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Family Films on Netflix and Amazon this June

June 5, 2018 by Chris Leave a Comment

Shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime for Kids

Our boys are six but think they’re sixteen. They are obsessed with Minecraft and Harry Potter. Both are amazing but include mature themes like death and zombies. I’m sure plenty of parents like us use Harry Potter as a measuring stick judging what’s appropriate for their kids. We’ve taken a pause at film four of the Potter series. It’s gotten a bit too dark and the stakes too dramatic.

Netflix

I wish I could recommend Netflix’s Original series tackling history The Who Was Show, but it’s a tough hang for kids and adults alike.

The Great British Baking Show – Netflix has a show called Nailed It in the kid section. We turned it on and it kicked-off with crude language and things I didn’t want to explain during a cooking show. We love the Great British Baking Show, it’s civil, educational and we all love it.

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure – There is a huge catalog of 80s and 90s films I grew up with. For every new film we pick some older ones and most of the time the kids are into it. Pee-Wee was one.

Cool Runnings – I was surprised how much the kids loved this. I feel privileged to grow up watching John Candy films and hope my kids too.

Paddington – I genuinely love this movie and the sequel should be nominated for best picture 2018.

Miracle – Add this to a Cool Runnings double feature.

The Iron Giant – We own this one and it’s one of the top 4-5 animated movies in the last 25 years.

Ghostbusters – One my kids said there is a curse word that is the name of a person in this. Not sure how he figured that out as I had the close capturing on and coughed over it. Other than that and a few scary scenes this is a must.

Chasing Monsters – Monsters, in this case, are giant fish. This show is a part adventure, a part travel, and the rest – education. Nothing offensive except maybe a story of a legendary fish who may have eaten a pet.

Amazon

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. I can’t wait until I can watch Raiders of the Lost Ark with my kids but want to avoid melty face scene for another year or two. I enjoyed Young Indiana Jones and it’s a nice warm-up for the real deal. For the older kids, all of the Indy films are available on Amazon

Hugo – Super entertaining film.

Odd Squad – Best kids show on TV period. It’s not animated and the kid actors are incredible.

Zathura – We recently watched the original Jumanji and this is a fun watch with some dramatic moments and brotherly love

Nova – No matter what your children are into, Nova has covered it. We recently watched the ones on Petra and Machu Picchu and it was enthralling despite being geared for adults.

Amazon Fire Kids Edition Tablet – Review

December 31, 2017 by Chris Leave a Comment

The kids were pretty clear what they wanted to see under the tree this Christmas. One wanted a snake (a python preferably) and the other requested a hamster. However, we wanted to avoid the future prey vs predator talk and needed Santa to come up with an alternate plan.

After avoiding most screen time for the first 5 years it’s time to reverse course. We’re not Amish, the kids have had plenty of exposure from family and school. We understand computer literacy is a necessity to operate in society. Early mastery is key. I was in computer coding classes in 1st and 2nd grade and I’ve been the family computer fix-it guy ever since.

The price of an iPad is crazy considering the competition is solid and we weren’t looking to drop $600+ on two. Especially considering monitoring their use would be a full-time job on the iPad. For both economy of money and time, we chose the Amazon Fire Kids 8 Edition.

The Fire eliminated the challenges of cost and close monitoring. At around $100 it is a great value. The kid’s edition costs a little more than regular version but is has Freetime preinstalled.

Freetime is the app that allows you to set up a profile for your kids. Their profiles are walled off from the adult profiles via a pin so you don’t have to worry about them milling about in your business.

The first thing you can do is set the age group. Despite being 6 I set our kids in the 5 and under range. There are over 4,000 books available under the books heading, a multitude of apps, we loved playing Monument Valley all weekend, as well as video and web headings.

Generally, they get the age-appropriate apps and videos right, but you can still delete anything you’d like. I bounced the Spongebob, Teen Titans and anything else from the Cartoon Network. You can also add things that may not fall in the under 5 settings. I added all the Harry Potter Books and Amazon Rapids App.

Another strong feature is the ability to set time limits for Apps, Video, Web, and Books. We go less than an hour on everything except books which we have set at unlimited. Parents can avoid the blame when time runs out. I’ve found they’ve been good when time limits its. You can also have it so they can’t play before a certain time in the morning and or not too late in the evening.

It took some time to get the filters to do their job. Not sure why it didn’t work out of the box, but when I was expecting the apps to turn off they wouldn’t. The kids were both sick so the extra playing time was a welcomed diversion and by the end of the week, things were humming along nicely.

