Smart Screen Time

Readers responded positively to this information from last year, so I’m repeating it as my own holiday special! It’s the time of year for amazing, heartwarming holiday programs. It’s also the time of year for tons of commercials aimed at kids, and on nearly all the...

With the proliferation of digital devices and the program options available on them, it has become easy for everyone to retreat to their own corner with their own media. This became absolutely necessary during the pandemic, when parents had to rely on kids being...

Rosie’s Rules premieres nationwide this month on PBS KIDS and it’s a big deal for us in Austin. It has been a long time since PBS KIDS had a show embedded in Mexican-American culture. Remember Maya & Miguel? How about Carrascolendas? If you peer in a little...

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the debut of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” the offshoot of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which itself ran for 31 seasons. Taken together, that’s 41 years of gentle, friendly programming, a constant safe haven throughout much of...

Can you remember the last time you were in a place that had absolutely no human-made light? Perhaps you were stunned by how dark “real” darkness can be, or perhaps you had a chance to see our nighttime sky the way it looked to us about a hundred years ago, before the...

Well, we’re in our dog days of summer – and PBS has dogs! Of course there’s Clifford, Martha, and some of you may recall Wishbone, but there’s also Suki (“Molly of Denali”), Hal (“Nature Cat”), and the legendary “Odd Squad” puppy episode. For a family-friendly...

As we celebrate our second national Juneteenth this month, fine Texans will quickly say: a) the holiday first started here and b) some of us have been celebrating for over a century!  With Juneteenth leaping into national attention, I wondered how to talk to young...

There are so many different ways to play, each with its characteristics and strengths. We tend to think of play in its most open-ended form, when kids are in a setting (such as a playground, a bedroom, a swimming pool), often with other kids, and they seize the...

 Ah, it’s springtime, when the plants are in bloom, the animals are frolicking, and young minds turn to... exactly what they were doing all winter. No! That’s not right! We want to shake things up! But our kids are not always ready to follow our lead, especially if...

Helllooo, everybodeee!  This column is presumably about screens, but I’m going to talk mostly about books. One book in particular: “The Monster at the End of This Book.” It’s a remarkable creation from the early days of Sesame Street that remains as fresh and...

Chances are high that many of you who grew up with “Arthur” are now seeing your children do the same. After over 250 episodes, including many fabulous guest voices and innumerable sassy remarks from D.W., final new episodes air this winter. (In case you were...

Literacy development has been especially difficult to foster during the pandemic. Access to libraries was dramatically curtailed, and when virtual instruction was the only form available, phonics and other technical aspects of reading were very hard to get...