TLDR: looking for a way to share spiderman with young children without violence or inducing ADD in child.
I have a 4 year old that I have pretty successfully sheltered from media. She’s watched some stuff - but think PBS instead of cocomelon - slower paced and no cuts every 5 seconds and noises / explosions / annoying blippi people. I think that’s the right choice and we’re doing well with it.
However, her friends, mostly boys, at day care all like to play spiderman. She gets enough about it to play along in the game. But she has never seen media about spiderman. And hasnt watched anything with violence - thats scary for her.
I’d like to share the character with her to help her with fitting in - while sticking to our media rules, in a kid friendly way.
My first thought was comic books - but even those are pretty advanced for a 4 year old.
I could edit down one of the spiderman movies into a few clips and show that.
But - would appreciate your suggestions. Do you have any spiderman books / media that you think are age appropriate?
I hate the idea though. It’s like that Young Jedi Adventures show, which is clearly intended to be “Star Wars for kids.”
“Star Wars for kids” when I was a kid was Star Wars. Sure, there are shows now which are not appropriate for kids, but Return of the Jedi came out when I was six and I loved it all. As did all of my friends. I’m just not sure why they need something extra kiddie.
But then there seems to be this idea now that shows for kids have to also be basically all-kids. I grew up with so many shows for kids with a ton of adults in them, even adults hosting them like Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. I mentioned Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends above, which was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. They were able to make it pretty damn close to what you would see in a comic book without the more adult stuff. Spidey and his friends were all adults- college students. As far as I know, there were no kids in the show as major characters. Just like Star Wars. Just like He-Man. Just like G.I. Joe.
A 4 year old has a different attention span and different understanding than a 6 year old or an 8 year old. They are going to make shows that cater for them. They may as well use existing characters in an age appropriate way.
I’ve 2 kids and the older of the 2 still struggles with the pacing of spider man movies geared more towards 10-12 year Olds, even if it’s not particularly inappropriate as he’s just a year or two younger.
Star wars is for kids, as is spider man but they need to have the attention span and emotional maturity that a 4 year old doesn’t have. It’s a gentle introduction which probably allows them to appreciate the real thing a bit earlier than they otherwise would…
We also need to accept that some of the things we liked as kids won’t be like by our kids. Star wars for kids was Ewoks: the battle for endoe, when I was a kid. It’s awful.
I mentioned the fact that ROTJ came out when I was six to suggest that I had been watching it long before that. I have a very vague memory of playing Star Wars in pre-school.
I agree, some things we liked as kids will not be liked by our kids. But that is also not a reason to think that every bit of programming for children has to be about children. It’s okay for kids to enjoy adventures about adults. For one thing, it lets them dream about adventures they might have one day when they grow up.
I mean even Disney realizes that. Many of their heroes (the human ones anyway) are, at the youngest, late teens. Some are older than that.
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I hate the idea though. It’s like that Young Jedi Adventures show, which is clearly intended to be “Star Wars for kids.”
“Star Wars for kids” when I was a kid was Star Wars. Sure, there are shows now which are not appropriate for kids, but Return of the Jedi came out when I was six and I loved it all. As did all of my friends. I’m just not sure why they need something extra kiddie.
But then there seems to be this idea now that shows for kids have to also be basically all-kids. I grew up with so many shows for kids with a ton of adults in them, even adults hosting them like Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. I mentioned Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends above, which was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. They were able to make it pretty damn close to what you would see in a comic book without the more adult stuff. Spidey and his friends were all adults- college students. As far as I know, there were no kids in the show as major characters. Just like Star Wars. Just like He-Man. Just like G.I. Joe.
So I don’t get it.
A 4 year old has a different attention span and different understanding than a 6 year old or an 8 year old. They are going to make shows that cater for them. They may as well use existing characters in an age appropriate way.
I’ve 2 kids and the older of the 2 still struggles with the pacing of spider man movies geared more towards 10-12 year Olds, even if it’s not particularly inappropriate as he’s just a year or two younger.
Star wars is for kids, as is spider man but they need to have the attention span and emotional maturity that a 4 year old doesn’t have. It’s a gentle introduction which probably allows them to appreciate the real thing a bit earlier than they otherwise would…
We also need to accept that some of the things we liked as kids won’t be like by our kids. Star wars for kids was Ewoks: the battle for endoe, when I was a kid. It’s awful.
I mentioned the fact that ROTJ came out when I was six to suggest that I had been watching it long before that. I have a very vague memory of playing Star Wars in pre-school.
I agree, some things we liked as kids will not be liked by our kids. But that is also not a reason to think that every bit of programming for children has to be about children. It’s okay for kids to enjoy adventures about adults. For one thing, it lets them dream about adventures they might have one day when they grow up.
I mean even Disney realizes that. Many of their heroes (the human ones anyway) are, at the youngest, late teens. Some are older than that.