Oldies but Goodies

Does anyone remember the Magic School bus? I used to love this show. I would pore over the books, and I was always secretly thrilled when my teachers would show one of the videos in class, even long after the rest of my classmates considered this show to "cool." (yes, I was/am a major dork) Sometimes the best part of the show was at the end when they showed kids calling the "producers" and commenting that they made a mistake and didn't show enough ants in the colony, etc. It was always entertaining and it was a sneaky way for scholastic to put more information in the show they couldn't have worked in otherwise.

I think I first learned about how electricity works by watching this show. I also remember an episode about molecular formations. This information served me well in high school during some of my science courses!

Yesterday I took the kids to the library and we browsed their enormous children's movie section. I picked up some promising sign language videos, and guess what? They had the Magic School Bus! I was so excied. We brought home a dvd with three separate shows about bugs, and a video about airplanes.

Everett has loved them! It's been great. It is a low-guilt way for me to let him watch movies because I feel like he is learning something. It would be nice to know how much he is really getting out of them, but I do know that he is understanding some of it. He tries to talk to me about what is going on and I do my best to respond to him, but it is just fun to see his excitement.

I am sorely tempted to see if I can scout out a collection of these for Christmas. Sadly, I don't expect to find them in my price range.

Maybe in a few years he'll be ready for Bill Nye the Science Guy. Remember that one? That was also one of my favorite shows.

What other shows do you remember from your childhood? I know these shows are rather recent, but are there any older ones that are good?