Watching TV shows in my house is really not such a big thing. As a matter of fact we don’t even have cable in my house. Say what? That’s the reaction I usually get when I tell people that we have no cable. They then say you must have fios, or dish TV or something like that. And I say no, no, and no, we have an antenna on our roof that is hooked up to the TV. We get the basic channels plus a few extras and allot of Chinese and Japanese channels for some reason. For the most part we stream movies, and shows to our TV from Netflix.
Up until recently we have been using our Wii game system to stream movies from Netflix. About a month ago we got a Roku 3 streaming device in order to have more options and to give our Wii system a break. Overall we are pretty happy with our Roku device. The remote works great and the onscreen interface is very easy to use. What we like best about it is the way we can now preview Netflix titles by scrolling over the links. Basically as we are searching for videos all we have to do is put the cursor over the movie or show icon and a brief description of it will appear on the screen.
This feature worked out great for us recently when we tried something new with our kids. My son overheard my husband talking about how sometimes the movie is not as good as the book. Before long my son started asking questions about movies and books. He was giving his own examples using the Diary of Wimpy kid book series and how sometimes the movie version was better and/or worse. It was amusing watching the both of them talk about their favorite books and how they were made into movies. My husband talked about one of his favorite books as a child, “James and The Giant Peach”. He said that when the movie came out he was a bit disappointed. He went on to explain how the idea of the story that he had in his head was a little different than the one portrayed on the big screen.
After this conversation we decided to include our daughter in a discussion about books that we have read and enjoyed. We then turned on the TV and the Roku and headed to Netflix. We started doing a search for books titles such as, “Goosebumps”, “The Magic School bus”, “Escape to Witch Mountain”, and my favorite, “Hugo”. One of my kid’s favorites is the “Goosebumps” series of books. We were happy to find all of the movies on Netflix as well as the “Goosebumps”, collection. We narrowed down to one episode of “Goosebumps” that both of my children had read the book version for. Then we decided to watch the episode and compare it to the book version.
After watching the episode, which was a little spooky, the both made some interesting comments. My son said that the version we saw on Netflix was a bit scarier than reading the book. That the movie version wasn’t exactly like the book version but it was pretty much the same. My daughter had pretty much the same opinion adding that the movie version was much more exciting and real. She also said that the characters on screen we not much different from how she pictured them in the book. Overall it was nice to have an intelligent discussion with my children about books and movies. I think this is something we are going to do more often in the future.
Here I’m suggesting 13 Great Titles Based on Kids’ Books on Netflix, for kids of all ages
On the go or snuggling on the couch at home, families can watch storybook pages come to life, anytime, anywhere with Netflix.
Big Kids
1.Hugo
2.Escape to Witch Mountain NEW!
3.James and the Giant Peach
4.The Baby-Sitters Club
5.Goosebumps
6.A Wrinkle in Time
Little Kids
1. Charlotte’s Web NEW!
2.The Velveteen Rabbit
3.The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories
4.The Magic School Bus
5.The Little Engine That Could
6.Stuart Little 2
7.Tall Tales: The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, The Snowy Day, I Stink! and Trashy Town
Get Creative
Book-Covered Letters
Personalize your child’s room with his or her favorite story book pages, with these book-covered letters.
To re-create this craft you will need:
Favorite book
Craft block letters (available at Joann Fabrics or Hobby Lobby)
Mod Podge
White craft paint
Foam brush
Photocopied pages from your favorite book
Scissors
Click here to learn how to make your own.
Mini Peach Pie Pockets with Cinnamon Whipped Cream
Inspired by James and the Giant Peach, enjoy a delicious mini peach pie pocket as you watch this Roald Dahl classic. Click here for full instructions.
Share your idea!
Do you have an idea or craft on ways of getting kids interested in reading?
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Netflix as part of my participation with the Netflix Stream Team. All opinions as always are honest and my own.
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