The madness began a year ago. I got a call from my wife while I was at work that she and my two daughters (12 months and 4 at the time) were going to the mall to see this new group called “Hi-5.” My wife, Julie, knew absolutely nothing about them.

My reply? “Have fun,” I said with a slight smile. I hung up the phone and went back to work.

Then, almost two hours later, I received another call… I should have known then that I had a serious problem on my hands.

“We had so much fun,” my wife told me. “They are great! We’re staying for their second show.”

This time, my reply was more along the lines of, “ummm… Okay, have fun.” And, again, I hung up the phone and went back to work.

But when I got home from work that day, the new Hi-5 DVD was already in the player, with my oldest daughter dancing around in the playroom. Julie was excited too; she really enjoyed the “concert” (how it went from a “show” to a “concert” I never quite grasped).

And, of course, we had it all written down that Hi-5 was on TV every morning, starting with the Discovery Channel at 7am and then The Learning Channel at 7:30am. And now, a year later, we’ve all just come from our first REAL Hi-5 concert in Baltimore, and the craze has both widened and deepened.

You know what? I don’t even mind; despite the fact that my wife is every bit the crazed fan that my girls have become.

Even my 21-month old, who is still just learning to talk, will walk up to me, put her hand up with her fingers spread and say, “hi!” Of course, that means she wants Hi-5 on the DVD player pronto. Sometimes I’ll pretend not to understand. “Hello to you sweetie,” I’ll say with a big smile on my face.

She knows my game. She won’t smile back, she’ll just give me the Hi-5 sign again and repeat her “hi” request again and again until she gets what she wants.

I look at it this way, at least she’s not asking for those damned Teletubbies! But I digress.

The fact is, I don’t mind my whole family being crazed Hi-5 fans for a very simple reason; I like the show too. Not in the same way, of course. I don’t sing along in the van and do all the motions when we’re listening to “Living In A Rainbow,” or something like that. I like the show because, as a father, I know that it’s a good show.

We hear all the time how much “crap” there is on television, don’t we? We hear it, of course, because it’s true! But, with all the umpteen hundred channels you can get with cable service these days, there are a lot of good shows too.

There’s a lot more crap on television these days and there’s a lot more quality too. Hi-5, in my opinion, falls in the “quality” category.

To me, the fun music is incidental. More in the way of icing for the cake. What I like about the show is that, during their skits, they are teaching things that are important for young kids to know.

The Hi-5 cast all have certain domains of learning which they teach during each show. For example, Karla specializes in fun movement and coordination skills, Shaun focuses on exploring shapes and colors, Kimee deals with numbers, puzzles, mazes, and sorting, Curtis focuses on musical concepts, and Jenn deals with language and sound.

What can I say, I’m no expert. My college and grad psychology degrees were both oriented towards adult learning, and my speciality is corporate education programs and services. But I do know this, my most important title is “Daddy,” and I now have almost five years of hands-on experience in early childhood development. The one thing I understand clearly about this period of their lives is that I want them to learn the right standards of behavior as soon as possible, before they have too many opportunities to see the wrong standards in action.

I want them to know how to play with other kids, talk to other kids and treat other kids. Before too long, they are going to see how they should not do all those things and, when that happens, I want them to be able to say to themselves, “that’s not how you do that.”

Hi-5 is one of those shows that teaches the right standards of behavior. Standards such as cooperation, teamwork, openness to others who are different, inclusiveness, and other important things that children should learn as soon as possible.

Which is why I’ll happily pack them all into our van and drive them 30 miles into Baltimore or DC (playing a Hi-5 CD or DVD on the way, of course) to see their favorite show live.

Watching the cast in action yesterday, I saw that they really do work very hard during their show. They were the ones moving their stage pieces around between various songs and skits. And sound problems right at the beginning of the show made it clear that they were not pulling an “Ashlee Simpson” on us either. They work pretty hard and they seem to lean on their own talent rather than technology. Also good lessons for my kids to learn.

After the show, because we happen to know “the secret fort club handshake,” my wife was able to get us invited to the VIP lounge to see the cast. Not that we were alone. As a matter of fact, there were at least a hundred others who were eager to have their kids meet the cast as well.

And the members of Hi-5 saw every one of us. After what must have been an exhausting couple of hours, they went up to their lounge area and then took another hour to two hours to see a whole long line of fans.

They were very nice and gracious and my 21-month-old daughter walked right up to Shaun and put her arms out for a hug and he put his pen down and reached down and gave her a huge warm hug. Unfortunately, today, I walked into the playroom and my daughter was kissing the TV because Shaun was on the screen.

Anyway, I walked away from the concert even more impressed than before. No, I’m not a groupie. That would be my wife, who, after yesterday’s show in Baltimore, managed to get third-row tickets to the second Hi-5 show in DC today and took my oldest with her to that show.

Apparently at this show, which was held in the MCI Center, they had some sort of Hi-5 mosh pit up front where all the kids could dance. You know you’re big when your fans are moshing in front of the stage. Hell, at this rate, twenty years from now, Hi-5 will be starting their reunion tour.

But now I have to end this overly long post. Except that, I still have a few questions which, until they get answered, will bother me till my dying days. Perhaps I should say, “answer me these questions three!”

1. Did I see an engagement ring on Jenn’s finger during the show?
2. How low can Shaun really go?
3. Will poor Kimee EVER see Jup Jup?

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com