Thus far we’re happy with what Santa brought. It’s a good motivator; both risking their privileges and a bonus for good behavior. The Amazon Fire Kids Edition comes with a year of Freetime Unlimited, a protective case (blue or Pink), as well as two years of replacements tables should that case not be enough protection.

After Five Days our favorite apps have been.

Monument Valley

Flow Free

Cut the Rope

SketchBook

Springtime Kid Shows Worth Streaming

April 27, 2017 by Chris Leave a Comment

Rainy April days are going to happen. What’s good online? There is an overwhelming amount of options(Check out our guide to Netflix categories). Kids will always push the boundaries with what’s appropriate. It’s your jobs to make sure they don’t push it too early. Violent cartoons are pretty easy to filter, but how do you know if a show is too snarky?

Snarky characters have invaded many of the best produces animated shows. Pokemon and The Deep captivate our kids but when it’s over and they call each other ‘loser’ or ‘captain obvious’ we need to rethink what they can see.

The number of talented writers hasn’t increased as quickly as the computer programs that can illustrate them. We’re looking at you Netflix. It is for that reason we can only recommend two Netflix original shows- Puss ‘n Boots and Puffin Rock.

Here’s our Springtime Snark Free Viewing guide.

Netflix

Kubo and the Two Strings is wonderfully written and animated film. Made by the same production company that created Boxtrolls and Coraline. It was lost in theaters but is every bit as good as the next movie on the list that came out around the same time.

Zootopia is fun with exceptionally well-written characters. Having a range of characters is normal, but nailing the emotions is incredible.

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Puss ‘n Boots is the one or two Netflix original animated shows we have on the list. The others like Dawn of the Croods, Home, Dragons Race to the Edge, suffer from lazy writing and are produced too fast. Netflix needs to push content so quality suffers. There are a few we haven’t watched like Justin Time we can’t comment on yet.

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Julie’s Greenroom is a Netflix Original but it’s not animated. It features the lovely Julie Andrews and a crew of puppets brought to life by the Jim Henson Company. It’s perfect for PreSchool aged kids. It’s warm and nostalgic feel is the cure for the snark fest that is almost everywhere.

Smurfs and the Magic Flute – Somehow the kids watched this twice. This movie is pre-Saturday morning Smurfs. It is almost meditative. The smurfs don’t even show up until halfway through the movie.

Octonauts has been a favorite for years. Watch a little and learn a lot about the ocean.

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Little Einsteins feature Classical Music and for that, it garners our praise. Classical music needs a place in every home.

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Rescue Bots has a little bit of snark but relegated to just one or two of their smaller characters and not the leads. It fills the void for those days when the kids want to watch the actual Transformers.

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Amazon Prime

Tumble Leaf is a beautiful slow-moving poem. It’s stop motion and I don’t think it would work in any other format. Amazon shares a full episode below.

Wild Kratts has been the boys favorite for years. They cite info they’ve learned from the show daily. They watch on PBS but it’s nice to know it’s available 24/7 via amazon. The Kratts previous show Zoboomafoo is also online.
via GIPHY

Creative Galaxy is a bit like Little Einsteins but solving problems with art. Also like Little Einsteins, Creative Galaxy is geared more for the little ones.

Odd Squad is amazing. Here in Vermont, it airs on PBS during bedtime prep so we never see it live, but fortunately, it’s on Amazon Prime. The Odd squad solves seriously odd questions using math. It’s actually funny and along with Puss ‘n Boots worth watching even if you’re old.

Children’s Book Find – Looking for Atlantis

December 7, 2016 by Chris Leave a Comment

Looking for Atlantis Children’s Book

Recently the kids checked out Looking for Atlantis, by Colin Thompson at the library and we took nearly an hour to make it through a short mostly picture book. The art in this 1994 lost classic was so precise and lovely we were captivated.

We’ve been reading a stack of books every day since they were born and in the early days, I appreciated an illustrator who places hidden items to find on every page even when it’s not obvious we should be searching. My favorites are ones that hide bugs. Normally it’s ladybugs, but in one there were little roaches that were up to all sorts of shenanigans.

Looking for Atlantis has plenty of distinct items we can see but also lots that aren’t so evident. It’s fun to find hidden themes Mr. Thompson has provided. He has a slightly twisted sense of humor and is apparently quite a prolific illustrator who should have probably garnered more respect.

But has Mr. Thompson makes it quite clear on his website he’s not into social media. He’s too busy producing. He has coloring books, puzzles, adult books and even cross stitch section. He’s an interesting guy, to say the least.

Though, you may not find it at the library, Looking for Atlantis is on Amazon. It is a somewhat melancholy book about a boy who discovers his imagination. Worth checking out if you’re into a deeper experience that most picture books offer nowadays.