Baby Stuff I Love: DVDs

I had a request for a list of my children’s favorite shows to watch. Brayden can pretty much interest himself in anything that is on the television at this age (3.5). Kaitlyn still doesn’t really watch the television at all (18 months). She will watch for about 5 minutes, then she is done. Brayden was the same way at this age. He didn’t watch a show (20-30 minutes in length) until he was between 19-20 months. Kaitlyn does, however, have some shows she prefers.

There is really no shortage of shows available out there. I would suggest if you buy shows for your children that you find shows that have content your child will be interested in. Also, find shows that you approve of. A great resource for previewing shows is PBS. I love the shows on PBS (well, I don’t really like Barney…just because it drives me crazy 😉 ). You can buy most if not all of these shows on DVD for your child to watch. Another great resource for previewing shows is the library. We check out a video or two at the library each time we go.

  • Bob the Builder: Brayden absolutely loves this show. Kaitlyn also enjoys it and it will capture her interest for a few minutes. This show is about building things and the characters learn how to work together and work hard. There are a lot of social lessons in this show. Bob the Builder
  • Baby Einstein: These videos have long screens that don’t change constantly and can be educational. Baby Einstein
  • Clifford: This is a great show to teach about interpersonal relationships as well as morals. Clifford the Big Red Dog
  • Curious George: When Brayden was younger, this was his favorite. He still likes it though it isn’t his favorite anymore. Kaitlyn enjoys it. This show teaches science, math, and problem solving. Curious George
  • Elmo’s World: This was also one of Brayden’s favorite when he was younger. At this age, he usually is not happy about it going on but once it is on, he loves it. This is Kaitlyn’s favorite right now. We have DVDs of Elmo’s World. The DVDs typically have 3 shows per DVD. They take the segment off of Sesame Street and just have Elmo’s World. This show teaches a large variety of things, from caring for pets, to drawing, to how to wash your hands. The DVDs are grouped by subject (for example, one we have is Hands, Ears, and Feet). Elmo’s World
  • Leap Frog: I love these DVDs. These are also favorites of both children. They have four or five videos that are quite educational. You can buy them all together online. My mom first gave us the Letter Factory. This is the first one. It teaches phonics. There is also the Storybook factory where it teaches to read, and others about various reading/word techniques and also a math one. Leap Frog
  • Super Why: We don’t own any Super Why, but watch it on PBS. This show is great for teaching letters. Brayden really likes it. Super Why!
  • The Polar Express: Brayden loves this movie, which is no surprise since he loves trains so much. The Polar Express
  • Thomas and Friends: This is a favorite of Brayden’s. It is also a show Kaitlyn will watch. It teaches social skills, work ethic, and moral skills such as honesty. There is no shortage of Thomas videos out there. Thomas and Friends
  • Tonka Tough Trucks: This is a short movie. Brayden just loves this movie. It is one we borrowed from the library. He requested it so often we decided to give it to him for Christmas last year. Tonka Tough Truck
  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: This is a classic. Both children enjoy this. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  • There Goes A…: This series of videos includes many titles such as “There Goes a Truck,” “There Goes A Train,” and “There Goes A Boat.” There are many more (firetruck, loader, plane…). These aren’t movies we own, but we always have one from the library. They are live action and all educational. I find them to not be that interesting, but everyone else in the family (including Kaitlyn) really enjoys them. There Goes A…
  • Word World: We don’t own this, but DVR it for Brayden to watch (it is on during his independent play). He loves it. It teaches about reading and interpersonal relationships. Word World
  • Disney: While I love Disney movies, you do have to be careful about them. There are always mean people and often language I don’t like (like in 101 Dalmatians they say the word “idiot” constantly). Just be careful before you put them in. It is a good idea if you have your child watch these shows to sit with them and talk about what is and isn’t appropriate. Disney

There are many, many more videos out there. Never ending. I am sure you noticed there aren’t any “girly” shows listed and that is because Kaitlyn doesn’t watch shows. Many of these listed are gender neutral, and Kaitlyn really enjoys the shows about trains and trucks also.

Please share any great videos you have found!

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33 thoughts on “Baby Stuff I Love: DVDs”

  1. My 15 month old girl loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Charlie and Lola, all on Disney channel. You can also buy the DVDs at Target. I cannot stand Mickey or Pooh :), but she loves them, hopefully this stage will pass! Charlie and Lola is really cute, though, lots about sibling relationships!

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  2. My 14 month old girl loves Hi5. It is the only show that we can put on that she will watch long enough for me to do her hair. I also love the Baby signing Time videos. They have helped us all learn sign language.

