Hosted by Barbara, here.

Summer is here and, as part of our summer tradition which started two summers ago, we watch a movie on Fridays. For the last two summers these movies took place during the day and sometimes we invited Ashley's and Caitlin's friends. The Friday film continued after last summer and became a regular after school activity on Fridays when we decided to reduce screen time for the girls. (Neither of them watch TV per se. They watch videos or DVDs that we own, or borrow from the library or from friends.) Over the sutumn and winter the girls rewatched a lot of their favorite movies or animated programmes, and discovered so new films, like 'Tinkerbell' or 'Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.' 

This summer we started our Summer Friday Films the last week in May. However, this year we've been waiting for James to come home in the evening so that he can share in what we now call our Friday Family Film. It feels very satisfying to sit together and snuggle as we watch a movie together. It was particularly bonding when we watched The Land Before Time, which initially turned out to be very sad for Ashley and Caitlin when the baby dinosaur Littlefoot's mother dies early in the movie. The girl sobbed and James and I began to wonder about whether this film was a good choice for their age (the death of the mother theme is particularly hard for little ones). When we asked the girls if they'd like to stop the movie they were adamant that they wanted to see what happens. However, shortly after this, the reappearance of a T-Rex trying to kill Littlefoot an his young dinosaur friends was just too much. While both girls were scared, they reacted differently to it. Caitlin wanted to find out what happens and Ashley just wanted to stop the film. We went with our standard policy: If a family member is scared and wants to stop then we turn it off. We watched Ice Age: Meltdown instead and that was much better for them. It is at times like these that I am grateful that we make a point of watching films/programmes with them at least the first time. It really helps when something scary or confusing occurs. Then we can turn it off or answer questions as needed.

However, we did let Caitlin watch it with supervision when Ashley wasn't around. With Caitlin's reassurance that all turns out well in the end, Ashley felt braver and wanted to watch the rest of the film. Once they had each seen it through once, they were no longer fearful of its contents. It continues to fascinate me how keen they are to follow through on something even if it is scary and how comforted, and muched braver, they are once they have reassurance that all will turn out okay.

So we continue with our summer films. So far this summer we have watched:

Othe Choices for this summer:
The Velveteen Rabbit
Heidi
The Tale of Despereaux
The Tales of Beatrix Potter
Thumbelina
Chrysanthemum

We need another 6 and I am currently looking for more possibilities. I  research a lot of films that will be appropriate for their age and level of emotional maturity. I would love new suggestions as I decide on future films for our Friday ritual. If any of you out there have favorite films you'd like to suggest I'd be very pleased to hear of them.

Summer Movies 2008

Summer Movies 2007

The summer of 2007 I introduced the girls to Disney! Snow White was scary for them that summer and we didn't watch it again for another year. I was also delighted to introduce Darby O'Gill, which is now a firm favorite. They were a little scared about the various scenes with the banshee, the pookah and the coach of death, but it was a great opportunity to share some of our Irish mythology with them. After explanations and reassurance they were less concerned about these scenes. I also love Happy Feet and our whole family went to see this in the cinema when it first came out. There is only one scary scene with a very frightening seal jumping out of the water to try and eat a penguin. It made us all jump in the cinema. I didn't understand why the animators had to make it so scary. A normalish looking seal in the act of being predator would have been enough! Oh, and Robin Hood led to lots of questions about why the King wanted to kill Robin and why all the poor people in England were treated so badly. I love how our Friday movies can generate big conversations about life.

Beauty and the Beast
Cinderella
Curious George
Darby O'Gill and the Little People
The Fox and the Hound
Happy Feet
The Jungle Book
Lady and the Tramp
The Little Mermaid
Pinocchio
Robin Hood
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Toy Story
Toy Story 2 

This is very appropriate now that we have added to our family. I find that with the inevitable exhaustion that comes with the new baby I have been having trouble engaging with my daughters in the way I want to, have done in the past and continue to do so in my brain after I have missed the mark in actuality! My tiredness means that I am less tolerant and patient with the inevitable bickering that siblings naturally engage in. I forget that each child's has their own age related abilities and needs to be accepted for where they are developmentally.

In order to parent lovingly with confidence, consistency, awareness, acceptance, patience and tolerance I need to remember:

1. Ignore, ignore, ignore those behaviors I dislike.

2. Focus, focus, focus on each child's strengths.

3. Be patient with sibling bickering. Let them sort it out themselves and teach them the skills to do this as needed.

4. Be aware of age related abilities and maintain realistic expectations individual to each child.

It does help to have these simple (but not necessarily easy) guidelines to help me stay on track whatever I'm feeling, not matter how tired I am. I just need to remember the final guideline:

5. Practice, practice, practice with lots of self-forgiveness! 

Hosted by Barbara, here.

Hosted by Barbara, here.

Hosted by Barbara, here.