In many households, TV-watching is a necessary evil. There are rainy days, snowy days, and days when Mommy just may check herself into the nearest mental health facility if she doesn’t get some peace and quiet. We strive to fill all of our days with intellectually and physically stimulating activities, and yet there are times when we end up in front of the boob tube again in spite of ourselves.

And while we can read and play dress-up and do puzzles in inclement weather, it’s not all that easy to get out and about when there’s two feet of snow on the ground and a wind chill of twelve below.  We have to remind ourselves daily that winter won’t last forever and that we’ll be playing outside again in a few short months.

athleticBaby’s series of sports-themed DVDs were created by Karen Foster, a mother who shares the concerns of many parents, including our Parent Bloggers Network reviewers:  How to encourage a physically active, healthy lifestyle - right from the very beginning?  Their latest release - athleticBaby Soccer! - was enthusiastically reviewed by ten of our bloggers and their toddlers and pre-schoolers.

We had one reviewer who, although her daughter doesn’t watch TV, admitted there were days when “I’ve wished I had something worthwhile she could watch.”  Another reviewer noted “the irony of using a passive medium to encourage kids to be active.”  But across the board, our reviewers unanimously agreed that “athleticBaby’s mission was to get kids to appreciate sports and get active and they accomplished that with this DVD.”

Many reviewers were surprised by the content:  “This is not a “how to play soccer” movie. Rather, it is a sensory experience” “filled with energetic, fun music and…various scenes of children enthusiastically playing soccer.”  Parents and kids alike loved the “catchy, kid-friendly music that I find myself humming while making dinner and doing the dishes.”  Several reviewers commented that “kids of all ages from toddlers to teenagers were featured – and it was an excellent mix of boys and girls throughout the video.”  All the children paid attention, watching “many times and in a variety of ways including: while sitting quietly, while kicking foam balls around the house and most recently…while dancing like a crazy bunch of banshees with their elated Mommy!”  And everybody’s favorite part by far was “where a small dog in a uniform plays with a bunch of soccer balls and kids.”

One particularly analytical little guy watched and “asked why they didn’t explain soccer to him,” along with “a million questions about every scene that were never explained.”  Our resourceful reviewer then screened the DVD for a little boy whom she cares for during the day, and his exuberant reaction was “what I had expected from the video!”  In fact, he enjoyed it so much that his mother plans “to buy every video they make.”

Many parents reported that the “lessons on colors and numbers…felt forced and weren’t necessary,” and one kindergartener summed it up this way: “It’s too much like Circle Time, and I don’t like Circle Time.”   And while one reviewer agreed that young babies would “enjoy all the closeups of kids’ faces,” a few other parents weren’t convinced that their children “would have benefited from it much as an infant” (the DVD is geared to children as young as three months).  The general consensus seemed to be that the DVD made the biggest splash with children between 18 months and three years.

While parents are more likely to select children’s DVDs that they will also enjoy themselves, it seems that the positive - and active - reactions of the kids were what drove the overwhelming approval of the reviewers.  athleticBaby Soccer! “emphasizes the joy of sport” and keeps kids “on their feet for most of the length of the show” - something that I’ve never heard about another DVD or TV show.  But perhaps the greatest recommendations from our reviewers can be found in comments such as these:  “It’s something that as a parent, I’d be pleased to give (or receive) as a gift” and “It arrived 2 weeks ago, and I’m positive we have watched it over 100 times. Really. I’ll be watching for more in this series.”

Any DVD that gets both parents and kids this excited has got to be worth seeing.

For more information on athleticBaby, its offerings and its history, please check out the athleticBaby website.