Kids' cartoons today are certainly different than the ones I remember watching when I was growing up. The main difference is the modern-day cartoon is trying to be, of all things, educational! I'm sure there are plenty of shows out there for older kids that are purely for entertainment, but for the preschool crowd it seems that every new cartoon has to be more educational than the one before. On Mickey Mouse Club House for example Mickey and his crew are busy teaching concepts like shapes, colors and numbers. Then, once the kids have those down, they can tune into Little Einsteins where they can learn about Monet and Chopin and a whole bunch of other stuff I never even herad of! Heck, even Dragon Tales teaches kids words in Spanish.
So, as I mentioned, Isaac normally watches 1 or 2 shows in the morning while I am getting ready and then sometimes a video in the late afternoon while I am making dinner. He almost never watches TV in the afternoon, but the other day he turned it on, and there was Mr. Rogers. The same exact Mr. Rogers that I remember watching when I was little. Isaac seemed very interested, so I let him watch for a few minutes. We were lucky enough to tune in just as they were going to make believe land (that was always my favorite part!) As I sat watching the show with Isaac, it didn't take me long to notice some major differences between this show and the cartoons he normally watches. * I should note here, that I think Mr. Rogers produced shows until 2001, and now PBS airs all the reruns (1976-2001)* The show we were watching was clearly one of the eariler ones.
The story in make believe land was about a little girl who was scared about going to school. She was worried because she had not learned her letters or numbers yet (which Isaac already knows by the way- maybe because of me, maybe because of Mickey Mouse, who knows). Anyway, the whole point was that the girl didn't need to worry about not knowing these things because that was what she would be learning in school.
Plus, she was going to spend a lot of time playing and pretending, and yeah, she will probably learn some things too, but for now playing was most important, learning would come later. Wow, how did we get from don't worry about learning your letters to "let's hear it for the composer of the day" (Little Einsteins)
While I do think that parents today do have a tendency to push their kids too hard academically at a very early age, I am not sure I totally agree with Mr. Rogers either. As a former teacher I could go on about this for a while. On one hand you have parents enrolling their 2 year olds in every "enrichment" activity you can think of, at the other end kids coming into kindergarden barely even knowing what a book is, let alone what you are supposed to do with it.
I understand (and agree with) the point that they were trying to make to the little girl. She shouldn't worry about not knowing it all, she would learn things in school. But what bothered me was at the end of the segment they made a point of erasing the numbers and letters from the chalkboard tossing it aside as they went to play. I know there is a lot to be said for play and pretend, and natural learning, and I am all for that. But I have to say the teacher in me cringed when I saw them tossing the chalkboard aside...
Anyway, I think Mr. Rogers would have been happy when he saw Isaac later that afternoon engaged in some genuine imaginative play.
The box is his car. He was taking all his Bob the Builder (oops more TV ) machines to
Bailey Island (click on the link the pictures are GREAT!; We went there when Amanda was out)
"Mommy, I need my socks and my shirt off at Bailey Island."
After Bailey Island he took all the machines to the
water park (the exersaucer)
When daddy came home he had to go to Bailey Island too.
He wanted daddy and mommy to take off their socks and shirts also... imagination is good, but we did draw the line there...
So in our house, we do have lots of imaginative play and pretending. But we do have learning too. I mean, it isn't that hard to teach your kids things, all you have to do is turn on the TV...
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Isaac said, "but where is the mountain" 
*watching a beautiful sunset over the mountains and then turning around and seeing a full rainbow across the sky (obviously the pictures don't do it justuce)
Kaylee loves climbing & and going down the slide
Isaac's favorite new game involves sliding leggo pieces down the treadmill and catching them in the bucket at the end (even more fun when daddy turned the speed up to 5)
Eating icecream, watching the boats in the harbor
yummy!
After we finished our icecream we took Isaac down to look at the boats. We were offered to ride along as the driver went to pick up a family returning from a day out on their boat. Isaac was pretty impressed, and now Matt is even more convinced that we need to buy a boat!
"Mommy, I need my socks and my shirt off at Bailey Island."
After Bailey Island he took all the machines to the water park (the exersaucer)
When daddy came home he had to go to Bailey Island too. 
#7 She is not afraid to wear a hot dog hat in public
#5 She was brave enough to touch everything in the touch tank at the aqaurium
#3 She entertained Kaylee on our many trips in the car
#2 She played with Isaac at thebeach (even in hte mud at low tide)
