Cozi Blog

The Family Dish: How do You Choose Family Movies?

How do you decide if a movie is appropriate for your kids?

It can be tough to do when there are no hard and fast rules. Not all animated films are kid-friendly. And a movie like Transformers might not be the best choice for the very young kids who love to play with the robot toys. Even movies that appear to be happy go lucky kid flicks in the trailer can turn out to be darker than expected and prompt deep emotional questions (think Up.)

What are the deal breakers for you? Violence? Swearing? Too much sexual inuendo? Poor character development? What about the adult humor that makes movies like Shrek just as fun for adults as they are for kids?

What about movies on darker topics like mortality and a life filled with sadness? Andrew O'Hehir calls out some of these so-called kids' movies in his article, Kids' movies that aren't for kids: The top 10. He says, "These are fairy tales for grown-ups, and especially for parents, with just enough candy coating that kids will tolerate them."

This past weekend, Where the Wild Things Are was released. Much has been said about whether this movie, based on the classic children's book by Maurice Sendak, is a good choice for the young children who are the audience for the book.

While the critics love the movie, they also point out that "The wild things in the movie have been designed and directed toward a distinctly older age group than the book’s original audience. If monsters give you the willies, beware!"

On the other hand, maybe kids can handle the dark side of these movies better than we believe. Problem is, you might not know until it's time for them to go to bed.

The Family Dish: What to Say If Your Child Asks About Obama's Speech

 

President Obama delivered a speech on Tuesday that was aimed right at schoolkids. So it's a good bet that some of them will come home with questions and ideas about it.

 

If you are hoping for a discussion that gets your kid talking and thinking about how social studies applies in the real world, we dug up some resources that can help.

But first, put down your blackberry, forget about the fact that you have no idea what you are making for dinner tonight and don't even think about your to do list.

Now, did you know that Barack Obama is actually the third US President to give a speech specifically for kids? Turns out he follows in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush on that score.

The website SocialStudiesforKids.com provides straightforward information about the speech, and more, on its current events page. It also has kid-friendly, factual explanations about how the US government works. So, if your child asks questions about the difference between the Presidency and the Congress - rather than digging around in your brain for a simple, precise answer, you can look at the website together.

This type of joint research is also a great way to show kids how to look at information on the web critically, and decide which sources are trustworthy. It's also not a bad way to show them that the internet can actually be used for more than just Webkinz, games or Facebook. Ahem.

In their article Teaching Children About Politics, the family-oriented website, professorshouse.com recommends that when kids ask questions about controversial topics, parents keep their own opinions in check.

Is this likely? Probably not. But if you did discuss the speech with your kids, we'd love to know how you handled it.