Kids Off The Couch Halloween - Where to Get Your Scare on From Tot to Teen

Halloween is all about anticipation -- so it's time to start carving pumpkins, planning costumes and charting your trick-or-treating route. Here are some ups and extras that can bring thrills and chills to your family's celebration.

Tots: The pumpkin patch is the place to be if your kids are small - be sure to get a photo of them with an over-sized pumpkin for the family album. Mr Bones Pumpkin Patch in Beverly Hills includes a hay maze, face painting, a petting zooand decor for the house -- open until 9:00 PM each night this month (except Halloween). Another safe bet is to trick-or-treat amongst the animals at Boo at the Zoo, October 30-31 from 10:00 AM-4:00 PM.

Movie Ideas: We never tire of Charles Schultz's It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Click over to the website and read more in a Popcorn Adventure based on the classic cartoon. Our kids adore Kiki's Delivery Service, an animated tale about a little witch - more about the movie in a Popcorn Adventure that includes ideas for a simple Halloween. Finally, you can't go wrong with the gentle send-up of scary stuff in Monsters Inc.

Elementary and Middle School: Strut your stuff at a Halloween Costume Parade at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater during matinees for the rest of the month. For a great selection of pumpkins and fresh produce, get to Pierce College'sHalloween Harvest Festival and explore the excellent Corn Maze. Older kids can stick around for Fright Nights from dusk until 10:00 PM. Dixie Canyon Elementary School is throwing a Pumpkin Fair on Saturday, October 23 from 11:00 AM- 8:00 PM with free admission, rides, costume contests and local food vendors. If you like corn mazes, it's worth driving out to Mission Hills to see how creative these attractions can get at Forneris Farms.

Movie Ideas: Ghostbusters comes off a bit cheesy but you'll laugh out loud (caution - there are some racy overtones at the end with Sigourney Weaver) and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is playing at El Capitan Theater from October 21-31; the film will be presented in 3-D with sensory effects including wind, snow, and fog.

Teens: Let's face it - teens want to be scared! Drop them (if they dare) atKnott's Scary Farm, or Universal's Halloween Horror Nights - it's all pretty intense, and absolutely not recommended for kids under 13. Our pick is theHaunted Hay Ride, newly relocated at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park (but still scary, and not recommended for kids under 10!).

Movie Ideas: Films that were once the height of technological advancement are now campy fun, though they can still produce screams -- Poltergeist, Beetlejuice. Click here for a list of the 25 Scariest Movies of All Times - proceed with caution!


Historical Haunts for Everyone Else: The 1925 silent film Phantom of the Operawill be screened with live accompaniment from the Royce Hall Organ on Saturday, October 30 at 8:00 PM. If they haven't yet seen it, bring the family to see the stage show of Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages Theater, playing until October 31. Throughout the Halloween season, there are fabulous Walking Tours of The Hollywood Forever Cemetery hosted by Karie Bible. Or, spend Halloween at Disney Hall with a screening of the silent film Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, accompanied by a live organ.

Day of the Dead celebrations: Dia De Los Muertos honors and celebrates the departed souls in our lives, so come experience this rich and colorful Mexican tradition on Saturday, October 30 (from 2:00 PM - 12:00 AM) at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Come in Day of the Dead costumes, and enjoy food and live music - kids under 10 are free! For another glimpse of this intriguing tradition, come to Casa de Calavaras at the San Juan Capistrano library on October 24 from 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM; or see the same exhibit (House of Skeletons) at the Bowers Museum on Sunday, November 7 from 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM.

Frightful Kitchen Ideas: Click here for recipes and ideas for marshmallow bones and blood red hot chocolate! But, here's the scariest things we've seen in a long time - a McDonald's Happy Meal that looked the same on the day it was purchased as it did 6 months later!

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Kids Off The Couch - What's On Our October Radar Screen!

