Tag Archives: NAture

PBS Kids VIP, Television

All New Nature Cat Special Coming January 18th

Nature Cat Special Kit

On Monday January 18th while the kids are home from school you can take the time to get them into Nature. Nature Cat that is. Nature Cat is a funny new show on PBS Kids about a house cat named Fred who dreams of getting outdoors as often as possible. Once his family leaves for the day he does just that. He gets out and has adventures in nature with his friends. I learned about this show last year at the PBS Annual Meeting and even got to meet David and Adam Rudman the creators of the show. These guys are quite funny and really want kids to watch the show and then get out and explore their own backyards.

To help me and my kids in our backyard nature adventures we were given a special Nature Cat kit that included fun printouts on how to make tracks with Paint, Crayons or Play Dough. There was also a book titled, “I Love Dirt” which is an outdoor activity book. The thing is, we just had our first snowfall and getting outside to play in the dirt and mud is going to have to wait for a while. We’ll have to hold off on that for now and try and do some cold weather related outdoor activities. We will be saving the Kaleidoscope Flower Garden for the Spring because we’d like to get the more flowers around the yard.

The kit also included a screener of the episodes that will be part of the special on Monday. They are four 11 minute episodes with topics on city animals, streams, seeds and rainbows. Full descriptions are below. I would also like to point out that the special will repeat during the week, be available for free on the Nature Cat website and on the PBS KIDS Video App which is accessible on a variety of mobile devices and on platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Xbox One and Chromecast. Continue reading All New Nature Cat Special Coming January 18th →

PBS Kids VIP, Press Release, Review

DVD Review: Leave it to Beavers

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Because I am a PBS Kids VIP (Very Involved Parent) I am often asked if I want to review additional PBS materials. If they are of interest to me I am excited to do so and in this case I wanted to learn more about Beavers. I was sent a copy of “Nature: Leave it to Beavers” to watch and review. Here’s what we thought of it and below that you will find the official press release about the DVD. Here is the trailer.

When the bulk of the programming that your kids watch is cartoons it is often a challenge to get them to check out something else. In the case of the DVD Nature: Leave it to Beavers we had to ask the kids a couple of times if they wanted to watch the show. I can understand being a little kid and giving up your cartoons to learn but we bribed them with some popcorn and they were good to go for the hour long show.

I think that we were all pleasantly surprised with how entertaining and informative this show was. You finish watching it and wonder why beavers are introduced into many more areas that are undergoing droughts. I was especially fascinated by the guy who played running water for the beavers and they began to build a dam in that very spot where the music was playing. I wonder how many radios he went through when researching that behavior.

The kids thought the beavers were cute and they learned a lot from the show. It was certainly something we wouldn’t have just picked if we weren’t offered it for review because those sorts of shows can be a bit dry. This was entertaining and compelling and made me certainly want to watch more from the Nature series. Continue reading DVD Review: Leave it to Beavers →