Preschool TV

I've been asked what types of DVDs and shows I allow my toddler to watch.

Well, the husband and I have been quite liberal with what she watches, ever since we decided that it was fine for Little B to have some regular TV time.  Here are a few shows or DVD's that she's seen:

DVD's or Online:
-Blues Clues
-Dora the Explorer
-Pocoyo
-Sam and Stella
-Super Why
-Animal Mechanicals
-Thomas the Train
-Monster Math
-Star Wars clips of "space-ships"

Youtube:
-Children's music videos on Youtube
-Brave (move trailers)
-Clips of Happy Feet
-Clips of The Sound of Music
-Sesame Street clips (mostly starring Elmo)
-Disney musical clips

Non-Fiction
-Old MacDonald's Farm
-All about Horses
-Space Camp
-Sesame Street Brushing Teeth video
... and a few others I'm not able to recall

Many people will criticize me for allowing Little B to watch TV, but TV has actually taught her some things that would have been difficult to teach, without the visual aids of videos and song.  She has learned what space-ships are, she's learned to "catch stars" from the sky, she's learned empathy and sympathy by identifying with some of the characters, and I believe she is slowly learning to spell, or at least improving her letters and numbers.  We've also learned a lot about Little B, by watching her reactions from these clips and episodes.  We've learned that she is "scared" of penguins, easily identifies with babies and with very young children, loves horses, loves space-ships and robots, and has a love for certain rhymes and fairy-tales including Humpty Dumpty, the Tortoise and the Hare, and loves Princesses.  Be critical all you want, but less than 2 hours a day of videos (or screen time) seems to be educating and entertaining Little B in ways that would be difficult for myself to do as a mom with limited resources and knowledge (and yes, I said 2 hours).  I will definitely cut-back on the DVD time, for now, though, since the DVD-breakage incident, but that can be remedied by extra story time, or more random Youtube searches for preschool clips...  Actually the most useful Youtube clip that I've come across, for Little B, was the Sesame Street Brushing Teeth video...  After watching the clip several times, Little B improved her brushing technique (from sucking on the toothbrush, to actually brushing) quite quickly (although Little B STILL needs to be reminded not to suck off the toothpaste... but it's still somewhat of an improvement)...