The school year is underway and the snap is back in the air. The challenge for parents this month is to squeeze some family moments into the parade of three S's -- the multitude of school, sports and social activities that dominate our kids' lives. So, pick your head up from trying to organize everyone's complicated schedules long enough to find time for one thing that will bring the family together...even just for a few hours!

Halloween Season's Official Start: This weekend marks the start of the Halloween season with Kidspace's 16th Annual Pumpkin Festival -- October 9 and 10 from 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM -- one of the best Halloween events around for little kids. (Free to all). To get ready for Halloween -- which takes place on a Sunday night this year -- start stockpiling candy, click here for recipes and decorating ideas, and don't forget to buy your costumes early; it's a parent's scariest moment to be stuck without the right costume on October 31st.

10/10/10: A pretty cool date is coming up this weekend - October 10, 2010 - and CicLAvia is a unique urban project that will help you celebrate. Check out the video and take part in a civic experiment to play on streets that are closed off -here are ten different neighborhoods that are participating.

Get the Manners Ready: dineLA Restaurant week runs for two weeks -- October 2-8 and October 10-15. With fixed prices for lunch and dinner, it's a nice way to introduce kids to proper restaurant manners. (Or a a long-overdue date night that won't break the bank). For some tips on table manners, visit our friends atBeverly Hills Manners .

Twirl, Anyone? Old Pasadena's Cultural Dance Festival, on October 10 (from 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM), celebrates dance traditions from around the world, is free and well worth attending with the whole family since everyone is encouraged to participate. Once you work up a sweat, stop in for some cereal at the brand newMix N Munch.

Breath of Fresh Air: The Children's Nature Institute's Urban Nature Week takes place from October 18-25, with a series of activities designed to encourage families to connect with nature in our urban environment. Take part in a nature walk, learn about an edible garden or ride a bio-diesel bus to visit Old Glory, a one hundred year-old tree. Our favorite urban-nature connector is Tree People - volunteer to plant trees or just take a hike in their Coldwater Canyon park.

A New Fruit in Town: Ever heard of Angel Red? It's a new varietal of pomegranate - so start checking out the food aisles and be the first to decide if the seeds are softer. Don't forget to tell the kids the story of Persephone and her fateful encounter with pomegranate seeds.

Family Movie Night: Disney is re-releasing Beauty and the Beast this week, with it's gorgeous animation and unforgettable music. For a different type of equally impressive animation, check out last year's exquisite Oscar-nominated film, The Secret of Kells.

In the Theaters: Sometimes, heading off together to the multiplex is the best thing to restore sanity. Save a night for Secretariat this weekend - a Disney film about the woman (Diane Lane) behind the 1973 winner of the Triple Crown (PG, opens Friday). Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a gorgeous film for older kids (it's gruesome in parts despite a PG rating), and an especially rich experience for those who loved the books by Katherine Lasky. The film's director, Zack Snyder, is going to take on the next Superman movie. And finally, everyone's talking about The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher's brilliant film about the world's youngest billionaire. (PG-13, in theaters). Anyone who is on Facebook should see this film, which we love. Caution: heavy partying portrayed in the film, so teens and up.

Take Care of Yourself: It's Breast Cancer Awareness month, and even the NFLis embracing the cause. Don't be the last one to screen yourself and consider your family history. And, there are numerous studies showing the increase in traffic accidents since we all became addicted to our hand-held phones. What keeps our phones in our purses? The desire to be a good example to our soon-to-be-driving kids.

Bring on the sweaters -- it's going to be a great October!

