Learn about architecture, framing, electricity, plumbing and all the tools it takes to build a house. Watch how ceramic tiles are made and see a real sawmill in action. You'll even learn about termites. Meet the architect, the contractor and see the whole team work together to create a new house.

This video explains how a house is transformed by showing the steps involved when remodeling a house, such as architectural design, contracting, demolition, and finally rebuilding.  Your child will watch a house go from a one story, two bedroom home into a two story, three bedroom one. The process is very carefully planned and executed. Each phase of building is accompanied by a unique job title and a set of vocabulary words that are highlighted on screen so that your child can identify each role and responsibility. This will help your child learn about the different jobs associated with design and building, and the names of all the different parts of a house. There is even a segment about entomology - the study of insects - and how the creepy crawlers can impact a home environment. 

As your child watches this video they will likely have many questions. You can feed your child's curiosity by watching the video with them and answering each question as it comes. The information provided in this video will help cultivate their imagination and a greater understanding of the house they live in.

When I watched this video with five-year-old Lisa, I noticed that she was intrigued to learn that drawing was an important part of renovating a home. She decided she was going to draw a "renovation" so she got out construction paper, scissors, glue and crayons and went to work. I was impressed at how much she retained from the video, and it was fun to watch her get so excited. In the end, paper and glue were everywhere, and we even put a few sparkles on her newly drawn house.

--Kendall

Filmmaker William VanDerKloot was watching kids' videos with his children. He was disappointed with what he saw... and what he didn't. With a few notable exceptions, most children's videos were poorly done and overly simplistic. "It seemed as if very little effort was put into the research or production of those products," said VanDerKloot. "Many looked like amateur home videos."

Then he got an idea.... A Peabody award-winning director/producer, VanDerKloot decided to produce one himself. The first subject came to him while driving past the Atlanta airport in a car full of children. As they drove down I-75, a giant plane took off overhead. Immediately VanDerKloot was bombarded with questions from the kids, "What kind of plane is that?" How fast is it going?" "How many passengers are in it?" The Big Plane Trip, the first video in The Big Adventure Series®, was born.

But VanDerKloot did not want to make a simplistic video "just for kids." Each subsequent video in the series, is constructed with various levels of information so that an entire family, from the youngest to the oldest, can enjoy and learn something new with every viewing. "There is something that happens when you become a parent," says VanDerKloot. "You begin to look at the world through the eyes of a child. Suddenly the normal becomes the extraordinary and you see things in a whole new way."

The Big Adventure Series® shows how things work with a child's sense of wonder. And who better to critique an adventure-in-progress than kids themselves. The team at Little Mammoth holds a number of screenings for children's groups while videos are in their rough edit stage. Utilizing the input, the videos are modified. The results are productions that have received national acclaim from the critics, and most importantly, from families and children.

This hard work has paid off. The BIG Adventure Series®, which is now sixteen titles strong, has received dozens of awards and citations from such organizations as Parent's Choice, Kids First!, Video Librarian, CINE, and International Monitor Awards.

Learn about architecture, framing, electricity, plumbing and all the tools it takes to build a house. Watch how ceramic tiles are made and see a real sawmill in action. You'll even learn about termites. Meet the architect, the contractor and see the whole team work together to create a new house. This exciting DVD teaches a child all about the home building process. My nephew was in heaven while watching this DVD. It's informative and fun for the entire family.

Bridget Hopper, It's My Life