Author: Jessica Lovett

Jessica Lovett is a musician, writer, and editor, with degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing. She is passionate about homeschooling her own kids (for over a decade!), sci-fi books, quirky coffee shops, and her scruffy black dog, Bofur. In her spare time, she loves playing the piano, guitar, and pretending to be Animal the Muppet on her new drum set. She also loves singing on her church’s worship team. Her writing can be seen on JessicaDLovett.com and her literary fiction novel, Transplanting Hope, is available wherever books are sold. She also writes about her homeschool adventures on HomeschoolwithJoy.com.

Holidays, homeschooling, printables, Valentine's Day

Samantha Parkington Valentine’s Day Poetry Tea Time: An Edwardian Morning Time Celebration

January 29, 2026 Jessica Lovett

^{Links may be affiliate links.}

There’s something about February mornings that makes me want to slow down. Maybe it is the way that January forces us to begin school again after the Christmas holidays and February is the peak of the hill we have been climbing, or maybe it is the fact that it is finally cold here in Texas!

I’m a huge believer in Charlotte Mason’s approach to education and seeing the child as a whole person worthy of joy and respect. One of the loveliest Charlotte Mason practices is poetry tea time. Poetry makes your homeschool feel fancy, when really it is simply a way to communicate a feeling without the natural restraints of a page or even of complete sentences.

Julie Bogart of Brave Writer popularized the idea of Poetry Tea Time and made it a huge part of the common homeschool vernacular. I love her ideas! You can get her free ebook guide and make anything you want into a tea time for your family. Some people do it once a week, once a month, or whenever the mood strikes!

We have also used Pam Barnhill’s plans for Morning Time! I think we did every single Morning Time plan she has, starting when the kids were little. The only ones we didn’t do were the ones for preschoolers and any new ones she may have come up with now that my kids are older. Morning Time lends itself to Poetry Tea Time and there is lots of crossover.

To me, Poetry Tea Time just means intentional time to read a poem, drink some tea, maybe do a snack or craft – or both! – together in an intentional slowing down.

There is no time limit. There are no rules. It is just a time to focus on one another and break up the normal curriculum you are already covering.

This year, I had the idea of combining two of my favorite things – poetry tea time and American Girl history – into one magical morning time celebration.

And the timing couldn’t be more perfect. American Girl just released their 2026 Girl of the Year, Raquel Reyes – and here’s the beautiful connection: Raquel is Samantha Parkington’s great-granddaughter! She comes with a heart-shaped locket just like Samantha’s. It is not supposed to replace Samantha’s but of course it is easy to pretend it is her grandmother’s, passed down to her.

If your family has been following American Girl dolls, you know that Samantha was one of the original three historical dolls when the line launched in 1986. Seeing her legacy continue through Raquel makes this the ideal moment to revisit Samantha’s world and celebrate her story.

Charlotte Mason wrote: “Let children have tales of the imagination, scenes laid in other lands and other times; heroic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, delicious fairy tales, even where it is all impossible, and they know it, and yet they believe.”

That’s exactly what happens when we step into Samantha’s world. We’re transported to 1904, to a time when electricity was a new invention, of proper manners, of high lace collars and lots of velvet and silk. And Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to make this journey.

Why Samantha Parkington for Valentine’s Day?

Samantha Parkington was one of the original three American Girl dolls when Pleasant Company launched the line in 1986 (along with Kirsten and Molly). For many of us who grew up with American Girl, Samantha holds a special place in our hearts. Her stories of 1904 opened our eyes to history, fashion, and social justice in ways textbooks never could.

While I didn’t have the Samantha doll, I had the “me” American Girl Doll of Today (where you got to choose the hair, eye color, etc.) and since my doll has long dark hair and bangs, my daughter seamlessly transforms my doll into Samantha, using some of her outfits. This was the earlier version of the Truly Me doll or the more expensive and more detailed, Create Your Own doll now.

