We signed up a little over a year ago to receive DVDs and Blu-Ray disks through the Mail from Netflix.com.  We don’t get out much as a family to the movies, and this has allowed us to catch up on a lot of movies and TV that we’ve missed out on, but what I really want to talk about is the Roku Box and the Watch Instantly service that Netflix offers.

We bought the ROKU box about eight months ago.  It hooks up to your TV and attaches to your home wireless network.  When it’s connected to the Internet, it reaches out to Netflix to your “Watch Instantly” queue.  You can stream HD movies, television shows, and most importantly for this article, kids movies and cartoons.

My daughter has now watched all available Scooby Doo movies, made her way through some Loony Tunes and discovered new TV series like “Ramona the Vampire,” that none of us have ever heard of.  You get all of this content as part of your regular Netflix service.  Recently they’ve added the ability to watch movies on demand from Amazon and other places as well, making the link from Internet to TV one notch stronger.

I recommend this service, and the ROKU box to anyone.  We watched the original Dr. Doolittle with Katie recently, and she loved it as much as we did.  We’d never have dished out money to buy that, but having it at your fingertips brings some sharted memories and experiences that might otherwise have been missed.

Right now we’re watching Tom & Jerry in a pirate movie, and the entire family is gathered for the event.  All hail the Internet.