A few weeks ago, a representative from Scholastic commented on my blog, offering me the opportunity to review a new Maya & Miguel DVD.
At first I was all WOW! My first review offer!! Some marketing company noticed my blog!!! Woohoo!!
And then I was all, Who on earth is Maya & Miguel?
So I turned to the source of all PBS knowledge, my children. Do yall ever watch Maya & Miguel? Sure, they’ve seen it.
Do you like it? Yeah, they like it. (Of course, they’ve never met a TV show they don’t like. They don’t exactly have discriminating tastes with it comes to television programming.)
Well, we might get a DVD for free! Cause some marketing company noticed Mama’s blog!
So then they’re all, Yay! A new DVD!
And then, Mom, what’s a blog?
Oh, nothing to concern yourself with, my dears.
So every day last week, they eagerly checked the mailbox for their DVD. And on Friday it arrived. Of course, we wasted no time tearing off the wrapping and popping it into the DVD player for a quick spin.
Now, for a disclaimer. I’m not a big believer in "educational programming". I allow my kids to watch TV for the free babysitting. And so I can blog without them nagging me for snacks.
When they do watch, I usually turn to PBS because of the lack of commercials and because most of the shows seem pretty harmless. But I don’t buy into the notion that they get much in the way of educational benefits from watching TV. In fact, I think we were all better off before the invention of the television. Go ahead. Call me an old fart. I stand by my claim.
So take that into account when I say that Maya & Miguel is a cute show that my kids enjoy. I can’t say there’s a lot of education happening, but it’s a nice show. They do, however, learn a bit about Mexican culture and some Spanish words. So call it educational if you wish.
I definitely appreciate that the children in the show are polite to each other and respectful to their parents, which should go without saying for children’s programming. But we all know that we cannot take for granted that our children are seeing positive role models every time they turn on the TV, not even on PBS.
I’m choosy about what my kids watch. I can’t stand shows where the
kids are disrespectful to each other, and it really gets my hackles up when parents are portrayed as idiots and the children superior. Fortunately this
is NOT the case with Maya & Miguel.
There are also games on the Maya & Miguel website that my son enjoys. It focuses on sports around the world. My son’s two passions in this world are sports and video games, so the Maya & Miguel website is a slice of heaven here on earth where he is concerned.
In a nutshell, Maya & Miguel gets the Choosy Housewife stamp of approval.
The DVD we received is called Cinco De Maya, and it includes five episodes. It’s fully animated and suggested for ages three and up. Both my 4-year-old and my 7-year-old are enjoying it.
And don’t forget to enter my contest for a tagline! The deadline is Friday, and the more suggestions the merrier!
12 Responses
Interesting. My Little Boy is a little too young for that show, although we’ve watched it from time to time. I agree that it isn’t all that educational. Curious George is my pick…
I’m with you on the TV thing, and although my kids do watch the TV, I try to make it mostly PBSkids, Noggin and Smile of a Child. Smile of a Child is an offshoot of TBN, and they provide 24-hour Christian programming for kids. Some corny, some good, but all Christian, all the time.
When they occasionally watch Disney, Animal Planet or Discovery Kids, they end up quoting the commercials, which just makes me cringe.
I will have to check out Maya & Miguel. We like most of PBS. A. thinks when you say McDonald’s you have to say “McDonalds, happy to be a part of Sesame Street.” I’m so proud.
I totally agree about the need for examples of polite children!! Right-on Sister!
That’s fun! Look at you, miss product review blog success! 🙂
We love Dora, so I bet we’d love Maya and Miguel!
Jamie
My kiddo loves to play all the games on pbskids.org. It keeps him busy for awhile so I can….you know…blog and obsessively check Stat Counter.
My kids are Maya and Miguel fans too. My only complaint is that there are only about 10 episodes so if you watch it on PBS you’ll see the same episodes over and over again. I do love the no commercials though. When they watch cartoons on Sat morning all I hear is “I want that, I want that.” We’ve been doing a semi-TV fast – only 30 minutes a day for the month of August and so far so good. It’s going a lot better than I thought- it’s fun seeing how creative my kids (2 and 4) are when they don’t have tv all day.
Scholastic, pretty impressive!
😉
We try to limit our tv around here as well, to actual DVDs we own as opposed to commercial tv with all the commercials. I really hate how much “stuff” (trying to use a polite term here) is pushed on kids these days – there really isn’t anything that isn’t being marketed straight at kids, who always fall for it whether it’s something they like or not.
I mean, they’re brother and sister and best friends as well.
Now that theme song is going to be stuck in my head all night. But that’s okay. I LOVE Maya and Miguel.
I have never heard of that show… then again being without a tv for 4 years has its advantages I guess. Would that make me a really old fart?! LOL You cracked me up with that one. I think the same way!
LOL, Kim. I’ve had that song going through my head for days, now. It’s driving me BATTY!
My kids love Maya and Miguel. Unfortunately once I get the song in my head it is stuck for days. I will be humming this til Friday now. TYVM. 😉
Look at you all grown up and doing product reviews! 😉 I agree about the shows that have dumb parents. I just WILL not watch Nickelodeon AT ALL because of this. Poor Lydia won’t even know there’s so many shows on TV b/c I just TIVO what I want her to watch!