This is a post all about how my life got flip-turned upside down...

We didn't become royalty of any LA suburb, unfortunately. However, the TV household is no longer based out of Columbus, Ohio.

It all started back in July. TV Dad got a job offer after not having taken down his resume from LinkedIn. Yes, you're reading that right, someone found him on LinkedIn and offered him an interview. He asked me if he should go, because the interview was for a job in another state. It was something we had never discussed before. I told him to go for it, what's the worst that could happen? So he did. And the offer they gave him, basically on the spot, was amazing. The company was fabulous. There was plenty of growth opportunity for him, something his previous job no longer afforded him.

So...  I spent the remainder of the summer packing our house, finding a new one, qualifying for the mortgage, figuring out what to do with our old house, making moving arrangements, and figuring out a temporary living situation for TV Dad. He moved out to go to work and would come home on the weekends.

He was less than 200 miles away, but it felt like it was across the country. I gained a new respect (not that I didn't have respect before, but now it was magnified) for spouses who are either parenting by themselves or while their partner is deployed. It was the hardest four months of my life as a mom.

October 23rd, we officially signed the mortgage paperwork for our new home in Indianapolis. It's my dream home (except for the kitchen, unfortunately, which was designed by a tiny Asian woman who wanted something like she had back home... I get it, but I have grandiose plans to redo it eventually). It's more than double the size of the house we were living in. It's got a finished basement, which we have given mostly to TV Boy to house his toys/video games. It also has a lovely mother-in-law suite down there, which has served well for the many visits of TV Grandma (sorry Mom, that's the name you get here!). We finally have a real guest room. All amazing things.

But I had to leave everything I've ever known behind. For the first time in my life, I had to get to know a new city. Yes, I was one of those freaks that went to college in the same city I grew up in. I never lived in a different city, unless you count my father's house after he remarried, which was a suburb of my city, haha!

Anyway, I digress!

Moving has been hard, mostly because I left my entire social life behind. TV Boy made friends with kids just up the street. TV Dad has new friends at work. I've been struggling to find groups to make new friends for myself, but no one tells you how hard that is in your thirties!

All this to say, I'm so sorry to any of my loyal readers (did I ever have any of those?) that I let this gig fall by the wayside. I'm hoping to force myself to get back into it! I'm considering making a change to more general entertainment instead of just kids stuff in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. All in the pipes for now, of course!

As a fun little bit, I have actually been keeping up with The TV Mom Facebook page. Just this past week, as part of a farewell to MythBusters, TV Boy made a little LEGO scene of Jamie Hyneman blowing up a TARDIS. I posted a video of him explaining it to the Facebook page, and it went WILD! I still don't know if Adam or Jamie saw it, but look at these numbers!

17K people saw this... what???

So, do TV Boy a little favor and hit up the page, watch and click like/share/or comment on his video. He would lose his mind if Jamie or Adam replied to it! Help his little six-and-a-half year old dream come true!

Here's hoping for more new content from your (presumably) favorite TV Mom!

Dinosaur Train

So your child loves dinosaurs. They also love trains. But never in a million years could you figure out how to combine the two interests. How about a few HUNDRED million years? Well, the folks at Jim Henson studios have remedied your problem with Dinosaur Train. Yes, it's dinosaurs who ride on a train. How simple!

The show is about the Pteranodon family, and you get the basic synopsis in the opening credits. Mrs. Pteranodon has four eggs in her nest. Three hatch, and she names them (from left to right in the picture above) Tiny, Shiny, and Don. Then the last egg hatches, and surprise! It's a baby T-Rex (who exclaims "what am I doing in a Pteranodon nest?!" in the short retelling). She names him Buddy, and promises they'll take a vacation to travel the world and meet all of the other dinosaur species.

 

The Dinosaur Train itself has a Troodon for a conductor, aptly named "Mr. Conductor", who calls out before the train enters a "time tunnel", which allows it to travel between the different periods/epochs/eras of the dinosaur ages. He's also a wealth of knowledge about dinosaur species, as he was the one who helped Buddy figure out he was a T-Rex based on his features.

Each segment of the show is divided by a visit from real-life paleontologist, Dr. Scott (Dr. Scott D. Sampson, a current curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History), who gives the children more facts about the dinosaurs they met in the animated segment of the show. He always closes with "get out, get into nature, and make your own discoveries!", encouraging children to explore for themselves to learn more about the world around them.

Dinosaur Train broadcasts on PBS, which is a free over-the-air channel. Check your local listings for times and channel lineups. There are also DVDs, books, and toys available to further your Dinosaur Train experience.  The program is also fairly new, so expect to see new episodes for a while yet. In fact, they just premiered "Dinosaur Train, Dino Big City" this past Monday, an hour long special with Dr. Scott actually appearing in his home museum instead of the usual green screen with dinosaur pictures. I'm sure that will come out on DVD soon, if not already.

Suggested ages for this program, I would figure preschool and up. The dinosaurs are brightly colored and friendly faced, but some youngsters might still be afraid of them. There are a lot of big words and science-y stuff being thrown around too that much younger children may not be interested. There isn't a lot of singing or music either. I think the appeal could extend well into the elementary years, if not even into middle school for budding paleontologists, especially with a real life role model such as Dr. Scott.

