Candy jar parents guide
Candy Jar Movie Review | Common Sense Media
A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Candy Jar is a 2018 feature focusing on two overachieving high school seniors who have been competing and arguing since they were kids. Rivals in their school's debate club, they spend all their time prepping for debates, doing homework, studying for tests, and otherwise nerding out. They both set their early admission sights on two elite universities and fret over the prospect of not getting in. They have no social lives to speak of, and the movie questions whether their achievements have come at the expense of living full lives. A key character dies. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "ass," and "t-ts."
Community Reviews
GreenMaple Adult
July 30, 2019
age 11+
Predictable but good for stressed students
Found this while searching up, 'feel-good movies', and it delivered. The movie is worth its salt in my opinion mainly because of the themes and value for stressed students, and plus it's a high school movie that is still extremely appropriate (two swear words for anyone wondering). As for the plot... it's so beyond predictable I couldn't even predict just how predictable it was going to be. It was a little overkill that way, but hey I feel like it's a super comfortable movie to listen to in the background while working on other stuff.
This title has:
Great messages
Great role models
Julie St-F Adult
December 11, 2018
age 11+
Sweet predictable plot, with a good message.
My 13 year-old daughter was very insistent that we watch this movie together (she'd already watched it by itself). The plot itself is super-conventional. Teen rivals are forced together, and eventually romance blossoms. But there are some great things along the way to talk about: - Parents with flaws.
Lona's mom is rude to Bennet's mom in front of a room at a debate championship. Bennet's mom takes the bait and eventually claps back, leading to embarrassment and consequences for the kids. But... they both grow and eventually reconcile. Their kids instantly see their bad behaviour for what it is and call them on it. But it's a good cue to talk about how adults mess up sometimes. - Both Lona and Bennett experience failure. And, because both of them are overachievers with protective parents, it's kinda the first time for both of them, and they need some prodding to handle it well. Bennett's mom is ready to step-in and take over for him. It's a good place to talk about what your kid wants from you when they experience a set back, and what you as a parent are willing to do. - Being an overachiever: While this movie was about high-level debaters, the same pressure to succeed and pushy parenting exists in competitive sports and a lot of other teen competitive activities. What are the good and bad things about competition and elite level activities like this? Two other points: I just didn't get what Helen Hunt's character's death added to the lot, other than that the kids needed to find other adults to guide them to make good decisions? As a Canadian, the competition for ivy league universities doesn't really resonate.
Yes some schools have better reputations than others, but it's not like the difference between Harvard and "community college." in the US. I had to explain to my kids why the stakes were so high, given that these two awesome nerds were clearly going to get into a top-tier school no matter what. (There are like two swears, and one kiss. It's VERY tame for a teen movie)
This title has:
Great messages
Great role models
What's the Story?
In CANDY JAR, Lona (Sami Gayle of TV's Blue Bloods) says she detests Bennett (Jacob Latimore of The Maze Runner), her chief rival in high school debating. The rivalry began before birth when their single moms ran against each other for high school class president. Bennett's mom, Julia (Uzo Aduba), was an overachieving nerd, and Lona's mom, Amy (Christina Hendricks), was the cheerleader who edged the nerd out. Ambitious Julia became a successful lawyer and state senator, and now Bennett has applied for early admission to his mom's alma mater, Yale.
Amy is a widow and barista barely making ends meet, and Lona is trying to get a scholarship to Harvard. When their mothers' animosity helps get them kicked out of an individual debate competition, they are asked to work together to compete as a school team in the state championship -- a collaboration both consider unimaginable. Their wise guidance counselor Kathy (Helen Hunt) understands that they have more in common than they have in differences and that teaming up might help them actually have some fun. Once they get past their long-held animosity, they begin to enjoy working together -- a social outlet that encourages them to rearrange their priorities. At one point they kiss, suggesting that full-blown romance may be ahead. The benefits of college education versus the drawbacks of its accompanying financial burden is the subject of their debates, which raises arguments about bias against the poor, the unavailability of decent lower schools in impoverished neighborhoods, and a system that is rigged to keep the wealthy rich and the poor downtrodden.
Is It Any Good?
Candy Jar is a solid movie about smart kids, and it does an especially great job reminding us all that life is short and that it's important to have fun. Full candy dishes in guidance counselor Kathy's office invite students to taste something sweet while doing the hard work of thinking about the future. This is the lesson that Lona and Bennett are invited to absorb from the wise and witty counselor, and that the audience is encouraged to embrace as well. Gayle is convincing as a girl too serious for her own good, and Latimore is charming as Bennett, a guy equally driven but open to the idea that loosening up could make life a little nicer. When death in their community shocks them, they seem ready to see how much more important friends and relationships are than "success" and "achievement."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the amount of pressure high school kids put on themselves to perform well and get into elite colleges.
