See actual footage of the men and women of the US Coast Guard as they perform rescues at sea, on land, and in the air. Voyage out to sea on a Coast Guard Cutter; meet a USCG search and rescue dog; and watch USCG Rescue Swimmer training. Fly through the air with a crew of a Coast Guard rescue helicopter, and soar over the north Atlantic with the International Ice Patrol as they hunt for huge icebergs.

This video will take your child on an epic United States Coast Guard adventure. Where they will learn what the Coast Guard does each and every day.  The video touches on technological advances, such as GPS tracking and ice patrols, and explains how technology assists the with rescue missions.  Each segment of the video is introduced by new words that flash onto the screen.  This will help your child expand their vocabulary as well as introduce them to new concepts. 

As your child watches, they will probably have lots of questions. You can encourage your child's curiosity by watching the video with them and explaining what they are viewing.  The information in this film is highly educational and presented in a fun and fascinating way that will stimulate your child's imagination.

When I watched this video with five year-old Lucca he was filled with curiosity. He especially wanted to know about the planes, helicopters, icebergs, and the dogs.  He wanted to watch the video again right away, and this time I decided to write down a few facts and do some research on the things I didn't know.  I was much better equipped to answer his questions the second time around.  When his dad came home, he announced that he was "joining the Coast Guard" because he could have his own dog that he didn't have to share with his sisters. 

--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.