Samantha’s era – the turn of the century, the Edwardian period – was all about elegance, beauty, and refined social graces. Valentine’s Day celebrations then were elaborate affairs with handmade cards, proper tea services, and careful attention to etiquette.

Setting the Scene

The magic is in the atmosphere. You don’t need to go overboard, but a few Edwardian-inspired touches will transport your children to Samantha’s world.

Pull out your nicest tablecloth (even if it’s just a pretty sheet). Set the table with your good dishes – mismatched vintage teacups from the thrift store work beautifully. Add some lace doilies if you have them. Put fresh flowers in a vase (carnations were popular in the Edwardian era and they’re perfect for Valentine’s Day).

If your girls want to dress up, wonderful! Hair ribbons, lace collars, their fanciest dresses – let them get into character. This is exactly the kind of imaginative play that Charlotte Mason championed.

And speaking of Charlotte Mason, she also wrote: “Poetry is, perhaps, the most searching and intimate of our truth-bearers.” So as we set this beautiful scene, we’re not just playing – we’re creating space for truth and beauty to reach our children’s hearts.

“Poetry is, perhaps, the most searching and intimate of our truth-bearers.”
– Charlotte Mason

The Books

Start by reading (or rereading) the Samantha books. If you’re lucky, your library will carry them, or you can grab them on Amazon.

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Reading these ahead of time (or during the week leading up to your tea time) will give your children context for the era and make the whole experience richer. They’ll understand why we’re doing things a certain way, and it gives you conversation starters about the time period.

I prefer the original unabridged versions, but unfortunately many libraries today choose to house the abridged versions.

Meet Samantha, the original version and the dumbed down… errr, I mean… abridged version.

The Food

Edwardian tea parties were serious business, but we’re homeschoolers – we can keep it simple while still capturing the spirit.

Heart-Shaped Fairy Bread from Simple Seasonal

This is whimsical, easy, and the kids will love making it.

Use heart-shaped cookie cutters on white bread, butter it, and sprinkle with colorful sprinkles. It’s not period-accurate, but it’s festive and fun.

We choose to use sprinkles made with natural dyes due to various reasons, like that it is better for the neurological health of kids. Amazon carries lots of options! So does HEB, Wal-mart, and Natural Candy Store.

Samantha’s Lemon Ice from Amy at Danridge House Dolls

This recipe comes straight from the American Girl cookbook era and it’s refreshing and sophisticated – and also really easy!

Samantha’s Ice Cream , also from Dandridge House Dolls

These are adorable and impressive-looking but surprisingly simple to make.

Mini Victorian Tea Cakes by Sprinkles by Stacey

Using a mini cake, muffin, or mini donut pan, these tea cakes can be customized to be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be!

This recipe also allows for making doll-sized cakes for your dolls to join in the Poetry Tea Time, too.

And, don’t forget the tea, of course!

For older kids, you may want to let them try caffeinated Celestial Seasonings Victorian Earl Grey for a more authentic experience! Or for smaller kids, Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger is yummy and lightly pink.

The Poetry

This is the heart of poetry tea time, and for Valentine’s Day, we want poems about love, friendship, and beauty.

School with Mom has an excellent collection of Valentine’s Day poems perfect for tea time!

https://schoolwithmom.com/valentine-poetry-tea-time/

Some of my favorites for this theme:

“Us Two” by A.A. Milne – About friendship between Christopher Robin and Pooh. Simple, sweet, perfect for younger children.

“A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti – Celebrates joy and love through vivid imagery. Rossetti was writing during Samantha’s era, so this is period-appropriate!

“The Rose Family” by Robert Frost – A delightful poem about how different flowers are related, just like families.

Don’t feel like you need to analyze these poems to bits for them to be effective. Charlotte Mason was very clear that poetry should be enjoyed, not studied for parts.

Read them aloud with expression. Let them sink in. That’s where the beauty lies and where they weave into memories in our minds.

Charlotte Mason wrote: “We see, too, that the magic of poetry makes knowledge vital, and children and grown-ups quote a verse which shall add blackness to the ashbud, tender wonder to that ‘flower in the crannied wall,’ a thrill to the song of the lark.”

