Preparing for the holidays can be a joyful experience. There is nothing better than listening to old Christmas carols with a cup of hot chocolate while you decorate the tree and hang the garlands. But these fun holiday tasks can turn into a nightmare if you have kids running around. Luckily, in the era of technology, this can be avoided.
However, screen time is at the center of many discussions these days and is usually discussed in terms of its negative impact on children.
The primary form of screen time addressed in such discussions is social media. However, there is another form that is even more common, especially among younger age groups: movies and shows.
When watching a movie, a child’s brain releases stress hormones and replaces them with endorphins. This hormone has the function of making the emotional state happier.
While there is a bad side to watching movies, you can reduce the negative impact by selecting appropriate things for your kids to watch. You can access all kinds of movies and shows through the internet today, with just a strong connection and a reliable Internet Service Provider (ISP). If your current connection is giving issues, you can consider getting Cox instead. Additionally, Cox bill pay frees you from the hassle and they offer various methods for you to cover your monthly fee. You can get high-speed internet at economical rates.
Since your internet is set, we also put together a list of recommended movies that you can let your kids watch to keep them occupied this holiday season.
1. The Bad Guys
Inspired by the popular children’s book series turned animated film, Bad Boys is about a marauding gang of talking animals who live among humans and behave “badly” but eventually become “good.” The movie also features an all-star movie cast for its voiceovers.
The plot of Bad Boys is predictable but engaging and flows from start to finish with plenty of fast-paced action, visual gags, and animal humor. Imagine Looney Tunes meets 11 of Ocean’s friends. This lovable band of criminals will quickly become your child’s favorite superheroes as they join today’s frantic journey of love, acceptance, and salvation with several possible plot twists.
2. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
A singing crocodile in the bathroom? This is something new in the world of children’s films and comes from a classic book. “Lyle, Lyle Crocodile” is based on a 1965 short story by Bernard Waber, about a boy’s unusual friendship with a crocodile and their adventures together.
The film opens with a showman, Hector P. Valenti, who is a failure but unexpectedly finds a singing crocodile in a pet store. He takes Lyle the crocodile (voiced by Shawn Mendes) home to his brown New York loft and trains him to be his song and dance partner. Lyle’s stage fright puts an end to Hector’s dreams, and he leaves to seek his fortune elsewhere. When a new family moves into Hector’s house, Lyle is discovered by their son Josh, and the fun begins!
3. Trick of Treat Scooby-Doo
During this outing, the Scooby Gang discover a startling revelation that sheds new light on all of their past secrets and potentially leads to a new and even more dangerous threat to Mystery Incorporated.
As always in Scooby-Doo movies, you’re bound to see some cartoonish violence, as well as a few silly jokes. Because this movie has a Halloween theme, the spooky moments get a little spooky to adjust for the holidays. There is also some flirting in the film, but nothing catastrophic to turn off the TV.
4. Pinocchio
This is a remake of the age-old story. It makes viewers think about morality, temptations, ethical choices, and ways of knowing life. The film has positive messages and role models, but many dark, disturbing, sad, scary, violent, and adult themes and scenes.
These themes and scenes make the film unsuitable for children under the age of five, and we recommend that children under the age of nine, watch with parental supervision. The values in this film that you can instill in your children include honesty, courage, selflessness, and friendship. The film also highlights the importance of being guided by your conscience.
This movie can also give you the opportunity to talk to your kids about the consequences of things in real life.
5. Lightyear
Lightyear, Buzz Lightyear’s origin story set “before Toy Story” in the Pixar timeline, is the movie that ultimately leads Andy to invest in years of space ranger adventure.
An intergalactic adventure beyond infinity, Lightyear is a film that inspires space travel, exploration, leadership, courage, and ambition in this original story, as well as life lessons about trust, friendship, family, and the “true” mission of life that leaves families and children, which is the only way Pixar can see it.
This is a standalone movie and you don’t have to watch the original Toy Story movies to appreciate this feature of Buzz Lightyear. This is a truly unique sequel to the prequel.
Despite concerns about the film’s length, the Toy Story prequel is actually a pleasant surprise for the whole family. Enough action, adventure, life lessons, and new characters to keep young children interested, adult humor and nostalgia, and bridging the generation gap for all Toy Story fans; it is bound to be a treat!
Wrapping it up
Movies can help children develop cognitive skills such as long-term memory formation, attention span, logic, reasoning, and visual and auditory processes. The films show many conversation scenes that can help children become familiar with a variety of vocabulary and pronunciation. They also often have different stories and imagery that expand children’s knowledge of various subjects and ideas. It increases their imagination and creativity. And the list mentioned above is a good one to get started on!