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24 TV Shows You Can Feel Good Letting Your Young Kids Watch

Alright, first off can we all just promise to be honest with one another for a few minutes here?

School is about to be out. And if your kiddos are young enough to not be in school, you’re right about to hit the Dog Days of summer. In fact, if you live in the south and you walk outside your glasses are probably already fogging up from the humidity. (has happened to me several times when we lived in Texas, true story.)

While you are a totally awesome parent who does everything from creating an elaborate Summer Fun Pinterest Board to actually managing to DO some of those fun ideas, there is going to come a point and time this summer when you will NEED to put the kids in front of some screens so you can work or even just gain some sanity back! (And, well, I’m pretty sure you might be at that point).

Trust me, it happens to us all! If you’re concerned it might happen a little too often this summer I’d recommend doing a Ticket System and having your young kids do chores for TV time – it’s worked great for us for several years now! These days we do a much simpler, scaled back version I’ll be posting about soon–so watch for that!

Although I think screen time in moderation is completely OK for kids (especially when they earn it!) it helps when you know they’re watching great shows that aren’t annoying, dumb, objectionable, and that they might even learn from! Because I’ve made it something of a mission to track down these kinds of shows for my own kids I wanted to put together a list just for you of our favorites! It could probably be a lot longer, but I only wanted to share shows that we’ve personally watched and loved! Most of these are available on Netflix instant streaming, too, which makes them even better, and ALL of them are available through Amazon to purchase. Most are also found on PBS, Disney Jr., or Nick Jr. if you have cable/satellite/or access to a DVR.

All of these shows are great for the ages of 3 to 7-year-olds. I’m hoping to get an updated Screen Time Recommendation post up soon! These are from when my kiddos were this age–so be sure to leave the best and newest shows in the comments!

Educational Shows

Wild Kratts — this fun and educational show features the Kratt brothers and teaches kids all about different animals and their “creature powers”. One of our favorites I love how educational it is without being annoying and the kids love the fun features, suits, and “powers”.

Zaboomafoo — Hand in Hand with Wild Kratts is what I think of as the partner kind of show which is also by the Kratt brothers and also teaches all about animals, which we love! In my mind this show is probably 3-5 year old range and Wild Kratts is more targeted for 5-8, but kids in any of that range could enjoy both.

The Magic School Bus — I grew up on this fun and educational show and I have loved re-watching (and enjoying it just as much) with my kids! My little guy loves learning about our bodies and the episodes about the digestive and immune systems are some of his favorites!

Super Why — this was one of Amber’s all time favorite shows when she was little and I think it’s a big part of the reason she knew all her letters and the sounds they made when she was tiny!

Wordworld — Another Amber favorite and why she got a great start on reading young. This is also one of my favorites, I just adore the characters made up of the letters!

Wishbone — I grew up on this TV show and it is one of my all time favorites. The kids recently got some of the DVDs as presents and now they love it as much as I always did! This is an especially great one for kids in the upper 6-8ish level, and even older kids will enjoy it. I think my huge love of classic literature started with me falling in love with the storylines in this TV series!

Liberty Kids — Another one for the older age group, this is amazing for teaching kids about the American Revolution and  all that time period in history. I love that George Washington and Benjamin Franklin are household names now.

The Octonauts — if you love cute, adorable characters combined with learning ALL about the different kind of ocean life your family will love this show! It’s a top favorite of both the kids–and they still play with their Octonaut toys *all* the time!

Little Einsteins — this is one of Tyler’s favorites! I love how they use the different kinds of (not annoying!!) music and also teach things!

SuperBook — I already did a whole post about this series, but now that we’ve had and watched them for almost 2 years I absolutely LOVE them!! They do such a great job of sharing Bible stories in a fun and accurate way, as well as weaving in valuable lessons that apply to kids “real life” in the shows!

Bo On The Go — this cute, funny little series is all focused on getting kids excited about moving (it’s perfect for those rainy days when you can’t play outside). Bo needs the kids to fuel up her energy and they do that by moving around.

