I really wish I could tell you that I break into song every time the mail arrives just like Steve/Joe from Blue’s Clues does. But well, I don’t.
I’d love to say that when one of my daughters has a problem, my usual response is to cheerfully chant, “When you have a problem, we look…in a book!” just like my characters from Super Why. But no, I don’t do that either.
So, what do I do? And what have I learned from writing hundreds of preschool episodes for television?
Singing helps.
Seriously. Singing anything. We even sing when the mail comes on Blue’s Clues. Because, well..mail is exciting when you are four! And truthfully, most mail is exciting. It’s like a little surprise present. Singing about it makes it celebratory.
So why not sing about other things? Sing when we are cleaning up, which preschool teachers have been doing forever! Sing when we are sad (Hello, Taylor Swift?). Sing when we are excited (“I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it!”). Sing when things don’t go our way (“You Can’t Always Get What you Want”).
Feel free to belt out a tune today. Just watch how it helps!
Here’s the mail it never fails
After all, doesn’t it feel good to wail given the opportunity?!
😉
I love the “Mailtime” song. I don’t really sing it because it’s not really something I do, and I don’t have any kids, but I sing it in my head. That works, right? And, of course, there’s “Daniel Tiger” – they have a song for just about everything.
I was watching “Good Morning, Daniel” and it has the toothbrushing song, which is good. But it got me thinking – not long before that, Daniel uses the potty and he washes his hands and he scrubs for maybe like two seconds. “Flush, wash and be on your way” they sing on the show. But you always read that it should be done for a certain amount of time; at least 15 seconds was the lowest amount that I read. And it’s always bugged me that on this and other shows like it, there’s usually just the really quick scrub and that’s that. I know that it’s television and sometimes you have to keep things moving, but I know too that you guys think about this stuff. I’m just wondering, what’s the thinking here? Is it felt that it’s just that the most important thing is to show them doing it at all? As opposed to simply not covering a topic where it would come up?
We always attempt to model correct behavior & appropriate methods, but keep in mind the medium is video. If we lose our audience, our message won’t be learned and 45s of simple hand washing would lose a large chunk of our audience. We’ve done our homework & we know why they’ll stay and/or go. Time allotment is always tricky in regards to this medium, but hopefully our main goals have been achieved.
Thanks for commenting George
You’re quite welcome, Angela, and thank you for your thoughts. That certainly makes sense.
Anyway, I do always enjoy the quality music, both on “Blue’s Clues” and “Daniel Tiger” and the other productions. My favorite so far would be Daniel’s goodnight song to Margaret. So sweet.
The music’s one of my favorite components as well!
Thanks for your comments George
I would like to know where can I get an adult super why costume for my son birthday party. It would truly make my son the happiness little boy alive. Please contact me at wendasevere@yahoo.com. He would be a happy 2year old
While I’d love to help you out, google can help you more than I can with that request. Perhaps the pbskids store, target or walmart?? Good luck!!
My kids and I are HUGE fans of Blue’s Clues and SuperWHY – thank you so much! However, I’ve noticed something disturbing with my youngest, who watched Daniel Tiger. Although the “When you’re feelin’ mad” song is very helpful for managing her frustrations,we cannot continue to watch. She mimics the challenging behaviors/words she sees from the show! And being nearly four, she has enough challenging behaviors of her own; I don’t need new ones added with each episode. So we’ll stick with Blue and Steve 🙂
We all go through difficult emotions and it’s nice to see that we’re not alone and. more importantly, what we can do with these feelings to turn them around. Hopefully it’s assisted in your home. I’m happy to hear there’s love for Blue & Steve in your home though! 🙂