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  3. Valerie,I’m feeling rather discouraged and was hoping for some advice. I have an almost 5 month old baby girl. Unfortunately, she has GERD, which she is on medication for. Because she is my first, it took me a while to figure out that something was wrong. She was diagnosed at 2 1/2 months and things have been much better since. However, I feel like that time of being sick and untreated set her back in terms of napping properly and SSTN.At about 3 1/2 mos we let her CIO at night for the first time – it took 5 exhausting and upsetting nights. Then we went out of town and she was back to waking during the night. Then she had a 4 1/2 mo growth spurt (nightmare) and was waking at night hungry. I feel like we’ve finally gotten over the 4 mo growth spurt, but she is still waking during the night. I dread CIO again and am afraid when she has her 6 mo growth spurt we’ll be back to square one again. Is it typical for a baby to get thrown off SSTN so easily? We’re starting her on rice cereal this weekend, do you think that will help at all?Also, she is still on a 2.5/3 hour schedule and napping 4x a day at almost 5 months – her naps are typically 1 hour in length. Over the last month she has lengthened her napping for 1 or 2 naps a day to 1 1/2 hours and sometimes even 2 hours, but it’s always a different nap – sometimes the first, sometimes the last, sometimes a middle nap, which of course throws the schdeule off. I feel like she should be lengthening naps and taking fewer naps each day already. What are your thoughts on this?Between her stopping SSTN and staying on the same schedule, I just feel like I can’t make BW work for us consistently. I am killing myself trying to stick to a schedule with her, but the moment I think I’ve got it down, something interrupts the progress! Very frustrating.One other thing, since she doesn’t always make it to the next feeding on the 2.5/3 hr schedule, should I go back to a 2 hr/2.5 hr schedule? What about when she sleeps 1.5/2 hours for a nap, do I let that throw off my schedule or should I wake her? I hate waking her when she actually naps for as long as she’s supposed to. Help!Thanks so much for any advice you can give me!

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  4. One other thing – she can only handle 60 minutes (max) of awake time. Even extending it for 5 minutes can result in inconsolable crying – this is why I have such a hard time if she doesn’t nap long enough to make it to the next feeding. Thanks!

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  5. My daughter loves the Veggie Tales movies and I don’t have to worry about inappropriate words or phrases! We also enjoy shows like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Tigger and Pooh, but I still screen the content. We didn’t really watch any shows on TV channels the week of Halloween.

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  6. I have a 28 month old and a 9 month old and some of our favorites are * Backyardigans – you can buy DVD’s or we just TIVO it and have some on hand for video time. They are these little cartoon characters that come up with fun things to do in their backyard with their imaginations…lots of fun songs and I’ve never seen anything I don’t approve of* Praise Baby – videos only…they are like the Baby Einstein videos but they play praise music instead. My 2 year old still loves to watch these and always asks for the music in the car.* Boz – the big green bear, these are cartoon videos only that teach great Christian values and morals. There are several to choose from and my older daughter loves them!

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  7. The Signing Time DVDs are GREAT! And I second the Veggie Tales suggestion. My husband and I show both of these videos to our class of 16 two and three year olds at church. And they LOVE them. However, they also catch the limited attention of my baby too!

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  8. I love this post, so many good ideas! My most favorite DVD’s right now are called Baby Faith – http://www.babyfaith.com/ someone gave them to us as a Christening gift. My daughter is only 4 months old and is pretty interested in them. I’m suprised for her age, but her attention span is pretty good on these! They send a good positive message too.

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  9. Plowmanators or anyone who can help,I don’t know if I’m doing this correctly. I’m trying to ask a question and it has been over a week now. I have not recieved a response. I went to the bottom of the ” Dropping the Dreamfeed” page and added a comment with my question. I subscribed to the posts, comments and feedblitz too. Wont I recieve the notification in my e-mail about a response? or do I have to check somewhere? I keep checking the “Dropping the Dreamfeed” area but nothing there.PLEASE HELP. Thanks Chavela

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  10. Definitely loving Veggie Tales, forgot to mention in my previous comment, we show them in the church nursery sometimes and the children love them! I have had a bad experience with PBS kids, we were watching “It’s a Big World” one day and they were discussing old earth creationism, something we do not believe in. We no longer watch that show! 🙂

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  11. My son is only 7 months, but is already loving baby Einstein videos once a day…I am sure he would do more if I let him! Is this bad? He loves the colors and pictures…

