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Little Bear - Rainy Day Tales [VHS]

Paramount

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Great for preschoolers.

I agree with what the previous parent said about this video. We stumbled across Little Bear about four months ago, and have been renting them ever since. Most are not at all scary, and none are as scary as the Disney movies. This Rainy Day video is especially good. My 3 and 5 year old girls belly-laugh through the whole thing.

I will say that throughout our rentals, we have found a couple Little Bear stories that are slightly scary for my youngest. But most are a delight.

Among the Best for your Kids Age 2 to 6

Like all of the Little Bear videos, this charming collection of four 7-minute tales is so good that it almost justifies watching TV instead of playing outside! These stories are about kids just being kids (or rather, animal kids just being animal kids): exploring, playing with friends, laughing, and using their imagination to make up playful games with eachother. In this way, they are like A.A. Milne's original "Winnie the Pooh" stories, in which the characters' games and discoveries are the main attraction, and we come to love the characters not despite their flaws but because of them. And, in the Little Bear stories, mom and dad are supportive presences, mirroring the real world in which mom and dad are usually the most significant people in young children's lives.

My 3-year-old daughter loves the stories, and enjoys acting them out with me afterwards. The stories are neither too simple, nor too complicated. Similarly, the action unfolds at the perfect pace for young kids, neither the sluggish pace of Mr. Rogers nor the frantic and incomprehensible jump-cuts of the Power Rangers. Little Bear won't insult your kids' intelligence, and you may enjoy them yourself, too!

Unlike so much of TV/movies for kids, the Little Bear stores are not about conflicts with bad people [who, invariably, are bad for no reason other than to move the plot along (e.g., the wicked queen or stepmother, etc.)], or are about loud-mouthed kids who argue with eachother and avoid adults at all times (Rugrats and the like). I recommend all of the Little Bear stories, and the Little Bear show on Nicklelodeon, for any parent who want a positive alternative to the brain-rotting noise that one usually finds on TV.

I don't know about you, but personally I am tired of trying to answer my daughter when she asks why the Bad Guy is so bad. I suppose that there is a time and place for simplistic Good-versus-Evil morality tales, but I would much rather teach my daughter about real people and the real world, where people are simple Evil or Good, and understanding and cooperation are the main skills in life, and the the primary moral imperative is to be a nice person, not to "resist Evil." Again I don't know about you, but I am saddened by the fact that my daughter does not like Disney stories because they always have so many scary parts. Who likes to explain to their child that Cruella deVille wants to kill the puppies, gleefully and with malice, just to make a pretty fur coat?! Is this really the sort of thing we want to expose young children to??

Hurray for Little Bear!

Little Bear grows on you!

It took my 2 1/2 year old son a while to warm up to Little Bear, but now he loves it! We especially like Mitzi's Mess because it shows how easily little ones make a mess, and that they should always clean it up! The episodes aren't too long for short attention spans, and are very sweet!