Black Children's Cartoons

Schmoo with two of our favourite cartoons

Cartoons featuring Black heroes have traditionally been thin on the ground, but there are more & more springing up lately, filling a much-needed gap for our kids. I've gathered all the ones I've discovered in this list, along with their decade of inception. I've tried to include only cartoons that you can still get hold of to watch.

Bino & Fino [2010]
This is about modern-day children living in Africa (check out Fino's gorgeous Nigerian-style dress!). You can watch a free episode on the Bino & Fino website, which also has a blog and tie-in merchandise. My kids were gifted this DVD for Schmoo's birthday and they did enjoy watching it, but it is pitched a bit young for them.

The Cleveland Show [2010]

A modern American family, consisting of Cleveland, his second wife and their three children, this series was nominated for an Emmy. The animation and style are reminiscent of The Simpsons.

Zarafa [2010]

A young boy escapes from slave traders and befriends an orphaned giraffe. We are going to see this film when it's showing at the French Institute later in the month, can't wait!

Sara Solves It [2010]

I'm very excited about this one! Combining maths skills with two kids that look like mine, this brainy brother and sister solve puzzles together.

Available online at: Amazon Instant Video

Static Shock [2000]
Finally a Black superhero! My son LOVES Static Shock, who has the same hair & heritage (Ghanaian) as him. He wears his Static Shock t-shirt with pride.

The Princess & the Frog [2000]
The first African-American Disney princess is sassy and beautiful! The story is fun and clever and it was one of my kids' favourites for a long while.

The Boondocks [2000]
Definitely NOT for the kids, with swearing and violence, but included for completeness, and great for grown-ups!

The Proud Family [2000]
Very funny for the whole family, with sassy characters and slapstick humour.

Adopted by Aliens [2000]
This sweet & fun animation created by two sisters is available to view for free from their website.
Available free online at: Adopted By Aliens

Fatherhood [2000]
Another Bill Cosby creation.
Available free online at: TV.com

Kirikou [1990]
Kirikou and the Men and Women is my all-time favourite animation. The story is so full of positive identity messages and it is even in French! I took my kids to see it at the cinema and they adored it. We have a few other Kirikou stories on DVD and they are all fabulous.

Little Bill [1990]
A very cute but realistic cartoon about a little boy. Good for smaller children.
Available online at: Amazon Instant Video

Mr T [1980]
A spin-off from the TV series 'The A-Team', Mr T was a popular character who gained his own following.

The Jackson 5 [1970]
This featured the extremely popular Jackson superstars and is now available to buy again from Amazon.

Fat Albert [1970]
This was voiced by Bill Cosby and is based on his own childhood.

The following cartoons also focus on Black heroes, though they no longer seem to be available on DVD or Watch Online. You might find snippets on YouTube though:
Blokhedz
Kid And Play
The Harlem Globetrotters
Jamurai
Filmore
Hey Monie
La Reine Soleil



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Pushy parenting

Schmoo practises her violin

These days we see a lot of articles about the negative effect of pushing children too much. There's just so much on offer now, and it's tempting to enrol your kids in lots (and lots!) of classes. I have to hold up my hand and say my kids are doing quite a lot outside of school.

Ahem! Practising their figure skating...

Like most London parents, our lives are a whirl of extra-curricular activities and aside from having schooling in French, my kids are learning Mandarin, ice-skating, judo (Schmoo), football (Pan-Pan), violin & piano.

Schmoo prepares for her blue belt grading

We somehow find time to fit in extra maths every day, as well as an hour of violin & half an hour of piano practise. This is on top of their school homework, which is around half an hour a day. I think we partly manage this by banning TV during the week, which is a double bonus as it means less screen time!

Pan-Pan learns to ski

Every winter, despite the crippling cost, we take them skiing, while every summer, again really stretching the budget, we enrol them on a drama course. Although no Tiger Mom, a term coined for mothers who relentlessly push their children to study to the exclusion of almost any social life, I do feel a strong desire to give them everything I possibly can at this precious age when they soak it all up like sponges.

Pan-Pan loves his football club

Music seems to be an especially wonderful gift. I learnt the flute and piano as a child and still love being able to express myself through an instrument, which is completely different to any other form of expression. Sport also feels really important, because sporty kids are part of a whole culture that promotes health and well-being.

But are the critics right? Is it all too much, too soon? Are we all frantically trying to create little musical/sporting/academic geniuses at the cost of any fun?! My own take is that the balance of scheduled activities versus downtime is one that needs to be worked out for each family, and each child.

