It depends. My older DD, almost 8, lives for music and theater. We started with pieces of movies but she watched the full length of the wizard of Oz at probably 3 1/2 and knew every song in the Sound of Music when she was 4. I took her to a stage production of the Wizard of Oz at the Warner Theater at barely 4 and she refused to leave her seat during intermission because she was afraid she would miss something. She loves large (Mary Poppins, Music Man, Annie) productions and small (Adventure Theater and Imagination Stage).

My younger DD, 4, can sit through an entire movie (LOVES Jungle Book, nonstop giggles) but theater is harder. She was not old enough for the Music Man this summer so that was hard and we will not be taking her to My Fair Lady with her older sister. She was also more troubled by The Wizard of Oz, so we are more careful about what she sees.

Anonymous wrote:Started doing movies in the the movie theater at ages 3 and 4. Planning on doing first Broadway show (Mary Poppins or Annie) around Christmas at ages 5 and 6. They've already done shorter plays at Imagination Stage and Adventure Theater.

Mary Poppins in NYC is wonderful for young kids. We took our young 4 year old to an 8:00 pm show, and he was mesmerized, from opening curtain to the curtain call. I recommend seats on the first balcony. There is a little "surprise" at the end that my kid still talks about months later.

Started doing movies in the the movie theater at ages 3 and 4. Planning on doing first Broadway show (Mary Poppins or Annie) around Christmas at ages 5 and 6. They've already done shorter plays at Imagination Stage and Adventure Theater.

Aristocats is a also good musical for young kids.

(I love Singing in the Rain too. Donald O'Connor is simply the best!)

For years, we watched the Wizard of Oz starting at the twister and Mary Poppins starting at when they cleaned their room. The earlier exposition was too boring for DD around age 4, but she enjoyed the rest of the action. So, snippets worked fine for us.

I love the music in the Jungle Book--the bear necessities and king louie songs are the absolute best.

We did imagination stage at 3.5. With the right show, it's great.

We did a full length movie in a movie theater at 3 or 4. Staged musicals and plays probably 5 and up.

I'm a little on the crunchy side, so my kids didn't watch any movies until they were 6, and attention span was not an issue.

Singing in the Rain is a fabulous musical for young children.

I showed it to my boys (just turned 3 through elementary school).

They absolutely loved it. My youngest was enthralled by it. He laughed at the appropriate parts, danced along, etc. The oldest enjoyed it as well. They all were singing afterwards.

Other suggestions that have been successful for my kids:

Mary Poppins (preschool)
Wizard of Oz (preK-K)
Sound of Music (young elementary--I think around 2nd grade)
The King and I; My Fair Lady (elementary)

Shirley Temple films are also good for younger elementary kids.

I saw The Wizard of Oz as a 5yo and afterward had nightmares whenever there was a thunderstorm.

thx - I forgot about the monkeys!

+1 about common sense media

personally, my 4 year old still isn't ready

when he was 3, I let him watch the "sing-a-long" option on our Sound of Music dvd which basically played all the song clips one after another, lasting about 45 minutes. he loved it. (still haven't let him watch the entire movie yet, b/c the running from the Nazis is scary)

I tend toward the later side of all of this (at least compared to the parents I know). My kids were 4 before we did a full length movie. We've only seen Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins. We stick mainly with the Sprout, Nick Jr. shows and let DS watch two. Check out commonsensemedia.org and you can see recs of ages for each movie. (IMHO, Wizard of Oz should be fairly old - those monkeys are scary!!

When typically are kids ready to watch an entire live action movie? Will it confuse a toddler to see a movie in snippets? I ask b/c I personally get confused if I watch a movie from midway through . . . so I've been thinking that I should only show my child a musical (sound of music, wizard of oz, annie) when she has a longer attention span. Yes, I'm overthinking this. But I bet somebody out there has a good approach.