Nostalgia drove me to look up Hemo the Magnificent. I’m glad I did, because it was as good as I remember–clearly targeted towards kids, but it treats them and its subject seriously (as seriously as you can with talking animals), even citing some of the researchers and scientists who created the material they use. And best of all, my five year old absolutely *loved * it.
Looking for more documentaries that hit that same note resulted in lots of frustration. I ended up with a bucket full of sugary pabulum, full of hyper-enthusiastic, condescending, over-excited actors, seemingly produced with the belief that if it’s not extreme!!! enough, overly distilled, or obnoxiously perky, kids won’t enjoy it. Ugh.
Look, just because he’s five doesn’t mean you have to talk to him like he’s a banana-eating loris on the front page of CuteThingsThatOnlyUnderstandSqueakyBabyTalk.com–don’t talk down to him. He also doesn’t have to understand everything (isn’t that part of learning?) to enjoy what he’s watching, so don’t overly dumb it down. And while a staid professor standing behind a lectern would be too dry for him, please don’t think it needs to POP off the screen and be filled with ZOWIE graphics to hold his attention. Things can be engaging without the Michel Bay treatment.
Ugh, this is turning into a rant, so back to the request. I know there are documentaries out there, I know it’s a matter of finding them. But my attempts have been overwhelmed with so much drivel, maybe someone out there could help me cut through and find a few that stand out.
Similarly, we don’t always have time for a full documentary. He loves watching ASAPScience videos with me. Of course he doesn’t follow everything in them (and I don’t watch every topic with him around), but their bite-sized topics, engaging graphics and straightforward explanations keep him entertained. He also likes ViHart, but the slightly different nature/length of her videos tend to lose him topic-wise (he’s bright, but not that bright).
Anyway, similar to trying to find full documentaries, I keep getting bogged down in what I don’t want, so hoping someone here can help.
Oh, and as much as my examples have been focused on science, those are just the ones that have outright caught his attention–but of course suggestions of music, art, history, etc. are welcome too.
Thanks!