On the second day of Christmas...

Our second day of present opening, which has traditionally been the DVD.

This year...


ZL got a season of Super Why! on iTunes. He loved the one episode we'd bought previously to check it out (after MA learned about it playing the game on PBSKids.org). And it's where he is in the learning-to-read process. He knows his letter sounds but needs to sit on how letters go together to make words. The show teaches phonics and word families in a really fun way through familiar stories (Three Little Pigs, Rapunzel, etc.) with a twist.

We weren't sure how Z was going to do with the whole "gift certificate" concept, and I actually meant to have a couple of the episodes already downloaded so that he could go watch one immediately, but I forgot. Fortunately, he was *super* excited! He loved the picture of Alpha Pig and his buddies. He went to sleep with the paper that night and still carries it around the house when he finds it. :-P (Oh, and he's enjoyed a couple of new episodes so far, too. :-)

And while we're on the topic of ZL and Christmas, this kid has really gotten into present opening. He digs the whole open-it-up-get-something-new thing. We have to be careful when he's around other people's presents, or he'll tear into them, too. And the boy who normally does not like being torn away from whatever it is he's doing to do anything else (we're working on that) will come running when we announce it's time to open presents. We all love to call him and watching him speed in.


MA got a Jungle Book DVD. It has both English and Arabic soundtracks, so after the kids (and ML and I) watch it a couple of times, we'll watch it in Arabic occasionally for help with language. Disney is one of the few companies that consistently does quality dubbing into Arabic (most just have subtitles), so we try to get the best of their movies with the dual track option as a fun way to increase our learning.

Honestly, I was hoping for Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella or another of the classic princess movies. MA would have been thrilled. But we only know of one store in-country that consistently sells the original DVD's (there's not much market when they're all available pirated), and they didn't have any of those options. She was slightly non-plussed, but I think once we watch it, she'll be pleased.


The Muppets have long been a family favorite dating back to when my own mom was in grad school and my dad and I would watch the Muppets together on her "class night" each week. My kids love them, and I had to stop myself from going broke buying the horribly expensive three-episode-per-DVD editions they were putting out a few years ago. The seasons are much more affordable. We bought Season 1 as soon as it came out and have fully enjoyed it as a family. So, JW, who chuckles and guffaws almost the whole time we're watching each time, got Season 2 as his DVD gift this year (and they already know that Season 3 is waiting for them to watch at DeeDah's house when we go to visit, so they feel pretty blessed).


And MS got...silly. What you get for asking a 9-year-old boy to smile for the camera.


Actually, he got an Incredibles DVD, which also has Arabic and English soundtracks. We watched it (in English) the other night as a family. I don't think we'd seen it since we went to see it in the theater, and ML and I had forgotten how much we liked it. I look forward to watching it again, both in English and in Arabic. But first, we have to watch the Pixar shorts that ML wouldn't let us watch without him when he had to go to work the other day. :-)