simple family evenings
We favor outdoor play, muddy feet, and tree climbing to indoor screen time. In fact, if you have visited wordplayhouse® many times before, you know we share so much to do instead of watching television. So, our outdoor screen time is truly a treat here.
When the warmed weather returns each spring, we pull down our outdoor movie screen installed on our front porch. And, we bring our movie projector outside again. It is time for outdoor family movie night—an evening of sharing historical, classic movies with our children, and enjoying homemade caramel corn or popcorn.
setting up your own outdoor theater
We've been enjoying our outdoor movies for a few years with our inexpensive projector. The quality on ours is rough—and we still love it. But, I did find this excellent movie projector (Amazon Affiliate link) with great reviews to recommend. You can spend hundreds more dollars on the best projectors; but this is a solid, economical choice to consider. We ordered our screen (a pull down one like this movie screen—Amazon Affiliate link) to fit the width of our porch. Determine where you will be placing yours and measure. tip! When you measure, add clearance on each side for the screen housing. The measurements given online are for the screen size only, and the first screen shipped here was too wide because I did not account for the extra width of the mounting portion of the screen. Don't have anywhere to mount one? Simply order a portable movie screen (Amazon Affiliate link) with a collapsible stand.
our classic movie recommendations for families with children
Take into account your own children's ages and maturity when choosing from our selections. Our choices here are all of the classic originals, not remakes, and may often be borrowed free from your local library. Wizard of Oz • Herbie The Love Bug series• Annie • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea • National Velvet • E.T • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang • Swiss Family Robinson • The Red Balloon • 101 Dalmatians • The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) • The Parent Trap (the original from 1961) • Mary Poppins • The Sound of Music • Oliver! • Star Wars • Pinocchio • Peter Pan • Pollyanna • The Little Princess (1939) • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs • Field of Dreams • The Never Ending Story
And, a few movie favorites we have shared with our children with our guidance in helping them to understand the film Ghandi • Lawrence of Arabia • The Magnificent Seven • The Three Musketeers (1974 version)
On warm summer evenings, you may find us in our Jeep at the drive-in movie instead, watching films, like much of America used to do in the middle of the last century—another classic way to see a movie. We may not get too excited about indoor screen time, but we enjoy our family outdoor movie time together. heather cahoon • wordplayhouse®
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