I don't know why they have to show Sesame Street at 8 in the morning here. Maybe so I can get my butt out of bed and not sleep the day away. I guess that's a good thing. There I am, every morning at 7:50, getting my daughter up to watch Sesame Street.

My daughter doesn't watch much TV. Sometimes she watches a Veggie-Tales movie in the afternoon, and she might half-pay attention to something I may be watching, but this is the one thing she watches every day. Sitting in her high chair, pointed towards the TV. Often, she's too engrossed in the show to eat, and she has breakfast after the show.

Why is Sesame Street a mainstay of kid's television? And why do I drag myself (and her) out of bed every morning to watch it?

The good

Sesame Street is a show where I find *most* of the episodes acceptable. While I would watch the show with her every day for the first few weeks, now I know most of the segments and I can do something else while she's watching it. There are a lot of television shows, even kids' shows, that I don't feel that way about.

Sesame Street is educational. There are several different items that you will see every day, that will help teach numbers, letters, and other concepts that kids should know.

- Letter of the day. This segment features Cookie Monster talking about whatever the letter of the day is. He always has a "letter of the day" cookie... and always, no matter how hard he tries, ends up eating the cookie. If you have the Fisher Price Learn Through Music Alphabet cartridge, then you notice Cookie Monster saying "If letters were cookies, me sure have a bunch..." this is referring to this segment of Sesame Street.

- Number of the day. This segment features Count von Count, playing on his organ finding out what the number of the day is. He plays a note, which will sing up the scale, counting up until he reaches the number of the day.

- Elmo's World. This is about half the show. Elmo talks about a different topic every day. Sometimes this segment will involve counting as well.

- Journey to Ernie. This segment features Big Bird playing hide and seek with Ernie. As he searches for his friend, a different concept is explored every day. Shapes, placement, asking people things, and bigger/smaller are concepts explored in this segment.

- Spanish word of the day. This segment introduces a new Spanish word every day. Rosita or Grover usually introduce these words.

- Hero Guy. Baby bear, a character that I don't remember from when I was a kid, draws "hero guy" on a canvas and imagines one adventure or another with him. In one story they count to twenty in space, sometimes they get a cat out of a tree, other times they go on yet another adventure.

The rest of the show usually revolves around a storyline. During one two-part storyline, Baby Bear's mommy has a baby. In another show, Elmo is in love with Gina. Zoe loses her cape in the tree in another episode. All of these stories usually have educational value to them.

The Bad

There are a couple of stories that they show occasionally that I either turn off or distract my daughter while it plays. To the average person, they are probably no big deal, but they are against my beliefs, and I don't want my daughter to pick them up.

- In one segment during Elmo's World (the one where the subject is music) they talk about how music developed. The story talked about how cave men could only grunt, and they developed music when they found a musical stick. I believe that Adam and Eve were created knowing both how to talk AND how to sing, so I'm not too hot on this segment.

- In another episode, Koffi Annan from the U.N. appears as a guest. I'm not a big fan of the U.N. and don't think that the U.N. is a good thing, so I usually turn the show off for about a minute during this one.

I haven't seen another segment that I didn't like.

My daughter doesn't seem to mind it, but many of the shows are repeated... over and over and over again. This usually is only annoying to the adult.

Conclusion

Sesame Street is a great show, worth getting my daughter up every day for. Not only is it entertaining for my daughter, but she is learning something while she watches it.

Recommended: Yes

Type of Program: Educational
Program Quality: Entertaining, but not intellectually or emotionally engaging
Best Suited For: 12 to 36 Months