Peppa Pig, Lazy Town, Bob The Builder - all my granddaughter's friends! (Nick Jr.)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Nick Jr.
Date:	01/03/09 (451 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely programming, fun and often educational

Disadvantages: -----------

Nick Jnr is my 20 month old granddaughter's favourite channel because it shows all her favourite programmes; Lazy Town, Go Diego Go, Backyardigans, Dora and Peppa Pig are all big favourites so it's good to find these all on one channel and spaced nicely throughout the day so that I don't find we're sitting in front of kids programmes all day when she visits.

It's such a sweet, darling channel. The majority of the programmes are cartoons and animations but there are a few featuring 'real people' and also throughout the day there are short songs and features with pre-school children starring in them which really hold my granddaughters attention as she doesn't get to see too many children of a similar age to her.

As far as I know Nick Jnr is a 24 hour channel, indeed every time I've switched over there has been something on. In the late evening and during the night they show a lot of golden oldies that most of you would love to catch up on such as Trumpton, Bagpuss, Mr Benn and those kind of childrens programmes. There's no rhyme nor reason as to the order in which these are shown though so if you decide you really need to watch The Wombles then do check the programme guide and set a reminder, don't just rely on it being shown at 10pm just because that was the time it was on yesterday!

During the day though Nick Jnr is completely modern and shows a range of programmes for very young children, much of their programming is educational based but will teach children about life values and how to treat people rather than actually attempting to educate them. These are more the programmes for babies such as Peppa Pig or Pic-Me which are brightly coloured and feature wonderfully sweet characters.

Moving on a few months and your child may be ready to start learning her letters, this is where shows like Super Why? come in because this programme in particular educates children in reading and helps to get across the importance of books and how they can be incorporated into their daily lives. Of course who can forget Dora and Diego, the Spanish teaching child adventurers? I know children of three who can count to five in Spanish, know the meaning of each word in context and have learnt this not through an overpriced Muzzie course but by watching these fun programmes.

I think Nick Jnr is a wonderful channel, I really do. My granddaughter loves the characters and although we don't allow her to watch tele all day long it's reassuring to know there is the perfect channel for her available to watch any time we need her to calm down and sit still for a while. When Backyardigans comes on she pulls her beanbag closer to the tele and sits watching the adventures for the full 20 minute episode and as she's getting older I've noticed recently she's laughing in all the right places which makes me believe she is actually following the simple story correctly.

Nick Jnr 2 can also be found although I find the programming on this one more suitable for children a little older than my granddaughter, we don't put this one on often as she doesn't seem to be able to connect with the programmes as well as on the standard Nick Jnr channel.

Summary: An excellent pre-school television channel.