Owner: Kids Off The Couch URL:http://kidsoffthecouch.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:42:40 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Founded by two moms, Diane Shakin and Sarah Bowman, Kids Off The Couch offers a free, weekly, fun filled, e-newsletter that shows parents how to connect families to each other and the world around them.
...and believe us, there's plenty to talk about w Site statistics:Click here
Get Caught Reading This Summer; The Spiderwick Chronicles PLUS Our Great Summer Kid Lit Picks! 2008-06-18 19:34:00 USA This year's news focus on greening the planet got us thinking about how to get kids involved with the environment this summer. Our Kids Off The Couch guru of kid-lit, Lucy Rafael, had a great suggestion: visit your local library! With shelves stocked full children's selections, it's easy to save trees by checking out books that are shared among many readers. Back by popular demand, this ed Read more:Caught
, Great
, Reading
, Summer
If You Build It, He Will Come: Field of Dreams + Major League Baseball 2008-06-12 12:17:00 USA A family screening of Field
of Dreams
will turn everyone into baseball believers, as even those who eschew the mythic power of the game will be won over by Kevin Costner's magical performance. The film, which hearkens back to a simpler time without being corny, portrays one dreamer's persistence -- a message that translates to every generation. When farmer Ray Kinsella (Costner) hears a gentl Read more:Build
, League
, Major
, Major League
, Major League Baseball
Moms Help Families Stay Connected with "Kids Off The Couch" 2008-05-29 13:10:00 Staying connected to today's busy kids who are balancing school, sports and social schedules is a challenge most parents face. Two moms, Sarah Bowman and Diane Shakin, have launched a new website called Kids Off The Couch
that gives parents great ideas for creating family time beyond soccer games and birthday parties. These two moms have spent years exploring kid-culture with their kids, from ch Read more:Connected
, Families
Metamorphosis: The Secret Garden + Maria Sibylla Merian and Daughters at The Getty Center 2008-07-01 11:48:00 The Getty
's big summer show illustrates how observing nature can transform a person. At the age of 13, Maria
Sibylla Merian was one of the first to document the full metamorphosis of a silkworm. Her journey as a keen observer of the natural world led her to shed a traditional 17th century life and soar as an artist and scientist. Our family has always loved The Secret Garden
, a touching adaptation Read more:Center
, Metamorphosis
Talking to the Animals: Babe + Animal Acres in Acton 2008-07-24 15:11:00 From the first days of parenthood, the barnyard looms large. We sang "Old MacDonald", and read a gaggle of baby books, all of which featured characters that go quack and moo. Animal
characters faded into the background as our kids grew older, but there's no age limit to learning how it feels when a pig wiggles its snout on your leg. We spent a wonderful day at Animal Acres
, a farm sanctuary in Act Read more:Acton
, Animals
, Talking
Rent National Treasure + Go On A Scavenger Hunt = Kids Off The Couch 2008-07-15 11:04:00 Treasure The Good Times If you were too busy grilling hot dogs to talk with your family about why we celebrate the Fourth of July, why not let Nicholas Cage do the explaining? Our kids adore National
Treasure, and we were happy to discover that the film offers a pop-culture tour of the icons of our nation's birth -- from the Liberty Bell to Independence Hall. Cage, whose name is Benjamin Franklin Read more:Couch
, Scavenger
, Scavenger Hunt
, Treasure
Get Some Sand Between Your Toes 2008-08-13 11:50:00 Beach Volleyball at the Beijing Olympics + Visiting Manhattan Beach Michael Phelps and the Opening Ceremony may be dominating the Olympic news this week, but the hottest ticket in Beijing is for Beach Volleyball. The two top ranked women’s teams in the world are from the US, and superstars Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh hail from Southern California. We set our TIVOs to record the
Talking to Kids About Their Dreams 2008-07-30 12:35:00 Life Lessons: How to become Captain Kirk or Play for the NFL Every now and then, something stops us in our everyday tracks and makes us think about how we live our lives. We have been following the story of Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who delivered what is called a "last lecture," a tradition in which professors share their life wisdom. Only in this case, what is Read more:Dreams
, Talking
Top Ten Things To Do With Your Kids Before Summer Ends 2008-08-24 12:41:00 Endless Summer
; Beaches, Books and Bicycles When people ask "How was your summer" we want to holler that "It ain't over yet!" Now is the time to play cards, make lemonade, ride bikes and stay up late playing mini golf. Here our are Top Ten
pix for making the most out of those last summer days. 1. We All
All Bugged Out; Rent "A Bug's Life" + Visit an Insect Zoo = Kids Off The Couch 2008-08-18 12:09:00 Our families truly enjoyed watching "A Bug's Life" and then off we ventured to the Insect Zoo
at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. And don't forget to visit the Kids Off the Couch
Website for the full adventure with even more tips and an article about our personal adventure. Film Title: A Bug's Life Directed By: John Lasseter 1998, Rated G, 96 mins. Read more:Bugged
HOT TOPIC: Managing Your Kids Media Diets - Gossip Girl! 2008-09-20 19:59:00 As our kids have grown up, so has their taste for trendy television shows. Although we can hardly believe it, our sweet little girls have started high school (gasp!) and want to be in on the latest chat around campus. For our girls, that means the "MIND-BLOWINGLY INAPPROPRIATE" Gossip
Girl series, airing Monday night at 8 pm, just when they should be focusing on their homework.
