(Dispatch file photos)

Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in Disney's Mary Poppins.

Scene from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews.

Friends from the movie, The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

The top 10

Try one of the titles for an evening full of family together time.

Movies listed alphabetically (.pdf)

Tips

Tips for a fun and inexpensive family movie night:

1. Rent a movie for free from the local library
2. Borrow or exchange movies with a neighbor or friend
3. Choose a movie together as a family or give everyone a turn to choose each week
4. Surround the night with rituals - wear pajamas, order pizza, eat dinner backwards with dessert first, pop popcorn, and review the movie when it's over
5. Dress in costume following the theme of your movie
6. Turn off the phones and sit together on the couch
7. Have an intermission

Source: Common Sense Media

For more tips and movie information visit: family movie night.

How to guarantee a fun-filled movie night

As the mother of 10 children ages 6 to 24, Lynn Kopechek of Blacklick is a self-proclaimed expert on the topic of family-friendly movies.

"Our kids really enjoy watching movies together as a family and enjoy quoting their favorite parts over the next few days," Kopechek said. "I think they pick up the moral teachings without us pointing them out. We may casually refer to them in conversations and applicable life situations later on if we think of it, but we don't formally discuss the moral teachings after a movie. We relish the experience and time together."

Lisa Knapp of Orange Township, mom of boys Keegan, 5, Hayden, 12, and Max, 16, has been hosting family movie nights on Fridays for the past 11 years. And it wouldn't be movie night in the Knapp household without candy and popcorn, she said. To please everyone, Knapp alternates each week between movies her older boys and younger son will like. Some movie night favorites have included The Sound of Music, Tinkerbell, Swiss Family Robinson, The Parent Trap, Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer, Fantasia, Stuart Little and The Incredibles.

No matter what movie you choose, be sure to do your research, suggested Anneliese Johnson, preschool program coordinator at the Schoenbaum Family Center at The Ohio State University. She advises that movies should be age appropriate and parents should make time to watch the movie with their children.

"Don't rely on what you saw as a child," Johnson said. "If you remember liking a movie, it might be because you were older. You might be surprised to find what was acceptable in the 1930s, 1940s, or the 1970s."

Johnson encourages parents to limit the amount of television their children watch and to be sure that what they do watch is quality programming and offers moral teachings. Moral development, she said, is a developmental milestone that takes place between ages 3 and 5 and often children under the age of 5 may not understand the moral teachings of a movie or television program. It is important for parents to facilitate those discussions with their children, she said.

Watching a movie as a family is a great bonding experience, Johnson said, and gives parents the opportunity to "capture learning moments" with their children, whether that means stopping the movie at a scene and discussing it or saving the discussion for after the movie. She encourages parents to observe the things that children repeat from movies or the scenes they act out because those may be the parts they are having difficulty processing and need to discuss.

Information about these films was gathered from interviews and from movie reviews on commonsensemedia.org and kidsfirst.org.

Andrea M. Strle has been writing for more than 13 years for a variety of newspapers, magazines and organizations. She received her journalism degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and lives in Lewis Center with her husband and daughter.