Handy Manny – Tooling Around – review

This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.

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We were having a sort of okay morning before the post arrived. Amy kept escaping out into the big yard, to run around and when I brought her back inside, we had tears and tantrums. FYI baling twine is great stuff to tie gates shut. Too tricky for small hands to untie. Awesome.

She’d just had yet another tantrum and Susie, the puppy jumped all over her making it so much worse, when the mailman came.

Getting the post is exciting don’tyouknow. Probably because it involved the big yard, yet again.

I’m not sure what made her happier, the fact that we got something in the mail from school (letting me know what days playgroups and early learners is on) or the fact that we got a package from Disney containing a dvd AND I let her open it. To the best of her abilities that is.

I waited until Isaac went down for a nap, figuring anything new to keep her quiet during naptime was a good thing, before putting the dvd on.

Now I must admit, I’m not a big fan of kids cartoons. I let Amy watch them most mornings and during dinner prep, but I don’t watch them myself very often. Kids movies, well, that’s a different matter, but we’re talking cartoons here.

So I put Handy Manny – Tooling Around on. Amy curled up on the couch to watch it. I checked emails, got some writing done and watched her reactions.

Dude, she was quiet! QUIET.

The dvd has an autoplay feature (Fastplay?) at the beginning, which was fantastic because I couldn’t find the dvd remote in the beginning. It was less fantastic 40 minutes later when it started playing again, without me touching it, meaning that either I brave the tantrums and turn it off anyway, or let her watch it again.

I’m not feeling very brave, I’m letting her watch it again.

Handy Manny offers messages about teamwork, friendship and community, while having fun with friends. I’m not sure how much of it sunk in to Amy’s head, but it’s not a bad thing for her to be learning at all. If she doesn’t bash Isaac on the head when they play with the building blocks later I’ll be inclined to look twice at the dvd.

The bonus features were a bit beyond Amy – I’m not encouraging her to learn to use the dvd remote just yet, it’s bad enough that she knows how to work the machine by herself.

So that’s that. Anything that gives me 40 minutes peace and quiet can only be a good thing!