Will and Adeline's Top Picks

This is probably the most requested video at the moment. Toy Story and Toy Story 2! With the upcoming release of Toy Story 3 (on June 18th, just ask Will...he's counting down) - we upgraded to DVD copies of the movies for a very good price thanks to good deals and coupons! Will especially LOVES Woody and Buzz right now. As far as Disney movies go, we're ok with this one.

(There are others we aren't ok with - including Princess and the Frog. But I only know this because my friend Rebecca share with me their concerns about the voodoo in the movie!)

I am actually SO EXCITED about Toy Story 3 and can't wait to see it! I feel like Buzz Lightyear is a third child in our house sometimes...


Special Agent Oso is a playhouse Disney show. Jacob really likes this one because all of the episodes are named after Bond movies. The premise of the show is that Oso is given a special assignment to help a kid learn a certain skill. They learn three special steps and master the skill (learning to play hopscotch, tying the shoe, washing the dishes, etc.) I think its really cute and Will loves it!

The other day, I told Will we were going strawberry picking. He told me he was going to "twist and pull" the strawberries!? Apparently, there an Oso episode where they learned how to pick strawberries.

The Wiggles are still going strong in our house - nearly three years after Will first discovered them. (Even having seen them LIVE when some friends won tickets two years ago!) Adeline is really the most into Wiggles right now, but both kids love them. The Wiggles show comes on a channel that we have "on demand" so we have a few shorter episodes to watch in addition to some DVDs we've collected.

Franklin is the first on my list of what we don't watch! The bottom line is that I think Franklin whines and doesn't always have a good attitude. He used to come on Noggin (now Nick Jr.) which is a channel we prefer because of the no commercials. But, I don't let Will watch Franklin and he knows why.

Max and Ruby is another one we avoid. Ruby is a little bossy to Max and seems to be in charge. The parents are almost never seen. The bottom line is that we're not going to be able to shelter Will from all "bad examples" - but there are plenty of options that don't include characters like these.

(Word World and the Leap Frog videos were also mentioned by Leah and these are other favorites of ours as well.)

A few others that have cycled through as favorites include:

Hide 'em in your heart DVD

Cedarmont Kids Bible Songs

Little People DVDs from Fisher Price (given free with toys or through online promotion)

Jonah the Veggie Tales movie (though I can't convince them to watch any other Veggie Tales)

Dinosaur Train on PBS

I'm saying this as a reminder to myself as well - but its so easy to assume that all preschool programming (and videos) is "safe" when there may be themes and examples we don't agree with. There are a couple of websites to use when trying to get an idea of the movie or tv show and what it might include. They are:

Plugged In - a Focus on the Family ministry

Kids In Mind

Screen It

Any final thoughts on tv/video viewing for our little ones? Thanks for the comments this week!