Yeah right. How big of a difference could one tiny body make?"

 A couple of years later after I'd had my first child, Trey, this same sister-in-law posted on Facebook that, "Laundry and dishes are never-ending piles of ridiculousness." I sat there looking at her post, probably wearing clothes that should've been washed days before but that I was still wearing because I had no clean clothes to change into, and humbly nodded and thought to myself, "You are so right! They are!"

Then I wept. Silently. Bitterly. Pathetically.

It is astounding how much laundry one little body can produce in a very short time! For various reasons, I would end up changing Trey's clothes at least five times a day the first four months or so. And now I have two little poop monsters sweet angels running a-muck creating 10 times more laundry than that! They're both still working out their potty training kinks which translates into lots of wet and sometimes even poopy clothing and bedding which equals even bigger "piles of ridiculousness" for me to handle. Plus, on top of that, my little Ally is such a girly-girl, she thinks she needs to change her outfit at least 10 times a day and have 5 blankets out at once just for kicks and giggles.

I don't know about you, but I, for one, have struggled greatly with knowing how to deal with this problem which even escalated to the point where we spent several weeks stepping over piles of dirty clothes to get to one of the four baskets of (hopefully) clean clothes and digging through them in order to get dressed each day because all of our closets and drawers were empty (In my defense, we reached this point during the first trimester of my third pregnancy earlier this year when I stopped doing pretty much everything but breathing and sleeping, so don't judge me).

But those days are no more!

I have finally figured out how I can stay on top of the laundry without it consuming all of my time, my life, and my sanity. I hope that the following tips can help you tame your laundry piles, too.

1. Change Your Mind about Laundry

This is the first and most important step to changing those "piles of ridiculousness" into manageable, organized piles that are actually your friends, not your enemies.

I used to complain to my husband that I just couldn't keep up with the laundry because it was never-ending. I never got a break. I'd work really hard one day to catch up on all of it just to have it all right back in the dirty pile a day or two later. I felt like it was impossible to ever get it all done.


And guess what? I was right.

It is impossible to ever get it all done. It is never-ending. So stop thinking that it isn't! I will never be able  to take a day off from doing laundry because I never take a day off from wearing clothes. Just like you have to shower every day, eat every day, get dressed every day, you have to do laundry every day. I kept expecting to reach an end to it all and then getting frustrated when it never came.
  
Stop expecting to see an end in sight. There isn't one.

So change your mind about it. Instead of making it a goal to get all of the laundry done, set the goal to get 1-3 loads done in a day. Instead of seeing it as something that has to be completely finished in order to cross it off your to-do list, see your smaller goal of a few loads as the end to that chore for the day, then triumphantly cross it off your list. You'll receive the satisfaction of a job well-done, and by repeating this process every day, you will always have clean clothes at the ready.

This ties in with Tip #2--

2. Don't Wash More than You Can Handle 

As I mentioned before, I used to take a day and wash as much laundry as I possibly could in an effort to get caught up with it all. After all, it's easy to throw another load into the washer when you're already in front of it putting the wet things into the dryer. It kind of seems silly not to, really. Then you won't have to think about it later.

But this actually often resulted in the same overflowing laundry baskets I had before I started, only this time, they were filled with clean clothes instead of dirty ones. Some of you may be thinking, "But the goal is to get the clothes clean, right? So at least you're achieving that." To that I would respond, technically ye-ess, but at the end of the day...not really, no. Sure it's great to have clean clothes, but if I have to spend 10 minutes digging through four baskets for a specific top to finally find it smashed, wrinkled, and unwearable on the bottom of one of them, then no, I'm not achieving my goal. My goal is to have clean, wrinkle-free clothes that are ready to be worn and within easy reach. The only way to do that is to actually put the clothes away where they belong in their closets or drawers. If they never end up there, then I have frustratingly missed my goal. Close but no cigar.

So now I've developed a system where I'm able to actually get the clothes folded and put away, and it's real simple. Are you ready for this? I actually fold them and put them away. The trick, though, is to not wash more than I can handle folding in one day. On my washing marathon days, I would always plan on sitting down on my bed at the end of the day and fold everything and put it away all at once. But after spending so much time on laundry all day already and then seeing the massive amounts of clothing awaiting me...well, my back hurts just thinking about how long it's going to take me to accomplish that task.

So I would put it off until tomorrow, then the next day, and then soon enough, the baskets of clean clothes are nearly empty, and it's time for me to have another washing marathon because the dirty clothes are now inundating the floor, all-the-while my closets remain clothesless. It's a very frustrating cycle to get caught up in. Can anyone relate?

All right. Washed, dried, and folded. 3/4 of the way there. Now to just get you to your drawers...