Kids Off The Couch

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Great Train Movies + Art and the LA Metro System = Kids Off The Couch LA

When LA kids hear the word "subway," they are more likely to think of a sandwich than an affordable and accessible means of transportation. Over the summer, we took a trip on LA's Metro system, riding from downtown's Union Station to the end of the Red Line in North Hollywood, stopping along the way to explore each station's public art works. Union Station's art work has a water theme, the Hollywood/Vine station is an homage to the film industry, and the Universal City station (our fave) has gorgeous tiles that chronicle California's gained independence from Mexico. What began as an art tour turned into a history tour and inspired us to screen some of our favorite train movies, many of which (coincidentally) also provided lessons from the past. We journeyed back to the Civil War in The General, the Mad Men world of Hitchcock's 1950's with North by Northwest, and soaked in the vistas of the American West in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Whether used for a thrilling chase, as the starting location for romance, or as a moving bank targeted for robbery, trains have always been one of cinema's best story-telling vehicles.(Click here to learn how you can tour the Red Line or the Purple Line and for more on our favorite train films).

Kids Off The Couch - What's On Our September Radar Screen!

Labor Day and Beyond

Bananagrams Giveaway for best "My Perfect Summer Moment" entry

Our kids started school this week, and already Monday feels like it was 100 years ago. You know, back when we were lazing around doing last minute errands? Now it's all about backpacks, lunchboxes and homework. Our antidote? Spend Labor Day weekend doing things we'd do in mid-July -- go to a county fair, enjoy some beach food and catch the latest movie.

Labor Day Weekend: The LA County Fair opens this weekend and runs until October 3 with rides, horse races, concerts and the Body Works show. A new street festival popped up: theFYF2010 on Saturday (9/4) takes place downtown and has a cool lineup of musicians and comedians; free for kids under 10. Check out the Descanso Garden's Boddy's Big Backyard, with activities for little kids throughout Monday (9/6). Got a babysitter and nothing to do? Check out Los Angeles Plays Itself, a 2004 documentary about the discrepancies between the LA presented in movies and our city in reality. This film is not on DVD, so get to the Aero on Saturday and Sunday (9/4 and 9/5) at 7:30 PM. Chow down at two big food festivals this weekend: Taste of Beverly Hills runs all weekend, and the Los Angeles Times Celebration of Food and Wine takes place at Paramount Studios on Sunday (9/5).

Eat Like it's mid-July: The SLS restaurant group has taken over Gladstone's Malibuso drop in and see if the tourists take you for a native. For an endless summer vibe, get yourself toParadise Cove Beach Cafe (good take out, too). Pretend you're still in Maine at the Long Beach Lobster Festival on September 10-12. Our favorite sand-in-the-toes dining takes place at Back On the Beach Cafe, right in Santa Monica.

Spiffy Coastline: Keep our beaches swim-worthy and help your kids find a meaningful community service activity by participating in Heal the Bay's annual Coastal Clean-Up Day, this year on September 25. The organization rates our local beaches and runs regional clean-ups regularly; registration required.

90049 Residents Take Note: A wonderful community food-and-shopping event called FIRST TUESDAY debuts in Brentwood Village next Tuesday night (9/7). Local shops (such as Ruby Slippers and Star Toys for kids, and Habit and Jennifer Knits for moms) will stay open late and offer special deals to customers. At last, it will be easy to find some of your fave food trucks such as Don Chow Tacos, Komodo, Ahnjoo, World Fare and Coolhaus, all of which will hang around to feed shoppers if they flag. At Barrington and Sunset, from 5:00-8:00 PM.

Peel! Keep a set of Bananagrams on the coffee table to keep that lazy summer afternoon mood alive -- don't tell, but the infectious game is a great vocab booster for any age group. We are giving away a DOUBLE BANANAGRAMS to a KOTC subscriber who best describes a Perfect Summer Moment with their family. Click here and send us your story.

A Great Month at the Movies: It's a good month for date night films: just open is George Clooney's thriller, The American. An excellent (and eerie) novel by Kazuo Ishiguru's, Never Let Me Go has been turned into a film starring Keira Knightly and Carey Mulligan (9/15). We're very curious about the one children's movie on the horizon - you've seen the owl trailers for Legend of the Guardians, (9/24) based on the books by Kathryn Lasky and produced by the folks who brought you Happy Feet. For a guilty pleasure - rent the original Wall Street to get ready for the new Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps starring Michael Douglas, Carrie Mulligan and Shia LeBoeuf (9/24).Waiting for Superman (9/24) aims to do for the public education system whatAn Inconvenient Truth did for climate change: shake things up!

