Matchstick

Category: Video

  • Mr. DeMaio – YouTube Channel

    Mr. DeMaio is an elementary school teacher in New Jersey who makes silly and fun absurd educational videos for his students. Since 2013, he’s put a few dozen videos on his YouTube channel His playlists include songs about multiplication and social studies themes, but my kids’ favorites are the ones about space and science Unlike…

  • Schoolhouse Rock

    [amazon_link asins=’B00005JKTY’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’51a85cf2-424e-11e7-a6ad-49cc3733402e’] [amazon_link asins=’B00000DGSW,B00000DGSW’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’5c994f03-424f-11e7-a947-b91f18b3e938′] Schoolhouse Rock was a big part of my childhood. ABC would show the ~3-minute cartoons during ad breaks on Saturday mornings. “Conjunction Junction” was probably the most memorable for me. But then the 70s ended and the series was mostly unavailable until Disney…

  • Doc McStuffins

    [amazon_link asins=’148472187X,B0087NJ7WE’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’afd9c35d-4181-11e7-95a2-dfad8c6ad370′] I first heard of Doc McStuffins from a joke Nick Offerman told about the ubiquity of the character and the show’s theme song. And I couldn’t relate directly, having never seen the show, but I had had similar experiences with other shows, such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood or Caillou,…

  • Richard Scarry’s Best Mysteries Ever!

    Richard Scarry invented many memorable characters, including Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm, that lived on in cartoons and educational CD-Roms even after his death in 1994. This book seems to be based on the animated series, “The Busy World of Richard Scarry” and was written in 1998. It does not include the standard Scarry characters,…

  • Backyardigans

    [amazon_link asins=’B001NGPLA4,B003MEBTYW,B003P5GDM6,B003PVBJL0′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’47b9e070-40bd-11e7-9175-efbf230205ba’] This is a Nick Jr. cartoon that was very popular with our kids. The music is particularly good. 5 animal friends play together with a different theme (Egypt, under-the-sea, space, cowboy, etc.) each episode. The friends take turns being the ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ and the overall tone…

  • Dinosaur Train

    [amazon_link asins=’B00H540LD0,B003M986JI,B005MAG8SQ,B01KJ5ZFRS,B0194EXGU8,B004AR4VQ8′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c8a1fa43-40bb-11e7-b1f9-13a9ffc7cbc0′] This is a series run by Jim Henson’s daughter Lisa, who seems to be in charge of at least half of all children’s TV programming these days. You can watch the series for free at PBSKids.com or via the PBS Kids app (also free). Neither the site nor the…

  • Spiderman 1967 series

    [amazon_link asins=’B0001I55O2′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’08afa41b-40bb-11e7-99fd-cfc1450c8bc4′] We watched a bunch of these on YouTube. They’re corny and dated but the kids loved them. And the old cartoons from the 60s seem so much less violent than those from other decades. The animation style is pretty simple, so older kids probably won’t be into it. But…

  • Wallace and Gromit

    [amazon_link asins=’B003V8II2A,6303521517,B002RZ0V6E,B003V8IH26′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’8d406508-3fd9-11e7-98d4-7d9ab68c2887′] I remember seeing “A Grand Day Out” at an animation festival around 1990, and then seeing “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” a few years later. I was so thrilled by them (not least by the incredible chase scenes toward the end of ‘Trousers’ and ‘Shave’) that I…