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TV Shows/Series for Young Children…
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or families with young children? Our boys are 6, 4, and 3. We don’t watch much TV at our house. Most days it’s never turned on. We have no cable or anything, but do have Netflix and check out videos from the library sometimes. I’m wanting to get some series from Netflix that would be enjoyable and appropriate for the boys to watch or all of us to watch together. I feel like when I do want to turn on something for them, they end up watching something just goofy, because I don’t have good quality stuff to put on. What does your family enjoy?
We don’t watch much TV either, I’ve passed on to others the Veggie Tales that we’re given to me. I really can’t take much of the typical kid programing, it just personally annoys me after awhile. We checked out a Beatrix Potter video from the library. It was done using the illustrations from her books. My kids really liked it. I have no idea if you could find something like that on Netflix, but maybe at your library. While it is a cartoon, there is an older Winnie the Pooh “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” 25th Anniversary Edition, done in 1977, that I watched as a child and we’ve watched with our kids. Parts are similar to the book.
I’ve also let them watch on a rainy day, part of Black Beauty (not a cartoon, but a version that used real horses, done in the 90’s I think). We’ve done the same with nature programs. Obviously a parent has to be careful as to which parts they watch with young children. My kids aren’t ready for carnivore scenes or reproduction. But we’ve had some luck with previewed sections of the March of the Penguins and short sections of Planet Earth. (I don’t care for the introduction to the March of the Penguins, so that was a part we skipped) There is more work invovled this way, I can’t just turn it on and walk away. And I have to have seen the movie ahead of time. But I happened to personally enjoy that version of Black Beauty and at some point when they’re ready I’d let my kids watch nature programs, so I guess I’ve just prescreened things we’d watch eventually. I hope this helps. I wish I had some specific titles for you. (My dad used to record nature programs off the TV for us when I was a child – he edited as he recorded, I guess that’s where I got the idea in the first place)
Good luck!
Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver, I Love Lucy are the first to come to mind, along with other 50’s shows. My children enjoyed those immensely (still do). Don’t know that the 2 or 3 yr. olds will be intersted, but the 6 yr.old will. Then in a year or so, the old Robin Hood series from the 50’s and the Lone Ranger, Zorro, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin.
Shirley Temple movies, Roy Rogers, Pinnochio, the original Charlotte’s Web, Bibleman (for the 6 yr.old), the old Disney movies, not the new ones. For all of then, the Thomas the Tank Engine shows. The Nest videos of Animated Stories from The New Testament. Hanna BArbera-The Greatest Adventure, Stories from the BIble(which I found at the Library), HOmeward Bound; a collection of Classic Cartoons (like Woody Woodpecker and the old Superman); PBS for Kids Adventures from the Book of Virtues; the old Spiderman cartoons (that is at Netflix). The A & E version of The Wind in the Willows.
HTH,
Rachel
Thanks! They do like Andy Griffith and I bet they would like Leave it to Beaver too. I hadn’t thought of that one. We do watch documentary type show like Planet Earth and March of Penguins occasionally too. My 3 year old really doesn’t pay attention to the TV much at all, but is usually in the room. Thanks for the suggestions. I’m going to check out some of these titles.
Shirley Temple movies, Little House on the Prairie, Beatrix Potter Collection from BBC, Moody Video Bible Adventures (bought on keepers of the faith), Nikki Wild Dog of the North (found at garage sale), The Adventures of Milo and Otis, and Mist the Sheepdog Tales (library and they have 3 DVDs. They have a website http://www.mistthesheepdog.co.uk THey are short episodes of 10 mins 6 per dvd. My little girls enjoy them.
I browse throught the library’s selection of dvds and try to get movies with real animals like Black Beauty and that are family oriented.
I, too, can’t stand typical kid programming. I like things they can learn from. No tv in our house, just a dvd plugged in for an hour at night. That’s it. 🙂
Tara
Of course, I had all boys, but we mostly watched nature shows/videos. Most kids programming is twaddle to the nth. 🙂 We never watched any typical series tv. Occasional movies and nature shows were all we really ever wanted.
Michelle D
We LOVE Little House on the Prairie. We own Seasons 1-5 on DVD. Some of the episodes will require your discretion. There is one episode where a father is abusive to his son. It doesn’t actually show him beating his son, but it does show him drinking and the bruises on the boy’s face. It turns out ok in the end when the man comes to church and accepts Christ. We should’ve previewed that episode before we allowed our kids to watch it by themselves. It scared Addie, and she stopped and left the room about 20 minutes into the show. However, I looked at it as an opportunity to let my kids know that there are some children in the world who have parents that treat them that way, but only God can help them get better.
We also like Andy Griffith, the play-version of Peter Pan on VHS, Shirley Temple, Swiss Family Robinson from the 1970s (although I regret showing them this movie before we read the book), and Old Yeller.
