Educational Cartoons for Preschoolers

All children love watching educational cartoons. They are an important and inevitable part of every individual’s early life. As we all know it, cartoons represent a controversial topic among parents, too. Therefore, the impact of cartoons on children can be positive or negative. It depends on different factors. These factors are: the type of cartoon, the amount of time spent watching cartoons, the moment of the day, the child’s age etc.

Educational cartoons, carefully selected, can be really beneficial for children under certain circumstances.

Educational cartoons

keep children focused for a longer period of time – because of the audiovisual effects.
are efficient in developing children’s communication skills – interaction between characters
help children to develop their linguistic abilities – they help with letters, vocabulary, pronunciation, foreign languages.
help children learn faster – the cause is various visual moving images and symbols, the information sticks to children’s minds faster and the knowledge acquired is easier to remember after a long time.
develop problem solving skills – children see cartoons as inspiring, they learn from the characters’ actions or behavior in various situations and, furthermore, they apply the knowledge in real life.
help children discover the world – shapes, colors, letters, objects, animals, phenomena etc., they explore and observe.
enhance imagination and creativity – children draw their favorite cartoon characters, they sing songs about them or play role games based on cartoons.
teach children important life lessons – such as the power of friendship and love, always be kind and help the ones in need, enjoy the ride or the game even if you’re not winning, patience is a virtue and many others.
promoting role models – the characters and their actions and behavior inspire children to be good, strong and confident and teach them about moral values such as kindness, friendship, love, honor, loyalty, compassion, courage etc.

That being said, for your kid to be able to take advantage of all the above, there has to be balance in the sense that:

the parent chooses educational cartoons which are appropriate to the child’s age and personality
the time allotted to cartoons, whether they are educational or not, must be limited
the parent watches the cartoons with the child and intervenes with explanations where he/she thinks is necessary
the child won’t eat or snack while watching cartoons

As an example, our 6 years old daughter watches educational cartoons daily, for half an hour, always when she’s rested and I or Daddy are around. We don’t allow her to eat or snack while watching cartoons.