Blue Clues — a classic that came just after my childhood, as a teenager I turned my nose up at Blue and Steve but as a mom I decided I LOVED them! The story lines are engaging for kids and teach all kinds of things.

Sesame Street — ok, ok. So as long as you’re not living under a rock you know about the classic learning program, but, just in case you ARE living under a rock, you should give it a whirl as well. It’s kind of hard to have an American childhood without at least a little bit of it.

Team OmiZoomi — another super cute one, Team OmiZoomi is unique in that its focus is to teach basic math skills through fun story lines.

Book of Virtues — these are great because they have a different focus for each DVD, but it’s broken into TV-length shows. They focus on everything from Fairy Tales to Greek Myths to Bible stories focused around a center theme like Courage, Honesty, or Faith, and all woven into kids daily problems and each with a lesson!

Sid The Science Kid — I’ll be honest, this one *can* get a little annoying and the songs will get stuck in your head (hubby can’t STAND it) but the learning value is good enough it’s at least worth checking out to see if it pushes your annoying buttons or not!

Jake & the Neverland Pirates — ok this one is a little light on the learning side, and might slide more into the next category, but the “gold doubloons” make for good counting learning–especially if you have a little pirate lover.

Just For Fun

While these shows do try to teach things like getting along with others, or life lessons, they are really (in my mind) more about fun. They’re all still very cute, age appropriate, exemplify good behaviors and kids love them!

Rescue Bots — this is the kids newest LOVE. They have watched all the seasons through more times than I care to think about!! It is super cute, however, and I love that it’s a Transformer Spin off that is age appropriate.

Busy Town Mysteries — an adorable show about solving mysteries with the classic Richard Scary characters.

Kipper The Dog — if you don’t like English accents this show isn’t for you, but if like me you love them then it’s a must check out. Sweet and mellow it’s perfect for even the littlest ones!

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood — SO sweet! If you grew up on Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood you need to check out this spin off of it that has sweet family oriented lessons.

Sophia The First — princess loving little girls will adore this fun show about a peasant turned Princess.

Ninjago — another kid favorite, this one is probably the silliest one I let the kids fall in love with, but overall it’s just funny and one that your kids will love!

Sherrif Callie’s Wild West — a little on the fluffy side but a lot of fun!

So there you go! 24 amazing, fun, non-annoying TV Shows you can happily sit your kids down in front of!

((And yes, yes, yes–no screen time for those under 2, and please limit your kiddos screen time–I find that if mine watch more than the recommend 2 hours or under each day they start to get cranky and have bad attitudes, regardless of how great of shows they’re watching, so just save the marathons for those days when you REALLY need them for sickness or sanity sake 😉 ))

I know I’m missing some–comment with your favorite kid TV shows that meet all these criteria–we’re also always looking to expand our list!

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Is Genesis History? Movie Review

Legalese Disclosure Nonsense: I was given access for me and the kids to watch Is Genesis History once in order to provide my thoughts on it! All opinions, adorably inquisitive kids, and conclusions are my own.

Amber is in that formative, value defining stage right now. As a parent, it’s thrilling and crazy and scary, all at the same time. I can see her take our viewpoints as her parents, and start to wrestle with if she believes them for herself. We’re in the stage of LOTS of questions right now.  Because of this, I was immediately intrigued when I read that  Is Genesis History? was inspired by the director’s 10-year-old daughter who began asking questions about science, history and the Bible. Since we’re in the same place I was excited to have potentially found a great resource for Amber, and for us as well.

Now, usually with a movie like this, there is a WHOLE lot of evidence hurled around. Of course, all this evidence usually supports whichever viewpoint the people making the film believe for themselves. Also, all other viewpoints are largely ignored, glossed over, or only the most ludicrous aspects of them are discussed.

One thing that I *loved* in Is Genesis History? is that they do bring up, explain, and discuss the Naturalist View/Conventional Paradigm for each topic that they cover. They don’t make people who believe in it sound like a bunch of idiots, and they do acknowledge that many intelligent professionals believe in that. However, they then also cover the Creationist View, and why and how the same data can be interpreted from that viewpoint and how it works. I really appreciated that there was no mud slinging, just a group of professionals sharing how their life’s work in a variety of fields has increased their faith.