That’s what we’re after – not perfect recitation, memorization by force, or deep analysis absent of the curiosity that should drive it, but that moment when a line of poetry lodges itself in your child’s heart and becomes part of how they see the world.

The Activities

After tea and poetry, extend the celebration with some hands-on activities that connect to Samantha’s world.

Make Victorian Valentines – In the early 1900s, handmade valentines were elaborate works of art with lace, ribbons, and handwritten verses. Learn about Victorian valentine traditions and the kit American Girl used to offer as part of Samantha’s collection.

Use these free vintage images from The Graphics Fairy to create beautiful cards to give to friends and grandparents. This combines art, history, and the joy of giving – all Charlotte Mason values.

Play with Samantha Paper Dolls – Paper dolls were hugely popular in the early 1900s. You can find beautiful Samantha paper dolls on Etsy or grab a set on Amazon of Samantha’s paper dolls from American Girl.

This isn’t just play – it’s practicing fine motor skills, learning about historical fashion, and engaging imagination. Plus, it’s quietly absorbing information about what life was like in 1904.

Create a Lapbook – The Homeschool Share has a wonderful free Meet Samantha lapbook that lets kids document what they’re learning about the era in a hands-on way.

Going Deeper: Unit Study Resources

If this poetry tea time sparks a bigger interest in Samantha’s world, here are some resources to extend the learning:

Fields of Daisies has a gorgeous Samantha Turn of the Century Unit Study that covers history, literature, art, and more. It covers everything you can think of! She even has lesson plans that could last you weeks!

The Samantha American Girl doll herself can become a living history lesson. There is also a new cloth doll version of Samantha for younger girls.

Having her present during read-alouds, tea times, and history lessons makes the era come alive. And with the new Raquel doll connecting to Samantha’s legacy, it’s the perfect time to invest in your Samantha doll and explore her world together, find a used one online, or share it with your daughter, if you’re lucky enough to have an original one!

For a more comprehensive study, Little School of Smiths offers an American Girl History unit on Samantha covering 1904 in depth. It does cost $10 but looks fantastic!

There is also Samantha: An American Girl Holiday the movie on Amazon Prime Video! While it is Christmas themed and not Valentine’s Day, but it lets kids explore the clothing and style of the era in a tactile, visual way.

Why This Matters

I know some people might think this is elaborate or unnecessary. Can’t we just memorize poem, check it off, and move on? Sure, we could.

But here’s the thing – we’re not just teaching facts and dates. We’re cultivating souls.

We’re creating an atmosphere where beauty matters, where history comes alive, where poetry isn’t something you endure but something that delights.

A.A. Milne (yes, the Winnie the Pooh author whose poetry we might read at this tea time) wrote: “Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.”

That’s what we’re doing with this Valentine’s Day poetry tea time. We’re putting our children in a place where poetry can find them. Where beauty can surprise them. Where they can step into another time and place and come back changed.

When we set a beautiful table, serve special treats, read lovely words, and create handmade valentines together, we’re not being frivolous. We’re building memories.

We’re showing our children that these things – beauty, poetry, celebration, friendship – matter.

We are also showing them that they matter to us enough for us to go to an effort to give them a special day.

Years from now, your children might not remember every math lesson or grammar rule. But they’ll remember that February morning when you all dressed up, drank tea from fancy cups, listened to poetry, and made valentines together.

They’ll remember that learning can be beautiful. That history isn’t just dates in a textbook but real people with real lives who loved and laughed and wore pretty dresses and fought for what they believed in.

They’ll remember that their mother thought poetry mattered enough to slow down and create space for it.

Making It Your Own

Here’s the beautiful thing about this plan – you can adapt it to your family.

