Product: Dave and the Giant Pickle [VHS]
Rating: 5.0
Nice way to teach character
I actually got this to give as a gift to someone but I have shown this to my Kindergarten class a few years back when I taught. The entire veggie tales line is a clever and creative way to teach children lessons in character. I am going on memory on this, so I could be incorrect but I think ALMOST all of the veggie tale videos/tapes/stories focus on old testament stories to teach a lesson. There are a few that are based on New Testament stories but I taught in a Catholic school so I had no problem showing any of them. This particular video was enjoyed greatly by my former class and requested often as they probably identified with the character "Dave" as being someone who, even though small, could do something great. It is not just a video to pop in and then walk away leaving the child to watch on their own. As with most television entertainment, the lesson learned here is best absorbed when watched with an adult to answer any questions they may have and explain a thing or two. Some of the terminoligy, even though scaled down a bit in a humorous way for the child viewer, still would need to be explained. Example: "who the Philistines were", etc... Because this story is based on historical truths as well as, for some children, faith truths, then the adult should also explain to them that this actually did happen, but that this is just an "illustrated" version of it. Kindergarten understood that but when I taught Preschool they had to have it explained several times to understand the humorous way of telling this story.