Reluctantly asking for your dvd recommendations

[LCBMAX]

We'll be driving cross country this summer with our son (and 2 dogs) who will turn 2.5 in August. We'd rather have a decent drive in about 7 - 10 days than maintain our tv free lifestyle, and some great dvds would come in handy.

He loves astronomy, bugs, TRAINS, crossing bars, music, dancing, heavy machinery, garbage trucks, hydraulic arms, blah blah blah.

We love vintage Sesame Street, sweet themes without insipid music or scripts, avoiding high market brands like Thomas, and keeping our family happy.

Any favorites out there for the crunchy toddler set?

[spmamma]

We don't watch TV either, but have allowed DD to watch a couple things on very special occasions. She just turned 3 and is very sensitive and scares easily, so our selection is extremely limited. The one movie that we've tried - and she loved it - was Mary Poppins.

[wanderinggypsy]

Thomas the Tank Engine comes to mind. It's not too annoying... only moderately.

[ThisCat]

Has nothing to do with trains, heavy machinery, or trucks, but Little Bear is a sweet show with gentle themes. My daughter loved it at that age and still does.

I think there are 3 or 4 DVDs of the show. Oh, and the only thing I think I've ever seen with Little Bear branding is some training toothpaste which my daughter never begged for.

[ThisCat]

Thought of some more good shows that don't have much if any marketing associated with them (at least not that I know of):

Pocoyo
Pingu
Peep and the Big Wide World
Charlie and Lola

And if you want a feature length movie, I highly recommend My Neighbor Totoro.

Again, no heavy machinery or trucks or trains though. Sorry.

[butterfly_mommy]

Mighty Machines! These are short segments of real machines doing real work with voice overs of the "machines" explaining what they are doing. My DS who has similar interests loves Mighty machines.

Other favs of DS are

Dinosaur Train
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Signing Time (not the baby ones but the series for older children)
Charlie and Lola

I also like the above mentioned DVDs

[moobiegirl]

We like the Curious George movies. They are very gentle my son loves them. They now have two full length movies. We enjoy the first one the most. Great music in them by Jack Jackson.

[CrazyCatLady]

Harold and the purple crayon. Until my daughter was 4? Harold and the purple crayon was the only show she watched. And she watched it a lot! Never got on my nerves either, I actually really liked that show too.

My husband and I hated little bear (found it annoying). But it is a sweet and gentle show that our daughter still likes to watch (and she's almost six now).

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

I don't worry so much about the marketing because I just don't give her the opportunity to know that there's outside branded stuff, so my recommendations may not suit you. That said, I LOVE Wonderpets because they're very gentle and focus on learning about animals, helpfulness and teamwork. I also like Backyardigans because it's about using one's imagination -- something that's really important to me. The characters go all over the world learning about things -- but from their backyard.

Charlie and Lola are lovely.
Harold and Purple Crayon, too.
Little Bear and Franklin are also both nice, but dd hates them.
She loves Curious George, but after a while that monkey sound starts to make me twitch .

When she's watching in a closed in space like that, I keep the volume reallllly low because I don't want it to get too raucous, or distracting for the driver.

Good luck!

W

[dividedsky]

check out the kids dvds by they might be giants - they come with a cd and dvd in the same package

- here come the abcs
- here come the 123s
- here comes science

they are awesome, i even dig the music

[Grace and Granola]

I have a 3yo boy who loves all the things you've listed! I second the Mighty Machines rec, they are awesome! There is another dvd called Alphabet Train that gives a train detail for every letter of the alphabet, very cool. Magic Schoolbus has a bug dvd with 3 different bug shows my kids love. I don't know if you or your dh are capable of this, but my husband looked up trains/construction videos on youtube and was able to save them onto DVD. You could probably fill an hour DVD with CROSSING GATE segments!!

ETA: Do you know about Miss Spider? They play her on Noggin or some channel. But it is all bugs and it is very mellow and sweet. My boys LOVED it...when we had cable. I'm sure they have DVDs.

[dbsam]

My children loved the Kipper DVD's (It was one of the few that didn't annoy me!)
They also liked Little Bear - which I didn't mind either.


When we went on a long car trip we also borrowed music from the library...they loved John McCutcheon (Family Garden was their favorite of his CD's). They also liked the Dreamtree Shakers - not sure if it is available at your library...we purchased it at their concert. You may be able to purchase it from the Chicago Old Town School of Folk Music. So much of the children's music drives me crazy - these were fine...or at least most of the songs!

[MrsBone]

Little Bear
Franklin
Wonderpets
Thomas the Tank Engine
Backyardagins

None of which involves machinery, but mostly all music based and or not annoying, gentle themes, etc. My DS loves all of them! As far as not watching TV, that's awesome, but this will be an even more special treat for your child to be able to watch shows in the car than an average child!

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

Originally Posted by Grace and Granola

ETA: Do you know about Miss Spider? They play her on Noggin or some channel. But it is all bugs and it is very mellow and sweet. My boys LOVED it...when we had cable. I'm sure they have DVDs.