What do you think are the ingredients of living a happy life? Do you think going to a highly ranked school or going to college at all are prerequisites to happiness?How do you define success in life? Does how much money you make determine your success, or are there other standards of judgment?
In Candy Jar, Lona talks about the difference between facts and anecdotal life experience. What are some life experiences from which you can draw factual conclusions about life in general? What are some experiences that only tell you about yourself?
Jasmine talks about the many ways in which minorities are boxed out of high achievement and access to a decent education. Do you think wealthier citizens and communities have an obligation to offer good education to the disadvantaged? How might a better educated general population improve society as a whole?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: April 27, 2018
- Cast: Jacob Latimore, Sami Gayle, Helen Hunt, Uzo Aduba, Christina Hendricks
- Director: Ben Shelton
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Drama
- Character Strengths: Teamwork
- Run time: 92 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 27, 2022
Parent reviews for Candy Jar
GreenMaple Adult
July 30, 2019
age 11+
Predictable but good for stressed students
Found this while searching up, 'feel-good movies', and it delivered.
The movie is worth its salt in my opinion mainly because of the themes and value for stressed students, and plus it's a high school movie that is still extremely appropriate (two swear words for anyone wondering). As for the plot... it's so beyond predictable I couldn't even predict just how predictable it was going to be. It was a little overkill that way, but hey I feel like it's a super comfortable movie to listen to in the background while working on other stuff.
This title has:
Great messages
Great role models
Julie St-F Adult
December 11, 2018
age 11+
Sweet predictable plot, with a good message.
My 13 year-old daughter was very insistent that we watch this movie together (she'd already watched it by itself). The plot itself is super-conventional. Teen rivals are forced together, and eventually romance blossoms. But there are some great things along the way to talk about: - Parents with flaws.
Lona's mom is rude to Bennet's mom in front of a room at a debate championship. Bennet's mom takes the bait and eventually claps back, leading to embarrassment and consequences for the kids. But... they both grow and eventually reconcile. Their kids instantly see their bad behaviour for what it is and call them on it. But it's a good cue to talk about how adults mess up sometimes. - Both Lona and Bennett experience failure. And, because both of them are overachievers with protective parents, it's kinda the first time for both of them, and they need some prodding to handle it well. Bennett's mom is ready to step-in and take over for him. It's a good place to talk about what your kid wants from you when they experience a set back, and what you as a parent are willing to do. - Being an overachiever: While this movie was about high-level debaters, the same pressure to succeed and pushy parenting exists in competitive sports and a lot of other teen competitive activities. What are the good and bad things about competition and elite level activities like this? Two other points: I just didn't get what Helen Hunt's character's death added to the lot, other than that the kids needed to find other adults to guide them to make good decisions? As a Canadian, the competition for ivy league universities doesn't really resonate.
Yes some schools have better reputations than others, but it's not like the difference between Harvard and "community college." in the US. I had to explain to my kids why the stakes were so high, given that these two awesome nerds were clearly going to get into a top-tier school no matter what. (There are like two swears, and one kiss. It's VERY tame for a teen movie)
This title has:
Great messages
Great role models
ellis ngu Adult
September 20, 2018
age 10+
This title has:
Great messages
ladysaotome Adult
August 25, 2018
age 12+
Cute and clean with a decent message
This was a cute movie and fairly clean (minor language). It had sweet and touching moments and a good message. Nothing that made it super amazing but it was fun and my 14-yr-old daughter and I enjoyed watching it.
This title has:
Great messages
Great role models
Suzie K. Adult
May 1, 2018
age 15+
so meaningless
making a big deal out of an unnecessary topic. boring sub ject matter.
Rules for Parents
RULES FOR OUR PARENTS
Dear parents!
In our kindergarten, we care about your children, their safety and development.
Therefore, we ask you to follow some rules that will help make attending kindergarten a pleasant experience for your child.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
*** Do not forget that in the pre-school there is a monthly payment for the maintenance of a child in kindergarten. We ask you to pay the receipt on time, , by the 20th day of of each month, according to the contract.
Read about payment here
*** In our preschool institution, it is customary to treat each other politely , therefore, regardless of their age, it is necessary to address the teachers of the group with you, by name and patronymic, and teach this to your children.
Their "aunts" do not work in our kindergarten!
*** Reception of children is carried out from 7.30 to 8.45 daily, except weekends and holidays.
Timely arrival in kindergarten is a necessary condition for the correct organization of the educational process.
*** If you bring your child after the start of any regimen or activity, please undress him and wait with him in the locker room until the next break.
*** In the morning, parents must hand over the child personally to the teacher , and in the evening, be sure to go to the teacher and say that you are picking up the child from the kindergarten.
*** If you need to bring or pick up a child outside school hours , please notify the teacher in advance. If your child is taken from the kindergarten by relatives or acquaintances, then you must write an application and sign it with the head.
