I love Disney, but when it comes to Lily (my 2 year old daughter), I much prefer PBS Kids. I love the slower pace (I feel like other shows are going to give me a seizure with 10 different things going on at once and the cuts changing every 2 seconds). I also love the educational content, especially in Peg + Cat, Super Why, and classic Sesame Street. Lily learned lots of letters, numbers, and shapes! And I get excellent parenting tips from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, a show based on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood that helps children understand their emotions. Lily’s also quite fond of that one. I really liked Clifford (my husband joked I was just using Lily as an excuse to watch it for myself) and she seemed to like it fine. But then this new show came on (in 2018), about a little girl who loves the color pink.
Lily’s absolute favorite show became Pinkalicious & Peteriffic, based on the Pinkalicious books by Victoria Kann.
If you don’t already know, yes, her name really is Pinkalicious, and after you’ve watched about 5 episodes, that doesn’t seem odd at all. It’s Pinkalicious Pinkerton, and she lives in Pinkville. She also sings–the most adorable songs, which even sound pink and sparkly. I admit I was skeptical of the show at first…I was confused by how the unicorn was imaginary but the fairies are real. But it’s just fun, and musical, and appeals to the heart of my little girl.
So now we collect the books, sing the songs, and of course, pretend we are Pinkalicious. I lovingly spent hours making her a CD of all our favorite songs for her to listen to in the car. Or in the bathtub we listen to Singing With a Whale.
Lily loves horses and unicorns, so of course she especially loves Pinkalicious’ imaginary unicorn Goldie (short for Goldilicious which we know from the books). She has named her toy ponies Goldie. All of them.
With the coronavirus keeping us all at home, we’ve been enjoying the various crafts and activities that have become available, and Iowa PBS Kids has a color your favorite character activity where you can download a character to color, or make and send in your own! I made my own (there are also lots of printables on the Pinkalicious website, thinkpinkalicious.com).
So I give you my FREE Goldie-inspired pritable here!
It’s meant to be a craft, so your child (and/or you) can color it, cut it out, and put it together! It prints 2 pages in light gray so it can be any color…just how Goldie looks, or totally different! I recommend card stock for better sturdiness. It’s articulated, so you will need 3 brads and a hole punch (or you can just poke it with a pen). I colored the mane & tail yellow then painted metallic gold on top. The flowers are meant to be colored, cut out, then glued on top of the mane, tail, and as a necklace (but that’s up to you!). Or don’t use them…add your own! Add a bow. Anything you like!
Not only am I appreciative of the programming of PBS Kids, I’m appreciative of the incredible people behind it. Last summer we went to the Iowa PBS Kids Reading Road Trip and got to meet Dan Wardell. He was so kind and hospitable and treated us like we were celebrities. And of course he was amazing with the kids.
I hope that this can be my own small contribution to add to the hard work of all the people out there who are helping keep families healthy and happy, with fun activities to do together. Did you try the printable? Let me know how it turned out with a comment and have a ‘Pinkatastic’ day!
