to not be particularly pleased when ds comes home from nursery having read a book about all the monsters in Dr Who?

I had a woman today who wouldn't join in with "I know an old woman who swallowed a fly". I didn't ask why, it could be because she's vegan (I know she is vegan)I suppose - but that would seem extreme.

This is the same woman whose daughter had never heard Baa Baa Black sheep at age 5.

I found this a bit much as they are songs which are very much sung to preschool children. It wasn't like I'd brought in some Britney Spears or something.

I don't like commercial tie in products either - but ds loves them. The proviso for me is that it should be something he already knows about - so a really crap Bugs Life story book would be okay - but a birthday Superman building breaking toy found it's way onto Ebay pretty quickly.

Edam, I don't see any value in sitting watching a toy going round in circles. When we got the blocks out, we were working on fine and gross motor skills, colour identification, conservation (ie can they identify which tower is bigger and which is smaller) etc etc. These days we have the same kind of targets to meet and boxes to tick as a school does - during an academic year we have a huge amount of goals and topics to cover.

They are only in pre-school for three hours a day (less when they are younger) - plenty of time for them to spend hours poring over a Doctor Who book or watching a spiderman toy until the batteries run down in the rest of their time away from pre-school!

Pointy, you are right - we will have to agree to disagree!

lack of prior knowledge can easily be addressed. Doesn't mean if it's not there, there's no way forward.

Which I'm sure you know - just think we disagree on this one

If children are interested in watching a toy, I can't see any harm in it. Don't see why playing with blocks is somehow 'better' for them than playing with Spiderman on a motorbike, tbh. You could argue that it's exercising their attention span or powers of concentration, for instance!

His nursery teacher said that if she has to listen to him talk about Spiderman anymore she won't be responsible for her actions . i think he talks the ears off the poor woman.

obi, I don't think that makes you a bad mother! But it's not my personal choice and I won't inflict it on other children at the nursery because it may not be the choice of other parents either. Given the amount of toys/books/activities we have at nursery, I really don't think that is at all restrictive.

Nutty, lol - bit of a long commute I think

That is Ds's fave programmes not my brothers LOL.

Can I send DS to your nursery Miaou ?? I would seriously love him to have no knowledge of Spiderman, Batman, Power Rangers, Dr Who, or anything like that.

It was my brother that first got him into all of this stuff and he is obssessed. His fave programmes used to be Andy Pandy and TRactor Tom, and I so wish it had stayed that way for a bit longer.

My 3 year old loves Dr Who. He has a tardis (a toy one) and a garlic keyring, and he hums the Dr Who theme tune as he flies his tardis around the living room.

He also can say 'we will exterminate' in a rather scary manner.

He likes spiderman too, in fact this afternoon he pretended to be spiderman for a good couple of hours, compete with American accent.

And he loves The Power Rangers.

Edam, fine taking it in. We put it on the table at talktime, set it going, it made a few circuits, the boy who brought it in is just three and we used some appropriate language, eg "what is spiderman doing?" - "he is sitting on the motorbike" - "does it make a noise?" etc etc. Then it was put away. It was used for conversation purposes but I know if I had left it out then the two boys in the nursery would have fought over it for twenty minutes and/or watched it going round in circles - what is the point of that? Instead we got the blocks out and built towers and knocked them down - far more constructive

But pointydog, they mean absolutely nothing to my kids. They have no interest in superheroes. Any "creative" work would have to rely on prior knowledge of these characters and my kids have none. I don't see the point tbh.

I know they are the only things that some children are interested in, and they can be useful to get some kids interested in reading etc, but I still don't think a nursery setting is an appropriate one for spending a great deal of time poring over a Dr Who book (or a spiderman on a motorbike for that matter )

So, now we've got the Dr Who thing wrapped up, can I ask what exactly is wrong with Spiderman on a motorbike? Several of ds's friends are into Spiderman, can imagine one of them taking a Spiderman doll into school and wouldn't feel particularly bothered about it, myself.

Catsmother, do you think your dd's fear of shop dummies could be Dr Who related? First episode of 'new' Dr Who featured shop dummy monsters (the Autons).

INterest in such charachters should be harnessed and used creatively, not locked out.

My DS is heavily into Spiderman and Dr Who, but tbh I would never let him take anything regarding to either in to nursery because I know not all parents want their kids looking at that type of stuff yet.

seriously though, great writing lessons and art/design lessons can be done from superheroes. They could be used creatively in nurseries too. I think they can be too easily dismissed.

lol Franny and Tamum

pointy, I guess cod's point is that you can't protect kids from everything and what's the issue with him being exposed to Dr Who at this age. But I think that that's up to the parents, particularly at this young age, not the nursery, to introduce them to such things if they so wish. Same (imo) regarding crappy merchandising toys/books - keep it in the home, not in an educational environment.

Oooh, I can't think what name-change you mean

pony, you trotter

rofl Tamum, I'd just noticed I'd lost it after a name change (you know which one ), and thought to myself, Tamum will be after me if I don't get it back ...

swaering? Thought we were talking about Tv characters and superheroes?

mine dont either