11 Boxsets to Watch with Your Teenagers

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As the children all go back to school and restrictions are starting to ease I'm sure that those of us with teenagers will start to see a lot less of them at home. That seems like a real shame, as we've developed a special closeness over the lockdown periods and as such I'm keen to still spend time with my teens just relaxing and at home.

With that in mind, I thought I'd compile a list of great boxsets that you can happily watch with your teens. I've put the official age guidance next to each one and of course, you as the parent can choose if the program is suitable for your child or not. I have to admit I'm not particularly strict on these age restrictions when we are watching something together as even the most challenging of topics can be a great in-road to a tricky conversation. 

Cobra Kai - Netflix - 15

It was one of my daughters who introduced me to this as I hadn't even heard of the series but as someone who adored the original Karate Kid film, it was always going to be a real hit with me. I love the way this appeals to teens and adults alike as it focuses on both age groups. Basically, you roll forward 34 years and Daniel (son) is a married successful businessman who uses his love of karate as a gimmick in his car sales business. Then we see his old arch-enemy Johnny who is a bit of a loser and ends up reopening a dojo. Of course, the two styles of karate come to war again. It's fabulous, have a watch!

Vicar of Dibley - NOW TV - 13 (suggested by Common Sense Media)

This is an old classic. I do love Dawn French and I think she portrays the boisterous and lovable Vicar Geraldine so well. As a Christian family, I think we enjoy seeing the church references but the show is definitely fun for every Brit who has lived in a small village or finds old-school British stereotyping quite comical. It's a super easy watch and you'll find yourself wanting to know how the characters lives pan out.

20 Educational (and Great) Films for Teens to Watch during Lockdown

Lockdown is lasting us a fair while and I think it is safe to say that life will not go back to normal for many months yet, so I think we'll still be having our kids home with us for long periods of time to come. If your tweens and teens are anything like mine they are happily watching a lot of TV, with box sets being high up on their hit list.

I don't mind the kids watching TV at all, but it is nice to sometimes direct their attention towards something that is educational as well as being really enjoyable to watch. Here I have collated together a list of films that I have loved over the years and all of them have great lessons to teach - whether they are about life lessons, morals or maybe just giving an insight to our history.

These all offer guilt-free screen time and (I feel) could count towards their education -

Rating PG

1.   Dead Poets Society (1989)
Run Time:  140 Minutes
Themes:  Live life to the full, challenge the norm

When an inspirational and unorthodox teacher joins the staff of the elite all-male prep school, Welton Academy the students are inspired to be different and to break away from the norm. It's amazing to see the young men realise that can break from tradition and make their own choices. Rebellion isn't always a bad thing, especially not when it allows you to seize the day!


2.   Soul Surfer (2011)
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Themes:  Perseverance, overcoming adversity, hard work

The true story of Bethany Hamilton, who was a champion teenage surfer, when a shark attack took her arm. Her faith and the support of her friends and family help her to surf again and go on to be a professional surfer.

My Top Five Legal Dramas to Watch Right Now!

I absolutely love getting absorbed in a good box set and drama is definitely my go-to genre. Give me medical, political, crime or legal dramas and I really am in my happy place.

I can't believe how cheap it is nowadays to be able to watch all the programmes that I love. For less than the cost of a trip to the cinema for my husband and I we have everything we want at our fingertips. We have Netflix, which costs £7.99 a month and also NOW TV, which is £6.99 per month for the entertainment pass.  However I got lucky with the McDonalds Monopoly earlier this year and got a 6 month pass for free, so it has been super cheap this year.

In case you're looking for some new legal dramas, I thought I'd share with you my top five -

1.  Suits
Suits has to come in as my top pick. Since I first met Harvey Spector, about three years ago I have been hooked. Suits follows the lives of the a group of lawyers and the cases they work on. Zane, Spector, Litt are the criminal lawyers that can solve just about any case, and all the while maintaining complex social lives and interesting office politics. I'm watching season 8 week by week as a new episode is released and I can't wait to see what happens next. Who knows maybe Harvey will move away and join a firm of Sydney criminal lawyers, or maybe not?  What I am hoping, is that there might be a little romance between him and Samantha Wheeler, the new character played by Katherine Heigl.