Love Miss Spider (though, shouldn't it be Mrs.? I think she's married. ), especially as an adoptive mom. Very cool.

[noobmom]

I'll second (third?) the rec for Backyardians. I love the fact that the shows are about kids having fun with their imaginations--NOT about teaching a lesson. I don't need TV shows to teach my kids lessons, I can do that myself, thank you very much. In each show they use original music written in a different style--it could be jazz, carnival music, classical, Arabian, I've seen it run the gamut. As a bonus, I don't find it annoying as an adult.

[TanyaS]

My son loved these videos when he was younger. He was also into the machinery/vehicles/etc. They are very educational and show real trains (or whatever machinery the topic is about). They all start with "There goes a ____". They have some DVD compilations, too. I would sit and watch these with ds and learned a few things myself!

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Wheels-Tr...7911193&sr=8-1

[ASusan]

DS is 2.5.

Originally Posted by ThisCat

Has nothing to do with trains, heavy machinery, or trucks, but Little Bear is a sweet show with gentle themes. My daughter loved it at that age and still does.

I think there are 3 or 4 DVDs of the show. Oh, and the only thing I think I've ever seen with Little Bear branding is some training toothpaste which my daughter never begged for.

Like others, we like Little Bear in our house.

Originally Posted by spmamma

We don't watch TV either, but have allowed DD to watch a couple things on very special occasions. She just turned 3 and is very sensitive and scares easily, so our selection is extremely limited. The one movie that we've tried - and she loved it - was Mary Poppins.

DS loves watching the musical numbers from musicals. Can you find a DVD that is primarily musical numbers? Some favorites here (the musical segments - DS has not made it through an entire musical):

Willy Wonka
Mary Poppins
Annie (LOVES It's a Hard Knock Life from the 1982 version - calls it, "The Flipping Over")
The Sound of Music
The Wiz
The Wizard of Oz
Jungle Book (a favorite of DH)
The trailer from the movie Babies


Most of these numbers we watch via YouTube. If you were more technologically savvy than me, you could probably do a DVD mix (Can you download from YouTube or similar to do that??)

Originally Posted by AndVeeGeeMakes3

I LOVE Wonderpets because they're very gentle and focus on learning about animals, helpfulness and teamwork. I also like Backyardigans because it's about using one's imagination -- something that's really important to me. The characters go all over the world learning about things -- but from their backyard.

WonderPets was the first show we let him watch. We like it a lot.

Originally Posted by noobmom

I'll second (third?) the rec for Backyardians. I love the fact that the shows are about kids having fun with their imaginations--NOT about teaching a lesson. I don't need TV shows to teach my kids lessons, I can do that myself, thank you very much. In each show they use original music written in a different style--it could be jazz, carnival music, classical, Arabian, I've seen it run the gamut. As a bonus, I don't find it annoying as an adult.

I did not know that about The Backyardigans. Thank you. We may introduce it next.

I also like Little Bill, but it is slightly more advanced in terms of plot and themes. (Little Bill is in preschool and had 2 older siblings.) DS likes it, but doesn't always hold his attention for more than one (10-minute) episode.


In terms of the ride itself, we do 10+ hour rides. We rarely go more than 3 hours without stopping for DS to run around (unless he's sleeping - then it's DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE. Parents hold your pee!). We use the GPS to search for nearby schools or parks so we can find a playground for him to romp around on. DS loves Search and Find books (I Spy, etc.), and has one that will hold his attention for at least 30 minutes. (It's a toddler seek and find from Barnes & Noble - a big one.)

[ThisCat]

Originally Posted by dbsam

My children loved the Kipper DVD's (It was one of the few that didn't annoy me!)

Oh yeah, I forgot that one. I agree, very cute show.

[claras_mom]

I'd recommend things from the Scholastic Books series. Like this, though we never bought it. Maybe for dd2. Dd1's favorite for the longest time was Wheels on the Bus. Amazon seems to have a better selection. Goodnight Gorilla is also a nice set.

[pantrygirl]

We try to steer away from TV as well but we occasionally allow her to watch some things we thing are educational and not too market oriented (Disney etc).

What we have done which is a little work but I find it eases my mind and makes me feel better, is to tape a few animal planet or nat geo programs and allow her to watch these.

She loves Big Cat Diary and we tape a few episodes and we allow her to watch them over and over. She'll point out things like cougar, lion, etc and she has even started to note actions like "bath, eating, running,etc"

I thought the whole hunting aspect would be too graphic for her but she seemed to like it. I have no idea what to make of that.

I found that by taping it and watching it together and allowing her to watch the same programs several times, I knew what she was watching and she learned to spot something 'new' in each scene.

Other shows we have done this with is the Life series (we picked an episode or two) and Planet Earth (ditto).

We also took a few episodes of Blues Clues that pertained to a subject that she had shown interest in (Letters, Opposites, Song Time, etc).

Hope this helps.