Amalia’s Favorite Things to Read and Watch: Agest 4-5

I realized that I haven’t written an updated list of Amalia’s faves in years. A lot has changed since she was two, that’s for sure! But her love of reading (and watching TV) has yet to slow down.

Books

Amalia has been a reader from day one and almost always has a book in hand. She loves reading together and is working on learning to read herself now too! She reads herself to sleep every night and when she gets sad or hurt, she often wants to be comforted by curling up with one of us and a book. I love her love of reading and learning, and it has created many beautiful moments between us.

We’ve been visiting the library every weekend to cycle through books and she loves that weekly tradition. Here are some of her favorites.

Little People Big Dreams series: Some of her favorites include Coco Chanel, Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman. These books have sparked so many discussions about race, disabilities, death, art, history, and so much more.

The Berenstain Bears Books: My inner child is so happy that Amalia loves the Berenstain Bears as much as I did! We have probably 20 of them and I asked her last night to tell me her three favorites for this post. They were: Too Much Vacation,  The Messy Room, and New Baby.

Pro-tip, do NOT read Too Much Junk Food with your kids. It’s very old-school and Mama Bear tells the kids to stop eating junk food because they’re getting “too chubby”. Then the doctor makes fun of Papa Bear and pinches his stomach. No bueno!

Ada Twist, Scientist (+ the whole series): Anel and I love reading Ada Twist and all of The Questioneers books. They’re cute and the illustrations are beautiful, and they all tell stories of kids who overcome obstacles to do something amazing that they’re passionate about. I highly recommend all of them (you can buy them in a set) but Ada is our favorite out of the pack.

Dragons Love Tacos (and Dragons Love Tacos 2): Always a classic and it always makes her laugh.

Grumpy Monkey: We have the whole set but the original Grumpy Monkey is what she asks for over and over.

Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggie books: A good one to start with is this book that includes 4 of their stories.

Bob’s Books Set 1: Amalia is dying to learn how to read herself so we’ve been doing a lot of flashcards and workbooks (which she calls homework) every night. A friend of mine recommended Bob’s Books to take it a step further. We’ll see how it goes but after only a few days, she loves them and requests to read instead of playing.

The Super Fun Day Collection: A friend of a friend wrote this series and Amalia loves it. If your kid is sensitive or nervous about groups or school, these stories are so helpful and so sweet.

Shows

Now that she can get the TV on and change what she’s watching on her own, we have strict rules around her watching only what is approved by us. So far so good on that front but I’m sure she’ll start rebelling at some point!

Bluey (Disney+): This is Amalia’s current favorite and out of the whole list it’s definitely mine too. It’s an Australian cartoon about a dog named Bluey and her family. It makes her laugh out loud in the cutest way! The episodes are only 8 minutes so it’s good if you need something quick between activities.

My Little Pony (Netflix): It’s definitely a different vibe than the OG but Amalia is obsessed.

Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom (Netflix): This show is actually really sweet. It sounds just like Peppa Pig from afar but is about little fairies and garden gnomes in a meadow.

Fancy Nancy (Disney+): We like both the books and the show which follows a little girl, Nancy, who likes everything and anything fancy and/or French.

Max & Ruby (Prime): For sure the weirdest thing she watches. Max and Ruby are bunny siblings who seemingly have no parents? Ruby acts as the mom and Max loves to get into trouble. It feels very 1950s but was made in the early 2000s. I don’t get it but she’s into it.

Pinkalicious (Prime): I secretly like watching Pinkalicious… is that weird? It’s about a girl, Pinkalicious, her brother Peter, their family, and their adventures. It always has a good message at the end.

Chip and Potato (Netflix): She’s been a Chip and Potato fan for years. This show is pretty cute and is about a pug named chip who has an imaginary (or maybe not?) mouse friend named Potato.

Movies

Encanto (Disney+): We don’t talk about Bruno… Besides Encanto and Moana, she seems to be *gasp* kind of over the Disney princess stage which feels very sad. She used to watch Cinderella every weekend and hasn’t requested it in months.

Vivo (Netflix): Another, less known Lin Manuel Miranda flick on Netflix, Vivo has some great songs and a cute story.

Turning Red (Disney+): I know a lot of parents were up in arms about Turning Red because some of the topics felt “too advanced” for little kids but we all kind of love this movie.

Back to the Outback (Netflix): Good for a laugh.

Rio and Rio 2 (Disney+): The Rio movies are for sure my favorite of the animated flicks. They make me laugh out loud.

Zootopia (Disney+): It has a few scary moments but we’ve gotten over our fears and have learned to really enjoy Zootopia.

Moana (Disney+): See the line where the sky meets the sea, it calls me!

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