*** If the child is unable to come to kindergarten due to illness or other good reason, please inform the teacher by 9 am by contact phone, and in case of coming to kindergarten after illness or vacation - the day before by 12 pm .
*** A child who has not attended kindergarten for more than 3 days must have a certificate from a doctor.
Parents, remember! You must bring a healthy child!
An untreated child will not only get sick himself, but will also infect healthy children!
And if "snot" and coughing do not frighten you as a mother, then another mother may have her own opinion, different from yours.
*** Before you take your child to kindergarten, check whether he is dressed correctly , whether his suit corresponds to the season and air temperature. In properly selected clothes, the child moves freely, gets tired less. Make sure that the child's clothing is not too large and at the same time does not hinder the child's movements. Pay special attention to shoes . It should be light, warm and fit exactly to the size of the foot. Check buckles and laces. They must be such that the child can use them independently. In the group room it is not allowed to wear shoes without backs (flip-flops).
Dear parents! Slippers leave for the house. Children, of course, feel at home here, but let shoes be “not slippers” .
Requirements for the appearance of children
- Neat appearance, fully buttoned clothing and footwear;
- Washed face;
- Clean nose, hands, trimmed nails;
- Hair trimmed and carefully combed; for girls, the hairstyle is fixed with elastic bands, bows, etc.
- Clean underwear;
- Availability of sufficient handkerchiefs. The handkerchief is necessary for the child both indoors and on a walk. Make convenient pockets on your clothes for storing it.
To create comfortable conditions for a child to stay in kindergarten, you need:
- In closet there should be T-shirts, panties, spare tights, socks, a change of clothes in case of an "accident" while eating. Children ... are an independent people. Be sure to check the neatness of things, do not forget to take your pajamas and sportswear to the laundry, well, we don’t even mention the daily change of clothes. Clothing for staying in a group. It is not allowed to wear the same pair of jeans, trousers both for a walk and in the premises of a kindergarten.
- Two bags for storing clean and used linen.
- Comb (regardless of hair length).
- Sportswear and shoes with rubber soles for physical education.
- Linen, clothes and other things can be marked.
- It is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to bring sharp, piercing, cutting objects to the preschool (scissors, knives, knitting needles, pins, nails, wire, mirror, glass bottles, bubbles, metal toys, swords, sabers, lighters, etc.) .
The presence of such objects is dangerous not only for your child, but also for other children attending the group. Therefore, be sure to check your child's pockets before leaving for kindergarten.
It is strongly recommended not to put on a child gold and silver jewelry.
We also ask not to give chewing gum, sweets, cookies and any food, vitamins, pills and other medicines, cosmetics and computer games and any valuable toy that you feel sorry for.
If you consider it necessary to give your child some treats with you, then please limit yourself to a few caramels in candy wrappers and warn the teacher about this.
- In a group, children are not allowed to beat and offend each other; take things from the teacher's table without permission, even your own, take personal things without permission, including toys of other children brought from home; spoil and break the results of the work of other children. Children are not allowed to "strike back", as well as to attack each other. This requirement is dictated by the safety of the child.
- Do not forget to pay attention to the child's man-made work (drawings, crafts), praise the child.
Parents can attend classes at any time , informing the teacher conducting it a day in advance. Replacement shoes are not required, but remember about shoe covers!
General issues are discussed at parent meetings, not because there is nothing to say about everyone, but only because of ethical considerations.
- Disputes and conflict situations must be resolved in the absence of children.
If you could not resolve any issue with the teacher of the group, contact the head.
In the presence of a child one should not discuss preschool teachers with relatives or acquaintances.
Dear parents!
The administration is responsible for the life of the child from 7.30 to 17.30, and after…
If you came at 17.20, and you want to take a walk and talk with the teacher, that way until 18.00, try to restrain your desires, since the educators have a working day until 17.30 .
REMEMBER : as soon as you come for the child, the caregiver relieves himself of responsibility for him!
How to explain division to a child: instructions for parents
The essence and principle of division can be explained in two ways: tell preschoolers in simple words, and tell younger students mathematically.
Usually it is difficult for a child to understand the division operation if he does not understand how to multiply numbers, and gets confused in the concepts of the composition of the example: "multiplier", "sum", product. In the article we tell how a parent can explain the division in an accessible way depending on the age of the child.
How to explain division to a preschooler
Children first encounter division in early childhood, when they do not yet understand what “number” means. The kid in the sandbox hears: “Share the toy,” and he understands that the bucket should be given to a friend, and the spatula should be left to yourself.
The basic rule for explaining any concept to kids is to show it with life examples, and they must correspond to the age of the child. Therefore, it is better for preschoolers to be told how to share toys and bananas, and not money and postal envelopes.
