Friday Round-up: Kids Night on Broadway, Money Help, Children's Books Reviews, More

Nov 25 2010

heather's blog

Things to do with kids: Friday Round-up: Kids Night on Broadway, Money Help, Children's Books Reviews, More

If you're looking for some good reading to gobble up after Thanksgiving, here are some interesting tidbits: a great site for children's book reviews, tips on scoring cheap tickets through Kids Night on Broadway, a peek at the upcoming hot kid flick, my latest children's music recommendation, thoughts on dealing with kids and money and more. Set up a plate of leftovers and kick back.

Read It to Me

I love reading. I love books. I love this site, the Children’s Book Review (which is headed up by Bianca Schulze). It gives interviews, links, posts and reviews about all things book-y. This piece by Lori Calbrese is in response to the NYTimes article discussing the phenomena of parents buying older books for young kids. She outlines why picture books are so instrumental in a kid’s development and offers up lists of fantastic picture books for your home library. In the same week, author-illustrator friends of mine sent along info about their awesome new group of picture book illustrators that have banded together. Check out some of the exhibits coming up in Brooklyn and NYC.

Let’s Hear it for Broadway!

We live in the greatest city – with the greatest opportunity to see live theater. But how often do we take advantage? A few Broadway “family happenings” caught my eye recently. Amy Langfield over at NewYorkology posted this great info about Kids Night on Broadway for February 2011 – tickets are already on sale and she reminds us of the “small print” that always goes along with these deals. If you can’t wait til February to get your musical theater fix, head to see “Elf,” the new Broadway hit based on the holiday movie. I did some research to see if it was good fun for the family (meaning I asked some parents who have seen it), and got a resounding thumb’s up. Here’s a clip to give you a preview – it opened Nov. 14 and runs through Jan. 2.

Lumos! Shedding Light on Kids Flicks

Yes, I am counting minutes until I see Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part I, but I have to point out some other movie news. We just got a glimpse of the 3-D sequel to Kung Fu Panda, 2008’s mega hit. Apparently all of the original stars (Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross and James Hong) are back and will be joined by uber-bad guy Gary Oldman, as well as Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michelle Yeoh. Check out the trailer here. I don’t know who’s more excited – me or my kiddo. What else is coming next summer? Cars 2, Smurfs 3-D, Spy Kids 4 and, oh yeah, the last Harry Potter movie.

What’s Playing on Heather’s IPod

We got a good response about my shout-out to Tim and the Space Cadets in the last round-up, so I’m keeping the really-awesome-and-not-annoying kids music picks coming. Next up: Recess Monkey. Yes, this Seattle-based kids band has been around awhile, and yes, their latest album “The Final Funktier” released over the summer, but it is so good it deserves a belated love note from yours truly. My song faves: Jet Pack, Ukulalien, and of course, Constellation Conga. I’m not their only fan – check out reviews at Dadnabbit and Chris Healy’s at ParentDish.

Making Sense of Money
As we head into these weeks where our kids may see us forking over the cash/plastic/clicking on “Buy Now,” these articles jumped out at me. Over at the Wall Street Journal, one dad laments how he committed a financial lesson faux pas and his struggles on how to mend it. On Yahoo’s Shine!, these moms emphasize it is about honesty -- fiscal and otherwise -- that help kids learn about money.

Daydream Believer

The results from this study about daydreaming were reported all around the web. It says that we spend about half of our time thinking about something other than what we are doing, which, they say, causes unhappiness. It suggests that if we focus our minds to stay on the task we are doing, engage with people and in conversation, we will be happier. Over at Babble.com, Heather Turgeon asks if that is the same for kids? Don’t we encourage them to let their minds wander and be creative? Interesting to think about -- if you don’t space out.

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