Todd and I invested in our first Veggie Tale before The Sleeping Giant was born. It was 1997 and some friends were playing their theme song during a bonfire, and told us about them...singing, talking veggies with no hands. I didn't quite get what the fuss was about, but a few months later we were at the Christian Book Distributors warehouse sale and picked one up for $9.99. It was the Very Silly Sing-Along. The next one we acquired was "Rack, Shack and Benny," and I still remembered how horrified I was when I thought they had botched the ending!
As the years went on, we developed quite the collection of these videos on VHS Tape. We were big fans. In fact, when we briefly lived in Chicagoland Todd sent an application to work at Big Idea. I took a class at Wheaton College with Scottie May, their educational Consultant and one of the creator's mothers.
Somewhere along the line, our collection began to convert to DVD, of course. After Jonah, the company was no longer owned by Christians and we became slightly less enthusiastic.
Then, we sold our house in 2007 and began our life as nomads. In order to downsize, we put all the VHS Veggie Tales into a box at Grandma's house, and out all of our DVD's into big binders without their cases. I did ask for DVD's for Christmas to replace the VHS's, but it never happened because there were always new ones coming out instead. Suddenly last year I realized that our deprived younger kids weren't following our quotable lines because they'd rarely seen a classic Veggie Tale: The Mayor didn't remember the ones he'd seen before the move (he was 4), and the poor Princess had never seen them.
So this year when we began our study of history, beginning at the beginning and focusing largely on the Israelites, I took advantage of the opportunity to reintroduce Bob and Larry. I've missed a few, but I've been trying to use the videos to include the Princess in our "studies" by showing them at the right time. I thought the other day that I would share the list in case someone else wanted to do this, and wasn't as familiar with the Classics (read "as much of a dinosaur") as I am. Hopefully, it helps me not take school too seriously to include some Silly Songs here and there.
Abe and the Amazing Promise tells of Abraham and Sarah.
The Ballad of Little Joe brings the Israelites into Egypt. Next, watch just a portion of Duke and the Great Pie War which includes a story of Moses and Miriam. Save the Petunia story for later.
Next comes Moe and the Big Exit~ the Exodus.
Josh and the Big Wall occurs during the Wandering in the desert.
Gideon, Tuba Warrior is set in the period of the Judges.
Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush makes reference to this time period.
Dave and the Giant Pickle stars a young King David. Now you can watch the rest of Duke and the Great Pie War, which tells the story of Ruth.
King George and the Ducky gives an interesting treatment of the touchy subject of adultery/polygamy.
Next, you'll want to watch Jonah, who was a missionary to the neighboring, conquering kingdom of Assyria.
Rack, Shack and Benny and Where's God when I'm Scared? are both set in the book of Daniel, when the Jews were living in Babylon.
And finally, we just watched Esther, which is set in the Persian Empire.
When we get to Jesus, we could watch some parables in action in Are You My Neighbor? and An Easter Carol.
Next year, when we study the Vikings, we might watch Lyle the Kindly Viking. And in Sumo of the Opera there's a brief bio of St. Patrick appropriate for this time of year or during our study of the Celts.
So, you can do a crash course in Jewish History with just these videos. As a side note, I really believe in studying history chronologically. It has added rhyme and reason to our studies. Enjoy!
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