We all know sugar sweets should be eaten in moderation. My kids love cupcakes, but I don’t serve them for breakfast every day. The same is true for media. So much of what the world produces (tv, music, magazines, books, etc.) is just empty sugar at best. At worst, it’s opposed to our Christian values and world-view. We’ve already talked about setting an example by protecting our home from evil forms of media. We’ve also hit on the practice of limiting screen-time. Today I want to talk about what kind of media your kids should be ingesting.
Most of us don’t have a problem saying that kid-friendly movies, tv shows and music aren’t that great. Either they are totally annoying or totally ungodly. Every tv show seems to tout rude kids as heroes, parents as idiots and mischief as normal and fun. There is hardly such a thing as kids’ music anymore and our preschoolers are inhaling too-old-for-them songs about teen relationships, partying and more.
My approach is not to restrict the bad things and make kids feel they are missing out, but provide them with quality entertainment they will enjoy. We have to help our kids fill up on God’s Word, otherwise they’ll fill up on the world! The Bible tells us that, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45). I want to help my kids store up God’s Word and not the things of this world!
But the problem is–where do we find good TV shows? Good music? Quality books? Great websites? How do we find God-centered, Biblical world-view entertainment for our kids?
Well, I thought it would be fun to make a giant list of the resources we all use! I’m going to list some of my faves and then I want you to leave your faves in the comments! That way we’ll have a treasure trove of ideas–perfect for the next library outting, your Netflix queue or Christmas shopping!
Here we go…
DVDs
Veggie Tales {of course! My fave is Little Joe!}
What’s in the Bible? {Hilarious show that teaches the Bible!}
Boz {funny Bear who shows kids that God is everywhere!}
Websites
JellyTelly {fun video website from the creators of What’s in the Bible! My kids love Clive and Ian.}
Magazines
Clubhouse Jr {for kids 3-7}
Clubhouse{for kids 8-12}
Books
(ooh, there are too many to name…)
Mrs. Rosey Posey series by Robin Jones Gunn
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
When God Created My Toes by Dandi Daley Mackall
The Parable Series by Liz Curtis Higgs
CDs
Yancy
Seeds Family Worship
Psalty
Donut Man
The Rizers
Misc.
Adventures In Odyssey {radio theater!}
Your turn! What’s your favorite Bible-based, kid-friendly website? Book? TV show? DVD? CD? Magazine?
Leave a link so we can see it, too!
ps–don’t miss my post on Motherhood Your Way today! It’s all about the changing seasons!
Jenae {I Can Teach My Child!} says
Francis Chan has some children’s books that are written like modern-day parables. We have the Big Red Tractor one and it is really good!
And I think Adventures in Odyssey has some new chapter books (Imagination Station, maybe) that would be perfect for school-age kids!
Erika Albin says
We love Slugs, Bugs and Lullabies by Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson. They have the original CD, a Christmas CD, and now a new cd called Under Where? They are hilarious silly songs, plus lots of good messages. Not to mention actual good music, which is hard to find on kid CDs. The opening track on Under Where? Is called “God makes messy things beautiful”. You can find all of them at slugsandbugs.com, on itunes and amazon, or through rabbitroom.com (which has tons of other christian music, books, etc).
The Diaper Diaries says
We like Gigi. And for music we like Hillsong kids.
For books we don’t really read a lot of Christian books but do a lot of classics.
Amy @ Finer Things says
May I share one that is not outwardly Biblical? My daughter loves the American Girl movies, and we all enjoy watching them together as a family. Good, old-fashioned values and history lessons, too.
Heather @ Not a DIY Life says
I LOVE that Chick-fil-a gave out Veggie Tales CDs in their kids meal recently. My 4YO loves listening to those in the car. And I can’t wait to share The Chronicles of Narnia with her as well.
Vanderbilt Wife says
We love the Gigi books and Miss Fannie’s Hat. And my girl has always loved the Lift-the-Flap New Testament and now Noah’s Ark (maybe that one is just Bible stories) and the Nativity one as well.
