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Behaviour

Imitation

Young children learn by copying. Long before they can follow an explanation, they watch what someone does, store it, and try it out themselves, from waving goodbye to handling a moment of frustration. That makes a calm, carefully made series a genuine teacher: whatever a child sees repeated on screen, in words, gestures or in the way a problem gets solved, is likely to turn up in your living room soon after.

For 2-year-olds

At two, copying is the main way learning happens. Your child mirrors single words, hand gestures, sounds and small routines like putting on shoes or waving. What helps at this stage is a series that moves slowly enough to be followed: one clear action at a time, held long enough to be seen, and repeated across the episode. Watch for pauses that leave room to join in, and for everyday behaviour you would happily see imitated, because at this age almost everything gets tried out.

Bing
S01 E05

Bing

Ducks

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Bing and his friend Sula go with Flop to the park pond to feed the ducks. Sula shows Bing how to stand 'statue still' and stay quiet so the ducks come close, while Bing keeps scaring them off by being loud. A big goose suddenly arrives and gobbles all the food, startling Bing before flying off. By the end Bing tries again, manages to stay calm and quiet, and a single duck comes right up to him.

Numberblocks
S01 E02

Numberblocks

Another One

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

One, a small red block, wakes up in a sunny landscape and tries to play tennis but realises there is only one of him. After trying to run between both sides of the court, he discovers a magic mirror that lets another One appear. The two combine into Two, an orange block, and the story ends with the pair playing tennis together while the math '1 + 1 = 2' is reinforced through dialogue and on-screen text. The episode closes with end credits.

Bing
S01 E12

Bing

Here I Go

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Bing, a young rabbit, and his friend Pando find a new climbing frame at the park with steps, a tippy tunnel, a rope ladder and a wobbly bridge. At the top, Bing is scared of the very high slide and tells his carer Flop he does not like it. With Flop's patience, and after watching Pando and the toy Hoppity Voosh go down first, Bing slides down himself and enjoys it. He ends by recapping that when you are scared, you can watch someone else try first.

Numberblocks
S01 E05

Numberblocks

One, Two, Three

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Three, the yellow block character, performs four short magic tricks for her friends One and Two using apples: a find-the-apple cup game, an apple-on-top balance game, a surprise reveal that shows '1 + 2 = 3', and a final trick that makes the apple cores grow into three new trees. The action takes place outdoors on a grassy hill with a few simple props. Along the way the characters introduce counting to three, the words 'first', 'second' and 'third', and the ideas of bigger and smaller. The episode ends with Three sharing the new apples so all three friends have some.

Moon and Me
S01 E04

Moon and Me

Who Rides What?

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Pepi Nana, a doll who comes alive when the moon shines, writes a letter inviting Moon Baby to visit. Moon Baby slides down from the moon and wakes the other toys, Little Nana and Lambkin, Mr Onion, Dibillo, and Colly Wobble, with a magical kalimba, and together they share a story called The Toy Roundabout. In the story Colly Wobble drives her car backwards because she likes to do everything differently, the other toys copy her, and then she switches to going forwards to stay unique. The episode ends with the toys saying goodnight to one another as Moon Baby returns to the moon.

Donkey Hodie
S01 E28 Story B

Donkey Hodie

Stanley's One-Dragon Show

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Stanley the dragon prepares a one-dragon show in the park and insists on performing every act by himself. When the orchestra, the magic trick, and a dramatic chicken scene each go wrong, his friend Donkey Hodie and others, Harriet and DuckDuck, coach him through them step by step. Stanley discovers that some problems need help and finishes the full show to a puppet audience's applause. He thanks each friend by name before the closing credits.

For 3-year-olds

Threes move from copying single actions to copying whole roles. Feeding a doll, playing shopkeeper, repeating a phrase a character used when they were upset. This is when imitation starts carrying social content, so it matters what the characters actually model: asking for help, naming a feeling, waiting a turn. Look for a series where the useful behaviour is spoken out loud and shown clearly, and where the tone your child picks up is one you want echoed back at the dinner table.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
S01 E02

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

Daniel's Picnic

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Daniel Tiger and his friends Prince Wednesday and Miss Elaina meet at the castle, ride the trolley to the clock factory park, and start a picnic with Daniel's dad nearby. After an alphabet snack game, a make-believe ant picnic, and a ball game that ends with the ball getting squashed, a sudden rain forces them inside the clock factory. They notice clocks shaped like a castle and a tiger and decide to hold their picnic indoors. The episode closes with the friends thanking the viewer and a song about turning disappointment into something good.