Maybe your kids are too young for all the historical depth, so you focus on the tea party and simple poems. Maybe they’re older and want to dig deep into the Progressive Era and women’s suffrage. Maybe you have boys who think princess dolls are boring, so you pivot to talking about what boys were doing in 1904 or what new inventions were changing the world! Ice cream cones were invented in 1904! What is more exciting than that?!

The framework is here: beautiful setting, good food, lovely poetry, hands-on activities, historical connection. But the details? Those are yours to shape.

Maybe you don’t do the full tea party but just read one poem over breakfast. Maybe you skip the recipes and buy bakery treats. Maybe you focus entirely on making valentines and save the deeper historical study for another day.

All of that is perfect. The goal isn’t Instagram-worthy perfection. The goal is creating space for beauty, wonder, and connection in your homeschool day.

And if your kids are more into modern comfort than Edwardian elegance, check out my guide to Squishmallow Valentine’s Day ideas and free printables – because homeschool joy looks different in every family!

The Magic of Slowing Down

In our rushed, overscheduled world, poetry tea time is an act of rebellion.

We’re saying no to hurry and yes to lingering. We’re choosing beauty over efficiency. We’re making room for things that can’t be measured or tested but that feed our souls anyway.

And on Valentine’s Day – a holiday that’s become so commercialized where we slap a card on it and call it a day – we’re reclaiming it for something deeper. Not just candy and cards (though those are fine, too), but genuine connection. Time together. Shared experiences. Love expressed through attention and presence.

That’s what Samantha would have understood. In her world, relationships mattered. Courtesy mattered. Taking time to do things properly mattered. And while we don’t want to romanticize everything about the early 1900s (there was plenty wrong going on in that era, too), we can still learn from the intentionality, the emphasis on beauty, and the value placed on human connection.

So this February, slow down. Set a beautiful table. Pour the tea. Read the poetry. Make the valentines. Step into Samantha’s world for an afternoon and see what happens.

I’m willing to bet it will be magical.

homeschooling

5 Screen-Free Winter Activities for Kids Using Only What You Already Have at Home

January 22, 2026January 22, 2026 Jessica Lovett

Here in Texas, we’re holding out at 65-70 degrees right now. But I know what’s coming. In just a few short days, we’ll be shivering at 20 degrees. Quite the temperature swing for fellow Texans who go jogging or dog walking in full ski jackets and think 50 is practically the Arctic!

With a massive winter storm bearing down on much of the US, I know parents everywhere are scrambling to figure out how to keep kids entertained indoors.

Sure, the internet is bursting with winter activity ideas on other blogs – but so many of them require either a shopping trip (not happening in this weather) or buying special supplies that won’t arrive in time.

And let’s be honest, not everyone has room in the budget for that right now. I know I don’t!

I wanted to pull together something different: winter activities that are completely screen-free, use materials you already have around the house, and work for a range of ages.

No errands required. No special purchases needed. Just creative fun with what’s already in your cupboards and closets.

Here are five ideas that will keep your crew busy while the wind howls outside!

1. Magic Salt and Watercolor Snowflakes

This is one of those activities that sounds almost too simple to be impressive – until you see the results. My kids were absolutely mesmerized by how beautiful these turned out!

Here’s what you do: Use plain white glue to draw snowflake outlines on paper or cardstock. As a homeschool mom, I have an entire gallon of glue stashed somewhere from our slime-making phase (don’t we all?), but a regular bottle works perfectly fine, too.

After you’ve drawn whatever snowflake shapes strike your fancy, sprinkle salt on top and let it completely dry.

Regular table salt works just fine, but if you happen to have a salt grinder with chunkier salt, that adds some really nice dimension and texture.

Once it’s dry, break out the watercolors. The salt absorbs the paint in this magical way that creates these gorgeous, crystalline effects. It looks surprisingly sophisticated—like something you’d see in an art gallery rather than taped to your fridge.

For more detailed directions, check out the beautiful tutorial from One Little Project, complete with a video on how to do it!

2. Free Winter Poetry Collection Printable

Homeschool Compass never disappoints with their resources, and this one is no exception. We have made so many happy memories because of this site!!

