My family is watching 'Charlotte's Web'. We've seen it before, a year or two ago, but my husband wants to preview it again for a family movie night at the church.
Let me first explain to you my husband's purpose for the family movie night: to have fun together as a church family, but also to teach parents how to be wise about media choices and how to help their children filter media through a Biblical worldview. Before the movie, he will talk about media influences and a parent's role in protecting their children from those influences. Sometimes parents need a reminder that just because something is rated 'G' or 'TV Y' doesn't mean it's Biblical (or suitable for children).
Secondly, I won't lie and say that I like the new 'Charlotte's Web' movie (some of you grew up watching the same cartoon version I did… "chin up! chin up!"- sing with me now!) Though I don't hate it, I am not a fan of how the producers took a thoughtful and humorous book and tried to make it more modern and more funny by adding talking crows and mild potty humor.
Let me first explain to you my husband's purpose for the family movie night: to have fun together as a church family, but also to teach parents how to be wise about media choices and how to help their children filter media through a Biblical worldview. Before the movie, he will talk about media influences and a parent's role in protecting their children from those influences. Sometimes parents need a reminder that just because something is rated 'G' or 'TV Y' doesn't mean it's Biblical (or suitable for children).
Secondly, I won't lie and say that I like the new 'Charlotte's Web' movie (some of you grew up watching the same cartoon version I did… "chin up! chin up!"- sing with me now!) Though I don't hate it, I am not a fan of how the producers took a thoughtful and humorous book and tried to make it more modern and more funny by adding talking crows and mild potty humor.
But still, there is something to this movie, because it portrays the innocence of a bygone era. Today, Charlotte's writing would become a photo that spreads like wildfire on the Internet, then is quickly debunked as a trick of Photoshop. The generation growing up right now sees more on their little phones than a girl like Fern would have seen in her lifetime, and they are quicker to toss aside what they see as 'boring' or 'unreal'.
And that's why we still need movies (and books) like 'Charlotte's Web', so children, and adults, will not forget. Because if there is one thing that movie got right, it is that a spider's web, though common and everyday, is in itself a miracle, a wondrous work of God's hand. How a spider can make something so beautiful and so perfectly suited for its purpose is beyond our knowledge. And what's more, spiders have not one, but two, four, six, or eight spinnerets! They can produce seven types of silk (some sticky and some not), and their silk has the tensile strength of steel! Scientists have yet to make a synthetic form of it.
Take a look around you… you may find a new appreciation of the spider in the corner of your room. And the next time you hold a feather, an egg, a snowflake, or a leaf… remember that you are holding a miracle in your hand.
Parents and teachers: read Plugged In's article, Wise Parents Check Out the Ride. Also on Plugged In's website are guides for family movie nights (click on 'movie night's at the top of the page). There, you can print out a movie review, activity sheet, and discussion questions for 'Charlotte's Web', 'Turbo', and many other movies.
Take a look around you… you may find a new appreciation of the spider in the corner of your room. And the next time you hold a feather, an egg, a snowflake, or a leaf… remember that you are holding a miracle in your hand.
Parents and teachers: read Plugged In's article, Wise Parents Check Out the Ride. Also on Plugged In's website are guides for family movie nights (click on 'movie night's at the top of the page). There, you can print out a movie review, activity sheet, and discussion questions for 'Charlotte's Web', 'Turbo', and many other movies.
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