Day 768 - Poll Results & New Poll

Two week ago (I was sooooooo tired), I asked what other children shows would be appropriate for the kids to watch. Thirty-three percent of you thought Little Einsteins and Yo Gabba Gabba would be good choices. The rest of the votes were varied enough that even the Showtime lesbian-centric show The L Word made the list. Personally, I'm a Red Shoe Diaries sort of person, but lesbians are a-ok in my book, too.

I haven't had the kids watch Little Einsteins yet, although we have watched Yo Gabba Gabba enough times that it has given me nightmares and cold sweats. What has actually helped us with the variety of shows the kids watch is that I can now stream Netflix to my PS3. You can stream a large number of children shows including Blue's Clues (aka Couscous), Dora the Explorer, Barney, Thomas the Train, and The Wiggles. You can also watch the first five seasons of The L Word and wide selection of Ellen DeGeneres television shows.

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Lisa and I try to be very positive and encouraging around the kids. If the kids accomplish something like putting their shoes on by themselves, cleaning up their room, or coloring a smaller area of the television screen, we like to tell them they did a good job. But I have read some studies that show being too generous with plaudits can actually hamper a child's development. Possibly, too much praise could cause children to become unmotivated and cause performance anxiety (...at least I have an explanation for Lisa now regarding my own performance anxiety...).

What do you think? Should Lisa and I try to be more discriminating with our praise of Emma and Andrew? Or are the kids still at a young enough age where they really need a lot of encouragement and motivation? Or should we just say the hell with it because it'll all go out the window once they become teenagers?