DVD Recommendations for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Caroline has thoroughly enjoyed watching Baby Einstein DVDs for the past year. We didn’t allow her to watch DVDs until she was almost two. She definitely likes DVDs, but I am at a bit of a loss where to go next. She has an animal video from the Creation Museum that my friend, Katherine, sent her. She likes that with the singing and animals. She likes A Charlie Brown Christmas (Remastered Deluxe Edition)
I know there have to be lots of good DVDs out there that I’m just not aware of. We’re not interested in going the Dora, Elmo, Sesame Street, etc. route. I’d especially be interested in high quality DVDs with Bible themes, Bible verses, singing, etc. but am open to anything that is solid and well done.
Suggestions?
November 12th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Over the years my boys have enjoyed Scholastic’s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom video. It includes classic children’s stories, along with original illustrations, such as Bill Martin’s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Rosie’s Walk (a hen that goes for a walk and is followed by a wolf — not scary), Trashy Town (about what a garbage man does all day), and The Caterpiller and the Polliwog. Very simple but nicely done with fun music.
This is probably more for boys than girls but my guys love the John Deere videos by TM Books and Video. It’s all about farm and construction machinery, very musical. Check out TM Books and Videos for some other options that might appeal to Caroline.
Steve Green’s “Hide ‘Em in Your Heart” is a musical video and album — scripture verses put to music sung by him along with a group of children. I recommend the CD’s (two volumes) or the videos.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
My almost 3 year-old son also loves anything related to machinery. The Mighty Machines videos and Popular Mechanics for Kids are huge hits. We also adore the Pingu videos – a claymation show about a penguin. It’s not exactly educational, but the videos are short and great for a 10-15 minute break. I like the fact that they are funny and not violent or overwhelming.
For educational purposes the Talking Leapfrog Letter Factory and Word Factory are amazing. I was truly skeptical, but they really are great.
For movie length entertainment we really like the Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little films that have live action characters. Most of the Disney animated features are just way too noisy and action-packed and I like the fact that these are based on classic children’s literature.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
My preschool-aged daughter loved Miss Patty Cake. She does very sweet, entertaining and educational Christian videos. The songs are fun and my daughter was entertained for several years by Miss PC. Highly recommended.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Hello Sallie!
We haven’t done a lot of videos either, but I second some of the ones that were listed here. I also don’t like a lot of the popular ones (including Veggie Tales :P), but here are 3 we’ve enjoyed. Two are ones that others have already suggested.
Our son has loved Steve Green’s music (“Hide ‘Em in Your Heart”)…mainly the music, although if you order from amazon, a DVD is thrown in. The DVD is more babyish, but our son still enjoys watching. …another music c.d. (although not DVD), is Jamie Soles…Scripture set to music…he has great stuff!
Another DVD that (although musical), is this Cedarmont Kids DVD. The kids are singing (non annoying) and are dressed up in costumes according to the theme of the song. Our son LOVES this one.
We love the LeapFrog Letter factory too. It is well done. Also, at Sam’s they have a Beatrix Potter collection that we bought although our son is not quite into it…:P But I’m sure Caroline might like it :).
November 12th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
My children have really enjoyed Miss Patty Cake DVDs, especially her Eggstravaganza DVD. She uses the resurrection eggs to tell the Easter story and also has fun songs to go along with them. Definitely more for a younger child but my children have absolutely loved them!
We also have one of the Steve Green Hide ‘Em In Your Heart DVDs and we like that one but I think if I had a choice I’d prefer just the CDs. The music is great and it really helps the children to remember Bible verses. Some of the clothing and hairstyles in the DVDs make them seem rather out of date. I’d definitely highly recommend the CDs though!
We’ve also enjoyed the Signing Time DVDs. We’ve found these at our local library. My children have enjoyed learning sign language from the children on the DVDs and they also have fun music on them. If you haven’t tried these you might want to check to see if they have them at your library. I’d start with the earlier ones in the series – I think there is a series one and a series two – and there are about 10-12 volumes in each series. The first few DVDs have younger children and more of the basic signs. We’ve never gotten too far into the sign language but we’ve had a lot of fun using a few signs in our family. My kids love the songs and we found the different signs to be fascinating (and easy to remember when presented this way).
It is interesting to see the other suggestions you’ve received. What a great topic!
Kara
November 16th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Thank you so much! Lots of good ideas here for me to look into. I was especially intrigued by the LeapFrog that people brought up. Caroline has become very interested in letters, words and so on the past few days so it might be a good time to look for that teachable moment.
I ordered the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving from Netflix thinking she would enjoy that. Instead she has watched the bonus feature over and over again. It is the story of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. But it must be very rare because I’ve been trying to find a used copy online and there isn’t anything I’ve found so far.
Thank you!
November 16th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
We love Leapfrog letter factory!
The Miracle Maker is also good, but you may want to wait a few years. It is a claymation/puppets, very nicely done. It’s good for adults, too, you could watch it now yourselves and figure out when you think she is old enough, or just skip the scary chapters and talk about what happened.
http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Maker-Story-Jesus/dp/B00004WI56/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1258409197&sr=8-2
November 16th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Hi Sallie,
I would recommend the Letter Factory as well. We have rented it many times from the library and I finally broke down and purchased it. It has helped Holly with her letters and sounds tremendously.
Holly is also becoming interested in Little House on the Praire. We have seasons 1-4 and she has watched a few from the 1st season. I’m not sure how much she comprehends of the storyline but she loves watching the little girls, Ma and Pa. I just showed her A Christmas as Plumb Creek and she really enjoyed that.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
At our house, we love Steve Green’s “Hide ‘em in your Heart” as well. We have both volumes and agree that they are dated in style, but our three year old loves them. And, our whole family breaks out in the songs when we happen to discuss any scripture that is on one of them! I still give them as baby gifts.
Another big favorite is also Little House on the Prairie. We have them on DVD and love to watch them. We are careful as some of the storylines are fairly deep, so we save those for the older children. (The DVDs come with great summaries of the episodes.) The rest are thoroughly enjoyed by our littlest (3) and she’s been asking for them a lot lately. And, I grew up watching them so they bring back lots of good memories!