Step 1. Divide without a remainder
There are ten sweets for mom, dad, child, grandparents.
It is necessary to divide the sweets so that everyone has the same amount. The child will give everyone one at a time until they run out. As he gets older, he will learn to give out two, three or more at once.
Step 2. Divide with the remainder
There are ten sweets for mom, dad, baby and grandma. Grandpa refused sweets. The child can distribute two candies to each, and two will remain.
Step 3. Divide with the remainder, which is divisible
The child can distribute half of the candy to all family members except the grandfather, dividing the two candies that the grandfather refused. Then everyone will have two and a half sweets.
Step 4. Divide with a remainder that is not divisible
Three balls must be divided between two children. One cannot be divided and it will simply remain.
The last two steps will help your child deal with fractions in the future.
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How to explain division to a schoolchild
In order for a child to master division, he needs to know several concepts:
- “numbers” and “digits”;
- divisible, divisor, quotient;
- "multiplier", "product";
- "reverse action".
Step 1. Review how to divide evenly and with a remainder
If the child has not mastered simple division, it is worth repeating it.
Step 2. Explain the reverse action
Before learning about division, children learn the operations of addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Younger students already understand that subtraction is the opposite of addition: if two is added to two, we get four; and vice versa, if two are subtracted from four, we get two. Explain to your child that division is the opposite of multiplication. The product of numbers can be divided by one of the factors and get the second factor: for example, if you multiply two by two, you get four, and vice versa, if you divide four by two, you get two. To multiply and divide numbers, you need to know the multiplication table.
Step 3. Divide a two-digit number by a one-digit number without a remainder
It is worth taking numbers larger than those in the multiplication table.
For example, the last number multiplied by five in the multiplication table is ten, and their product is 50. So, you can start with 55 and up.
If you take 55, then it is easy to divide each digit of the number by five. If we take, for example, 60, then the situation becomes more complicated. Here division into a column or line can come to the rescue.
How to divide 60 by 5:
- First, we divide the number from the tens place, that is, we divide six by five. It is important that the number in this category is greater than the number by which we are dividing. That is, if we need to divide 30 by five, we do not need to divide tens separately from units. Since six is not divisible by five without a remainder, you need to find the smallest number nearest to six that is divisible by five without a remainder - this is five. Dividing 5 by 5 gives you 1. The result of this division is written after the equal sign: 60: 5 = 1_.
- We lay out the six according to the composition into the five, which we took for division, and one.
We write this unit over the six or just keep it in mind. - We connect the unit that we kept in mind and the number from the category of units in the number 60, that is, one and zero. We get ten. When dividing ten by five, we get two, the result of this division is written after the equal sign behind the tens digit.
- We get: 60 : 5 = 12.
Step 4. Divide a two-digit number by a one-digit number with a remainder of
Here the principle is the same as in the previous step: we divide the number into a column or into a line.
How to divide 88 by 5:
- First, divide the number from the tens place, that is, divide eight by five. It is important that the number in this category is greater than the number by which we are dividing. Since eight is not divisible by five without a remainder, you need to find the smallest number closest to eight that is divisible by five without a remainder - this is five. Dividing 5 by 5 gives you 1.
The result of this division is written after the equal sign: 88: 5 = 1_. - We lay out eight according to the composition into the five, which we took for division, and the three. We write this triple over the eight or just keep it in mind.
- We connect the triple that we kept in mind and the number from the category of units in the number 88, that is, three and eight. 38 is not divisible by five, we are looking for the smallest nearest number divisible by five without a remainder - this is the number 35. 35 : 5 = 7, we write the result after the equal sign after the tens digit: 88 : 5 = 17.
- 38 decompose by composition, that is, 35 and three. Since three is not divisible by five, we borrow zero and put a comma in the quotient: 17,_. We connect three and zero, we get 30. When we divide thirty by five, we get six. The result of this division is written after the equal sign after the decimal point.
- We get: 88 : 5 = 17.6.
As soon as the child masters the skill, you can complicate tasks: divide three-, four-digit numbers by a single-digit number with and without a remainder.
Step 5. Divide a three-digit number by a two-digit number with and without a remainder
The principle of division is the same as above, but you need to divide by a two-digit number.
How to divide 100 by 20:
The number in the hundreds place is less than the divisor. We look at the number that makes up the hundreds and tens digits, it is also less than the divisor, so we take the whole number at once. By selection we find the quotient: 100: 20 = 5.
How to divide 104 by 32:
- In this example, we need to take the whole number. It divides with the remainder, so we select the smallest number closest to 104. 96: 32 = 3, the result is written after the equal sign: 104: 32 = 3_. We lay out
- 104 according to the composition, that is, into 96, which was taken for division, and eight. Eight is not divisible by 32, so we borrow zero and put a comma in the quotient: 3,_. We connect eight and zero, we get: 80: 32.
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