We're TV-free. We do let our 5 yr old ds watch some internet media clips for learning (snips of "How It's Made", space shuttle launches, things like that) but we do not have a TV and "watching" things is not really a part of our lives.
But, sometimes, there are just "those few times" when really, there is nothing else left and we are OK with a quality "fun" DVD (sick days, long airplane flights, last spring we were in the basement waiting out a tornado...).
I just found a really great resource and thought I would share... Scholastic DVD's. They are the actual stories read word-for-word and the illustrations are either mildly animated or sometimes even just panned. They are definately not the hyper cartoons of TV and the spoken words are exactly what is written in the book (with some music and/or sound effects). Each story is only about 5-10 minutes with the whole DVD being about 30-45 minutes. They are classic childrens books and extremly mild (my ds is very sensitive, and the only one he was not really keen on was the DVD for Maurice Sendak- "Where the Wild Things Are", "Micky and the Night Kitchen", "Pierre", etc. They were well done, but kind of edgy and with the music and reading kind of amped up the "darker side" and so he suggested we "Put that one away for now"
.) He has enjoyed Ezra Jack Keats ("The Snowy Day", "Whistle for Willie", etc.), "Harold and the Purple Crayon", "Courderoy", "Danny and the Dinosaur", "Chrysanthemum", etc. Scholastic has about 1 million of these and you can find them on places like ebay or TJ Maxx for a couple bucks each. AND, if you're into it, the DVD's have an option of "read along" with the stories in a sort of caption-style if you want. Obviously, no commercials or whatever.
So, for those not too keen on TV, media, whatever, the DVD's of classic books are great for "those few times".
But, sometimes, there are just "those few times" when really, there is nothing else left and we are OK with a quality "fun" DVD (sick days, long airplane flights, last spring we were in the basement waiting out a tornado...).
I just found a really great resource and thought I would share... Scholastic DVD's. They are the actual stories read word-for-word and the illustrations are either mildly animated or sometimes even just panned. They are definately not the hyper cartoons of TV and the spoken words are exactly what is written in the book (with some music and/or sound effects). Each story is only about 5-10 minutes with the whole DVD being about 30-45 minutes. They are classic childrens books and extremly mild (my ds is very sensitive, and the only one he was not really keen on was the DVD for Maurice Sendak- "Where the Wild Things Are", "Micky and the Night Kitchen", "Pierre", etc. They were well done, but kind of edgy and with the music and reading kind of amped up the "darker side" and so he suggested we "Put that one away for now"
.) He has enjoyed Ezra Jack Keats ("The Snowy Day", "Whistle for Willie", etc.), "Harold and the Purple Crayon", "Courderoy", "Danny and the Dinosaur", "Chrysanthemum", etc. Scholastic has about 1 million of these and you can find them on places like ebay or TJ Maxx for a couple bucks each. AND, if you're into it, the DVD's have an option of "read along" with the stories in a sort of caption-style if you want. Obviously, no commercials or whatever.So, for those not too keen on TV, media, whatever, the DVD's of classic books are great for "those few times".
. And I think these Scholastic are kind of "the best of what is out there for the few times we use TV" (this was originally posted in the tv-free subforum...). But, I see them as "fun" and not learning, per se.
). They also celebrate the wheel of the year, which we do as well, so that helps tie it into our life.