What your child learns:

• Dinosaur species: Names of dinosaurs, their features, when they lived, where they were found, how they lived, how big they were.
• Vocabulary: Words like "carnivore", "herbivore", "mammal", etc. and their meanings.
• Science: How paleontologists work in the field, how fossils are made and preserved, features of the ancient planet, differences in animals, how to categorize animals based on features.

As a parent watching, you might learn some interesting facts that you never learned in school science classes (I never knew America was once two separate pieces of land! See that map Mr. Conductor is pointing at above? That was the US a few million years ago. Interesting!). The characters aren't too obnoxious. Sometimes when Mr. Conductor's mother rides along, you can see him get all flustered, just as many of us do as adults around our parents, especially when they visit us at work! As I said before, there isn't a lot of singing going on either, so the show doesn't get that obnoxious. Personally, I think Dr. Scott needs some pointers about how to not be so strange on camera and to not have dead-eyes, but that's just me.

I do want to add that this is a great program for families with adopted children, as that topic is often mentioned in reference to Buddy's role in the family. Mrs. Pteranodon often tells him that even though he's not the same species, and that someday he'll be much larger than all of them because he's so different, that they adopted him and love him just the same. No matter what, he's their child and they love him. They also take him to see a T-Rex family often so he can learn about himself and what he will grow up to be. This may be a great way for families to integrate their own adoptions into conversation with their children in a loving manner, and I really do love their treatment of the topic.

It's a cute concept that combines the two often-favored topics of trains and dinosaurs into one adorable little program that is also educational. Can't go wrong with this one!

Sid the Science Kid

My first post of a show not in my header... come on, you know you're impressed!

Today we're looking at Sid the Science Kid. This show is a Jim Henson production. Yes, the very same Jim Henson who came up with the Muppets on Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, etc. However, this is a very different animal than your run-of-the-mill Muppet show. Sid the Science Kid is 100% CGI, or Computer Generated Images. (And now you know what CGI means if you didn't already!) The other thing this show is... motion capture. This is initially what creeped me out about the show, and why I didn't start watching it until recently. MoCap rubs me the wrong way sometimes. But, after watching it for some weeks now, my son has fallen in love. It still took me watching the "making of" video before I could stand to watch it.





See, now you feel better about it too. Science is fun. Or you may be more freaked out than before seeing Sid as a skeletal machine around a tiny woman, I don't know.

The story follows Sid, "the kid who wanted to know everything about everything", as he goes through his day. We start out usually in Sid's home with his parents and younger brother. Sid stumbles upon a scientific problem and asks his parents about it. They start his lessons by giving basic information, like a parent usually does, but then it's time for Sid to go to school and con his teacher Susie into making her lesson plans all about what he wants. I will interject here that one of the things that still bugs me is that apparently Susie never has her own lessons planned and lets the kids do whatever they want. As a former teacher myself, I know child-led learning is important, but so is having lesson plans. I guess it works for her though.

Sid rides to school with his mom, and finds his friends Gerald (pink skin), Gabriella (curly red hair), and Mae (glasses). He then introduces his idea of the day to them, and they follow along in wanting to learn all about it. Susie calls everyone in for "rug time" with a song, and they share what they want to learn about. Susie then leads them in a scientific experiment, encouraging the kids to observe, compare, contrast, and write in their science journals. The show usually interjects film of real kids performing the same experiments and writing in their journals here. That's a feature I really like, because it shows your child that they can do these very same things at home on their own. After this, the kids invite her to sing a song for them about their daily topic, she invites them to play with their new ideas outside, and then Sid's grandma picks him up from school. Sid's grandma usually shares a story on their ride home of some time in her past that she had experience with the topic which Sid is learning about. They get home, play with his family for a little while, and then Sid gets ready for bed and reminisces about his day and what he has learned.

This show is aimed at kids in high levels of preschool all the way through elementary school. The appeal is obviously there for younger kids too, as my two year old enjoys the singing, dancing, and fun voices of the characters. Kids older than elementary may find this show a little on the slow side though.

The program airs on PBS channels, which is available with any basic over-the-air television. Check your local listings for times and channels. There are also plenty of DVDs available for travel and non-air time watching.

The educational value of this show is pretty obvious. It teaches your child about the scientific method, and about how our world works. Your child will also likely walk away with some big "science" words like "estimation", "hypothesis", "experiment", and so on.

What your child learns:

• Science: How to follow the scientific method, testing, experimenting, journaling their experiences, making guesses, how the world works, nature, astronomy, inventions, testing, compare/contrast, asking questions, and science terminology.
• Social and Emotional Development: Family bonds, being a good friend, listening to a teacher, caring for the world around them, feelings and empathy.

 As a parent, really the only thing that draws me to this show is knowing the science behind it (see video above). Other than that, I do enjoy that they show real children doing the things the animated characters are, so that it makes the program easy to relate to. It also gives me great ideas for things to do with my future homeschooling. As a child watching, the bright colors, happy animation, and fun personalities of the characters are attractive, and for the most part, younger kids won't be able to detect that they're actually learning something by watching. It's worth a watch or two. As long as it doesn't make your skin crawl.