We've been watching the two best kids' shows lately. Normally, I don't have a lot of regard for kids' shows. But sometimes, I see that my kids learn from them. Like when B was figuring out reading but didn't want us interfering, "Between the Lions" helped him make a lot of connections on his own. TV has its redeeming features.

Anyway, they started watching this really sappy show on Disney (ugh) called, "Little Einsteins". The title by itself is kind of obnoxious. The show seemed pretty harmless, however. I swear that most little kids' shows now seem to use the "Dora the Explorer" formula; if you watch kids' TV then you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, they have learned so much from this show; I was really surprised. First, T started going on about "adagio" and "allegro", etc. I don't know what most of that means tbh, so I was a bit confused when T would urge us to go adagio. He really got into that. And second, they've started recognizing pieces of classical music. Some were pieces that most people know, like the Nutcracker stuff. But when I had a classical music station playing the other day and something from Handel came on, B yelled, "That's Annie's Love Song!" (a LE episode) and they were both so excited. One time when they were watching the show and the cartoon characters introduced Schubert, B turned to T and said, "Oh Schubert. We know Schubert".

So, sappiness and obnoxious title and all, my kids are learning a lot from this show.

The second show is one that an online friend told us about the other day, a Nick Jr show called, "Ni hao Kai-lan". It's like Dora the Explorer, but with Mandarin. She seems to use a LOT more Mandarin than Dora uses Spanish. I was really impressed with it. I'm studying Mandarin right now and I've been teaching some to the kids. So they are obsessed with this show now and they recognize some of the words that I had taught them like "ye-ye"/grandfather.

This morning, T asked me how to say "slippers" in Chinese again. They had watched their first episode yesterday, one that used the word for slippers and we had only seen it once. I honestly didn't remember how to say "slippers. Then, B piped up with, "It's duo-xie". I don't know if those are the words but that's what it *sounded* like he said. I couldn't believe he remembered how to say "slippers" from one viewing of one episode!

Anyway, those two shows get a thumbs-up from me for now.