Pocoyo
S01 E03

Pocoyo

Swept Away

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Pocoyo builds a block tower and knocks it down, then learns that his friend Ellie is coming over to play. A warm narrator reminds him to clean up, and Pocoyo grabs a broom, which he first turns into a pretend horse, hockey stick and guitar, making even more mess. In the end he uses that same playful energy to sweep the blocks away just in time. Ellie arrives and the two play together.

Peppa Pig
S01 E17

Peppa Pig

Frogs & Worms & Butterflies

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

In this episode Peppa and George help Grandpa Pig in his garden and start playing at being different animals. After watching a butterfly, Peppa pretends to be one, George wants to join, and Grandpa shows him how to be a wriggly worm. They then spot a frog and decide to play frogs, which means jumping in a big muddy puddle. It ends with everyone splashing together and Peppa declaring she likes frogs the best.

Alma's Way
S01 E15 Story A

Alma's Way

Alma's Rescue Repair

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Alma, a girl from the Bronx, watches her Papi head off to rescue a squirrel and decides to start her own service, 'Alma's Rescue Repair.' She fixes a friend's wind-blown music stand and a neighbour's tomato tower, but hauling her tools back and forth is tiring and they keep falling off her wagon. After seeing how Mr. Ramirez keeps all his tools in his shoe shop, Alma sets up her repair service at home so people come to her. The episode ends with her helping again from her organised home base.

Zou
S01 E05

Zou

The Postman

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 3

Zou, a young zebra, is bored until the postman brings letters for everyone except him, plus one delivered by mistake. His mum takes him to the post office where Postmaster Zoey shows him how mail is sent, inspiring Zou to set up his own post office at home. After a confused first round with unlabelled parcels, Grandpa helps him introduce a post box and name labels, and Zou successfully delivers every parcel and receives a thank-you letter from the family.

Jessica's Big Little World
S01 E01

Jessica's Big Little World

Bedtime Routine

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Jessica, a young girl, decides she wants to do her whole bedtime routine, put on her bonnet, brush her teeth and use the potty, all by herself like her big brother Bernard. She keeps forgetting steps, gets frustrated, and finally asks Bernard for help, who suggests she come up with a strategy. She invents a memory song and manages all three steps in order, though she leaves a splashy mess to clean up. The story takes place at home with her mother and two brothers.

Peppa Pig
S01 E18

Peppa Pig

Dressing Up

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Peppa and George find a box of old clothes in their parents' bedroom and dress up as Mummy and Daddy Pig. Staying in character, Peppa pretends to work at Mummy's computer and visits Daddy Pig, played by George, digging in the garden. The children get muddy playing along, then Mummy Pig appears with ice cream. She plays into the game before revealing she recognized them all along.

Peppa Pig
S01 E16

Peppa Pig

Musical Instruments

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Mummy and Daddy Pig find a dusty box of old musical instruments while tidying the house, and the family gathers to try them out. Mummy plays the violin, Daddy the accordion and Peppa the drum, while a horn defeats everyone who blows it. In the end little George is the only one who can make the horn sound. The episode closes with the whole family playing their instruments together outside.

Ms Rachel
S01 E02

Ms Rachel

Baby Learning

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 3

A live-action host guides babies and young toddlers through a long series of songs, word games and gesture activities filmed against colourful studio and animated backgrounds. She teaches first words like mama, dada, ball and car, plays peek-a-boo, blows bubbles, stacks blocks and sings familiar rhymes such as 'Wheels on the Bus' and 'Twinkle Twinkle'. Real children, a teddy bear, a bear puppet and a blue puppet friend appear in short clips between segments. The video closes with the host waving 'bye-bye friends' and a 'Ms Rachel' title card.

