Using Puddleby Green with little ones
Puddleby Green songs are short, calm and built around one learning goal at a time. They work best as something you do together: watch once, then sing, move and play without the screen.
How to use the songs
- Watch together. Sit with your child, point at things on screen and talk about them: "How many snowflakes can you see?"
- Pause and join in. Songs leave gaps for children to repeat sounds and numbers. Pause the video if your child needs more time.
- Sing it again without the screen. Every song page has the full lyrics. Sing them in the bath, in the car or on the walk to nursery.
- Try an activity. Each song comes with screen-free activity ideas: counting games, sound hunts, routine charts.
- Print the colouring page. Free A4 PDFs with thick lines, one for each character and each song.
Screen-time tips
The UK government's screen-time guidance for under-5s (Best Start in Life, 2026) suggests:
- Under 2s: avoid screen time, apart from shared activities like video calls with family.
- 2 to 5 year olds: no more than about an hour a day in total, and less if possible.
- Watch together and talk about what you see. That is better for children than watching alone.
- Choose slow-paced content rather than fast, social-media-style videos.
- Keep mealtimes and bedrooms screen-free, and avoid screens in the hour before bed.
About Hob's lullabies: because screens are best avoided in the hour before bed, we suggest watching Hob's songs earlier in the evening. At bedtime, sing or hum them yourselves using the printed lyrics, or play just the sound with the screen turned away and dimmed.
On YouTube, turn off autoplay so one song doesn't roll into the next. A song is between one and a half and three minutes long, so one or two songs followed by an activity makes a nice, short session.
Learning goals
Each character focuses on one area, so you always know what a song is for. The goals link to the areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) used in England.
Dottie Drizzle
Mathematics & Understanding the World
- Counting 1–10 and one-to-one matching
- Colours of the rainbow
- Weather words and the seasons
Hob the Hedgehog
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
- Bedtime routines: bath, teeth, pyjamas, story, sleep
- Calming down and winding down
- Gentle counting 1–5
Penny Periwinkle
Literacy (phonics) & Communication
- Pure letter sounds: "sss", not "suh"
- In the order many UK schools teach them: s, a, t, p, i, n…
- Hearing the first sound in a word
Our songs are a fun extra. They don't replace your child's school phonics programme. If your school uses particular actions or pictures for each sound, use those alongside our songs.
What you can expect from every video
- Calm pacing, with no sudden loud noises and no scary moments.
- Honest titles and thumbnails, with no clickbait.
- On-screen numbers and letters that are checked frame by frame.
- British English throughout: wellies, jumpers, Father Christmas and "zed".
- No fire, candles or small objects near mouths, and children shown outdoors with a grown-up.
- Videos are set as "Made for Kids" on YouTube, so comments are switched off and ads (if any) are not personalised.
An honest note about AI
Puddleby Green's animation and music are made with AI tools. People plan every episode, write and edit the lyrics, choose the characters' look and voices, and review every video before it goes online: checking that the counting is right, that phonics sounds are pure, that the pictures are safe and that it all makes sense from beginning to end. We regularly reject takes that don't meet that bar.
We label our videos as containing AI-generated content on YouTube. If you ever spot a mistake, we really want to hear about it so we can fix it.
Questions
What age is Puddleby Green for?
Toddlers and preschoolers, roughly ages 2 to 5, including children starting Reception.
Is Puddleby Green made with AI?
Yes. Animation and music are made with AI tools. We plan every song, write and check the lyrics, check every frame with numbers or letters, listen to every take, and reject anything that is wrong or not good enough before it goes online.
Does this website collect any data about my child?
No. There are no cookies, no advertising, no accounts and no forms, and we only count visits anonymously with cookie-free Cloudflare Web Analytics. YouTube videos only load from youtube-nocookie.com after a grown-up presses play.