Truthfully, when I sat down in the theater to see How To Train Your Dragon I was really going for the kids and was expecting a nice little kid movie. I was wrong, so wrong, and I found myself laughing, crying, and truly loving it. I even sent my husband back to see it the next day. There are so many moral themes explored and one that I appreciated was how it speaks to the labels we give people and how often we think we have all the facts and make many assumptions about people's (or dragon's) motives and are so wrong. But as much as i enjoyed it, I am glad I left my youngest child at home. I think this movie could be visually scary to little kids and I would advise reading the detailed reviews from plugged in and movieguide to decide if it will be a good fit for your family and at what age a child is ready. It is targeted at 8 and above.

For homeschool, this movie would be a such a fabulous way to kick off a 'viking' unit! If you don't have time to do a long unit you could do 'viking week' and do a lot of these fun projects or even just have one fun "family night" and pick one thing to do together and watch the movie with a big viking feast:

A few fun projects to try: 1. making a viking hat with duct tape http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Duct-Tape-Viking-Hat,
2. putting together a viking ship kit (a great project to set dad and the kids up with) http://www.amazon.com/80416-Viking-Kit/dp/B000S87J8A/ref=sr_1_5?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1308785689&sr=1-5 http://www.amazon.com/Vikings-Viking-Against-Wyvern-Dragon/dp/B0007ZCJ0W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308785586&sr=8-3.
3 Lego Viking ship kit: 4. It may also be fun to look at the Viking alphabet and write your name is Runes: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/write-your-name-in-runes.html 4. Viking Feast: http://library.thinkquest.org/C005446/Food/English/viking.html
5. Viking Food: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/food.shtml

Here are a few Viking books that may get you in the spirit too:
Leif the Lucky : http://www.bfbooks.com/Leif-the-Lucky-Ingri-Edgar-Daulaire
How People Lived in Viking Times by Colin Hynson
Viking (Eyewitness Books) by Susan M. Margeson
Viking Ships at Sunrise (Magic Tree House #15) by Mary Pope Osborne

If you have any fun ideas...please share them in the 'user review' section! We'd love to hear!