Category Archives: Entertainment

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Six New Kids Shows Amazon Video

If you need another reason to join Amazon Prime, you’ll love this!

Six new kids pilots will be available on Amazon Prime June 26, including preschool project The Adventures of Knickerbock Teetertop, and animated shows for ages six to 11 Lost In Oz, Lily the Unicorn, and Bear in Underwear, as well as live-action shows A History of Radness and The Kicks.

Amazon today announced it will debut its next kids pilot season of 2015 on Friday, June 26 on Amazon Instant Video in the US, UK and Germany. Four animated kids pilots—The Adventures of Knickerbock Teetertop, Lost In Oz, Lily the Unicorn, and Bear in Underwear—will premiere along with two live-action kids pilots—A History of Radness and The Kicks.   Customers will once again be invited to watch and provide feedback on the shows they want to see turned into full series for Prime members. All pilots will be available via the Amazon Instant Video app for TVs, connected devices and mobile devices, or online at Amazon.com/AIV.

“Each of these new pilots bring a quality level of character and storytelling that naturally connect with kids and families,” said Tara Sorensen, Head of Kids Programming at Amazon Studios. “We are excited to bring the combination of great talent, hard work and remarkable vision to our customers.”

About Amazon’s New Kids Pilots

The Adventures of Knickerbock Teetertop
Age: preschool-aged children; animated
Knickerbock Teetertop, the smallest kid on the enchanted Wonderpine Mountain, wants to be a big adventurer just like his grandpa. Joined by friends on his magical Wonderboggan, Knickerbock, Holly, and Otto have wondrous, challenging adventures discovering new places and creatures—and it’s not easy. Knickerbock bounces along rugged terrain, pushes against the elements, and challenges himself to overcome obstacles. As he encounters problems Knickerbock uses perseverance, grit, and some encouragement from Grandpa to “adventure on, adventure through.”

Lost in Oz
Age: 6-11; animated
Lost in Oz is an animated, action-adventure comedy set in a modern, metropolitan Emerald City. Stranded in this spectacular world, 12-year-old Dorothy Gale befriends West, a young, street-smart witch grappling with dark temptations, and Ojo, a giant munchkin. With Dorothy’s dog Toto, this unlikely crew embarks on an epic journey, seeking out the magic Dorothy needs to get back to Kansas. The challenge for Dorothy, and everyone else in this world, is that Oz is facing the greatest magic crisis in eons.

Lily the Unicorn
Age: 6-11; animated
Lily is not only a remarkable, colorful, and comical gal—she is truly one-in-a-million. Her unique perspective and independent spirit can brighten up any situation and often leads her and her loyal friends into unexpected shenanigans. In Lily’s world, anything is possible: a simple song she hums can go viral and top the charts. A quiet surprise picnic for her best buddy Roger can lead to a city-wide adventure featuring falafel waffles (yum) and a wise guru (of course). Lily the Unicorn puts a hilarious spin on everyday situations as Lily transforms even the most typical day into something extraordinary.

Bear in Underwear
Age: 6-11; animated
If there’s one thing any forest creature needs before stepping out to greet the day it’s…underwear? At least that is the way the lovable cast of Bear in Underwear sees things! Welcome to Shady Glade Woods where Eddie Behr, an eternally optimistic, high energy bear, and his quirky group of animal friends and family reside. Eddie aspires to be a forest legend just like his dad, who discovered “pants” at an abandoned campsite (well, actually, what he really discovered were tighty whiteys…but no one knows the difference!). Although Eddie is eager to make just as positive an impact on his community as his father did, he soon realizes that success may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Delightful hijinks ensue in a world full of forest animals who look at everything from a slightly skewed point of view.

A History of Radness
Age: 6-11; live-action
Written and Executive Produced by Andrew Green (Hannah Montana), A History of Radness captures the authentic experience of aspiring musicians forming their band. The story follows siblings Jack and Tessie from their less-than-cool middle school beginnings at Pleasant Meadows Middle School to the start of their music careers as they put together a band of like-minded musicians, considered outsiders by fellow classmates.

The Kicks
Age: 6-11; live-action
Devin Burke was the star player on her soccer team back home until her family moved to California midway through the school year. Now, Devin has to rise to the challenge after discovering that her new school team has been on a losing streak over the last few months and is badly in need of a leader to rally the team together.

How to watch these new shows

Amazon Prime members have exclusive access to popular TV series at no additional cost to their membership. Prime members also have access to a collection of kids shows now airing including Amazon Original Series’ Annedroids, Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street and the Annecy, Annie and multi-Emmy Award-winning Tumble Leaf from Bix Pix Entertainmentas well as popular shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. including SpongeBob SquarePantsDora the ExplorerTeam UmizoomiBlue’s Clues and The Bubble Guppies.

In addition to tens of thousands of titles to instantly stream, the Amazon Prime membership (www.amazon.com/primevideo) includes one million songs and hundreds of playlists with Prime Music, unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, early access to select Lightning Deals, unlimited photo storage, and access to more than 800,000 books all for $99 a year.