Yes, you read that right. This is no one single Pastor thumping the Bible throughout the film shouting that you should believe it, because you should believe it. They sought out real, specialized experts who *all* hold a Ph.D. in a huge variety of relevant fields and discussed real questions that we all have with them.

I was also very impressed that the quality was great! That’s something that often has to be sacrificed in lower budget films, but this is an amazing quality film that is super interesting and engaging throughout. Even the kids were interested–all of the animals, cool locations, and of course the dinosaurs, kept them watching. In fact, after seeing the dig in Wyoming for dinosaurs both kids now want to be Paleontologists when they grow up!

One of my favorite things that I learned from this show was that they’ve found dinosaur bones that still had tissues with cells ((Jurassic Park anyone??)).

They broach a HUGE range of relevant topics, discuss how *both* viewpoints interpret the data and explain why it is completely logical for us as Christians, and intelligent adults, to believe that Genesis *is* History. I also appreciated that when there are topics that we cannot explain, they honestly said that, instead of just ignoring it.

This was SUCH a great film. I found it very interesting, engaging, and one that I would happily recommend to both my fellow Creationists and those many friends of mine who believe in the Naturalist View. I believe it handles it in a responsible, mature, and intelligent way, which is what I love to see on *any* kind of topic in which there is a division. Here is the trailer so you can get a feel for it yourself!

Is Genesis History? Will be in select theaters for one night only, February 23rd!!! So be sure to check out if it will be playing near you, and if it will, please go! I promise you won’t regret it!

If it’s not, feel free to check out the Is Genesis History website, and be sure to pick it up when it comes out for purchase!

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Movie Review of 40 NIGHTS

Movie Review Time!

By way of our rural mail carrier; who drives a big boat of a vehicle and not a one of those cute little mail trucks you may see in town, I received the movie 40 NIGHTS from fishflix.com! This film is biblical and deep – it’s about the 40 days and nights Jesus spent in the desert preparing himself for the trying days ahead of him and his crucifixion.

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40 NIGHTS really spoke to the humanity of Jesus; His inner struggle between fear and faith, until He reaches resolve in the desert – that His death is the only way. It was biblical but there are some liberties taken, without going overboard. The acting was really great and the cinematography was so interesting and done very well!

One of my favorite scenes was a very earthly one between mother and son. Jesus was recalling a moment he had with Mary. He was working when she asked him,

“Are you well?”
His response was a quick, “My health is fine.”
“But how is your head and heart?” She asked more pointedly.

It was a real and believable moment that very well could have happened, just as it does every day in homes across the globe. A mother knows.

As mothers we love our children so deeply and sense when they are hurting or burdened with something heavy. Created in God’s image – He loves us infinitely more and is concerned for us in the same ways a mother (or father) is for their child. Above all He cares about the state of our hearts.

We get so busy with life (myself included!), with summer outings, vacations, meal planning, the approaching school year, and the lists go on! But The Lord wants to know, how is your head and heart? If we don’t care of the health of those two vital things then we will not be very effective as mothers, spouses, friends, and so on.

There is so much to glean from the scriptures during the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the film 40 NIGHTS sheds light on many of those truths.

Overall I thought this was a great film and one I think my husband and family will enjoy watching as well! I wouldn’t necessarily suggest it for young children as there are a couple of emotionally intense scenes and a lot of dialogue that will go over their heads – but it could also be used as a good teaching opportunity.

I would like to thank fishflix.com for sending me this movie to watch and in return give an honest review of the film! My thoughts and opinion of the film are of course, my own. I look forward to jumping online to purchase more wholesome family films from fishflix.com in the near future – and you should too!

Blessings ~ Amber

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Noble the Movie

 

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The movie Noble is about the life of Christina Noble, an Irish woman from the mid 1900’s, who has had a very difficult and trying childhood and life growing up in Dublin and then moving to England, but throughout it all she holds onto, even if just by a thread of hope, her faith in God.