Rediscovering Netflix

I have a little confession to make - Netflix has been sitting there unloved for a few months. I went off and had a little love affair with another on-demand TV provider and shhh, don't tell Netflix but I liked it.

This other service seduced me with more variety, newer films and shows my kids love but then.... it went and started to change things. The kids channels were no longer included and the price of having variety was nearly £20 a month so I let them go and here I am, back with my first love Netflix and rediscovering all it has to offer me for less than half the price.

Here a few recommendations of shows/ films my family are loving right now -

White Collar - I adore this box set so much. I am on season 4 now and the plot just gets better and better. Of course it helps a lot that the eye candy is so good and I'm not sure about you but I find it so easy to fall in love with TV characters, Matt Bomer who plays Neal Caffery is just divine (but also gay in real life!).

Netflix for animal lovers

You might have read last month that I'm a member of the Netflix #StreamTeam and each month I'll be bringing you an update on what Netflix has to offer.

First off I'll start by saying that I am still seriously in love with Netflix, which I generally watch on the big screen via my Apple TV but I also stream on my iPad and laptop. I mentioned last time that despite my slow Internet speeds I have not had any issues streaming Netflix and in the main this is still the same. There has not been one occasion when I could not watch a Netflix show, I've probably had it buffer a handful of times but when I watch it every day I am very happy with this and feel it is performing fabulously.

I have to tell you that I am a bit sad at the moment though, over the last month I've become very addicted to the TV show Suits and I have already watched all the episodes in season 1 and 2 that are on Netflix. I'm now wanting to know when season 3 will be on there! I've had to move onto White Collar and Gossip Girl but they are not quite cutting it, I want my fix of Harvey Spector and Mike Ross!

To take my mind off it I am joining Netflix this month by celebrating our animal friends. Miss M is desperate for a pet but we can not have one here and to be frank, I'm not interested in having any pets, so she has to make do with Nanny's dog, our friends guinea pigs and at our house it is about watching them on TV.

When I come down in the morning I often find Miss M and Miss E watching Cliffords Puppy Days and over the last month we have watched a ton of pet inspired films to satisfy Miss M's appetitue for all things canine. Here are three of our favourites so far -

The great thing with Netflix is that there is always something new to discover, so we won't be running out of dog films any time soon and they have suggested a fun activity for us as well. How do you fancy making a dog sandwich to go with your film?

You will need 
2 x slices of wholemeal bread
1 x wholemeal pita or 1 x slice of wholemeal crust
Your favourite sandwich filling
Cucumber Cheese
Cream cheese (optional)

Method 
1. Make a sandwich using two slices of wholemeal bread and your favourite filling
 2. Using a sharp knife, cut out a shape that resembles a pear or light bulb (wide and round at one end and narrower and rounded at the other)
 3. Using either pitta bread or the slice of a crust, cut two teardrop shapes and then tuck these inside the sandwich so that the rounded section is at the top and the point is downwards
 4. To make the nose, cut a slice of cucumber skin and then shape it into a round edged triangle and put it in place
 5. For the eyes, take a slice of cheese and using a circular cutter (small cookie cutter), cut two oval eye shapes. Cut some more cucumber skin and using an apple corer or very small circle cutter, make two pupils from the cucumber skin and place on top of the cheese ovals
 6. To finish, cut some small curves of cucumber skin using a round cutter and place above the eyes. To give the eyes and nose a more lifelike appearance, use a tiny dot of cream cheese to highlight these

Disclosure: I have received a years free membership to Netflix and a free device to become part of the #Streamteam. They have not instructed me what to write and I remain honest, as always. 

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Blown away by Netflix This Easter

Well you know, not literally. I am still sat here in one piece thankfully but I am absolutely in-love with Netflix and our Apple TV that we can stream it on. A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be a #StreamTeam blogger with Netflix and I thought why on earth not?

No buffering
My brother has mentioned Netflix to me before and I didn't take too much notice, we have had subscriptions to LoveFilm before and I thought it would be just the same. As we live out in the middle of nowhere our internet is not that great and we suffer with slow speeds (about 3.2mb for downloads) and buffering when we try to stream from BBC iPlayer, Youtube, LoveFilm etc but I kid you not when I say we have not had one buffering issue with Netflix and we have been using it over a week now. I don't know if the Apple TV box or Netflixs itself works in a different way but it is making my Easter holiday with the kids so much easier.

