ditching veggie tales DVDs?

Each family is different, you have to go with your own personal prayer to find the answer. 

We have Veggie Tales and they are saved to watch one on Sunday after church while the kids are waiting for dinner to be ready.  Because they are on so infrequently (we have a few, so they see each every month or two) they really give the chidlren something enjoyable, which we then focus on as our dinner table topic of conversation with daddy.  🙂 

Just an idea for another way to use them.

morgrace,

It is interesting that you bring this up. I just got rid of our entire Veggie Tales collection two weeks ago. We aren’t “tv people”, in that we don’t pay for cable or satellite television. We also do not have a converter box, so essentially, we get zero television. Up until recently, and especially two weeks ago, our children had quite the collection of DVDs and tapes. Most were given to us as gifts or surprises by family, but my dh and I did buy some too. Sesame Street/Elmo, a few Disney movies, and Veggie Tales were among that collection.

I tossed most of the Disney stuff and the Sesame Street stuff several months ago as I felt the kids were too old to be truly interested in it any longer. (They’re 6 and 4.) I don’t know why I didn’t toss the Veggie Tales stuff right then too. I guess I felt the same way you do. 

The clincher for me was during school time one morning. We had just finished reading the story of Joshua and the falling Wall of Jericho out of our Children’s Story Bible. When I asked for a narration, both children immediately began narrating “Josh and The Big Wall”, the Veggie Tales movie! I was shocked! I don’t think my children ever realized that Veggie Tales movies were based on the real events of the Bible until that moment. And it wasn’t a good moment, either.

I realized right then and there that I hadn’t done my children any favors by showing them those movies. Sure, there’s nothing bad about them; but they are, in actuality, dumbed-down twaddle versions of the Bible. I made up my mind that I wanted my children to have the meat of God’s true Word, not cartoon videos with good intentions. Maybe they don’t understand all the vocabulary and events of the Bible right now, but if I let them grow up with Veggie Tales as their compass, they’d never understand any of God’s Word later on. I don’t believe Veggie Tales points children in the right direction. It doesn’t encourage the reading or studying of the real Word of God, and to me, it cheapens the treasure found therein.

The only tv my children have seen since Christmas are the old episodes of Little House on the Prairie. We allow them to watch a few episodes per week, and even dh and I have enjoyed the wholesomeness of those shows. However, I am quite content with the television completely off; and my children have learned to be that way too.

Another quick story: We know a woman who was a missionary in China for several years, specifically to the Chinese children. She found several Veggie Tales movies that had been translated into Mandarin, and thought it would be a great way to teach those kids about the Bible. When she showed the movies, she said she was surprised. Yes, the children enjoyed them, thought they were funny, and of course, had never seen anything like them before. But, they never connected those movies to the Bible. They thought they were cartoons and nothing more. She realized what an ineffective tool those movies were, and would’ve probably been a hindrance rather than a help to her ministry in China.

Hope that’s helpful,

Lindsey

I would be anxious about a new baby coming with two toddlers and needing some time with the promise of some quiet!  May I recommend the BBC versions of Beatrix Potter’s stories.  They are word for word and use her illustrations to create the animation.  As you probably know, some of the stories include the fox trying to eat Jemima Puddleduck and kidnapped bunnies so you would have to decide if you felt it was approriate for your kids(SCM has the recommended reading age for four year olds-my youngest was 2 when she started hearing/seeing them due to older siblings).  They are beautifully done, short if you only run one at a time, and certainly not twaddle.  Just my two cents but overall you are the mom and no matter what advice anyone gives you, you get to make the choices!  Be confident in your choices, Laura Ingalls survived without tv and we would too (though I personally am not up for trying a complete ban!)

I guess I don’t really have an answer either, but I thought I’d share our experience. We get Veggie Tales from the library once in a while. Our younger kids are 11, 8 and 7. They have seen the Esther story a couple times in the last couple years. So when we were reading the account in the Bible a few weeks ago, when we got to the part about why the king wanted a new queen, they giggled and said it was because she wouldn’t make him a sandwich. (Sorry about the run-on sentence).

My husband and I giggled along with the kids and just explained that it seems to be because he wanted to have her come so people could look at her beauty-show her off. That’s not appropriate, so she wouldn’t go. We giggled some more about the sandwich and went on reading. I hope that doesn’t sound irreverent; it really wasn’t.

I realize sometimes the videos might mix up young kids, but at our house the very sparing use of Veggie Tales has helped them remember the real thing-when we read and talk with them about it. I wouldn’t expect toddlers to understand though.

I’m sure the makers of Veggie Tales didn’t intend for the videos to be used instead of the scriptures-I don’t mean to imply that anyone is doing that.

Hope that helps!