We are really careful about what we expose our kids to through various media, and we thought we would share a few tools that are a huge help when it comes to choosing appropriate media for our family. Below we also list some of our favorite children's authors.
In terms of books, I know many people say it doesn't matter what kids read, as long as they read, but personally I disagree. I don't wish to offend anyone, but I simply find a lot of contemporary children's literature just that, offensive. Often characters do not demonstrate language or behavior I would like modeled for my children. We prefer early 20th century children's literature. We find it much easier to find books from that time period that are written in eloquent language, and that present compelling characters and stories with strong moral sensibility. That being said, some stories from earlier times also exemplify opinions and stereotypes that we don't support either, so we are careful about that too. Lastly, we search out early editions of old books, since later editions are often extensively edited and therefore lose the linguistic qualities of the originals. Below we'll share some resources for finding quailty books, and a few of our favorite stories and authors.
For audiovisual media, we do watch a family movie once in a blue moon, but we don't really watch television (this past Thanksgiving we couldn't even remember what settings to choose so our family could watch football). We are big on reviews, but find that mainstream movie reviews (e.g., on Amazon) are not all that helpful in choosing what might be appropriate for our kids. I would love to watch everything myself first, but that isn't always practical. So, we like to check out reviews written by parents and kids alike at the nonprofit CommonSenseMedia.org. You can read up to three free reviews per month, or you can subscribe to get unlimited reviews. They provide reviews and recommendations for movies, television, books, games, podcasts, and apps, and you can filter these by viewer age. If I haven't had time to check something out myself first, this is my go to place for reading about anything and everything that might be a concern about a given movie.
Another homeschooling mom friend told me about The Good and The Beautiful and its associated booklists. The mom who started The Good and The Beautiful is passionate about choosing quality literature for children. She has a relatable video explaining the history behind her organization: https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/blog/my-daughters-story/. Her website is a great resource for book lists, and they also reprint antique books that were previously out of print. Their book lists are carefully selected for quality language, how they model behavior, and for character building themes. (They also sell their own homeschool curriculum and resources.)
Floris Books sells wonderful children's books, and non-fiction books for adults. It is fun just to peruse their website for titles.
Abe Books is owned by Amazon, but is an awesome source for used books from many different booksellers. I love that you can sort by publication date, as I often prefer early editions of children's books that have not been edited using modern language conventions.
Ebay, Etsy and even used booksellers on Amazon are also great sources for vintage books - sometimes I find perfectly good 100 year old books for really great prices!
We'll also note that our favorite illustrator is Jessie Wilcox Smith. If we find multiple versions of the same book illustrated by various artists, we'll choose one illustrated by her over all others anytime.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization that provides reviews and recommendations for movies, television, books, games, podcasts, and apps, and you can filter these by viewer age. They have their own recommendations and reviews for products, but you can also see product reviews submitted to their site by both parents and kids. If I haven't had time to check something out myself first, this is my go to place for reading about anything and everything that might be a concern for a given product.
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