The soundtrack to my 6am

When do toddlers turn into teenagers who never want to get out of bed? Tell me it’s soon, please. Although Eliza’s moved on quite a lot from her days of 5.30am starts, and occasionally we’ll even get an astounding 8am out of her (on nursery days, of course) most of the time she’s up just after six and raring to go.

Of course, we get up, get dressed and are playing educational games, puzzles and learning-based activities with her right away *ahem*. But some days – the weekend, really early starts, after bad nights, when I’m pregnant, most days – let’s face it, Alex and I just want a bit more sleep. So we let her watch a little bit of iPad while we doze.

Kids TV is designed to be incredibly colourful, visual and repetitive to hook you in, isn’t it? One thing in common with all her favourite things to watch when she’s up are the catchy theme tunes. And it’s these that are the soundtrack to my sleepy 6am.

Here’s the notable ones out of her current favourites. I dare you to listen to any of these and not go around singing them all for days.

Dora the Explorer
Dora is the eternal earworm. Not only is there the ‘do do do do do do do do do Dooooora’ theme tune, there’s also the singing map and backpack songs. You’ll never get it out of your head. (Breaking news: new episodes due on Netflix in September)

Go Diego Go!
Diego is Dora’s cousin, who rescues animals and communicates via a funky video watch. Almost exactly the same, and just as catchy music-wise.

Max and Ruby
The tale of two sibling anthropomorphic mice, it’s not so much the ‘Max and Ruuuuuuuuuuby, Ruuuuuby and Max’ theme tune, but Ruby’s nasal monotone that really gets me. Kids love it though…

Pocoyo
Oh, Pocoyo. Voiced by none other than Stephen Fry. A very jaunty, light theme tune. That once heard, you’ll never forget.

Music is so evocative, isn’t it? I wrote about what to watch when you have a new baby, and when Eliza was born we made our way through the whole of The American Office on Netflix. Now, if I ever hear the theme tune, I’m reminded of snowy February, with the heating on max and the fire lit, and our tiny sleeping newborn. As the advert goes, it takes you back.

I’m a member of the Netflix Stream Team, and the theme for this month’s post is music. All these children’s shows are available, and you can set up separate profiles for each family member with age-appropriate restrictions. Which is handy at 6am.