Schmoo learns a new piano piece

For us, except perhaps when we have to drive to the freezing ice rink again through jam-packed traffic on a dark winter night, it doesn't feel too much. Both Schmoo and Pan-Pan are lively kids who demand a lot of stimulating activities. And they have a half day off school every Wednesday, which is actually designed to make time for whatever they're not learning at school, such as sport and music.

I do think it's important to recognise that playtime is at least as precious as their other activities and we make sure we have plenty of it. I aim to get all homework completed by Friday evening, so that the weekend is just for downtime. Even then, on the weekend we avoid 'heavy' outings like theme parks or museums, instead simply strolling round the corner to the park or river, or staying indoors for crafting (as you can see from our Crafts page!), drawing or just plain old mooching. Playdates and sleepovers are frequent events and on those days, we cut back on music practise to make time, or do the homework all together if the kids are from the same school.

I'm so interested to hear how you manage activities for your children! Do you like to squeeze in as much as possible, or try to limit them?






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KID'S CRAFTS: Melting bead dice

This is a good craft for a rainy day. Teaches attention to detail!

Step 1: Print the template from Pinterest >> MoonAtNoon website

Step 2: Copy

Step 3: Iron (over protective grease-proof paper)

Step 4: Click the shapes together following the instructions

Step 5: Enjoy :-)

Repeat with multicoloured beads as necessary!

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KID'S CRAFTS: Melting bead bowls

This is a wonderful craft that produces a very pretty bowl in moments! And because it's so easy, kids can most of the prep themselves. I have lost a glass bowl to melting beads before, so I've learnt to be very careful about greasing the bowl well, and not leaving in the oven too long!

Here's what you need: 

Melting beads (we used Hama ones)

Oil

Heat-proof bowl

1. Smoosh the beads into the bowl in a single (ish) layer.

2. Heat in the oven at about 180C for around 10 minutes. Beads should look nicely melted. Leave to cool down for about another 10 minutes. 

3. Use a knife to gently free the bead bowl from the glass bowl.

4. Enjoy!

They make fabulous gifts. Check out my Pinterest board for other melting bead gift ideas!

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RAISING BILINGUAL CHILDREN: Best posts

My most beautiful post
RESOURCES: Should I speak a non-native language with my child?
After being riddled with doubt & worry, we decided to go for it... shakily. My resolve was rocked many times along the way, but now it feels as though we have gone through the deep forest and come out successfully on the other side! My franglais seemed to set them off on the right foot and they have both coped brilliantly with immersion French school. Now they are balanced bilinguals and I can relax and talk my mother tongue again at home, but some of my concerns around this issue are documented here.


My most popular post
MULTICULTURAL PRODUCTS: Sourcing black fairies, mermaids & princesses
This is my post that gets the most page views. Seems like I'm not the only one who thinks children need to see & play with multicultural fantasy figures like fairies, mermaids & princesses.


My most controversial post
MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN: The problem with multicultural children in the media
This is an issue close to my heart. My children are exposed to hundreds of 'negative identity' media images every single day and I'm not happy about it!


My most helpful post
Top 5 tips to keep up a minority language
This is probably the thing I get asked about the most, so all my best advice is here!


My most surprisingly successful post
RAISING MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN: Trip to the Paralympics, Wheelchair Basketball
This one has proved very popular, just like the Paralympics itself!



My post that didn't get the attention it deserved
RAISING BICULTURAL CHILDREN: Top 5 tips to keep up the minority culture
Culture is so bound up in the language... or is it the other way around?! Either way, it's just as important to me to keep our children culture aware and here are all the best ways I've found to do this.


My post that I am most proud of
NON-NATIVE ISSUES: 5 ways to keep up your own language
It doesn't seem fair to make the kids do all the work, so here's how I put the hours in to keep up with their French homework! Pin It now!

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: 'I love reading'!

Today Pan-Pan said those magical words, 'I love reading'! This is after a year or so of him hating it, to the point where he would hide his reading books, so I'm thrilled! We had a breakthrough, when he suddenly realised he could easily read one of his very simple books al by himself. This book is Funny Fish, part of the Oxford Reading Tree. He knows some of the words by heart, some he can guess from the pictures, but he has to read a bit too! It was wonderful to see how proud and happy he was to be able to read a whole book cover to cover! Daddy was called on to witness the event :-) Pin It now!