We have been watching Franklin ever since it entered into the daily line-up on Nick Jr. My Daughter (2 yrs.), is a big fan of the show and when my older daughter (5 & 1/2) is home from school, she likes to watch too. She also adores the books that she checks out every so often, from the school Library, featuring the hit television cast.

Franklin is a young turtle, going through everyday life, facing many of the same situations as other Kindergarten - Second Graders are. Each shows contains a lesson of some sort which in my opinion is wonderful considering the many pointless cartoons on TV these days.

Franklin has many close friends. His closest, best friend being Bear. The only thing I can't understand about the show is that Franklin is the only character with a real name. The other peers in the show all have seemingly generic animal names such as goose, snail, fox, beaver, etc.

Anyway, some of the topics covered are: fibbing, not understanding how to tell time, new students at school and my favorite one, finders, keepers. My older daughter was home when this one aired, and it happened to be at the perfect time considering we'd just dealt with a problem such as this at home.
In this episode, Franklin and his friends are in the field playing when they find a camera on the ground. They decide to take a bunch of pictures before they think about how badly the person whom it belonged to may be missing it. In the process, Franklin loses his favorite stuffed dog at the park, while caught up an all the excitement of finding the camera. After talking it over with his parents, he decides to have the film developed in hopes of finding the owner of the camera. In the meantime, he's hoping the person who picked up his missing stuffed dog doesn't decide to believe in the old addage, "finders, keepers". Sure enough they find out who the owners are, (the Otter Family) and return the camera while explaining the lesson they'd learned. Franklin's Dog is also safely returned by who? You guessed it, Bear - his best friend.

I find this show to be educational - but it's all in how it's presented. The creators took one of the best loved forms (animation), and splashed it with vibrant color, lovable characters and lessons children in the targeted age group can relate to. Two thumbs up to Franklin and his crew for a job well done!



Recommended: Yes