Why Your Kid Should Be Encouraged to Be a Movie Critic

Summer and family movie night just go together. It is one of the reasons we have enjoyed catching up on all our favorite movies this summer…just add popcorn!

We thought it was great fun to get our kids involved in the role of movie critic.

My kids seem to have an opinion on EVERYTHING, so why not make it official?

Reasons why your kids should be a movie critic:

• Storytelling:   Summarizing a favorite movie can help children with storytelling skills.   They learn to pick out the major events and story sequence.   Don’t be surprised if THEIR major events list is different than yours.
• Critical thinking:   Critical thinking usually refers to judgements related to making decisions, but I think using a movie as a platform to have your child verbalize things about the movie they didn’t like can be a fun experiment.   Teaching a child to constructively criticize is often harder than expected.   Leading questions like, “What would you do different if you made the movie?” or “Why would you choose a different ending?” can get kids thinking about the reasons behind their opinion.
• Creative expression:   A movie critique can take many forms.   An older child might write or dictate an essay.   A younger child might draw a picture reflecting the storyline or a change they would make.   Creating a video is a fun time capsule of their thoughts.

My family recently watched the family movie, Rango. Here is a video of my 6 year old’s summary and review: As you can see, because of his age {and a bit of camera shyness}, he needed some prompting to retell the story and give his opinion. I learned that the scene with the armadillo made a big impact on him.   I also learned that he had no idea that Las Vegas was the city stealing Dirt’s water.   It hadn’t occurred to me that he didn’t recognize the Las Vegas skyline when we were watching the movie. I also learned that it really doesn’t matter what movie is shown because the most important part of family movie night is family as long as it is accompanied by popcorn {and dessert}.