We still listen to Hide Em In Your Heart albums on Spotify and Wee Sing Bible Songs!
Shelly says
Two animated movies that my boys ages 7 and 5 cannot get enough of are The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt – both about Moses. We are currently listening to the Little House on the Prarie audio books in the car which are not overtly Christian, but focus on many Christian themes and ideas. We check these out from our local library. Stormie O’Martian also has some picture books out that are very good. Jennie St John Taylor also has some great picure books, our favorite is “Am I Praying”. As far as music goes, my boys love a good beat! They like Group 1 Crew, Skillet, Hillsong (they have some good kids videos, too).
Megan says
You have already listed most of the God-related things that I use. The only other suggestions that I have for that are Lifeway and Group kids cds. If you just search on itunes, it comes up with a bunch of them (some from past vbs cds and some others). Here are some other suggestions that don’t directly have anything to do with God, but are things that I have examined closely and they don’t go against Him in any way and are very safe for kids:
I was going to suggest the American Girl movies (specifically the Molly one. The other ones had a few “minor” lines that I didn’t like, but nothing major)…but someone already mentioned those. Also, books by Mo Willems- specifically the “Pigeon” series and the “Elephant and Pig” series. Both are hilarious and just pure clean fun. I bet your kids would like those a lot. Each of the books in the Pigeon series is about something that you shouldn’t let a pigeon do (my favorite being “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus”). They are so cute.
Kristy says
We love Colin Buchanan. He is an Australian musician with loads of great kids songs and DVDs. Some are straight Scripture set to music – great for memory verses, others are hilarious songs (eg one of our favourites is a sea shanty style song – ‘Are you serving Captain Jesus, He’s the Master of the Wind and Waves’.) Very clever.
Jen says
LOVE this idea, thank you!
Check out
“The Wonderful Adventures of Georgie the Frog” & “More Wonderful Adventures of Georgie the Frog”
by Glorianne K Gibbs.
Awesome short stories with a scripture before each one that pertains to the ‘lesson learned’ by the main character. For preschoolers through early elementary.
Jen says
Ooooh and also…for parents…one of the BEST books I have ever read that truly highlights what the Bible has to say about guiding our children’s hearts is:
Shepherding a Child’s Heart
by Tedd Tripp
I have read it every year since I got it and will continue to do so for years to come. It is a beautiful and necessary reminder on perspective in parenting. Hope you all have time to read it, you will treasure it as I do!
Amber's Articles says
WE love 101 Toddler Tunes. It is a 2 CD set that has all of the old nursery rhymes. We also love the Seeds CD’s and you can find three of their videos on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/seedsfamilyworship.
For older children, Little House on the Prairie is a great series for them to watch.
Lindsey says
For older kids (4-13ish?) there is an animated kid’s bible DVD set of 6 that goes through Genesis. It covers a lot of stories in the bible very accurately (although my two year old is a little scared of some parts since it doesn’t totally sugar coat things like Cain’s killing, etc). The sound and 3D animations are pretty impressive for bible dvd’s. The amazon link is here-but I bought it cheaper elsewhere (sorry, I don’t remember where).
http://www.amazon.com/Animated-Kids-Bible-Genesis-Special/dp/B000KF0G8Q
Youtube example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNBtTB7gJy4
Joy Ewing says
For Music my kids love the Go Fish Guys!
Pam Reed says
Years ago Christine Wyrtzen made an album called Critter County with Bible verses set to music. I have seen it online lately for purchase. Other favorite music– Steve Green’s cd and video “Hide them in your heart” and Sandi Patti”s cd “friendship company”.
Kirsten says
Im assuming you can get them in the US as well (Im in Australia), but we’ve just started listening to The Music Machine CDs (kind of like Psalty, which I loved as a kid!). My 3 yr old loves it, as do we!