So now, instead of washing 4-6 loads a day, I stick to only 1 or 2, possibly 3 if one of the loads is something easy to fold like towels or jeans or if I really need something washed that can't wait until the next day. How I accomplish the actual folding of them leads me to my next tip--

3. Adopt the "Do It Now" Philosophy

Like I said above, I used to wait to fold my clothes until the end of the day when I could do it all at once after my kids have gone to bed. But as I've already illustrated, this tactic wasn't really working for me. For one, I'm tired at the end of the day. Once those kids are in bed, all I want to do is veg out on the couch to my new Netflix addiction. Plus, I'm not able to put all of the clothes away because I don't want to risk waking them by going into their room and opening their drawers and rifling through hangers. So there their clothes sit, folded neatly in a basket, all night. And then, morning comes, along with my children who are attracted to that neatly organized thing which they must destroy! before they can possibly even think about doing anything else.

Laundry fail again.

So now I "do it now", meaning as soon as I pull it out of the dryer, I fold it and put it away. You know, it really doesn't take very long to fold a single load of laundry and put it in its place. 10 minutes maybe. 20 for the really little pieces 'cause, you know, you can fit a whole lotta onesies in that big ol' washing machine. So unless I'm in the middle of something like cooking dinner or headed out the door, I can spare 10 minutes pretty much any time of the day. Out it comes, and away it goes.

This also helps to keep my clothes from getting wrinkled because they aren't sitting squashed in a basket all day. Bonus!

4. Fold it on an Elevated Surface 

The next trick that helps me achieve "doing it now" is folding it on an elevated surface. My mom always folded our laundry on her bed, and I've always liked this method because there's lots of space to lay it all out on plus I can watch TV at the same time, or in my current situation, Netflix on my laptop. But folding laundry on a bouncy surface with little ones running around is just asking for trouble.

Now I keep the tops of my washer and dryer clear of clutter and use that as my folding surface. It's harder for the kids to climb up there to "help" plus everything is within reaching distance, so I can protect it from them more easily than when it's spread across my king-sized bed. And another bonus, my dryer doesn't become a dumping ground for everything under the sun. The shelves right across from it don't look so hot, but at least one surface looks neat and clean.

Ahh, so easy to fold clothes without little ones flinging them around the room so I have to refold them again and again and again...

  
5. Cut Out the Excess

Minimizing the amount of clothing you need to wash will also save you a lot of stress, energy, time, and money. I keep a box on the top shelf of my kids' closet for clothing they've outgrown. As I'm folding laundry, I keep an eye out for things that I've noticed don't quite fit them anymore then toss it in the box to keep it out of circulation and ready to move to storage once the box is full.

The same goes for my husband's and my own clothing. Occasionally going through our things and setting apart anything that doesn't fit, is worn out, or is no longer our style will also help keep "laundry" and "ridiculousness" out of the same sentence.

If filling your storage with a bunch of unneeded clothing doesn't appeal to you or if you're done adding children to your family, then have a box readily available to collect items you want to sell or donate instead of store.

6. Have Adequate Storage to Hold Your Dirty Laundry

I think it's also important to note that having enough baskets to hold your dirty laundry will help you keep it separated and organized so you can quickly toss a load into the wash without having to search the globe for like items to make up one load. I was trying to make 2 hampers and 3 laundry baskets work for our massive amount of laundry, the hampers for dirty clothes and the baskets for clean ones. Both clean and dirty clothes kept spilling over onto the floor mixing together, and I'd waste so much time, money, and energy rewashing things over and over before we even got to wear them. We definitely needed a new system.

So we bought a few more hampers and now have one each for kids' clothes; towels, washcloths and rags; linens and blankets; and mine and my hubby's clothes. We also have a hamper for each of our bedrooms and an extra one for when we clean up the living room which always has clothes scattered around it for some reason.

Our lovely hampers and my new best friends. :)

Having hampers in our rooms has made a huge difference because we're all able to just throw our clothes in there instead of letting them pile up on the floor or our end table. And the kids can whine about having to walk clear down the hall and through the kitchen to get to the laundry room to put their clothes away, but there's not much excuse when it's right next to their bed. Every day or so, I take the hamper to the laundry room and sort the items into their appropriate hampers there (my bedroom hamper always ends up with items other than clothes, like towels or linens).

I've also found that having a basket and a garbage can in the living while we clean up makes that chore so much easier on all of us, so the extra hamper has really come in handy. We save ourselves a lot of effort when we don't have to make a zillion trips back and forth to put clothes in the laundry room and garbage in the kitchen. The kids are much more eager to help pick up with this simple strategy than anything else I've tried! And again, once everything's picked up, I take the basket to the laundry room and sort everything there. It's a great system that has been working really well for us.

