Clifford - The Big Red Dog

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Clifford is an animated television show for the preschool aged children (ages 3-7) based on the books of the same name used in classic storytelling to present universal social, emotional and moral messages to young children. Each episode follows Clifford and his friends (dogs and humans) and they play and discover and interact with each other on Birdwell Island, learning that goods friends is what life is all about. Each of the episodes deal with what kids have to deal with in their daily lives whether it is bragging, not wanting to share, learning to tell the truth is the best policy, and most of all they learn to discover the world around them. In episode they try to put in all ten of the ideas that represent social and emotional challenges that children face in the course of their development.

Be a Good Friend

Clifford teaches the children to make friends, and when you have a friend, be the best friend you can be, because a healthy friendship early in life will lay the foundation for a rewarding relationship and social growth as a child matures. It also teaches that while you interact with other children that will experience many disputes and trials, which will help teach them empathy, understanding, compromise and other skills that friendship requires.

Be Kind

Kindness is a great quality that a person young or old can posses. Being king requires empathy, the ability to imagine how another person is feeling. A great example of kindness is the Emily Elizabeth loves and takes care of Clifford even when he continued to grow and grow.

Be Responsible

Being a responsible child comes from observation and practice. It is a child natural instinct to please and every child wants to be recognized for good work. Encouraging a child to retell the events of the story, make predictions, and interpret character feelings allows you to informally assess the child's comprehension and conceptual understanding

Be Truthful

Communicating with a child about choices, consequences, and honesty on a regular basis gives the child positive reinforcement about the value of being truthful. By encouraging discussions about honesty and truthfulness, you can help the child become more aware that this characteristic is an important part of his or her individual personality. In many of the episodes it shows that every action honest or not has it consequences. Children can learn the value of being honest and truthful by relating their own experiences to those of the characters.


Believe in Yourself

Children are so impressionable at a young age. Most children need encouragement to try again after making mistakes or having an unsuccessful experience. Welcome life’s new encouragements with enthusiasm and confidence at an early age.

Having Respect

Learning to respect and accept others is the basis of social maturity. It is not always easy to accept people at first glance. Children sometimes have fears and apprehension about people they are not sure about. As a parent you need to teach them the importance of looking beyond appearances is one way of helping them understand themselves and others. Having respect for individual differences, personal space, and the ideas and feelings of others will help a child appreciate what others have to offer, make friends, and cooperate in groups. Clifford and his friends often find themselves in situations where differences are really strengths, and where having respect also means not teasing or being boastful, even when you are better at something and someone else.

Help Others

Children love to help one way they can help is sharing their knowledge and skills with someone who needs their assistance. For many children helping is like a reward to them, because it boosts their self-esteem. Some of the episodes illustrate that it is quite normal for people to be unsure or afraid in situations that they can't handle on their own and that it is ok to ask for help people will not judge you because you can not do it.

Play Fair

The foundation of playing fair is treating others how you want to be treated. Teaching them at you need to treat people fairly and equal. Taking turns, following the rules, avoiding favoritism sharing roles or game pieces equally, and other learning experiences within group activities and games all promote good social and emotional growth. Reinforcing acceptable behavior in situations where a child has to play fair to get along with someone else is great experience for the social challenges that all children face as they grow.
Sharing
Sometimes it can be hard for children to let someone else share what is really special to them. The best thing about sharing it that it brings friends together. Just think of a time when someone shared something with you, recall your feelings, and you'll recognize that sharing rewards both the person who gives and the person who receives.

Working Together

Children learn to interact with others most often through observing how others treat them within their own environments. By cooperating with other children to achieve a goal, a child learns to enjoy people for their individual strengths and their contributions to a team effort. Clifford and his friends often experience the concepts of teamwork and cooperation. The characters model working together in a group successfully to meet a cooperative goal or accomplish a personal task in fun and meaningful ways.
Even thought my son is too young to truly understand all of the great things that Clifford and all of his friends are teaching him he really enjoys watching Clifford. As a parent I don’t feel guilty having him watch television as long as I know that there is a good message behind the show.

Curious George

Curious George

Curious George is an animated series of a very curious Monkey it is aimed at the preschool child (ages 3-5); the goal of the series is to inspire children to explore science, math, and the world around them. George lives to find and discover new things in every episode. This new television show is trying to say true to the books by Margaret and H.A. Rey, in the television show Georges meets new characters and locations. Each episode features two animated stories followed by a live action segment by local kids investigating the same things that George just learned. The television show is narrated by William H. Macy and produced by Ron Howard.

Characters

Curious George is a monkey that investigates everything because everything fascinates him even things he already knows about. George usually gets into some mischief but he usually manages to get himself out of it and even saves the day.

The Man with the Yellow hat is Georges best friend and mentor, his parental presents that trust George unconditionally. He never expects him to get into trouble. He is well likes in the neighborhood and a little goofy around the edges.

Bill is George’s neighbor in the country. He has got a lot of new things for Georges to get in trouble with and explore, he has a bike, paper route, a collection of kites and a lot of bunnies.

Professor Wiseman is full of great information about all sorts of things for George. She is a good friend to the Man with the Yellow Hat. She gets excited about George’s adventures.

Jumpy the squirrel is a bit of a daredevil he loves to collect things and share them with George. He likes hanging out with George, even if George forces him out of his comfort zone from time to time.

I feel that Curious George is a very good educational television show for young children to watch. My 20 month old son loves to watch George. He will even ask to watch Curious George by name. My son is a very active little boy but when I put on Curious George he will just sit and enjoy the show. He will act out some of the scene that George is doing. If George gets into to much trouble he will yell out Ah-OO. George teaches the children not to be afraid to explore new things that it is health to get into some trouble as long as it does not get you hurt and you are learning something new.