For us, Read more:Diets
Kids Off The Couch $100 Gift Card from Gifts.com Contest! 2008-09-20 14:01:00
Kids Off the Couch
offers a valuable, weekly, kid's adventure tied into a great film or digital media that provides families with fun, new ideas for getting kids OFF the couch and into their world.
Sign up here today for your free membership before October 15th, 2008 and become eligible to win a $100 Gift Card
from Gifts
.com.
Gene Read more:Contest
The Past Roars to Life: The Land Before Time + Walking With Dinosaurs = Kids Off The Couch 2008-09-16 18:10:00
Are your kids dino-obsessed? Do you remember when they read Danny the Dinosaur and dreamt of riding a dinosaur's back? Our kids slept with their dinosaur books, memorizing each name -- Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex -- and have always wondered what it would be like to meet a real life dinosaur. But wonder no more, because...they're back! Walking
With Dinosaurs
is a live, theatrical Read more:Couch
HOT TOPIC: How Does Your Family Deal with Princess-Mania? 2008-10-07 11:57:00 With this week's much heralded re-release of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Princess
Aurora is sure to win over another generation of little girls, just in time for the Halloween costume rush. What's a parent to do? We know that most of our kids just can't resist the allure of those Disney dames strutting their stuff, so we developed our own Princess Counter-Programming, which we share with you thi Read more:Family
, Mania
Life is a Highway: Cars + Automotive Museum = Kids Off The Couch 2008-09-25 15:56:00 Instead of grumbling while you fill up your tank, why not rev up your engines by watching Pixar's family-friendly Cars? This animated tale about a race car named Lightning McQueen who pulls off the fast lane and learns to slow down in order to get where you need to be in life offers a full tank of humor, and nostalgia. Inspired by the adorable, personality-driven cars that race around for the sak Read more:Automotive
, Couch
, Highway
, Museum
HOT TOPIC: When did Halloween costumes become so...slutty? 2008-10-27 17:33:00 How is it that you can't find a girl pirate costume unless it is has a low cut top, long slits up the legs, and vampy high boots!? Used to be, those choices came in adult sizes only, but unless you've eschewed this holiday for the past five years, you know that the sexy version of the holiday's standards are now sold in kids' sizes. These choices are making the Disney princess outfits look downr Read more:Halloween
, slutty
Great New Kids Off The Couch Contest. Win a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card! 2008-10-23 16:36:00 1) Sign Up for for your Free Kids Off The Couch
membership with a kid friendly adventure delivered to your inbox each week, plus valuable discounts on local cultural events here
2) Select your favorite Kids Off The Couch Adventure 3) Briefly explain why you think it is the best in Blog Comments
4) Immediately become eligible to win a $50 gift card from Amazon
.com.
(Contest
expires 11/15/08. Read more:com Gift
, Great
Stellaluna + A Bat Education = Kids Off The Couch 2008-10-23 16:12:00 Imagine what Halloween night would be like if you were a bat. No need for flashlights or glow in the dark stripes on your costume. You'd hear, through echolocation, the rustling wrapper of your favorite candy before you even knocked on the door. You might identify by smell what's in your trick-or-treat bag without even looking. The heroine of the award-winning picture book Stellaluna and her batty Read more:Couch
, Education
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown + Corn Maze = Kids Off The Couch 2008-10-15 11:50:00 Good Grief, It's Halloween!Our kids' faces lit up like Jack-o-Lanterns when we told them we were upping the pumpkin ante this year by letting them loose in a Corn Maze. After sampling the delicious produce, we set off into plants that reached high above our heads. We bonded together over a map, trying to figure our way out from beneath the stalks and laughed ourselves silly every time we got lost Read more:Brown
, Charlie
, Charlie Brown
, Couch
, Great
, Pumpkin
"Holes" + Digging for Ancient Artifacts = Kids Off The Couch 2008-11-19 15:14:00 Many kids feel a burning curiosity about the days before they were born, which is why it's magical when an old object (discovered perhaps, in grandmother's closet) summons up a different world. Our kids learned how the pros look for treasures when they participated in a Family Dig at a local museum, an inventive program where families learn about ancient cultures by excavating pottery shards from Read more:Ancient
, Couch
, Holes
Focus on Holiday Photo Projects 2008-11-14 09:54:00 Holiday
Cards:Our holiday photo cards are already printed, and waiting to be addressed. We're not bragging, it's just that we're astonished to be done so early -- all because we discovered a really fun website that made creating the card easier than ever. Once you have selected a photo (we prefer a sin Read more:Focus
, Photo
, Projects
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa + Wildlife Safari Animal Park or Zoo Visit 2008-11-10 16:19:00 A Beastly Good TimeTemper tantrums, eye rolls and spotty table manners seem beastly enough when coming from your own sweet darlings, but Madagascar
: Escape
2 Africa
(which opens this Friday), features a band of animals who embody admirable human traits, like fierce loyalty and toleration of differences among friends. This lusciously animated sequel to the 2005 blockbuster follows the escapades of Read more:Animal
, Safari
, Zoo
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