Website Review: BozTheBear.com
Published October 23, 2007
BOZ is a popular name throughout the youth Christian community. This big green bear is the answer to many parents' nightmare of what children are viewing on the internet and television, and the related website, BozTheBear.com is a great for the parent who needs a break. The bright colors and interactive play are great fun for children and good solid Christian entertainment for families.
BOZ was co-created by Jon Green and Dennis DeShazer. These two men also created the award-winning television show Barney the Dinosaur. In 2003 they created Exclaim Entertainment, a production company for quality television. They aspire to have family entertainment with a Christian perspective.
BozTheBear.com is easily accessible to parents and provides a number of activities for the child. It is easily comparable to NickJr.com. There are games, books that a narrator will read to the children, color sheets to print out, educational adventures, and videos that play continuously.
The games consist of Letter Match Up, Squeaky Clean Game, and Imagination Dress-Up. All of these games are best for the age of four and older with computer knowledge. The Imagination Dress-Up game is difficult to play because the directions do not fully explain that while the child is dressing up the character of choice, the player should attempt to put together a matching outfit. For example pieces are given to complete an artist outfit, fireman, and astronaut. The player should try to find all the pieces that make a complete outfit. This concept would be difficult for a child under the age of five.
If you are on a slow modem, on occasion the stories and movies will pause for buffering. The videos play the same song over and over. This is unfortunate for parents who are doing other things and must stop what they are doing to reset the videos. You will need to have the most current flash player installed for your browser in order to use most of the site.
This website is great for any child above the age of four with some computer knowledge of how to use the mouse and click a link. It is also recommended for children under the age of four with a parent's help. This is a great web site to help give a child the foundation of Christian faith by relating stories to things children can understand.
- Website Review: BozTheBear.com
- Published: October 23, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Video: Family, Music: Children, Gaming: Computer, Culture: Religion, Culture: Family and Relationships, Culture: Education
- Writer: Shawnda Rodgers
- Shawnda Rodgers's BC Writer page
- Shawnda Rodgers's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
I think lumping the various groups represented by the general terms "Christians" and "Muslims" with the small, radical group of people represented by the term "Branch Davidians" is more than a little extreme.
Everyone has the right to pass their values on to their kids. You know, the whole freedom of religion thing. Besides, there'll be time enough for dueling propaganda when they get a bit older, right?
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BOZ the bear sounds like a good teacher for the fantasy material which Muslims and Christians and Branch Davidians and such like to teach their followers.
But realistically, to provide the well-balanced perspective that our children deserve, the bear should also teach recent works by Dawkins and Harris such as _The God Delusion_ and _Letter to a Christian Nation_. The reason: these works are non-religious and not subject to the same interpretational drift and vacuous morality as religious fashion. The works encourage children to engage with the evidence rather than drawing away in faith.
Enjoy.