Five Rubber Duckies is a book in my house that gets read often. It is just as popular with Will (my one year old) as with Madison (my 4 year old). Will enjoys the books for several reasons. First, he likes the duckies. The pages aren’t like normal book pages; they are half pages with ducks on top. The pages are thick cardboard, so even if he chews on them (and he has), they will not get wrecked. He also can’t rip them. Madison likes this book because we can work on her math skills. As you turn each page, there are two lines which rhyme. It is a story about duckies, and as you turn the page, we lose a ducky (have no fear — they don’t need foreclosure help, they are just busy doing other things).  It is a cute story and ends with 1 rubber ducky being left with a clean baby.  My kids completely adore this book and I highly recommend it!

I happened to catch Oceans Thirteen the other night on HBO and ended up staying up half the night.  I am a huge fan of the Oceans Trilogy, and this movie does not disappoint at all.  Basically, the boys shut down the venture of a backstabbing hotelier (Al Pacino) because the guy double-crossed the Reuben (Elliott Gould).  By the boys, I mean George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Shabao Qin, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Bernie Mac, and Carl Reiner.  Without giving too much away, I want to say that Ocean’s Thirteen is more like Ocean’s Eleven.  It has the fast pace needed to keep your attention yet you know the guys won’t be looking for jobs in San Francisco. They should be set for a while again.

This is a show moms will enjoy as much as their kids. Lazytown is was created and is filmed in Iceland. The creator is Magnus Scheving. He is both a professional athlete and aerobic champion there (and he’s really good looking when not in his Sportacus costume). The show is about the struggle of being lazy and being healthy. Some of the characters you meet on this show include Stephanie (she’s the pink haired girl), Sportacus (the good looking health conscious superhero), and Robbie Rotten (the villian who likes to be lazy and eat unhealthy. These are all human characters. The other characters are a mix of live action puppets and computer generated animation. The main goal of this show is to promote healthy eating and lots of activity. For example, instead of looking for cruise deals, Sportacus would be off swimming. There are many learning goals that this show achieves (taken from the Noggin website):

• Value healthful habits, physical activity, and joy of effort
  • Benchmarks supported in particular include:
    • Recognize physical outcomes of healthful habits and being active.
    • Appreciate the fun inherent in physical activity.
• Cultivate healthful eating habits
  • Benchmarks supported in particular include:
    • Eat balanced diet.
    • Understand food is necessary for health and growth.
• Explore a variety of movements, indoors and outdoors
  • Benchmarks supported in particular include:
    • Run, climb, jump, balance, hop, and swing safely
    • Express self with controlled movements.
    • Practice.
• Interact with movable objects
  • A benchmark supported in particular is:
    • Bounce, roll, catch, throw, and kick balls.

If you want to get your kids to play outside more, have them watch this show.