7. Get Your Kids (and Husband) Involved

Now this one may sound like I'm contradicting myself from earlier when I said to fold your clothes away from your kids, but that's not what I mean by getting them involved. Let me explain:


I've had a hard time keeping one little girl by the name of Ally out of her drawers. She thinks she needs to change her clothes at least 10 times a day whether her clothes are dirty or not, and in order to do that, she needs to throw everything out of her drawer and onto the floor so she can properly see what's available to her. (Literally as I was typing this paragraph, she said she needed to change her clothes and headed to her bedroom to do so. She's been wearing her current outfit for only about an hour.) Add that to all the other items scattered around the house, and it's just too much for anybody to handle by themselves and keep their head.

Why yes, I did put this outfit together all by myself. Would you like to see another? Hang on a sec. I'll be right back.

So now I have my kids help me put their clean clothes away on a regular basis. I may not like their help to fold the clothes, but they can help me put them in their drawers once I'm done. I think this helps them see how much work it takes to take care of them and increase their respect for them. And since I've started doing this with them, she has been much better about leaving them in the drawers and off her floor.

I also remind them throughout the day to pick up their clothes and put them in their basket in their room when they get that hankerin' to change. It's easily accessible, and I think they feel a sense of ownership over it, like that's their basket, so they're almost eager to use it when I ask them to help out.

I've also had to remind my husband a time or two to use the hamper in our room. This way I don't have to sort through his things wondering what's dirty and what's not or pick up all his clothes off of the floor. I've also asked him to make sure his socks aren't balled up when he throws them in so that I don't have to go through them one-by-one and undo them because they don't get properly cleaned or dried in that state. Having him be more conscientious of that saves me time and effort up front and keeps me from having to rewash them.

It may seem like a small thing for me to do these things for him, but that means it's also a small thing for him to do them for me. And remember, I am pregnant and in my third trimester, so bending down to the floor isn't as easy of a task as it used to be. ;)

And finally, my last tip of the day--

8. Let it Go

Now I feel like breaking out in song, but for your sake, I'll refrain. My last tip has to do with more mind-changing, especially where kids are involved.

I used to get so frustrated and upset when I'd finish a chore, like putting laundry into the kids' drawers, and then turn around to see they've ruffled through it, tried on socks, got them covered in dog hair, and then threw them off and grabbed another pair. You know, things like that.

Now I've learned to just let those things go. It's more important to me that they are able to grab their own clothes out of their drawers and dress themselves, especially Clothes-Fettish Ally, than to have their drawers neatly organized. That means I have to let my own perfections go. Their drawers don't have to be perfect and dog-hair free (their clothes are just going to get covered in dog hair after they've been wearing them for 2 seconds anyway). As long as their clothes are in their drawers, it doesn't really matter the state of them.

So I don't spend all day refolding and reorganizing their clothes and drawers because it really doesn't matter at this point in time. As long as I model the correct way to put their clothes away, they'll get it eventually when they're more mature and responsible and actually care about things like neatness (they are only 3 and 2, after all).

It may only last a second, but their drawers look so nice with neatly folded clothes. So much better than empty!

When I get motivated to make a change and be a better housekeeper, the feeling and new habits usually last for about a week, then I go right back to doing things the way I was before. But it's been about 2 months now with my new laundry habits, and I'm still going strong. My closets and drawers are full with clean clothes, I have towels and wash cloths in my bathroom and kitchen, and I have linens ready to swap out on my bed when necessary.

It's been such a relief and has saved me so much stress by having these things readily available. And it really wasn't that hard to make these small changes. Once I changed my mind about a few things, it's been relatively easy to keep up with the daily maintenance.

Does that mean I fold every bit of laundry and put it away that same day? No, it doesn't. But skipping one or two loads a day and adding them to the one or two that I do the next day is a lot easier to catch up on than adding four loads to four more that I'll try to fold all at once.

Does it mean that I do laundry every single day, Sunday-Saturday, each and every week? It most certainly does not. I believe in keeping the Sabbath day holy which means, in-part, to me, no chores. Seriously, no grocery shopping, no vacuuming, no toilets, and no laundry (I mean, if the Lord not only gives us permission but commands us to take a break from our daily tasks, why wouldn't every mother take full advantage of that?). And there are also days that I'm just too caught up with other things like running errands or spending the day out and about with my hubby and kids. So no, I don't do it every day, but I do shoot for 5-6 days a week. 

Yay for clean clothes! Thank you, Mommy, for being so awesome!

I hope you find these tips helpful in taming your own "piles of ridiculousness", and now that I've got this one under control, it's time to tackle the other one--Dishes. Once I get it figured out, I'll write Part 2 of this series and let you know how it goes!. ;)