A Love Letter to PBS (Part III or Brit Comedies)

As you all now know I love PBS. Today's post is about British comedies. I love British comedy. It almost always involves some form of slapstick and always smart humor. My recommended shows are: The Vicar of Dibbly, Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances, and Doc Martin (which could almost be called a drama). 
I don't even know where to begin with these shows. The writing is so intelligent and the comedic timing is off the charts. There are some seriously talented people on these shows. 
The Vicar of Dibbly is about a female vicar in a small town. Her best friend is a dingy lady that provides half the laughs. The "guys" of the town provide the rest. 
Are You Being Served is about a group of co-workers who work in a department store. They are all slightly abnormal. There are a bunch of great one liners in this show.
Keeping Up Appearances is about a chick named Hyacinth Bucket, pronounced Bouquet (according to her). Her family is really just a bunch of people that here in the states would probably be living in a trailer. They are such fun to watch. 
I know I said Doc Martin deserved its own post, and it really does, but how may love letter to PBS can I write? Turns out the number is four and the last post in my opinion is for the best. Stay tuned to read about it.
Doc Martin is truly great TV. I love this guy. He is super smart, really cares about the people around him, socially inept and a TOTAL grouch. He just looks grouchy. He also has a phobia of blood. Which is great, because he used to be a surgeon. If you don't get this show I recommend seeing if you can get it on Netflix. It's great! 
Well there are my fave. Brit comedies. I know I didn't say a lot about them. but I don't want to ruin the fun of discovering how great they are!

A Love Letter to PBS (Part II or Science vs. Church)

In my last post I talked about all the kids shows on PBS my family enjoy. As you read there are a lot. From here on out I won't talk about so many shows at once. 
Today's post is about Wednesday night. This is the night for NOVA and Nature. NOVA is a science show that talks about everything from the stars to the earth. David and I really enjoy this show. We learn a lot, plus it's fun to get into the evolution vs. creationism debate with the TV from time to time. Nature is a documentary show about every animal found on land and in sea. It's great! We have fun watching with the kids. It's interesting to see who's side they are on.. the predator or prey. So far they have all fallen squarely on the side of the predator. Prey animals are just the stupidest seeming animals on earth. I don't know if I should be worried that every one of my kids root on the lion taking down the "insert prey here" at two years old. And the cheers that follow said take down. I will say my kids all have a healthy respect for all God's creation. These shows also allow us to broach subjects from a christian perspective without seeming like we are teaching a lesson. However, they are on Wednesday night, a church night. Why couldn't this be a night PBS airs a show I don't mind missing. 
Hello, my name is Mandy, and I am a TV addict. I admit it. I love the medium. I can sit and watch for HOURS. Literally I have done it. PBS does not help. NO COMMERCIAL  INTERRUPTIONS, great story telling, educational. IT HAS IT ALL!!!!! (Insert manic behavior!)
But I digress. Of course church wins out, but some nights it's hard to pull myself out of the chair and get the kids ready to go. Thankfully Thursday is re-run night on my other PBS station, but then there is Doc Martin....... A show deserving of it's own blog post. What to do??!! I got to start recording these things!

A Love Letter to PBS (Part 1)

My family’s favorite TV station is PBS. It has something for everyone and in the Huggins house it is on 24/7. You think I’m joking. We wake up to Curious George and go to sleep to News Hour or Tavis Smiley or Charlie Rose. We love PBS. There are lots of great shows. I’m not just talking about documentaries or concerts (mainstays of PBS viewing), but PBS kids and all the British shows that are now airing. I want to touch on some of our favorites because I think they are shows worth sharing. I am going to break this Love Letter up into a few segments because there are a lot of good shows and this post would be crazy long if I didn’t. So with that in mind I’m going to talk about kids show today.

Kids shows we DO NOT MISS:

Curious George of course is a popular one around here. This is Paige’s favorite. Has been since she watched the first episode. It’s great that she gets to wake up to this show. It makes our mornings go so easy. With 3 kids sometimes you need one distracted so you can get another one dressed! Curious George is such a sweet little guy it’s hard to turn him off!

Joy has discovered Sesame Street. Of course this show has to be someone’s favorite. It’s been on for 40+ years. That’s right Sesame Street is over the hill! Today was a great episode with a bunch of Grouches. I loved every grouchy minute. One thinks that stuck out is how OLD the original cast members have gotten!!! Seriously think about it; they were adults when the show started 40 years ago. That means the original cast members are over 60. They are not going to be with us much longer. But back to Joy.  She gets into certain segments. She will stop whatever she is doing for Abby’s Flying Fairy School. She loves Abby. She got a little stuffed Abby for her birthday and Abby MUST sleep with her at night. It’s supper cute when she does her bed check and asks for Abby.

