The School House Recommends: A Collection of Books, Films, Articles and More to Help You Form Deeper Connections & Understanding of Your Child.
- Charles Albanese
- Mar 13, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 hours ago
FOR PARENT & CHILD:
READ: (by theme):
FRIENDSHIP:
DIVERSITY:
GOSSIP:
NATURE:
Walking by Henry David Thoreau
MORALITY:
When you have completed these books, talk about it - what made the book special? What was the moral lesson? Let them know that they too can imagine any world they’d like to just like.
COURAGE:
POETRY:
We celebrate poetry here all year at TSHChildren love poems written by other children!
WATCH (by theme):
NOTE: Make sure you watch these movies and all films with your child. There is a big difference between children who are left alone to watch something and those who get to snuggle with their parents and talk about aspects of what they’ve just seen. We have provided links below for where you can watch these titles for free. If you do not see a link for a particular title, the streaming service has been indicated.
Ponyo (also available about HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime)
My Neighbor Totoro (available on Netflix & Amazon Prime)
Spelling the Dream (available on Netflix)
NATURE:
Disney Nature: Monkeys, Oceans & Pandas (available on Disney+ and Amazon Prime)
Biggest Little Farm (available on Youtube)
Serengeti Rules (available on Amazon Prime, AppleTV & PBS.com)
Life & Planet Earth I & Planet Earth II (available on HBO Max)
Dinosaur Giant (available on Neflix)
Seven Worlds, One Planet (available on HBO Max)
Planet Earth Series: Raising Giants and the Galapagos (available on HBO Max)
SCIENCE:
Inside Bills Brain: Decoding Bill Gates (available on Netflix)
Your Inner Fish- (available on PBS) It aligns beautifully to the Timeline of Life tracing pieces of our DNA back to the first animals. Very accessible for most children.
COURAGE / FRIENDSHIP:
The Prince and the Pauper (1960s) (available on Disney+ and Amazon Prime)
Mad Hot Ballroom (available on Netflix)
Searching for Bobby Fischer (available on Netflix)
Pavarotti - available on Amazon Prime By Ron Howard this hits so many great points from the Italian culture and language that Ms. Anna infuses us with everyday to courage on the stage to the appreciation of his music (Mr. Willie is exploring taking some of our older children to the Opera later this year).
Free Solo - available on Netflix or NatGeo The account of Alex Honnold’s free solo attempt in Yosemite. Combining both nature and courage this documentary is an inspiration to children and adults everywhere.
Big Miracle - available on Amazon Prime
Based on a true story (featuring Drew Barrymore). Themes: The Arctic, animal origins and courage. There are moments of language (hell, for instance) so please take that into consideration.
Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable - available on AppleTV About Bethany Hamilton (this is the second, follow up documentary) - the pro-surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack on the North shore of Kauai. Bethany surfs big wave Fiji (and other places around the world) with one arm (having lost almost every other competition that year) nursing her one-year old baby on a boat between heats. Her story from 13 year-old victim to constant and consistent survivor is so valid as we examine our own struggles and strength throughout this time. If she can do what she’s done… we can do what we’re doing: forging on - despite our setbacks - to build the best education for children here and beyond.
FOR PARENTS ONLY:
READ: Books
Haim Ginnot Books
A fantastic book about how we learn from each other and how much we don’t know!
Louise Bates Ames series “Your Three (Four, Five up to 14) Year Old” Nothing is more important that aligning our reactions, parenting and education to developmental stages. These books are old and cheap, but are still the most comprehensive science I’ve read on each year of a child’s life. If I had more time, I would write an updated series because the insight is so helpful.
READ: Articles
In summary, “The Wall Street Journal recently reported on our country’s most successful innovators: Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google) and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) among others. The article suggests that a Montessori component to education sets them on a life path of creativity, passion, self-direction and comfort with failure and ambiguity.”