Behaviour
Listening
Listening is more than hearing. For young children it is the slow work of tuning in to a voice, holding on to what was said, and letting it change what they do next. A calm, well made series gives them room to practise: speech they can follow, pauses that leave space to think, and characters who actually respond to each other instead of talking past one another.
For 2-year-olds
At two, listening lives in the body. A toddler turns toward a familiar voice, catches a rhythm, and joins in with a sound or a gesture long before understanding every word. Look for one clear voice at a time, short sentences, and quiet gaps where nothing competes for attention. Songs and repeated phrases help here, because hearing the same line again is what lets a two year old finally catch it and say it back.
Ms. Monica
Learn Letter F & Number 8
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Ms. Monica, an early-childhood teacher, leads a morning circle time straight to camera from a classroom-style corner. She opens with a good-morning song, marks the day as Monday, introduces the number eight by counting sticks and fingers, and presents the letter F with its sound and words that start with it. She then checks the weather, dresses Mr Weather Bear for a cold sunny day, and reviews the square shape. The session closes with 'If You're Happy and You Know It' and an invitation to return the next day.
Barney's World
One Ripe Tomato
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
In Nona's garden, three friends, Vivi, Mel and David, each pick out big plans for a single ripe tomato, from pizza sauce to pico de gallo to planting seeds. When they cannot agree who should have it, they ask Barney, who gathers them in a purple circle to listen to each other's ideas. Hearing everyone's plan, Vivi decides the fairest thing is to share the tomato so they can all enjoy it. The episode ends with the friends eating pizza together and Vivi giving Nona a painting.
Barney's World
Practice Makes Purple
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
In a bright city park, the purple dinosaur Barney and his friends Mel, David and Vivi spend the day playing soccer. Vivi decides she wants to quit because she thinks she is not good at it, so Barney invents a string of games, chasing pretend sharks, passing a bursting potato and aiming at a dragon, that are really soccer practice in disguise. When he reveals the trick, Vivi realizes she has been improving all along and happily gives soccer another try. Her grandmother Nona arrives, praises her skills, and the episode closes with a group dance and song.
Donkey Hodie
Super Duper Magic Fun Box
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Best friends Donkey Hodie and Panda receive a Super Duper Magic Fun Box from Uncle Panda that produces a bouncing ball, a music baton, and a coconut robot at the push of a button. They discover they don't enjoy the same things, with Donkey loving the baton while Panda finds it too loud, and Panda loving the robot that frightens Donkey. Believing this means they can no longer be best friends, they are saddened until Grampy helps them, through a song, see that friends can disagree if they talk and listen. They reconcile, agree that liking each other matters most, and end by sharing Squishy Lemon Hugs.
Barney's World
The Floor is Grape Jelly
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
David, Mel and Vivi are playing floor-is-lava in the city park when Barney joins in and the game grows into a whole world of grape jelly. David's mother, Ms. Lewis, asks him to come home in five minutes to help with his baby sister Lulu, and David does not want to go. While the friends make their way toward a castle across the jelly, David gives Barney a push, fetches Mel's lost shoe and shares a snack with Vivi. Barney points out how much he has helped, and David decides on his own to head home to his sister, ending with the group singing together.
For 3-year-olds
Three year olds start listening for meaning. They can follow a simple request, hold a short story in mind until the end, and notice when a character asks them something directly. Their attention still slips easily, so what helps is a steady thread: one thing happening at a time, a question followed by real waiting, and a story that circles back to what was said earlier. Watch for moments where a character listens and then does something because of it.
Pocoyo
Drum Roll Please
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
In an open, plain-colored world, Pocoyo and his friends Pato, Elly and Loula enjoy the ball orchestra's music until the musicians pack up and leave. Wanting more, Pocoyo fetches his own cymbals, drum and trumpet, but the racket only wakes Sleepy Bird. Guided by the narrator, the friends discover that music is all around them and make their own from everyday sounds. The ball orchestra returns to play along, and everyone makes music together.
Trash Truck
Four Wheels & Flies
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
In this first episode of Trash Truck, a young boy named Hank decides to help his best friend, a giant green garbage truck, fulfil his dream of flying. With his animal friends Walter the bear, Donny and others, Hank tries homemade wings, paper-folding tips from grandpa at the airport and lessons about lift from his teacher Miss Mona. After several failed attempts and a moment of sadness, the truck finally rises into the evening sky, and Hank returns home to his parents at sunset.
Pocoyo
Hush
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Pocoyo spots a butterfly and desperately wants to get close to it, but his loud, excited chasing keeps sending it flying away. Guided by Sleepy Bird's 'shh' and a friendly narrator, and joined by his friends Pato the duck, Elly the elephant and Loula the dog, he discovers that being quiet is the way to stay near it. Once he calms down and stays still, the butterfly finally settles. His friends celebrate with 'Hooray for Pocoyo!' before the episode closes.
Woolly and Tig
The Dance Class
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 3
Tig, a young girl, goes to her first ballet class with her toy spider Woolly. She is put off when the teacher, Miss Lofty, calls out her instructions, so she sits at the side with Woolly instead of joining in. Woolly explains that the teacher is not cross but is making herself heard over the piano, and Tig works this out for herself and takes part. At the end Miss Lofty gives her a crown and names her a fairy princess.
Pretzel and the Puppies
Cone-Do
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Delilah, a young dachshund, arrives wearing a cone after hurting her paw and keeps bumping into things during tag and fetch. With Pretzel and her friends she rides a train to the park to find a game that works for her. There she discovers the cone helps her hear faraway sounds, which lets her find a lost pup and reunite it with its mother. The friends turn the discovery into a new game called Hear and Seek, and Paxton makes his own cone so he can play too.