Peppa Pig
S01 E08

Peppa Pig

Piggy in the Middle

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

In the family garden, George plays with his ball and Peppa teases him about how to catch, so Mummy Pig teaches everyone the game Piggy in the Middle. As they play, Peppa keeps taunting George until he is upset, and Mummy tells her it is not fair to tease him. Daddy Pig joins in, Peppa apologises, and Mummy gives both children a helping hand so they can catch the ball. The episode ends with all four pigs happily playing catch together.

For 4-year-olds

Four-year-olds copy selectively and test the results. They try out a character's joke, a cheeky reply or a way of standing up for themselves, then watch your face to see what happens. Imitation now includes tone of voice and social tactics, not just actions. Useful here are characters who get things wrong with each other and then repair it, so the repair is copied along with the conflict. Be aware that sharp humour and back talk travel home just as easily as kindness.

Bluey
S01 E38

Bluey

Copycat

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

In this episode of Bluey, Bluey spends the morning copying everything her dad Bandit says and does. On his walk the family finds a hurt budgie, boxes it up with a tea towel and drives it to the vet, but the bird dies. Back home, Bluey stages a pretend replay of the whole event with Bingo and her mum, trying to make it end differently before accepting that some things cannot be changed. The episode closes with the copycat game quietly forgotten.

Puffin Rock
S02 E25

Puffin Rock

Owl School

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 4

On the coastal island of Puffin Rock, young puffin Oona and her baby brother Baba stumble onto the owls' flying school run by Otto. They try each owl lesson in turn, hunting, silent flying, night vision and the head swivel, and discover puffins simply cannot do what owls do. When a puffling drifts toward the water, Oona swoops in to help. The episode ends with the owls wanting to learn puffin skills instead, and the narrator noting that puffins and owls are each incredible in their own way.

Peppa Pig
S01 E04

Peppa Pig

Polly Parrot

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Peppa and her family visit Granny and Grandpa Pig, who reveal a new pet parrot named Polly. After the children guess at the surprise and sit down for tea with chocolate cake, they hurry off to play with Polly, discovering that she repeats whatever she hears. Peppa and George pretend to be parrots and teach Polly to say 'I'm a noisy parrot'. The episode ends with Polly repeating the cheeky phrase back to Granny, who responds with a surprised 'Oh my word!'.

Lovely Little Farm
S01 E04

Lovely Little Farm

Egg

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

On a working farm, sisters Jill and Jackie discover that a special golden egg has rolled away from its nest. Farmer Jill organises the animals into a lookout team and reasons her way around the barn, yard and fields to track it down, while Jackie sets herself the job of collecting the hens' eggs and learns how to lift a chicken gently. The goats Biff and Bob eventually find the golden egg in an old bucket, and it is reunited with its carers. The episode closes with the family planting sweet-corn seeds just before the rain, then heading out to bring the last animals inside.

Muppet Babies: Play Date
S01 E04

Muppet Babies: Play Date

Gonzo Says

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 3

A boy named Kingston has a backyard play date with the puppet friends Kermit and Gonzo. They start with a quick round of I Spy, then Gonzo leads a Simon Says style game called Gonzo Says, calling out actions like mooing, doing the groovy chicken and running in place. Kermit slips up by moving without the magic phrase, and it is smoothed over as a practice round. The episode ends on a comic note when a big sneeze arrives and Gonzo answers with 'Gesundheit.'

Handy Manny
S01 E09

Handy Manny

Pet Problem

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Manny, a repairman with a set of talking tools, gets a call from Cassie that the rabbit cage at her pet shop is broken. On the way the tools daydream about getting their own pet, and once at the shop an accident sets all the rabbits loose. Manny keeps everyone calm and they lure the bunnies back with food before fitting a new latch and fixing the cage. By the end the tools decide their robot dog Fix-It is pet enough, since real pets are a lot of work.

T.O.T.S
S01 E10

T.O.T.S

The Colorful Chameleon

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 4

Pip the penguin and Freddy the flamingo are assigned to deliver Cam, a baby chameleon who loves to play pretend by changing colour to match other animals. When Cam hops out of his crate at a farm, he keeps blending in with puppies, cows, pigs, and gophers, making him nearly impossible to find. Pip figures out that a talent show will make Cam change into bright, easy-to-spot colours, and the plan works. Cam is safely reunited with his family and learns that being a chameleon is something special.

