I’ve previously written about why I think it’s important to take kids to concerts, shows and public events. This concept has carried over into our family movie nights as well – my husband and I are consciously trying to move beyond Disney and Pixar as our kids become tweens, yet still find movies that are age-appropriate and that our whole family will enjoy.
When we first decided to expand our movie repertoire, the choices seemed easy – I was thrilled to share some of my favorite childhood movies with my kids. But we soon found that some of the most popular movies of my time had more foul language, sexual content or other inappropriate subject matter than I remembered. We also had to consider that my son does not enjoy movies with an abundance of violence or hand-to-hand combat scenes, so some well-known movie franchises such as X-Men, Avengers and the like were out. So we primarily relied on friends with older children for ideas, or chose movies based on book series so we had some idea of the content.
Later, I came across an extremely helpful website called Common Sense Media (available at www.commonsensemedia.org) that has helped to guide our choices. The website has an extensive database of movies, TV shows, apps, books and games, each with a summary as well as rankings of the amount of positive messages, violence, sex, language and drug abuse. It also gives a suggested age for viewing and user reviews. There are even sections called “What Parents Need to Know” and “Talk to Your Kids About…”, both of which have been very helpful in stimulating discussion about the movie afterwards. The site also maintains numerous lists of movies by category if you need some fresh ideas, such as “50 Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They’re 12,” “Best Football Movies,” “Best Smart Movie Girls” and “Hidden Gems.”
Here are the movies that we’ve watched over past two and half years, starting when my kids were approximately 8 and 11 years old:
National Treasure
Apollo 13
The Matrix
Star Trek
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Night at the Museum
Jurassic Park
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Secondhand Lions
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Spaceballs
Harry Potter (all 8 movies!)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Mission: Impossible
Lego Batman
Three Amigos!
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Sky High
Star Wars (any and all of them!)
Saving Mr. Banks
Hidden Figures
The Princess Bride
Short Circuit
Men in Black
Despicable Me 3
Mrs. Doubtfire
MacFarland
E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Back to the Future
Hoosiers
Home Alone
My kids are now 11 and almost 14, and this is the list of movies we’ll be choosing from on our upcoming movie nights:
Big
Mr. Holland’s Opus
Pitch Perfect
A League of Their Own
Man of Steel
42
Moneyball
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Julie and Julia
The Sandlot
Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Holes
The Jungle Book (the 2016 version)
The Emperor’s New Groove
Iron Giant
Hugo
Cool Runnings
Avatar
Goldeneye
Terminator
Amadeus
Field of Dreams
Remember the Titans
The Karate Kid
Catch Me If You Can
Stand By Me
We’d love to hear what your family’s favorite movies are! Happy viewing!
