I was over at No Heavy Lifting today, leaving a comment for Dawn, when I began bubbling over the joys of Magic School Bus. If you have elementary aged school, these little videos are gold.
Back when I was pregnant with Bubby, The General was in 3rd grade, and Princess was starting Kindergarten. Each day we would begin our school day around 8:00AM, with a break for lunch around noon. This happened to coincide with PBS' airing of Magic School Bus. My kiddos were thrilled. Initially I was a little concerned about breaking for TV mid-day. However, after a few weeks of collapsing my pregnant body on the couch, I realized two things. #1 I needed the mid-day break, and #2 it was good stuff.
I'd lay down for those 30 minutes, and get up refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the day. Which was important, as Mr. Nomad was working long days at the Pentagon. No Daddy coming home in the evening for respite. I was pretty much on my own.
After watching the program with the kiddos a few days, I realized they were learning some great science. In fact after a couple weeks, I bagged the expensive science curriculum I had purchased for The General. I left it to the fates he would be okay in science, instead focusing on other academics that year. In the spring I had him tested. Guess what?? My boy scored in the 99th percentile for science.
Now I can't attribute all of that to Magic School Bus, as we are a nerdy science family. We love nature hikes, and he lived for all of those Jeff Corwin and Steve Erwin shows when he was a younger. Animal Planet's Top 10 is still one of his favorite shows.
However, I do think the Frizz was useful. Now we tried both the videos and the books. The books were fun for experiments, but the videos explain things in a much more captivating way. You can find both the videos and books at the local library. I'm sure NetFlix or other video services may also have them on hand.
Magic School Bus was a life saver that year. Hopefully Ms. Frizzle and the rest of the gang can help out a few other mommas with lots on their plates.
Once again my paragraph breaks disappeared. Oh, how that frustrates me!
ReplyDeleteI agree! Nick and I loved the Magic School Bus when he was young.
ReplyDeleteTV is just like anything else. It has good and bad. It can be utilized in a good way or used in a harmful way.
I use alot of TV with Desirae. Not sure how much of it is good, but I am not a "talker" when the other person is not asking "why". With Nick, and especially one of his friends, the "why" questions were always there. Desirae has yet to ask why. I don't do monologue. So, we have Sprout or Noggin on a lot just to enrich the environment. Is that a cop out? maybe :)
I get frustrated too, when Blog or FB messes with my spacing.
We watched a bit of the Bus , but it was towards the end of our little kid career...then sports center took over:) I did enjoy it and now once in while we watch for old times sake. It is amazing how much education you can glean from good tv watching, I still go back to school house rock for reference. I was really excited when Ave gave me the rock dvd for Christmas...conjunction junction whats your function...
ReplyDeleteThey have Rock DVD's? I've only seen some of them up on youTube. My girl loved learning the preamble to the Constitution with it.
ReplyDeleteBrenda,
ReplyDeleteWe do the best we can with what we are giving. Desi is just a different kiddo than Nick, and therefore will take completely different parenting. I think as long as we are loving them to pieces, and doing what we think is best, God will cover the rest.
There's a School house rock DVD??? I want that. I still can only sing the Preamble----but at least I KNOW it. That would be a great tool for Desirae.
ReplyDeleteBrenda - I am not a monologuer, either! Tami - I have been inspired by your last two postings! Thank you! Also, I'm always so encouraged by the comments you leave for me. Thank you very much for being such a great blogging friend!
ReplyDeleteBrenda, ME TOO!
ReplyDeleteDawn,
You are very welcome. We are in this raising children thing together, and if we support one another we have a much better chance of making it to the finish line intact. :)
Gosh, I'd almost forgotten about Magic School Bus videos. Thanks for the reminder, Tami. This could actually be something that could get us through these last few days (weeks?) of winter. And I'm with Dawn - you ARE an excellent blogging friend! Thank you for that too!!
ReplyDeleteAve bought the School house Rock at walmart $10-20 although I can't imagine it being 20 Jon gave him 10 :). It is 2 dvd's though that last 200+ minuets....tons of fun...guess I know what I'll be doing this afternoon:)
ReplyDelete