I’ve only just learned about Nella the Princess Knight recently, and I’m so glad I have. It’s a preschool series about an eight-year-old girl named Nella who isn’t your average princess, because she’s actually a princess-knight. She’s a hero with a difference.
Nella works with her loyal friends knight Sir Garrett, his trusty steed Clod and a glamorous unicorn named Trinket. She’s constantly on an exciting adventure where she breaks through stereotypical barriers and fights for justice.
My six-year-old daughter is absolutely loving this series at the moment, and I am all for it — it’s brilliant. I often struggle with TV and the children, as they do spend some time watching it and it can be tricky to find shows they like which are also educational and contain positive messages.
Here are five reasons why I love my daughter being a Nella the Princess Knight fan:
- Nella is an excellent role model for young girls. They do even the gender scale out with an equally amazing little boy in the show, though — Sir Garrett — so the show has great appeal for little ones in general. The stories are easy to follow, stress-free and engaging, full of imagination, magic, fun and music.
- Nella has a desire to help others and take on others burdens. She’s extremely loyal to her friends and neighbours. She is a lovely person, and will always put aside her own needs to help others in trouble. I want my children to learn from this; it’s exciting and fun to help others, and it feels good to assist and make other people happy.
- Nella challenges gender stereotypes by being both a traditional princess and a courageous knight in shining armour! This is fabulous, and what a great thing to teach our children — they can be whoever or whatever they want to be. They don’t need to conform to stereotypes in our society, they can make their own choices. This show reminds them that we’re not defined by how we look, but by what we believe we can do.
- Nella doesn’t give up on the first try. Even when things don’t work out, she stays focused on the result and confident that her and her friends will save the day. Who doesn’t want their little ones to keep at it when the going gets tough? Life ain’t easy, kids. We need to teach our children resilience and help them to bounce back like a ball when they’re down. I want my children to know they can achieve things even if they don’t make it the first time, or the second, or the time after that. Sometimes we just need to keep our confidence and focus and we can get there, no matter how long it takes. Thanks Nella!
- Nella and her friends embark on quests to solve problems through cooperation. Cooperation is so important, and teamwork is dreamwork, right? These features of socio-emotional content assist in teaching our children how to develop healthy relationships. Everything that the characters come up with is not always right, but they work together to create the best solution.
All in all, Nella the Princess Knight is fun, and gives excellent examples of courage and self-confidence, as well as ideas for solving problems on the run. Her supporting characters sometimes cause more harm than good, but they’re a great example of how not to be.
Nella even has her own Nella app, with a bunch of games to help with emotional intelligence. You can download it for free from the Nick Jr. website.
A lot of the content in the show and the app can give lots of gateways into conversation with our little people. We’ve been asking questions about role models, and this opens up a whole chat about courage and bravery while not forgetting how important good friends are.
I can highly recommend Nella the Princess Knight.