Such great variety
When we moved to East Sussex last summer we gained so much but one of the things we lost (and our girls have still not forgiven us) is the Nickelodeon TV channels, well by having Netflix they have been able to get their fix of programs such as iCarly and Austin & Aly and that is making them very happy (and well behaved too, thank the Lord!).

JJ has also been happy as he is finding lots of new movies to be able to play on his laptop whilst he plays Lego in his bedroom. Films such as Cody Banks, All Stars, Big Fat Liar and Cop and a Half. Paying £5.99 for all of us to watch as much as we like sure beats me going to the charity shop each week and picking up a couple of new Kids DVD's for a couple of pound each and dh and I watching the same old rubbish.

I suppose I should also admit that dh and I have barely watched regular TV since we have had Netflix. In fact I'm wondering why we are paying a TV licence when no-one is actually watching live TV nowadays, I'll have to see how that goes! Freeview does offer quite a variety of channels nowadays but without cable TV we have been in a rut of watching CSI after CSI and at least now we are able to start exploring some of the TV series available like Suits, Breaking Bad and House of Cards.

Programs at times to suit you (not a schedule)
We have also switched off our laptops and iPads and just sat and watched a good movie together. It makes such a difference to be able to start a program when you want to and not to be tied to the TV schedule. Then the Apple TV is brilliant with its little remote control as you can pause if the phone rings or in my case if one of the girls have a very urgent task they have to disappear for.

Parental control
The remote control is easy to use and even my less confident twin has figured out how to use it and is happy navigating her way round Netflix now. I do like that I have been able to set different profiles for the kids as well and this means they can only access content deemed appropriate for under 12 year olds. Of course there is no password on netflix (or not that I've found) so it does work on trust that they do not just use my profile but I suppose the check there would be that I can see all programs recently watched and they know this.

I was surprised when I came in the lounge the other day to find JJ using his IPad as a remote control, there is an app you can download for free and now he is the master controller! Well, so he tells me, lol!

Smart suggestions
I like that Netflix is clever and trying to get to know me, when I set it up it asked me to pick 5 films from a selection so it could learn a little about me and then once I was online I was able to personalise my profile and choose the genres that appeal to me most and rate films I have watched and as I watch and rate more it becomes more accustomed to my tastes and can make better educated suggestions. It is all good, I may never run out of viewing material again!

As part of my #StreamTeam responsibilities I'll be updating you each month on what Netflix has to offer. For this month I'll leave you with some picks for great Easter movies to watch together as a family -

Disclosure: I have received a years free membership to Netflix and a free device to become part of the #Streamteam. They have not instructed me what to write and I remain honest, as always. 

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If you like what you have read and want to stay up-to-date then subscribe by email for free and receive blog posts directly to your in-box - just click the link Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or perhaps you like to keep all your blog reading in one place, if that is the case you can follow me on BlogLovin too!

Enjoy the silence

Dh came home from work Saturday and sat down to watch some TV to unwind and he was bang out of luck.  The Virgin Media box seems to have given up and they can't come until Tuesday to fix it, well we are both busy Tuesday so Wednesday it is and you know what I have loved it without the TV.

So often it gets put on as background noise and the kids will be playing, colouring etc and then they get distracted by the TV and you know how it is sometimes, you can hardly get an answer from them as they are  glued to some silly program like iCarly or Jessie.

These few days without the TV have seen our kids play together more, play outside more and get the Lego out to build a city together - hoorah!

JJ is slightly concerned that these days of abstinence have put ideas into Mummy and Daddy's head and yes they have. We won't have cable TV at our new house and we will probably have some very firm rules about how much it can be on.

Dh and I were talking tonight about when we were kids and there was only a few hours in a week when they showed programs we wanted to watch and you looked forward to those times.

This is the way forward for our new life in the country.

Living instead of watching!

Tell me how you mange the TV in your house, do you have rules? time limits? set boundaries?  I'm interested to find out more....

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If you like what you have read and want to stay up-to-date then subscribe by email for free and receive blog posts directly to your in-box - just click the link Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or perhaps you like to keep all your blog reading in one place, if that is the case you can follow me on BlogLovin too!