Playing along with the show?

United States
June 4, 2009 8:26am CST
My son, who's almost 3, is watching his cartoons right now. He watches the shows on PBS. He likes to play along with the shows. If someone on the show asks where is something, my son will yell out "Right There!" or "Behind You!". This show he's watching now is about letters and reading. You're supposed to look for letters. My son will shout out letters, not always the correct ones, but he does shout them out when he sees them. Other shows will ask him to clap, or stand up, or do other silly things. Most of the time he does follow along and does these things. I think it's really cute. One night we were watching a DVD of Little Einsteins. I was sitting on the sofa next to my son.. my husband was standing behind us. The Little Einsteins asked to help Rocket fly by patting your hands on your lap. My son began to pat. He told me to pat, so I did. Then he yelled to my husband to pat. He didn't want to, but he gave in. Hubby and I were laughing at how cute my son was forcing us to pat! Does your child play along with the shows they watch? Have they ever asked you or your partner to play along too?
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11 responses
• Canada
4 Jun 09
My youngest likes any show with music, specifically The Doodlebops, Hi5 and The Wiggles. She likes to dance and do the actions when she can, especially on The Wiggles. My five year old and I will dance along with it and the youngest gets a real kick out of it to the point where she will join in (or at least try to). You're right, it is very cute. My husband says the only downfall is the songs get stuck in his head and he sings them at work ;) lol
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• United States
4 Jun 09
Too Funny! My husband once went to work singing songs that got stuck in his head from a show, usually Veggie Tales. He was singing the Cebu song once at work. He had to call me and tell me how everyone was looking at him strange because he kept going around the store saying "Achoo Moo Moo, Achoo Moo Moo, Achoo Moo Moo... Cebuuuuuu"
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• Canada
4 Jun 09
hehehehe. The husband sings the wiggles...specifically, fruit salad, get ready to wiggle and dorothy the dinosaur. It's hilarious, because now if a show is on before he leaves the house and there is a song playing, that song is cycling through his head until he can get to a radio.
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@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
4 Jun 09
Good morning, Kat - our sons would probably be hysterical together as my son does the same thing... I think it's too cute to watch this! He's almost 4 and his favs are Dora/Diego, Curious George, Thomas and Build a Word. I love to listen/watch him when he doesn't know I'm there - this gives me a good indication of how much he really knows, esp. when he's playing the letters, numbers or color games... Of course, he's also a huge HAM so anytime he has an audience, he ramps it up... and YES, almost always insists that I/we join him!
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• United States
4 Jun 09
Cute! Mine can be a ham at times too, but usually he's shy and reserved. I can hear him from where I sit here on my computer, and if I lean a little I can see him, so I always listen for him to play along with the show. I too see it as a sign of how smart he's getting.
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@DeenaD (2684)
• United States
5 Jun 09
My son is three and a half and he does pretty much the same thing you describe. It's cute, but I also think it's amazing how engaged they can get in these shows. To tell you the truth, I think it's a sign of that these little boys are intelligent!
@nishdan01 (3051)
• Singapore
5 Jun 09
My son is also three and he watches Playhouse Disney. He follows Mickey Mouse and that is his favourite and he tells almost all answers after watching it. Others favs are Little Einsteins, Elle show, Noddy and Jojo's circus. he plays with them, imitates them and remmeners even the background music. It is so funny too.
@lilybug (21107)
• United States
4 Jun 09
My son never did this when he was a kid. Even if I encouraged him to do it he wouldn't. My daughter will do it sometimes, but not all that often. I be it is cute watching him get so into the shows.
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@jayrene (2708)
• Philippines
4 Jun 09
my son is still two and he likes shows with music and dancing, and those comedy shows... when ever he wakes up, we go downstairs turn on the tv and i would put him in the sofa and he will watch shows. he talks, but its gibberish and would tell me something about what he's watching... lol... he would come to me and tap me and point to the tv and i would just say ok.. there was this one time, he was in tears and tv turned to commercial with his favorite song in it and he was dancing while almost crying... lol really funny.
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• Canada
4 Jun 09
Both of my daughters played and acted along to their favorite shows when they were small. I used to love it and was happy to participate too! They would always sing along, dance along and do the little craft activities if they could grab the supplies fast enough. However, one of my absolute favorites was a show called "The Big Comfy Couch"... the main character, Loonette the Clown, and her little doll Molly used to do something called "The Ten Second Tidy" - they would run around frantically cleaning up for ten seconds. Well my girls would automatically jump up and do the same thing... putting things quickly into the toy boxes or on the toy shelves... MAN I loved the ten second tidy!! I wonder if I could still get them to do that now??? LOL!!
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
5 Jun 09
My daughter used to watch dora alot but she never told dora where to go or helped out. My middle one did it but not if she knew anyone was listening. The only time I heard her do it was if I was outside of the room. The baby is starting to talk more and a few weeks ago I heard him repeating the 3 places dora had to get to to get where she was going. it was so cute. They don't usually do the actions but they will repeat the words.
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
4 Jun 09
I think that this is wonderful. Your son is learning to listen and respond. My kids use to do that too. It was so cute. As a parent it got a little tiring always hearing the same songs and such on tv, but the kids love it.
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@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
4 Jun 09
He just wanted to share it with you and you both kindly obliged. Isn't it amazing how the smallest things please little kids?
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@lelin1123 (15595)
• Puerto Rico
8 Jun 09
My granddaugher is 3 years old and I watch her while her parents are at work. She always plays along or speaks the answers out loud. Yes she will ask me to dance, clap or to watch what she is doing. They are so cute at this age she makes my day!