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DVDs past preschool stage: Science, Language, anything would be great


Sahamamama
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The girls have almost completely outgrown Brainy Baby. The twins (nearly four) are still holding on to Miss Patty Cake, but my oldest (nearly six) will not watch MPC any longer.

 

We have Smithsonian Networks "Critter Quest" and "Loose at the Zoo," which they all enjoy. I've been looking for more DVDs like these, but coming up empty-handed. The girls also enjoy Signing Time, but these seem expensive to us for the amount of actual teaching minutes on each video. We don't have any pressing need to learn sign language, either, except that it is fun.

 

We have no TV, so it's a long year without any videos. We have winter to get through, you know! ;)

 

I'm finding plenty for preschoolers, but not much for the 6-8 year old crowd -- which would be the target audience around here. They call the preschool videos from the library "baby stuff." Any ideas?

 

Please? :bigear:

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We get Signing Time from the library so it's free.

 

My girls at similar ages love Bill Nye and PMK, but dd is a science buff. I don't know if most kids would like it that young.

 

Thanks! What's PMK? (Yes, our girls love science-y stuff).

 

And, we also get Signing Time free from the library, so that's another reason to not buy it.

 

Anyone else?

 

:bigear:

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My library had 2 seasons of The Jeff Corwin Experience, which was a huge hit with my animal-obsessed daughter. She also enjoys Sid the Science Kid. The first WeeBee Tunes (geography) video is fun and the songs are really catchy. Ariel also enjoys the MathTacular and Discover & Do DVDs from Sonlight.

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Do they not like all the PBS kids' shows aimed at preschool/early elementary? Some are babyish, but most aren't at all. Many of the current ones are online free as well. The ones that I think of as being relatively educational/valuable are:

Reading Rainbow (appreciation of books - not to mention a million other topics)

Electric Company (reading mechanics)

Between the Lions (reading mechanics and plot and book appreciation)

Sid the Science Kid (gets annoying and repetitive for me, but has good jumping off ideas for activities)

Curious George (no, really, it teaches how to think about science and problem solving!)

 

Then there are the others of varying educational quality - Martha Speaks (vocabulary), WordGirl (also vocabulary - I actually really like it - it's just not that educational), Dinosaur Train (dinosaurs), etc.

 

I also second The Magic Schoolbus suggestion.

 

And you can do a number of the adult shows about topics the kids might like - such as Meerkat Manor, for example, which many younger kids enjoy too.

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My kids all enjoy:

 

Magic School Bus

Leap Frog

Cedarmont Kids (I think they are cheesy, but my kids love the kids songs, especially the Christmas ones about now!)

Electric Company

 

We are also enjoying La Clase Divertida videos - but we are using that more as a spanish "class" so not sure if that interests you or not, but we have the audio in the car that goes along with the dvd's and the kids are learning a lot of spanish! the videos are fun with lots of repetition, etc.

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Do they not like all the PBS kids' shows aimed at preschool/early elementary? Some are babyish, but most aren't at all. Many of the current ones are online free as well. The ones that I think of as being relatively educational/valuable are:

Reading Rainbow (appreciation of books - not to mention a million other topics)

Electric Company (reading mechanics)

Between the Lions (reading mechanics and plot and book appreciation)

Sid the Science Kid (gets annoying and repetitive for me, but has good jumping off ideas for activities)

Curious George (no, really, it teaches how to think about science and problem solving!)

 

Then there are the others of varying educational quality - Martha Speaks (vocabulary), WordGirl (also vocabulary - I actually really like it - it's just not that educational), Dinosaur Train (dinosaurs), etc.

 

I also second The Magic Schoolbus suggestion.

 

And you can do a number of the adult shows about topics the kids might like - such as Meerkat Manor, for example, which many younger kids enjoy too.

 

Can we get these on our computer? We don't have a television (no $, no room). Thanks for pointing out that some are online. I had no idea! (Duh).

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