The best shows for kids - well my kid.

I have been looking for great TV shows for Nicholas. He's 2.5 now, and I am seriously tired of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (although they have started putting new ones on, which makes it bearable). So I looked at PBS. I haven't watched PBS for a long time, but I figure, why not check it out. It certainly has to be better than anything on the other channels.

I have found the following programs to be delightful, and even fun for me:

SuperWhy: A show based around reading. They have cartoon characters turn into super heroes who use letters and reading to solve problems. The problems always relate to a book, and the super heroes "jump" into books to solve problems. The show introduces kids to reading, letter sounds, spelling, phonics, and classic stories. This is a great show.

Sid The Science Kid: This show can be a little older than Nicholas really likes. Although they did a show based on simple machines that had Nicholas running around the house building levers out of everything for an hour. They cover science topics, tell some jokes, and learn some things. Nicholas learned about fog and clouds from this show, and even I learned the names of all the cloud types again. We then had a great discussion yesterday - when it was super cloudy - about all the different types of clouds.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That: This is a new show that just started this week. It is 2 shorts, 15 minutes each, with a little 1 minute skit between the two. The 1 minute skit can be about anything (my favorite was the one with the skunk and learning why a skunk sprays....Nicholas ran around pretending he had a tail afterwards that he could "spray"). The shorts are great. It uses Cat in the Hat as the main character, which is perfect for kids who are acquainted with Dr. Seuss. And they learn a lot.

I still love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for its comfort value, and Little Einsteins has some great shows - and some that are not so good. But can you really beat Thing 1 and Thing 2 running around and jumping on eggs, then having the eggs hatch and Thing 1 and Thing 2 fly off the egg? Or having Cat in the Hat explain what a beach is, with crabs, sand castles and stuff?

Anyways, these are a few things we are watching these days. In addition to football - which he complains if I put on without his dad home because football is for "daddy and Nicholas."