Fun Thing to Do: Watch Some Classic Family Movies!

It’s ”oldie but goodie” week here at Momof6…. while I enjoy some time off with my family, I plan to share with you some of my favorite blog posts from the past.

Last week while the kids were on Winter Break from school, (you know, because the 450 days we’ve already had off from school due to snow since Christmas weren’t quite enough!), they asked for a movie night complete with snuggling together in bed as a family and popcorn.  Now I love a family movie night…. but the thought of sitting through Toy Story 3 for the 3, 647th time was somewhat less than appealing.  So I came up with the idea of having a “classic movie night” featuring a film that Steve or I had loved when we were kids.

One of the nice things about having a new DVD player in our bedroom, is that we now can access our Netflix account as well as our Amazon account right from the TV, and can instantly stream a variety of movies on demand.  Not all of the movies we were interested in were available for immediate streaming, so those we put into our Netflix queue and received them through the mail.  This turned out to be such a success that we ended up enjoying a family move night every evening during this vacation.  Here is what we viewed:

Born Free (1966)

Oh how I loved this movie as a kid….  and was so torn as to whether or not to wish Elsa to return to the wild, or to stay with the humans that raised her.  And I cried watching this with my kids, just as I did with my Mom so many years ago!

Black Stallion (1979)

My kids loved “Secretariat”…   this movie seemed like something they would enjoy equally as much….  and they did!  I loved seeing Mickey Rooney as a younger man in the film!

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

My oldest son had received the book “Swiss Family Robinson” several years ago as a gift from a good family friend, but he was so enamored of the “Harry Potter” series at the time, that I couldn’t get him to read anything else.  A few weeks ago, my 8-year old son, Spencer, spotted the book on his brother’s bookshelf and decided to read it.  He devoured it in just a few days, and proclaimed it one of the best books that he had ever read!  I reminded him that there is a replica of the treehouse at the Magic Kingdom, but he doesn’t remember it, and is so excited to see it when we go to Disney this summer.  So it seemed like a great idea to introduce the story to the rest of the family.

Black Beauty (1994)

This movie doens’t fit the bill as a “classic” since it wasn’t out when Steve and I were kids….  but it kind of went along with our animal movie theme that we had been on all week…..  it is a great story of a horse’s life, told from the horse’s point of view.  And yes, it did make my cry!

Free Willy (1993)

Also, not a classic movie….  but one that the kids completley loved!  And after the movie I tried telling them waht I remembered about the human rights groups that demanded that Keiko be set free again….  and spent the next hour or so googling information to learn what had actually happened to the real-life whale.  (Hint- it didn’t match the sweet ending of Born Free).

ET (1982)

Truly one of the great movies from my childhood…..  kids love it too!

In our own personal collection of DVDs we own some of the other “classic movies”…..  Wizard of Oz, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins, and Sound of Music.  Do your kids have any “classic” favorites? If so, please share them in the comments section!

*Disclaimer- all of the picture links above are an Amazon affiliate link (which means if you were to click and then buy, I would get a teeny tiny percentage of the sale)