This completely free printable poetry book is full-color, watercolor-laden, and absolutely gorgeous.

As an English major, I can’t resist the classics included here – poems that I feel my kids absolutely must know, or at least have read.

These are the kinds of verses that stay with you, the ones that turn winter from just cold weather into something worth noticing.

Inside this beautiful printable, you’ll find such classics as:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti
The Snow-Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Coasting Down the Hill by Anonymous
Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson
The More It Snows by A. A. Milne
Woods in Winter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Birches by Robert Frost
Snow by Walter de la Mare
Spellbound by Emily Brontë
A Winter Night by Sara Teasdale
The First Snowfall by James Russell Lowell
White Fields by James Stephens
Snowflakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Shortest Month by Adeline Whitney
Picture Books in Winter by Robert Louis Stevenson

Perfect for curling up together during an indoor afternoon, sipping something warm and cozy and letting these words paint pictures in your mind.

3. Snowflake Life Cycle and Types Printables

Sticking with the snowflake theme (because honestly, what’s more winter than snowflakes?), these free printables from Homeschool of 1 are fantastic!

She’s created activities that explore not only how snowflakes are made – framed as a “life cycle,” which is an interesting way to think about it that I hadn’t heard before – but also the different shapes and types of snowflakes. Because no two are alike, right?

What a beautiful example of the fine-tuning that God has created in our amazing universe!

These printables also work beautifully as reference pictures if you decide to tackle the salt and watercolor snowflake project I mentioned above. Having real snowflake shapes to look at makes the whole process easier and more educational.

4. What Melts Ice Faster? Science Experiment

For those of you with budding scientists in the house, this printable experiment from Little Bins for Little Hands asks the question every curious kid wonders: “What melts ice faster?”

Using only things you already have around the house, you’ll put ice cubes to the test.

Spoiler alert: salt wins! (But don’t tell the kids that before they discover it themselves.)

It’s hands-on, it’s engaging, and it sneaks in some real science learning without stress that might even come in handy for your kids someday in their adult lives!

5. DIY Fake Snow

Last but definitely not least, here’s a super fun idea from The Purposeful Nest for making fake snow at home,

This fake snow uses only two ingredients: hair conditioner and baking soda. That’s it!

The crunchy texture is unlocked! Without freezing your hands or getting chemical-laden stuff all over your kitchen or school room.

This is the perfect opportunity to use up that conditioner you bought on a whim because it sounded really luxurious and smelled like Moroccan honey-filled spa paradise, but then turned your hair into an especially static-y bale of hay.

Yet you spent money on it and can’t bear to throw it away, so it’s been sitting under your bathroom sink judging you for six months.

Or am I the only one who does that?

Either way, now it has a purpose! Your kids can mold it, shape it, play with it – all the sensory fun of real snow without the frostbite.

Staying Cozy While Staying In

Winter storms don’t have to mean cabin fever. With a little creativity and some materials you already have at home, you can create magical learning experiences and beautiful art projects that will keep your kids engaged, educated, and entertained—all without ever stepping outside or turning on a screen.

And honestly? There’s something kind of cozy about being Snowed In (or in Texas, more like Sleet-In’d) together, creating and exploring and discovering right there in your own warm home while the wind rattles the windows.

homeschooling

How to Protect Your Homeschool Family Online: Simple Tools That Actually Work

January 14, 2026January 19, 2026 Jessica Lovett

^{As in all my posts, there may be affiliate links. However, ClearPlay et. all did not sponsor or pay for this post in any way – I just love the services.}

As parents, one of our main jobs is to protect our family. We protect our kids from germs and sickness to the best of our ability by cleaning the house, teaching them to wash their hands when they get home from being out and about, teaching them about hygiene, etc. We protect them from physical dangers by telling them not to touch the stove and showing them why, by telling them not to talk to strangers, etc.

Just the basics!

One often neglected place where we don’t remember to protect our kids to the best of our abilities is online.

