That's Betty! -- The Story of Betty White -- a new picture book to honor this American Treasure

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

On December 31, 2021, the news of Betty White's death saddened the country. She was weeks shy of her 100th birthday. With the pandemic still going on people were upset that 2021 took yet another beloved person and thing from the normalcy of life. Shortly after her death #bettywhitechallenge was everywhere. The idea was to donate $5 to a local animal shelter in honor of Betty White on her 100th birthday, January 17, 2022. Betty White was a huge animal lover and spoke out for them often. Well people in the United States and elsewhere honored Betty for her birthday. On Facebook and Instagram alone $12.7 million was donated to animal shelters. (Source) The LA Zoo got almost $95,000 in donations. The Calgary Humane Society in Canada posted that it received over $91,000 (Canadian) in honor of Betty White. (Source) And that does not even cover the small animals shelters that people like me donated to directly. After her death Betty White was making a difference. Today I get to share a wonderful new picture book about Betty White. It is called That's Betty! The Story of Betty White by Gregory Bonsignore and illustrated by Jennifer M. Potter. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8. It is also a multicultural children's book. 

20 Furry Tales -- A PBS Kids DVD

I am hosting a giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copies of these DVDs free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.

Today I get to share with you a new PBS Kids DVD that is available only at Walmart. The DVD is 20 Furry Tales. It came out last week. It is not available on-line (or at least I could not find it at Walmart's website), so you have to go into a store to buy this one. 

This DVD has almost four hours of shows on it! It includes Wild Kratts, Peg + Cat, Word World, Caillou, Arthur, Super Why, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow and Word Girl. All of the stories feature a furry friend!! Hazel loves this DVD because it has many of her favorites as well as some of her previous favorites that she likes to watch every once in awhile all in place. It is great for multiple ages due to the shows on it and can span preschool to early elementary. All of the shows are educational and teach about life, math, reading and animals. The DVD menus are set up so that you can look at the episodes of a particular show and do not have to watch all the shows if a child is too young or too old for the show. I hope you will take the time to check it out.

I am Lucille Ball Book Review

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books & promotional items free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I get to share with you a book that brings back many childhood memories for me and Steve. We grew up watching the I Love Lucy Show. Did you? Penguin Kids sent us the book, I am Lucille Ball, by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. It is the newest addition of the Ordinary People Change the World series. It was released July 14, 2015.

Mia and Me: Friends to the Rescue DVD Review

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copy of this DVD free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

We are so excited in my house!! Today the newest Mia and Me: Friends to the Rescue is being released. We discovered Mia and Me just a couple of weeks ago thanks to PBS Kids. They sent us the first DVD, Mia and Me: Discover Centopia. Hazel watched it three times in two days. Needless to say she loves Mia and Me! Well this new DVD did not disappoint us either. 

DVD Reviews: Caillou Helps Out, Peg + Cat Rocks, and Mia and Me Discover Centopia

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copies of these DVDs free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today we are going to share three more PBS Kids DVDs with you. The first is the latest Caillou DVD: Caillou Helps Out. The DVD was released last month. If you have read Crafty Moms Share from the beginning, you may remember that Caillou was Hazel's favorite show when she was young. Although we do not watch him much anymore she still enjoys seeing him.

Groundhog Masks inspired by the Wild Kratts with free pattern

Hazel's favorite television show is The Wild Kratts. It is on PBS and features Chris and Martin Kratt in real life who go into cartoon to explore different animals lives. In cartoons they have all sorts of great technology including creature power suits that allow them to change into the animals. Of course it is not on enough for Hazel so we watch it On Demand often. Since she was home all last week we have been watching the four or so shows that are On Demand over and over. One of the episodes is an Episode from Season 2 called Groundhog Wake Up. (You can see the full episode here for $1.99.) I am sure it is On Demand since Groundhog Day is fast approaching. On the show they make a map on their Creature Pods (I think that is what they are called) after scanning a real groundhog's burrow. Hazel decided to use her play tent as her burrow with the tunnel as one of the entrance tunnels. Watching her play groundhog gave me an idea.

"Groundhog, eating" by D. Gordon E. Robertson - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Back To School DVD Pack Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVDs free of charge and is supplying the ones for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the DVD on NCircle Entertainment's site for your convenience. You can also find their DVDs at local retailers!

 With all my giveaways ending tomorrow, it is time to kick off another one! This month NCircle Entertainment has changed the monthly review and giveaway of one DVD to a prize pack of five DVDs which will not be monthly. Since we have recently started school in the United States, they put together a Back-to-School Package. It includes the newest Octonauts: Deep Sea Mission, and The Wiggles: Apples & Bananas as well as The Cat in the Hat: Show & Tell Sure Is Swell!, Sid the Science Kid: The Ruler of Thumb and Animals Atlas: Animals ABC. So today I will review these five DVDs and then at the end you can enter to win all five of them!!

Octonauts: To the Gup-X DVD Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVD free of charge and is supplying the one for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.

Having gone from allowing Hazel to watch very small amounts of television to watching much more after switching schools, I tend to really pay attention to what she is watching. One of her favorite shows is The Octonauts on Disney Junior. What I like about the show is it teaches something about underwater creatures and to protect the underwater life. I believe this show is where she got the idea of exploring underwater creatures. If you have missed them, we have posted two of our underwater explorations thus far: jellyfish and sharks. The show is based on books written by Meomi and we will be reviewing one of them during this giveaway as well!

Coloring Page Source

Since I know Hazel loves the show and I like her watching it, I jumped at the chance to review and giveaway a copy of the newest Octonauts DVD from NCircle Enterntainment. Octonauts: To the Gup-X is being released on March 18th. You can pre-order it from NCircle or Amazon. The suggested retail price is $12.99.

