toddler green

** No one asked me to review this.. HA. This is totally my opinion and I wanted to ramble about it.

This morning the little guy and I watched a few Saturday morning cartoons. When I was growing up, Saturday mornings WERE about cartoons for about 2 hours!! The rest of the week, and weekend for that matter were not about TV, unless we sat down to watch Wheel of Fortune or Sanford and Son! HA. Anyway, we don't care for most of the 'new' cartoons so we generally watch Boomerang for classic cartoons like Tom&Jerry or the Smurfs, there are a few of the new cartoons that have a moral of the story type of approach, and those are the ones we generally watch on Saturday morning very early (before big boy wakes up). Little Einsteins is pretty fun, along with Johnny and the Sprites. I'll admit, at first the little talking Sprites kindof weirded me out... but taking a quick dose of reality, that's what kids like! It's imaginary, it's fun, it IS about kidstuff (not about me, ha). We're not concerned that the little one will grow up to believe that there is a Forrest of talking Sprites out there...I like how Johnny is an actual person in the show, and how special appearances are made by other actual people. It's a mix of cartoon characters and people, Sesame Street style I guess you'd say. Today's storyline shocked me, pleasantly!!

Here's a quick rundown of the show: Johnny Helps Mother Nature: Looking to give his garden some extra boost, Johnny sprays it with a new spray, not realizing that its actually harmful to the environment. The foul mixture soon spreads to Grootto's Grove, polluting the water, the air and all of the plants. Mother Nature makes a special appearance to get to the bottom of the problem and to remind both Johnny and the Sprites why it's important to care for nature.

I LOVED how Mother Nature was portrayed by a woman wearing a whimsical outfit made of flowers, it almost looked like she was a landscape scene! Her gown was green at the bottom, floral at the waist, and cloud blue at the top, she wore a beautiful tiara of flowers in her hair. Again, we're not concerned that our kids think that Mother Nature is a PERSON... but it was an interesting way to show that Mother Nature is important. In most cases, people don't want to upset other people, and the desire to please others starts at an early age. So what an interesting twist on how to please Mother Nature!! Portraying her as a person for mere symbolism that creates a concrete type of idea that Mother Nature should be regarded with respect.

I read WAY more into it then our almost 3 year old... but boy do I realize how very much he DOES pick up from what he see's. I see the big picture, and the big picture was absolutely described in the theme song for this episode. Johnny sang the song while planting flowers, gathering plastics for recycling, and generally cleaning up! It's a catchy little song!!

The toddler danced and clapped during the closing song, while I was sortof bubbling with glee that there's a little green talk Incorporated into something fun for even the toddlers! We're not the greenest people on the planet, but we sure try to do the little things like recycle, conserve water, avoid chemical overload, etc. I'm sure we have more we can do, and we're trying to do more each day. It's nice having the kids involved and more importantly to me, keeping it fun instead of it seeming like such a chore. While we do not at all rely on TV to teach our kids any morals, we do enjoy the idea that some real issues are addressed in a fun kid friendly way in a few of the shows that are offered up for viewing.