In the midst of her suffering and crying out to God for understanding and beseeching Him with questions about if He has forgotten about her, she has a vision of children from Vietnam consumed by war and devastation that their little innocent hearts does not deserve to have to endure through. She dreams of children, who are desperately in need of love, protection, and help. She vows that one day, somehow, she WILL go to Vietnam and carry out her vision that God has placed within her heart. The movie goes through her journey in Vietnam in 1989, as she is trying to set up a home for the street children so that they can be safe, loved, nurtured, educated, and receive any medical care they need.  The movie also has many flashbacks about her life as she was growing up and all the intensity and sorrows she went through to make her into the woman she was destined to be.

Her spirit is one truly comprised of gold to go through all the pain she went through, and yet to still have a song on her lips, radiating joy in her heart and love for the “least of these”, the poor and abandoned children, in abundance. She is such an inspiration in how she pours and selflessly gives out of herself to these children in desperate need on the streets of Vietnam. She is as bold as a lion, and in the movie, she even rescues some young girls from being preyed upon by evil predator type men who have nothing but the vilest intentions with these young girls, which adds for quite the dramatic plot twist as she “storms the castle”, so to speak, for these young souls. She is a hero in the truest form of the word, in my humble opinion.

The movie was such an inspiration and very moving.  I found this movie to be quite surprisingly splendid and refreshing because sometimes, with more feel-good/faith films, they can be quite cheesy and low quality, but this movie was quite the opposite. I loved the more serious parts, and how they were expertly broken up by little scenes of humor and amusement that left me giggling and smiling.

The actress who portrayed Christina Noble, Deirdre O’Kane, was delightful! She had such a passionate and vibrant acting personality, and the Irish accent in her voice, both singing and speaking, was beautiful to watch and hear!

In this movie, I laughed, I cried, I was, to say it again, very much moved by this movie.

Watching Christina’s story drew something out from within me, it reignited a passion, so to speak. Children are the future, and we are called by God to love the children, widows, and orphans (James 1:27 and Psalm 82:3 in the Bible), and for someone to embrace that divine calling so selflessly and fully with a wide open heart and boldness of a lion…that is true faith and religion in my opinion. Serving with abandon and loving everyone you come across with and protecting them from themselves even. There is no greater calling, than to be NOBLE and BRAVE and to LOVE, no matter the personal cost (John 15:13)!

Have you seen this movie yet? What were your thoughts on it?

Beloveds, my ending question is one that convicts me to the core and puts my priorities in alignment, and that is: What is something both noble and brave you would accomplish with your life if you were guaranteed NOT to fail because God was on your side?????

To find and connect with other “noble” women, search the hashtag on your favorite social media “#sheisnoble”.

Now may I add this as a follow up to that question?

GREAT NEWS!!! He IS on your side, and if He has placed a dream within you…no matter how huge or minuscule, if it is from Him…NOTHING can get in your way. Fear has no place where love is (1 John 4:18), and God LOVES you and is FOR YOU! Go be bold and brave like Christina, and do great things for the Kingdom and for His glory alone! You are VICTORIOUS in Jesus!!!

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Now for some homeplay (homework but better):

Here is the trailer for the movie and a link to their phenomenal, beautifully done website! Go check them out and give them some lovings and go watch this movie!

Here is the official synopsis from their website:

“They broke everything but her spirit. They took everything but her dream. NOBLE, the award-winning feature film, is the incredible true story of a fearless Irish heroine driven by her daring vision to escape the slums of Ireland and risk everything on the streets of Vietnam.

Winner of six U.S. film festival awards, including the Panavision Spirit Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the powerful biopic drama written and directed by Stephen Bradley is heralded by critics as “raw and genuinely powerful,” “captivating” and “moving.” The Hollywood Reporter calls it “a joyful and rousing affirmation of the human spirit that will resound widely.”

With great affection, as always,

Rebekah M. Clark

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Easter Basket Ideas ~ Best Books and DVDs


This post is originally from 3/10/2013 — we still love and read these books and watch these movies all the time, though, so I wanted to share them in case you’re looking for a few awesome fillers for this year’s basket!