Daniel Tigers Neighborhood is a new one based on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Now I loved Mr. Rogers as a child. Dylan barely got to see Mr. Rogers and he did not like him at all. As Dylan says, “Mr. Rogers freaks me out!” Which I think is kind of funny. But back to Daniel Tiger. It’s an animated series and I love the voices on this show. They are soft and soothing. I take a break when this show comes on. Ok I’ll be honest; this show airs when Joy is down for a nap. I watch it alone most days. It’s just really relaxing. They also have little catchy tunes they sing repeatedly as reminders of the day’s lesson. One sung frequently in the Huggins house is. “You gotta try new food cause it might taste goo-ood!” Gets my kids to try new stuff all the time. Stuff that would have never entered a mouth in the Herren house. (For those who don’t know Herren is my maiden name.)

Other favorites include:

Word Girl: Superhero girl who fights crime with her sidekick chimp Captain Huggie Pants. The focus is on vocabulary. Captain Huggie Pants does a dance segment that shows the physical definition of a word, like angry. The girls dance along to this and someday I will post a video on Facebook of them dancing.

Martha Speaks: Martha is a dog that eats alphabet soup and gains the ability to talk. Great theme song! The focus is on vocabulary on this show too.

And last but not least:

Wild Kratts: This show is about 2 brothers who go on animal adventures. They have some friends that help them out with creative technologies. One of them is their Animal Power Suits that give the brothers the attributes of the animals they are with. I highly recommend this show.

Really we love all the PBS kids show. They are educational and I never have to worry about the kids hearing or seeing things they shouldn’t. I don’t always get that with other channels geared for kids. And unlike the other channels PBS is FREE!

Next post:

British Shows!!

Time Out, Grounding, and Spankings

I recently read an article in Parenting magazine that discourages spanking. Like they all do. I often wonder how many of these experts actually have kids and if they do how many secretly spank said kids. Don't get me wrong generally I do believe spanking is not the way to go, however I also believe there is a time and a place. My big 3 times are: if they are doing something that will hurt others, are disrespectful to their elders, or lying. David and I have 3 children. They are each a blessing and an interesting study in human behavior. Yes, that's my way of saying they can sometimes be a challenge. Let me tell you a bit about each one and how discipline in its many forms has been (and not been) effective.
Our oldest is Dylan. He's 10 and he is a crazy good kid. The easiest of them all by far. However as he had gotten older he has tested the waters on what he can actually get away with, as do all kids. His biggest problem seems to be lying, and half doing a job. Oh and he is the ssslllloooowwwwweeeesssttt person on earth to get something done. I mean this kid has no fast forward button. He doesn't lie often, but when he does it's usually over something really stupid that if he had told the truth in the first place he never would have gotten in trouble. Time outs never work with him... he's getting a little old for them now, but when he was younger they just never made an impact. Spanking seems to be the only thing that made any kind of impact on future behavior. At 10 he is respectful of others and a great help around the house. He rarely talks back and will fix bad behavior with just a warning. It rarely has to go further. If it does grounding seems to work fine now.
Paige is stuck in the middle. She is 6 and a sweetheart. She tends to tattle... a lot. Is this a girl thing? It drives me absolutely crazy! She is also disrespectful of other peoples property. She recently pealed paint off of one of my walls and is constantly taking her brothers things. In some ways I think she is trying to establish her place in the house. I get that, but we can't let her get away with it. She hates spankings. I don't think they do any good with her. Yea, the behavior will stop, but for her you can see she views it as being bullied. Now.. tell her your disappointed in her choices and her world has ended! She can not handle people being upset with her. She really needs assurance that just because she made a bad choice you still love her. A hug works best, but until she gets that hug she has to serve a time out. She hates these too, but I think she gets that it's discipline,not bullying. 
Joy is the baby, and she knows it. She just turned 2 and she is a CHALLENGE all her own. I have never in my life met a kid with a will to get their own way as big as hers. I recently read a post by a friend of mine that confessed that she wasn't sure she wanted to be a mom growing up because she just wasn't good with kids. I am not that way at all. I have a natural way with kids. They LOVE me. To the point it can be annoying. I can't go anywhere without some strangers kid coming up to me and talking to me, or wanting to show me something, or wanting to play with me. Even when I'm on a trip with my own kids. I also have that mommy vibe. I've had it since I was little. I could and still can throw that look that says "Cut it out!" AND YOU LISTEN because if you don't you know it won't be good for you. Well... Joy could care less. She still doesn't sleep through the night. She will not come to me when I tell her to if she doesn't want too. She bullies her sister like crazy. (It's really hard not to laugh at this sometimes.) To make it all better is NO FORM OF DISCIPLINE works with her. Not a one. If you go to swat her butt, she puts her hand back there and runs. She NEVER waits for time out to end. When she thinks it's done she's up. Put her back, she'll wait till your back is turned and by the time time-out is over she had no clue why you put her there to begin with.  She will straight up say no TO MY FACE! That's new for me. I'm a 6 foot tall woman who does not intimidate easily and she just shrugs me off like I'm a puny human is some syfi movie! Blows my mind.
My point to all this is that every child is different and you can't just count out any form of discipline, aside from abuse of course. I will let you know when we figure out what works for Joy.