Why Even Good Websites Aren’t Safe

I remember going on a popular homeschool blog to load our morning time plans when the kids were little. Unbeknownst to me, it had been hacked! There were *ahem* super bad images plastered there on the page! I quickly turned it to a different tab, glad that my kids didn’t see.

Even if we are going to decidedly Good Things online, we cannot be too careful. Decidedly joy-killing stuff when we should be filling our kids with joy.

Yet, there are simple steps you can take to protect your family from things and fortify your home.

As a Millennial parent, when computers and the internet were new, it all felt innocent and exciting. Napster let you record movie quotes to play on your Tracfone answering machine to give friends a laugh! MySpace let you post silly personality quizzes to see which ‘N Sync boy you “were,” and the like. The LOLCats came around and we all hadz cheezeburgerz. We tend to see the internet as something fun, irreverent, and silly, inhabited by friendly nerds. That feeling stuck with me, rubber stamping how I feel about the internet in general, and is hard to shake sometimes.

Point being, as parents, we expect that if we teach our kids that Bad is Bad, that they will avoid it online. However, we are not counting on the fact that even if they are not actively seeking evil online, it is seeking them.

Router-Level Internet Filtering: The Protection You Actually Need

CleanBrowsing is one of the best tools out there! Many times, non-techie parents make the mistake of thinking they installed a browser extension to keep ads or junk off, so therefore they are protected. This is not the case.

Browser extensions are finicky at best and easy to remove, at worst. They get removed accidentally with updates. They turn themselves off when you need them. They don’t have the coverage you expect them to have. And, in addition, they are likely to steal your browsing data and sell it – not fun.

Plus, you forget which computers you added extension protection to… Or get a new gadget in the house and forget to sync it. Too complicated and too unreliable.

CleanBrowsing protects at the router level. For those of you who are not extreme Star Trek nerds, the internet comes into your house from an ISP (Internet Service Provider) like Suddenlink, Optimum, etc. to your modem. The modem connects to a router.

The router is like a sun that shoots sunrays of internet light to all your gadgets in the house.

CleanBrowsing acts like sunscreen, going into the router and making sure that all gadgets connected to the router get filtered even before that internet goes to your iPad, etc. It is easier to lockdown, control, monitor, and is much more simple to operate than juggling all those filters on separate gadgets.

For gadgets with data plans or hotspot capability, CleanBrowsing has an app that you can add directly to those devices to make sure they are covered with your plan on the go!

Before you worry about it, yes, they have a free plan! You can have a paid plan that is very reasonable in which you can customize things. I’ve customized blocks on various providers that like to make popup ads on our Roku, which is nice, but not super necessary.

Layering Your Family’s Online Protection

In addition to CleanBrowsing, we use Nighthawk Parental Controls on our router to control times and what gadgets are actually accessing our internet, as well as Google Family Link, for safe searching and app controls. Just for good measure, we also use Qustodio on some devices!

The main thing you should have is something like CleanBrowsing to protect not only from pornography (whether intentional or inadvertent in things like hacked sites, ads, etc.) but also just from junk hitting your computer.

The amount of random sites lagging onto your browsing would astound you. Cut those off!

Movie Filtering for Family Movie Night: VidAngel and ClearPlay

In addition to that, we use VidAngel and ClearPlay for movies. These two apps allow you to remove language, inappropriate scenes, violence, and such from movies. The cuts are at your discretion. Many times, you can’t even notice the cuts in the movies!

Some people feel that kids need to be exposed to bad language and violence in media so that they can be ready for Real Life as Adults.

I’m strongly opposed to this.

As an Adult in Real Life, I don’t go around hearing tons of cursing or having random acts of violence popping up in my path on a daily basis. Again, I don’t shop at Walmart! But… (Ok, that’s a joke…)

Besides, as adults, we cultivate the life we want to live. If your ideal life doesn’t have bad language in it, you are in charge of that. You can take steps to avoid it as much as possible.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.”
~Henry David Thoreau

If you want a simple life surrounded by daily Bible reading and Jesus-centric music, do it. Joy will follow.