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  12. Co Mom Check this link out it will help.http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/naps-troubleshooting.html and 45 Minute Intruder: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/45-minute-intruder.html).I had wrote u my whole story since I went thru the same thing and my internet disconnected and lost it all!!Try putting baby in swing or bouncer in baby room when she wakes up early from nap crying and wont go back to sleep. Leave baby there until next feeding.Try checking out baby schedules and whatever works for her try.If she wakes up at 9:15am and feeding is at 10am wait until feeding time but put baby to sleep according to the time she woke up.Try dropping off last nap, checkout dropping naps in this blogger website. Also try and I must assure u days will be different but try starting around same time if it 7am and baby wakes up at 5; feed baby and put back to bed. Get baby at 7 or even close to that time.Try giving less at each feeding when baby wakes up earlier then when ur day starts. 10 min, later 8 min and so on. Some days she will wake up at 1 am needing reassurance somedays they will babble and wine. Let them wine check them out but keep them in bed or in their room. Eventually stop going in if only wining abd babling and check baby once there is no more noise.Routine is ur ally but some days they will be a mess and is ok. Nobody is perfect even baby. Is hard I have to talk to myself all the time to calm myslef that is ok when things go diffrent. Baby will get used to ur style and what works for u.

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  13. Claudia,I appreciate the advice. I have checked out the other blog entries about 45 minute intruder, etc. numerous times and have tried just about everything. I think my LO is just more difficult than some when it comes to sleep. We’re doing a consistent wake-up time and I’ve been sticking to nap schedule even when the feeding schedule is off – so if she wakes up early from her nap (before the next feeding), I feed her at the 2.5/3 hr mark and then put her down when it’s time. So sometimes her next nap hits 15 minutes after the feeding. I’m thinking that messes up the feed, wake, sleep routine, which is maybe why she doesn’t sleep through the night…argh! We started rice cereal yesterday, so maybe we’ll see a bit of a change. We’re back to CIO at night in the hopes she’ll STTN soon! It’s torture and I’m exhausted. Hope next baby is a good sleeper! 🙂 It’s nice to know we’re not alone in this! 🙂

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  14. Just read about dropping a nap – kind of dread it because once she gets overtired it’s OVER for us – she’ll cry like crazy. She’s been waking from her last nap at 3:00ish. Bedtime is 7:00 – 4 hours seems like a long time… If I put her down for a 4th nap she’ll sleep from 4-5:00 and have an easier time getting to the 7:00 bedtime. Any thoughts on this?I may give it a try just to see how she’ll do. Any advice is appreciated! 🙂

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  15. I agree with Christie about “It’s a Big Big World”. I always thought it was a bit of a “hippie” show. But thought it was innocent, until the sloth started telling kids that everyTHING has a “spirit”. So, we change the channel when it comes on.-Homey-

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  16. CO Mom, be sure to see this post:Babywise and Reflux: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/bw-and-reflux.htmlIt is totally normal for a reflux baby to be “behind” on BW milestones, so don’t feel bad about it.For waking in night…neither of my kids had hard times after they started sttn, but many do. I wouldn’t say there is anything wrong with her for being that way. Some are, some aren’t. Cereal might help, but it does take some time for them to be able to eat enough to possibly change things. She should be better–meaning bounce back faster–as she gets older. Fewer babies have difficulty at the 6 month spurt than at younger ages.Kaitlyn was also on a 2.5-3 (or maybe straight 3) at 5 months. She didn’t move to 4 until 7 months. Keep in mind that “heartburn” is worse the more empty your stomache gets, so I wouldn’t worry about the shorter schedule. Take things easy. She is doing fine. Don’t kill yourself over staying “by the book.” Few babies are “by the book.” Just be sure she is doing the best she can with her circumstances and know everything will be fine.For too short naps, I would try to be at 2.-3 hours still. See the blog label (left side of the screen) under waking early and you will get a lot of ideas. For a longer nap, it would depend on the day. If she had woken early in the day and was ahead of schedule, I would let her nap up to 2.5 hours to get back on track. If not, let her nap 2 hours and wake her. Consistency really helps with reflux.

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  17. Thanks Homey! I am glad the signing time DVDs were mentioned. We watch that show on TV if I ever think about it (it is only on once or twice a week). Both kids love it.

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  18. Chavela, I will go check that out. I am not getting notifications of comments right now, so I just have to try to find them. I miss many. I likely haven’t seen it yet.

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  19. CO Mom, if she is taking several shorter naps, you might need to hang on to the 4th for a while. You can always try it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work out, to back. Good luck!

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  20. Thanks for sharing on videos with Christian themes. If you know of any good videos, please recommend. My son is now 20 months and I hope to introduce him videos that teach sound values.Try Pocoyo & Friends. It is suitable for babies and toddlers. The DVD has about 16 series and each segment is only 5 minutes and has an educational theme such as saying sorry, Hush – be quiet, keeping toys etc. Quite captivating. Visit http://www.pocoyo.com for more info. Sample online videos are available there.

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