Maven Says: Hugs for Hip Hop Harry

First I just have to set the stage, I am a white girl from the rural Midwest, Hip Hop dancing is outside of my usual music tastes that run more to country line dancing. After watching Hip Hop Harry with my girls, my musical tastes haven't changed but my appreciation for the moves certainly has. As soon as the DVD arrived in the mail from Parent Bloggers Network my 4 & 7 year olds were begging to watch Harry.

If you haven't yet had the Hip Hop Harry experience the main character is a large stuffed bear with a big grin dressed in baggy shorts, a hat that sits slightly askew on his head and a big piece of "bling." Harry, with the help of two older kids teaches his classes hip hip dance moves along with life lessons. Sprinkled in is a good dose of amazing dancing by his troupe of dancers. The diverse group of boys and girls put on an amazing show of dancing and acrobatics that makes you want to get up and dance.

As I have gotten more into sports and fitness I look for every opportunity to get my kids up and moving. A DVD that allows them to watch the TV that they want and get off the couch like I want is a definite winner.

The lessons ranged from the importance of drinking water to take care of your body to being conflicted over whether its okay to want to win if that means your sister loses. I appreciated the breadth of subjects tackled in the episodes we watched as well as the fun way the lessons were approached. At the end Harry reviews the lessons learned reinforcing the important points in a fun way.

If I have one complaint it comes from the granola crunchy side of me. In the lesson on the importance of drinking water the kids all have multiple containers of bottled water and Harry raps about bottled water in his song. The water message is great, the encouragement to buy it in bottles and not fill up your water bottle over and over made me cringe just a bit. Again, a minor nit from my granola crunchy self.

Overall I thought Hip Hop Harry was a hit. Good messages delivered in a fun way with reinforcement throughout. The added bonus is that the music makes it almost impossible to just sit and watch, you WANT to get up and move. PDQ said to me this morning that she couldn't quite get how to "lock." Thanks again to Parent Bloggers for letting us pop & lock with Hip Hop Harry!