Octonauts: To the Gup-X contains six episodes including "Great White Shark", "Coconut Crabs," "Bowhead Whales," "Whale Shark," "Monster Map," and "Flying Fish." It also has a bonus feature of a close up of the Gup-X. Overall the episodes are child-friendly ways to explore the underwater world and learn about sea life you may never have heard of. For our underwater creature explorations I turned to the library for some books on the creatures and included the creatures in these episodes. I found some of the creatures.

We read these books to learn even more about the creatures. "Monster Map" has an octopus in it for the creature. The first time we watched it, Hazel was scared of the "Great White Shark" but I found after learning more about them, she was not as afraid. I think the more exciting thing is when she saw the cover of Deborah Muzzola's Whale Shark book, she told me it was about whale sharks. She is learning what the creatures look like.

To go with the video we made an Octonaut hat. I was going to make one out of fabric for her, but I wanted her to have a part in making it. I had seen a tutorial to make a sailor's hat out of a coffee filter and cardboard at Cut Out and Keep. Since our coffee filters are missing right now, we used a paper bowl. Hazel used her water color paints and painted the bowl. Then we made a rim with cardboard and construction paper. The hardest part was attaching the rim to the bowl. I glued it and then put some tape on it as well as clothespins until the glue dried. I enlarged one of the pictures over at Disney Junior for the Octonaut symbol on the hat.

I also made Hazel some peg dolls of a few of the characters. She cannot wait for me to make the rest of them, but for now she has Kwazii, Peso and Captain Barnacles. They are three of her favorites.

She has also asked me to make a full outfit for her. She decided it should be Captain Barnacles since he has the most clothes and she wants the tool on his belt. Looks like I have some sewing to do.

Needless to say we loved the DVD. Hazel has watched it several times which is a lot for her with any DVD since she usually wants to watch the shows on television and not a specific DVD. If you are looking for a DVD that will appeal to either boy or girl and will also educate them a bit, this is a great one! Now I get to offer you a copy to win for you own thanks to NCircle Entertainment. Just follow my Giveaway Rules and do what the Rafflecopter says.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pocoyo's Circus DVD Review & Giveaway!

Has your child discovered the adorable little boy in blue named Pocoyo yet? Our first experience with Pocoyo was at the end of the Peep and the Big Wide World episodes on PBS, there is a short Pocoyo cartoon. Apparently it is also on Nick Jr, but we don't watch it there. When NCircle Entertainment offered to send me a copy of Pocoyo's Circus DVD and offer one as a giveaway to one of my lucky winners, I jumped at the chance. Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD for review purposes and the offer to give another one away. All opinions are my own.

Dot-to-Dot available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

Now if you have not seen Pocoyo, it is an adorable show with an adult narrator who interacts with the characters. There is the little boy named Pocoyo and his animal friends. Each episode has a cute story and usually there is a life lesson in it. Pocoyo is orignally a Spanish cartoon.

We were sent the latest Pocoyo DVD which is Pocoyo's Circus. This DVD became available in stores on August 27th for $12.99. It has eight episodes of Pocoyo available in both English or Spanish. In the first episode an alien circus comes for a visit and after some mischievous playing with their tools, the circus has to regroup, but now an angry group of aliens have come expecting to see the circus, so Pocoyo and his friends put it on. In another episode, Pocoyo and his friends are figuring out who left footprints. Once they are able to match each set to the owner, they are fine, but there are some twists and turns in the story.

Match Sheet available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

The other episodes are Pocoyo's Balloon, Who's Calling Me Now, Vamoosh on the Loosh, New to the Planet, Mad Mix Machine, and Remember When. Each has a lesson about listening to others, respecting others, being kind, not taking others things, and such. I also need to add that my mother-in-law absolutely loves Pocoyo. She actually bought one of the other Pocoyo DVDs right after we had gotten ours not knowing we had one. She bought it because she loves watching the show with Hazel.

Printable available at Earth Hour in Pocoyo Activity Book

So now is your chance to win this wonderful Pocoyo's Circus DVD. It is an adorable show that children love and I know once Hazel and I get a bit better at our Spanish we will be watching it in Spanish as well. To enter please follow my Giveaway Rules and do what the Rafflecopter asks. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Scrolling Puppet Theater

So Hazel has been asking to make a puppet theater for a long time. We just have not had the time. The other day she asked if I could help her with a project. She described the project and I knew she had gotten the idea from an episode of Curious George (or Georgie as Hazel likes to call him). To see the episode on YouTube click here. (As you can see in the picture above Hazel and her best friend went to see Curious George last spring at the Curious George Store in Harvard Square.)

In the episode Curious George went to see the opera, Hansel and Gretel. He went because his friend, Betsy, got the chicken pox and could not go. Hansel and Gretel is Betsy's favorite opera. George loved it and he got the idea to do a show for Betsy. He finally came up with a scrolling show. Hazel wanted to put on Cinderella in a somewhat similar way, except she wanted to use her figures but have the background scroll. 

I had a UPS box that I had saved for a craft. I cut a hole in it and opened the tabs on both ends. One end was already open and the other I cut a slit to slide the paper in. We also happened to have a broken wooden dowel, so I used that. I glued and taped it to each tab. Then we put paper towel tubes on the dowel pieces. I took Hazel's scroll paper from her paint easel. It was a little big so we had to cut the piece in height. She drew her scenery with a little help from me on the castle. Then we taped it to the paper towel tubes while feeding it through the box.  Now she enjoys acting out Cinderella with her figurines.

Have television shows inspired your child to make a craft? What shows? Curious George is great for getting kids to investigate and think about things. I recently heard on the news that kids who read and watch Curious George tend to do better in math and science. Don't know the facts from the study though to know if it is valid.