Jessy & Nessy
Where Can We Find Quiet?
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Jessy, a girl who plays ukulele, wants to write a new song for her concert but cannot find anywhere quiet enough to think. With her friend Nessie she searches the town, trying a library, a hilltop, a secret spot and finally a room full of bottled sounds. Along the way they learn that to hear quiet you have to be quiet yourself. Jessy finishes her song and performs it at the concert while her friends cheer.
Caillou
Caillou Hates Vegetables
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Grandma tells Caillou a story about when he was three and refused to eat his peas and carrots. While he is at her house, grandpa takes him to the park and shows him how caterpillars, birds and squirrels each eat to get energy. Back home, Caillou and grandma pretend to be bears so the peas and carrots become 'berries', and he finishes his plate. Mom and dad arrive to pick him up, and the episode ends with cookies for dessert.
Do, Re & Mi
Listen to Your Body
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 3
Ray the hummingbird bends her tail feathers dancing too hard in Flora Flamingo's class, and her friends tell her that her body is asking for rest. She resists, suggesting her body wants a snack or another dance instead, and keeps tumbling out of the air until Doe catches her. Maestro Moon explains that even music has rests, and Ray's friends bring her home and settle down with her. After a long rest her feathers mend, and the episode closes with the whole group singing about the signals a body sends.
For 4-year-olds
Around four, listening becomes social. Children begin to notice that other people want things too, and that finding this out means letting someone else finish. Look for series where characters work together and have to check in with each other, where a plan changes because somebody spoke up. Disagreements that get talked through, rather than solved by an adult stepping in, give a four year old a picture of what listening actually looks like between friends.
Doozers
Pod Squad Boogey
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 3
The Pod Squad, Spike, Molly Bolt, Daisy Wheel, and Flex, want to do something special for the Starlight Concert in Doozer Creek. Guided by a mentor's tip to look and listen, they wander the creek and each picks a favorite sound, from a singing bird to clanging bakery pots, with Spike finally settling on thunder during a rainstorm. They build new instruments based on those sounds and play them together on stage. The performance is a success and the friends celebrate standing out.
T.O.T.S
Stripe Out
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 4
Delivery birds Pip and Freddy pick up a striped baby named Tara but cannot tell what animal she is after their fly pad battery dies. They search the savannah, mistakenly delivering her to zebra, tiger, and hyena families before learning to read her gestures as well as her sounds. Watching Tara point the way, they finally reach her real parents. The tapir couple explain that their babies have stripes that fade with age, and Tara is welcomed home with a hug.
Little Einsteins
Pirate's Treasure
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Leo, June, Annie and Quincy dress up as pirates in their Rocket Room and discover a musical map that leads to buried treasure. Guided by the map's crescendos, beats and buoys, they travel across the Pacific Ocean and underwater in Rocket, racing the rival Big Jet who wants the treasure first. The children invite the viewer to pat, count and whistle along at each step. They reach the X, dig up a nautical whistle, drive Big Jet away, and close with a Curtain Call reviewing the art and music.
For 5-year-olds
Five year olds can listen for information and hold on to it. They follow a longer story, remember a detail from earlier, and use what someone told them to solve a problem. This is the age where listening to people unlike themselves starts to land: an older relative, a friend with a different idea, someone who knows something they do not. Look for stories where asking and then genuinely listening to the answer is what moves things forward.
Molly of Denali
A Song for Lola
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Molly helps her friend create a special song to honor her grandmother, Lola Miranda, who is returning to their Alaskan village from the Philippines. Following an Alaska Native tradition explained by Grandpa Nat, the children secretly gather family stories, then worry the funny ones are not serious enough for a gifted song. They learn that a song should match the person it honors, so a cheerful Lola deserves a cheerful song. At the welcome-back dinner they perform it, and Lola calls it the best gift she has ever received.
Stillwater
Soaked
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Two brothers, Carl and Michael, accidentally soak their sister Addy with water balloons and knock her freshly baked cupcakes into the mud, then hide because they fear she will be angry. Their neighbor, a panda named Stillwater, finds them and, while they help him pull weeds, tells a story about a gardener named Arjun who kept putting off a small task until it grew impossible. The brothers realize hiding will not help and apologize to Addy, who forgives them and shares a new batch of cupcakes. The episode ends with everyone playing together with water balloons.
Molly of Denali
Happy Birthday, Qyah!
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 2
Molly and her best friend Tui set out to answer one question: how old is their Alaska Native village of Qyah, really? After Molly's dad finds a cave revealed by an earthquake, the two join archaeologists Nina and Olin to investigate signs that ancestors once sheltered there. They uncover a painted pictograph that matches an oral origin story, get briefly trapped by an aftershock before climbing out, and help carbon-date the find. The episode ends with a new museum exhibit, a corrected town website, and the news that people have lived in the area for at least 13,000 years.
Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures
Speeder Surprise
recommended age
Unlock
co-watching from 4
Nash and RJ surprise the young Jedi Kai, Lys, and Nubs with custom speeders, and the friends ride out into the Tanu grasslands. There they meet a lost creature cub they name Zippy and set out to reunite him with his family before dark. Along the way Kai keeps ignoring his droid beepers, which leads to crashes and a stuck speeder, until he learns to listen. The friends free the speeder, make a careful jump across a ravine, and return Zippy to his family.
For 6-year-olds
At six, listening and thinking run at the same time. A child can take in someone else's view, weigh it, and still keep an opinion of their own. This is harder than it sounds, especially in a disagreement. Look for stories with real friction, where characters misread each other, say so, and repair it. Longer conversations, humour that rewards paying attention, and endings that depend on somebody having actually heard what was said all suit this age.