Ready or not Easter is *right* around the corner! This year it’s March 27–so it’s an early one! In addition to the classic candy and toys my two favorite items to include in my kids Easter Baskets are Books and Movies. Here are my favorites this year for putting your kiddos Easter Basket!

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Superbook – A Christian TV Series for Kids: Thoughts from a Real Mom & Her Kids

Superbook TV Series
Legalese Nonsense: I love quality entertainment for Amber during Tyler’s naps–it helps me be able to work from home! So when CBN and MomSelect offered to send me Superbook to check out of course I said yes! All afternoon snuggles, parent evaluations, and pictures are my own!

Update from 2/7/16

So after having this TV series as a part of our life for several years now I can even more wholeheartedly recommend it! After being given nearly all of season one to review (as shown here) we purchased season 2. At ages 5 & 8 now this is one of the kids favorite shows ever and I love how much of the Bible they’ve taken into heart because of it. Recently several people at church have told us how much both my children know about the Bible, and I know it’s all thanks to Super Book and our huge variety of amazing Children’s Bibles. Hurray for amazing, fun, not corny Christian entertainment! Stay tuned for a post coming very soon about other kid’s entertainment you don’t have to feel guilty about letting them watch!

Original Post:

I’m sure you remember my recent post about Superbook and it’s July airings–were you able to catch any of the series?

I was so excited to get the entire 14 episodes for Amber to watch! The show is recommended for ages 6 and up–if you didn’t realize it the Bible can get a little “adult rated” at times–even in the classic children stories! I appreciate that Superbook recommends itself to an older audience and also that it even goes so far to give you a heads up before any shows that might have more intense scenes in them.

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Family Movie Night & Minions Lemon Cut-Out Cookies Recipe

This shop for the new Minions movie for our Family Movie Night  and the adorable  Minions Lemon Cut-Out Cookies Recipe has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MinionsAtTarget #CollectiveBias

Ever since he saw the first “Spicable Meep” as he called it back then, Tyler has been a huge fan of all things involving minions. We have toys, hats, shirts, jammies–you name it he probably owns it with those cute little yellow guys on it! Don’t believe me? Check out this Instagram Pic from just a few weeks ago. So when we heard that the Minions movie was coming out this summer right around his birthday we made sure to take him and Amber to the theater to see it. They both loved it, of course, and it was a great time. It was especially fun since a few days later we threw his birthday party which was Minions themed per his special request!

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I’m Happy For You. Sort of….Not Really.

Although I’m still as much of an avid book lover and reader as ever, you’ve probably noticed my book reviews on here have become few and far between. That’s because in my quest for Wait this year I decided to step back from a few of the things that, while I loved, weren’t what I needed to be focused on doing right now.

When I saw the title of Kay Wills Wyma new book (available to purchase today!!), however, I knew it was one that I HAD to read, and figured it was one most of my readers would, too, so I said “yes, please!! send me one!”

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How to Throw An Epic Avengers Party When You’re Not Talented

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AvengersUnite #CollectiveBias

Hubby and I have always enjoyed the MARVEL movies and make sure to go and see them in theater, or as soon as they’re released to DVD, every time there’s a new one! Our favorites are Thor (<–my personal favorite….swoon), The Avengers, and Captain America, and just recently we decided the kids are old enough to start watching a few of them with us!

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Blu-Ray Giveaway! The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies Blu-ray!

So my giveaway for the digital copy of The Hobbit just ended but I have GREAT NEWS for you–here is one for a copy of the Blu-Ray! Hurray! Can’t wait to see what you get in this quiz–again you have to enter to see my result! 😉

 

Special Features on the The Hobbit The Battle of The Five Armies Blu-Ray combo pack include:

• New Zealand: Home of Middle-earth Part 3
• Recruiting the Five Armies
• Completing Middle-earth: A Six-Part Saga
• Completing Middle-earth: A Seventeen-Year Journey
• The Last Goodbye: Behind the Scenes
• Music Video
• Trailers

Own it on Blu-ray NOW
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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