Ms Rachel
S02 E01

Ms Rachel

Toddler Learning with Ms Rachel

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 3

Ms Rachel, a live teacher, guides toddlers through zoo and jungle animals using a repeating peekaboo rhyme, songs, movement and pretend play, with guest appearances by The Wiggles. Children meet elephants, gorillas, lions, penguins and more through real animal footage, toys and puppets, and practise colours, counting to twenty, opposites and letters along the way. She builds a pretend zoo from blocks, takes a make-believe trip to see the animals, and sings familiar nursery rhymes. The video closes with the ABC song and a warm goodbye to the viewer.

Lovely Little Farm
S01 E02

Lovely Little Farm

Sisters

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Two sisters, Jill and Jackie, wake up to the news that their new baby brother has been born. Across a day on their family farm they meet him, learn to hold him gently, and help pick vegetables for soup and care for the animals. Jackie, eager to give the first hug, practises waiting by looking after a golden egg, while a little duck proves how helpful it can be. The episode closes with the sisters tending a sheep that is about to have her lamb.

T.O.T.S
S01 E08

T.O.T.S

Bunny Bunanza

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 4

Junior flyers Pip the penguin and Freddy the flamingo idolise expert delivery bird JP the stork and copy his every move, until a mid-air crash scatters a batch of baby bunnies and mixes up whose is whose. The three must work together to identify each bunny, trying to ask their names, weigh them, and sniff them before discovering that playing with each one reveals who it is. One by one the bunnies reach their correct families, and JP admits he could learn a thing or two from Pip and Freddy's approach. The episode ends with everyone reunited and JP joking that he too is very inspiring.

For 5-year-olds

By five, imitation becomes deliberate practice. Your child chooses a model, someone braver, funnier or more capable, and copies on purpose in order to get better at something. Persistence is what is worth modelling now: a character who tries, fails, adjusts and tries again teaches more than one who succeeds instantly. Look for stories where skills are built over time and where the child figures out part of it alone, so what gets copied is the effort, not just the outcome.

For 6-year-olds

At six, copying is tied to belonging. Children imitate the phrases, humour and style of the people they want to be like, and increasingly that means a group rather than a grown-up. Series that help here show characters with distinct personalities who stay friends without becoming copies of each other, and who occasionally step away from what everyone else is doing. That gives your child a model for the harder skill at this age: joining in without losing your own line.

Fraggle Rock
S01 E07

Fraggle Rock

I Want to Be You

Calming
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 2

Red Fraggle wants to show her friend Gobo a slide stunt, but everyone would rather hear Mokey's poems. Feeling overlooked, Red decides to become Mokey, copying her hair, her voice and her habit of gathering radishes and writing verse, until Boober mistakes the changes for a disease. Disguised as a bush, Red accidentally helps free her friends when a young Gorg traps them, and she decides she would rather be herself, master of the slide. In the human workshop, Doc prepares a costume for a party while his dog Sprocket ends up dressed as Doc.

Oh Noah!
S01 E10

Oh Noah!

Monkey Business

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 4

Noah, a young boy, talks with his Spanish-speaking grandmother on a screen, and she asks him to bring her a 'guineo'. Unsure what the word means, Noah imagines an adventure where he flies by helicopter and parachutes into a jungle full of monkeys. There he discovers that a 'guineo' is a banana, gathers some, and along the way picks up words like 'mono' (monkey) and 'gracias' (thank you). The episode closes on a comedic monkey wearing a banana peel.

Oh Noah!
S01 E09

Oh Noah!

A Whale Tale

Balanced
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 4

Noah, a young boy, is sent by his abuela to help their neighbor señor Rodríguez, who is tired and needs his shop swept. As Noah pieces together the Spanish words for the task, he imagines a giant whale rising from the sea during a boat adventure. Back in the shop, Noah and señor Rodríguez sweep together and the older man thanks him. The episode closes with a short song about sweeping, 'Barrer, barrer, me gusta barrer'.

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