Secrets to Success: The biggest shock about moving from summer to school is that trusty alarm clock gets put into heavy use again and the scheduled week takes over from unstructured time. Current research suggests that both sleep and day dreaming are important factors in learning and the creation of self. For more on why sleep and day dreaming are key ingredients for your kids success in life (and justification for ranting about their screen time) read Po Bronson on the subject of sleep in his book,NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children and click here for the recent Los Angeles Times story on the benefits of zoning out.

Reality Check: Face it, you're going to have to be organized to survive the school year so click here for a free download of these super cool Organization Cheat Sheetsfrom our friends at MommyTrack'd.

Kids Off The Couch

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Kids Off The Couch - What's On Our July Radar Screen!

Stock your Summer with Culturally Rich Activities

The US government just issued new dietary guidelines confirming that more plants, less salt and more exercise are key to improving the health of all Americans. We leave it to you to gobble up the stone fruit and heirloom tomatoes at our local farmers' markets, but can help by stocking your family's cultural pantry this month.

Pictures of the Year: Kids and photography are a natural pairing, and we love quizzing ourselves on the world events from the past year at the 67th Annual Pictures of the Year International which runs until October 10 at the Annenberg Space for Photography. This traveling show represents the best of photojournalism from the past year and is a virtual global travelogue.

Native Son: We got an early view of the impressive retrospective of one of LA's most vibrant local artists at LACMA's summer blockbuster, John Baldessari: Pure Beauty (through September 12). We'll go so far as to proclaim it a must-see for every Angeleno this summer. Baldessari's So Cal roots are evident in his photographic art, which employs discarded film stills and other found images to comment on the prevalence of media in our lives. Most will recognize his large-scale works with blue, green or red dots over the faces of people, and seeing them in context (as well as reading the show notes) made us fans. Great for teens, or a grown-up date -- especially if you can get reservations at the new Red-O on Melrose, featuring a Rick Bayless-inspired Mexican menu.

Ticket Giveaway to Grease Sing-A-Long! Paramount is re-releasing one of their classic hits, Grease, as a sing-along event. Come join the fun as John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John belt out beloved tunes such as "You're the One that I Want". Click here to write to us for tickets to the only advance screening for this film, on July 6 at the AMC Century City. Be careful to think about the ages of kids that watch this film - it's sexuality meter runs higher than you might remember.

Plans for the Fourth? Maximize your festivity by celebrating at the Hollywood Bowl, complete with fireworks and country star Vince Gill who joins the LA Phil and USC Marching Band for a program that also includes the U.S. Air Force Band of the Golden West. Tickets are still available for the shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, July 2-4.

Outdoor Music for Families: The Skirball Cultural Center hosts fabulous outdoor concerts each Saturday and Sunday at 12:00 and 2:00, starting July 10 and ru nning through September 5. Get in the habit of dropping by with the younger ones for a whirlwind world tour of dance and song at the wonderful Family Amphitheater Performances.

A 3-D Summer: We weren't naturally 3-D believers, although Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which is now on DVD, piqued our interest. But watching Toy Story 3 (in IMAX, no less) has us believing. Maybe it's just Pixar's spectacular storytelling, or maybe it's that our kids grew up with Toy Story's Buzz and Woody, and watching Andy pack them into the attic as he heads off for college choked us up. Either way, we're all into the funky glasses and big screen extravaganza that make going to the movies a special excursion again. Toy Story 3 is easily the best film of the summer so bring one and all -- though kids under 8 might want to wait for the July 9 opening of Despicable Me; it's zany and considerably less scary for younger kids than watching Buzz and Woody get whisked away by a trash truck to a burning landfill - don't worry, they get rescued in the nick of time!