We hate kids’ programming too. All our Veggie Tales, Sesame Street, Boz, and Little Einsteins were given away two years ago when I became aware of twaddle. My mom and mother-in-law will allow the kids to watch things like Blue’s Clues and Clifford when they keep the kids, but that’s so rare that I just let it slide. We don’t have cable or anything either, and I don’t miss having it one bit! We haven’t paid a cable bill in over 3 years, and I love the quiet and fewer requests to watch movies!
Oh yeah, and when they get to be 7, 8, 9, 10, adult
–The Muppet Show!!! Twisted, imaginative, nothing else like it in the world (well, maybe Fraggle Rock?), dry, wacky, non-twaddle puppet fun! It’s at Netflix, too.At least, at my house.
Yes, I’m revealing a little of my type of humor on this post, I know…Love Carol Burnett, too, but it’s a little sophisticated for the younguns and sometimes racy…ok, off topic…sorry.Rache
We don’t do much TV/movie watching at our house either (partly by choice, partly because we live overseas in a third world country where we don’t get any regular TV programming), but have found that our 4yo (almost 5) really prefers “real movies” to the made for children or TV series types (like Hermie or Veggie Tales or similar). Our family really enjoys the Pixar films – we find them appealing and appropriate for the whole family (although I think there are a couple that have PG ratings because they have a little more intense action scenes and those ones we haven’t allowed our 4yo to watch yet.) Her personal favorite is Cars. (Others are Finding Nemo, Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, etc.) She also loves Mary Poppins and the Disney classic version of Winnie the Pooh (she loved the book too -first chapter book we shared around here!) Oddly enough, she also got really in to watching the Olympics with me, as well as a cooking documentary about ethnic foods that I kind of got into when our family was in Australia for a couple of months earlier this year, but was much less interested in the children’s programming we occasionally let her watch.
While we’re on the topic, can anyone recommend any good Christmas-themed movies that aren’t heavy on Santa Claus or too twaddly, but that would be appropriate for the whole family? (Our oldest is nearly 5, and then we have a baby and toddler who aren’t interested at all yet.) We really enjoy having a family movie night after we’ve put up our Christmas decorations, but I always sort of rack my brains trying to come up with something to watch…
I agree with the old Disney movies – Follow me boys, Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson (mind you, some of these are of books you will read later – you have to decide if you are ok with them watching the movies…)
For TV series (so short times to watch) – Zaboomafoo is good (nature show – a little silly but informative, and setup for young kids. Does have one claymation part in each show that I hated though.) Signing Time.
Older TV shows – brady bunch, partridge family, my 3 sons. etc.
At those ages I would suggest-
Kipper the Dog
Charlie and Lola ( I LOVE this sibling relationship, they are so kind and thoughtful to each other .)
Story Keepers (Not on sure if these are on Netflix, but an awesome series about the early church.)
Some of the Magic School Bus
Curious George ( there are always science concepts)
MamaSnow,
We have enjoyed the movie, Christmas Child, starring Stephen Curtis Chapman (a well-known Christian singer). We also like the recently made, The Nativity Story. We have allowed our children to watch it with us, and always skip the part when Herod’s soldiers are killing all the baby boys in search of Jesus. For films that are family friendly, but not Christian, we like White Christmas and It’s A Wonderful Life. The latter teaches a great lesson about being content and happy with what you have.
Hope that helps,
Lindsey
I have second Michelle’s opinion that kids programming is twaddle to the nth. We watch no tv (made that change 5 1/2 years ago) and only an occasional movie. Our collection is pretty small: Black Beauty is good, Milo and Otis, Finding Nemo is okay, Moody Science videos, a few from Answers in Genesis. Nature/science videos are probably your best bet, if you’re looking to do something besides merely entertain.
One thought I had was a cute DVD we bought about a year or two ago: “The best Christmas Pageant Ever.” It actually brought tears to my eyes. We also all love Charlie Brown’s Christmas – I love how they discover the REAL meaning of Christmas at the end. It’s really the only thing on TV that actually uses Scripture! All 5 of my kids love it. And of course, though there is the santa aspect, our family has a tradition of watching Dr Suess’s “The Grinch” – the old Boris Karloff cartoon. We love how he discovered that Christmas isn’t about presents after all.
HTH,
Amy
–The Muppet Show!!! Twisted, imaginative, nothing else like it in the world (well, maybe Fraggle Rock?), dry, wacky, non-twaddle puppet fun! It’s at Netflix, too.
Yes, I’m revealing a little of my type of humor on this post, I know…Love Carol Burnett, too, but it’s a little sophisticated for the younguns and sometimes racy…ok, off topic…sorry.
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