 

‘It’s a Small World’ 50th Anniversary! Watch People Around The World Sing, Create a Doll, & Record Yourself Singing!

It's a Small World 50th Anniversary

What’s your favorite ride at Disney World? Chances are It’s A Small World is at the top of your list. It’s #1 on my list.

The  vibrant colors and beautiful scenery riders see during their journey through It’s A Small World stick with you.

The repetition of the song is just what a small child needs to engrain something in their memory forever and the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride does just that.   What’s so great is that the song is sung is so many different languages.  I still feel so happy on that ride and hope my kids will feel the same when they are my age. The song really plants and possibly ingrains in a child’s mind that our world really is a small one and that is something to appreciate.

Go to SmallWorld50.com today to be part of the song’s 50th anniversary by participating in a life Google Hangout with Richard Sherman, who co-authored the song with his brother in the 1950’s.

 

On SmallWorld50.com you can

  • Create your own It’s a Small World doll in a matter of seconds and Disney will donate $1 to UNICEF for every doll created, up to $100,000!
  • Record yourself singing It’s A Small World!  Get your kids in on the action too!
  • Watch Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, and Jenny McCarthy sing It’s A Small World on The View!

Here is the doll I created

Screen Shot 2014-04-10 at 9.35.10 AM

 

Do you have memories of riding It’s a Small World as a child?

Treasure Hunts aren’t just for kids! Join in on the Cover FX treasure hunt.

THE HUNT HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!

Starting today until Saturday September 11th, Cover FX will be placing treasure boxes throughout selected cities across the US.

Fan Cover FX on Facebook to learn specific clues and locations on where you can find the hidden treasures in a city near you.  All packages include the new Eye Prep FX, and some lucky winners may receive gift cards up to $100 for Sephora!  Let the games begin!.

Here is a direct link to the ‘game’ instructions on CoverFX Facebook page.

Have fun!

PicPocket Books – children’s books for the iPhone + a GIVEAWAY

PicPocket Books for the iphone

Now kids can enjoy their favorite books from your iPhone!  Forget the playstations, game consoles and DVDs, our mobile picture books will entertain and educate your child in the car, plane, train and more.

It’s almost a nightly ritual that after reading books, Madelyn gets my iPhone and read/watch two of Madelyn’s favorite PicPocket books; Eric And The Enchanted Leaf: The First Adventure by Deborah K. Frontiera and BlueBeary by Kathleen McMillan.

Madelyn with PicPocket Books app on my iPhone

PicPocket Books show both the words and the images from the book on your phone and readers can choose to read a PicPocket book to Madelyn or to have the narrator read it.   And coming soon, friends and family can read and record the story in their own voices!  Madelyn can touch the screen to turn the page or I can set the app to turn the pages automatically which I do when I’m hoping Madelyn will sit and watch the book by herself for a few minutes.  The story can be paused anytime as well.

Madelyn is showing interest in learning to read and PicPocket books are great for that because the words are highlighted as they are read.  The graphics are incredibly sharp and high quality, it’s just like reading a book but with a shiny screen.

PicPocket Books specializes in adapting and creating children’s books for the iPhone and iPod and that is noticeable in the quality of their apps.  They don’t develop other types of apps which I think would diminish the quality of their book apps.  Great job PicPocket Books!

Follow PicPocket Books on Twitter

PicPocket Books Facebook page

PicPocket Books website

PicPocket books range in price from .99 to $3.99 per book.  You won’t be disappointed!

PicPocket books Eric and the Enchanted Leaf iphone book

PicPocket Books GIVEAWAY!

One lucky reader will win 4 PicPocket Book titles, for the iphone/ipod, of their choice from and 2 Kids Math Fun iphone/ipod apps!

How to enter to win:

  • Mandatory – Fill out the form below.
  • Optional for an extra entry – After you fill out the entry form, leave a comment telling us what your favorite PicPocket Book app is and why you want to win.
  • Entires accepted through July 3rd

KidzBop 16 & Christmas CD reviews and giveaway

My kids love music. whether it’s making music or listening to it. I prefer it when they are listening not making. It gets a little loud and when my 10 and 3 year olds try to form a band in the kitchen.

KidzBop Christmas CD

We’ve been listening to KidzBop 16 a lot lately and I’ll tell you why I’m very happy about that:

  • I recognize some of the songs (I don’t know whether that’s good or bad)
  • The kids love to sing along
  • The music is energizing for the kids and they have a blast dancing to it
  • KidzBop is great car music. It keeps me moving (awake) and the kids happy while in the car

KidzBop 16 songs include Circus and Boom Boom Pow. KidzBop songs and albums can be downloaded via iTunes. Here is the iTunes link for Boom Boom Pow Kidz Bop Kids - Kidz Bop 16 and from there you can listen to and browse other KidzBop songs.

Here’s the ITunes link to ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’: Kidz Bop Kids - Kidz Bop Christmas - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

GIVEAWAY!

We are giving 8 lucky readers a KidzBop 16 and KidzBop Christmas CD’s. Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite song is right now (any song/artist) and get 2 extra entries if you leave a 2nd comment with your Twitter ID AFTER retweeting this post!