Gladiator and Gerome: Ever since NPR did a story about gladiators being dug up in England, we've been itching to re-watch Russell Crowe in Gladiator (Rated R, 2003). It could inspire a trip up the hill to see the Getty's new show, The Spectacular Art of Jean-Louis Gerome, a French artist from the 19th Century who was more successful financially than critically. Come judge his artistic merit for yourself - we promise the kids won't be bored with paintings of gladiators, lions and duels. (Or the nudes - beware!).

Free Art for Everyone: Target Arts & Wonder Free Family Event runs from July 16-18 at participating museums around town, including LACMA, the Museum of Latin American Art, the Japanese American National Museum and The California African American Museum. When visiting a museum with a robust permanent collection, we let the kids explore the gift store's postcard rack for an image that appeals to them - then head into the museum to find the matching piece of art.

Where's my Mummy? If mummies are your thing, LA is the place to be this summer. The stars of the Bowers Museum's Silk Road exhibit are two Chinese mummies, never before seen outside of ther native land, and apparently "celebrities in the world of archeology" (according to the Los Angeles Times). Secrets of the Silk Road closes on July 25, so hurry down to Santa Ana. And Mummies of the World premieres at the California Science Center this week, boasting the largest traveling collection of intentionally and accidentally preserved mummies. Mummies 3D: Secrets of the Pharaohs plays in the museum's IMAX theater during the run of the show. Advance tickets necessary, so plan ahead!

Kids Off The Couch

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Shrek + Monsters and Miracles: A Journey Through Jewish Picture Books = Kids Off The Couch

Most kids haven't a clue that the green and stinky ogre that has clumped his way through their childhood sprung from a spare and pithy children's book. Chances are, your kids have seen (or will soon see) Shrek Forever After -- the fourth and final sequel to Shrek that is currently ruling the box office. What better way to kick off discussion about summer reading lists than to remind the kids that some of their favorite on-screen heroes sprung from the pages of books? From Shrek to Harry Potter, to Twilight and The Bourne Trilogy, literature is the source of many wonderful screen experiences and these days, a love of reading starts with great book illustation. A new show, Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books, offers Shrek-lovers the chance to meet the ugly, but confident, ogre drawn by author and illustrator William Steig. The show, which is open in Los Angeles at the Skirball Cultural Center through the summer and travels to the Eric Carle Museum of Art in Northampton, MA from October 2010 to January 2011, includes seminal artwork from Maurice Sendak, Eric Carle, Mordicai Gerstein, as well as illustration from contemporary authors, such as Lemony Snicket and David Goldin. With iPod Touch stations around the exhibit, and ceiling-sized book spines that cleverly divide the galleries, you'll think you're in book heaven. (Click here for Summer Reading Tips, more about author and illustrator William Stieg, and details about two of our favorite museums).

Kids Off The Couch - Talking to Your Kids About John Wooden (1910-2010)

Quotes to Live By "Sports do not build character. They reveal it." Much will be said over the next few days about the wisdom imparted by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, whose winning record (10 championships in 12 years) and memorable statements influenced generations of athletes. Wooden's Pyramid of Success has been used by countless coaches, as well as adopted by business motivators. Naturally, many of his teachings are readily translated to parenting. After all, athlete after athlete has said that Coach Wooden "prepared them for life". Spend a little extra time with today's Sports section to read up on the lessons learned by the players he influenced. And, tuck a few of those quotes away! We're sure they'll come in handy as you coach your kids through life. Click here for a nice list of John Wooden quotes, and click here for an LA Times article from last year's celebration of Wooden's 99th birthday. And finally, click through these photos of Wooden's life and spend a few moments celebrating a life well lived. Have a great weekend. Kids Off The Couch If you like what we do, please tell a friend to sign up! info@kidsoffthecouch.com www.kidsoffthecouch.com