Watching movies with cursing puts the words in your brain and makes you more readily apt to use them, either verbally or in your brain. It also stunts your vocabulary and makes you sound less intelligent.

My husband and I routinely ClearPlay and VidAngel things we want to watch, even on our own. Yes, without the kids around!

Before you wonder, but why watch things that need to be censored at all – that is a fair point, but there are some amazing movies – I was a Theatre/Communication double major with English Literature and also took extensive film studies classes in grad. school, give me a break here – that are amazing art but don’t need a few extra scenes or words that are added on top for no reason.

Due to my background, I’m not talking about being Amish or prudish. I’m the first to tell you that I’d rather go without lots and lots of things then lose my Spotify plan! But, we can still control our environment in such a way as to cultivate joy in our Spirits.

Marvel movies are a great example. Iron Man is one of my favorite movies of all time and I wanted to show it to the kids. It teaches that caring about others and being self sacrificing (and being really good at science!) can help one to be a better person and beat the odds!

However, I didn’t need the random bad words and dancing bikini chicks there at the beginning, before Tony’s redemption, highlighting his bad boy-ness that he activates hero mode there near the middle of the movie. His snarkiness alone communicates that just fine without them!

And just like that, Boom, Bikini Chicks have Disappeared!

Classic films like ET have tons and tons of language – and insults that I don’t need my little parrots mimicking! You may not remember that, because if like me, you saw it on TV when they used to take these things out, but it is still an amazing movie without it. Same goes for Back to the Future.

Here is what it looks like to use Clearplay, for instance.

Then you can go more closely into the different blocked areas and see what you want exactly to block.

Yes, it bleeps out words for you, the parent! Isn’t that nice of them?! I thought so…

And for some of us, there are films we saw when we were in high school or so, that we may want to share with a spouse that are brilliant – looking at you, Wes Anderson!! – but have way too many things that we don’t want in our brains anymore. Like millions of repeated bad words, which really don’t even make sense in the context of the sentences they are used in.

My mom once told me that using the same bad word over and over again just makes you sound like you don’t have the imagination to think up a new adjective or word to use. Like, if we replaced a bad word with the word “pink” to describe a pony.

Would you sound smart if you said, “That pink pink pink pinkin’ pinkerty pinkest pink pony!!!”

Right, you would not sound smart. Case in point!

At a certain point, those things become undesirable. I used to have a giant Ignore button in my brain that things wouldn’t register. That is bad! You want your conscience to care. You don’t want to dull your senses. Now, I feel a magnetic revulsion from anything too violent or with too much language.

When my kids were little and all we watched was Mr. Rogers, Wild Kratts, the Wiggles, and the Wonder Pets, my spirit got sensitized again and I don’t want it to go back to the way it was when I was completely fine and dandy with going to Air Force One at the movie theatre as a kid.

The way to do that is to watch what you yourself watch.

How to Use VidAngel and ClearPlay

Using VidAngel or ClearPlay is easy!

VidAngel has Psych (which isn’t too violent generally but does have lots of random words popping up!) while ClearPlay has Marvel and more Disney movies.

What we do is have them on a Chrome extension and then send them to our Roku via wireless connection. We don’t have a TV, only a projector, but it is even easier to do if you have a more simple set up. Sometimes for more special effects laden movies, we hook up the HDMI to a laptop since the RAM suffers with heavy CGI.

Protecting Your Family Is Simple

You don’t need to be a tech genius to keep your family safe online. Start with router-level filtering through CleanBrowsing, add movie filtering tools like VidAngel or ClearPlay, and layer on additional parental controls as needed for your family.

The internet doesn’t have to be a scary place.

With a few simple tools, you can create a joyful, protected digital environment where your kids can learn, explore, and grow without stumbling into things that steal their innocence.

If you’d like to create a specialized plan for your home’s internet and media or need help knowing where to start or how to set it up, set up a coaching session with me! I’d love to help you in any way I can.