Get Some Sand Between Your Toes

Beach Volleyball at the Beijing Olympics + Visiting Manhattan Beach

Michael Phelps and the Opening Ceremony may be dominating the Olympic news this week, but the hottest ticket in Beijing is for Beach Volleyball. The two top ranked women’s teams in the world are from the US, and superstars Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh hail from Southern California. We set our TIVOs to record the US women's competitions, and pulled up the excellent NBC Olympics website to give our kids a sense of the prominence of our local sport. They were hooked -- and after a few near misses from bumping and digging around the living room, we took our kids to Manhattan Beach, a town famous for its beach volleyball. We spent a few blissful hours playing in the surf and sand, checked out the perfect pint-sized Roundhouse Aquarium, took a leisurely bike ride along the beach, and ended a perfect summer day the old fashioned way, with some yummy locally-made ice cream.

Most beach players start playing indoor volleyball, which is a highly popular sport for girls, in particular, in Southern California. These top athletes are great role-models for all kids, and watching them compete is exciting for the whole family.
Click here for the scoop on where to rent bikes, shop, and eat in Manhattan Beach,

Dance the Night Away Under the Summer Sky: Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park + Donna Summer at the Hollywood Bowl = Kids Off The Couch

MacArthur Park has had a storied history in Los Angeles, and continues to rank as one of our city's landmarks. The Park, first built in the 1880s and named for General Douglas MacArthur, received worldwide fame when Donna Summer, in her 1978 hit, bemoaned in an ode to love that "someone left the cake out in the rain." For "bad girls" from the disco generation, Donna is making a two-night appearance at the Hollywood Bowl on August 22 and 23 Click here for a link to purchase tickets.

MacArthur Park, however, is not just the stuff of music legend. It is clean, green and ready for prime time with its amazing FREE Levitt Pavilion's Target Children's Music Nights, every Sunday evening at 6:30 pm. When we took in a concert, parking was a breeze and the setting was intimate enough for everyone to spread their picnic blankets with a full view of the stage. The rest of the summer boasts a cool variety of global music -- from Chinese acrobats to kick off Olympic weekend (8/10), to rap, reggae and calypso version of Father Goose (8/17), there's plenty to keep the kids tapping their toes through September. Click here for the August and September schedule.

Whether your beat is more "Bad Girls" or "Father Goose," dance the night away with outdoor music before the summer is over. And cover that cake, just in case of rain!

Countdown to Beijing Olympics (Part 2); Mulan + Terra Cotta Warriors at the Bowers Museum = Kids Off The Couch

Olympic fever has struck our families and we are counting down the days (and studying our Tivo settings!) until the opening ceremonies this Friday 8/08/08.

The Games are always captivating -- the athletes inspire us, the settings intrigue us. Wanting to enrich our kids' concept of China during this Olympic summer, we headed back to that nation's Imperial era by screening Disney classic Mulan, a beloved folk tale about a heroic girl warrior. From there, it was an easy transition to the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at Santa Ana's Bowers Museum, a spectacular collection of the famed artifacts from over two thousand years ago. The Warriors, constructed to protect the underground tomb of China's first emperor, ignited our kids' imagination so that we talked about the show for days after -- clearly a feat worthy of Olympic Gold!

Click here for tips on tuning in for the Olympics, a link to the NBC schedule, and to learn about a History Channel documentary about the Warriors, airing this week

Click here for Part I in Kids Off The Couch's Olympic Countdown: Kung Fu Panda and the Flowing Fragrance Gardens at the Huntington Gardens.

Talking to Kids About Their Dreams

Life Lessons: How to become Captain Kirk or Play for the NFL

Every now and then, something stops us in our everyday tracks and makes us think about how we live our lives. We have been following the story of Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who delivered what is called a "last lecture," a tradition in which professors share their life wisdom. Only in this case, what is usually a theoretical talk, turned out to be real as Pausch was told he had just months to live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Professor Pausch prepared his lecture as a living will for his kids -- a guide for how to live life -- in a speech that has now inspired people all over the world.

For those of you who have not yet watched Professor Pausch's lecture, called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," we urge you to set aside an hour Click here for a You Tube link. Click here to purchase Pausch's bestselling book, based on his lecture. Pausch touches on his boyhood desire to become Captain Kirk, to play for the NFL, fly at zero gravity and be a Disney imagineer. Pausch, in fact, came close to achieving most of his dreams.

Randy Pausch passed away this weekend, and we thought about how his words inspired us, as parents, to talk to our kids about their dreams, and share our thoughts as to how they might go about making them real. In some ways, these thoughts are our legacy to our children, our own unique view of the world about how to live a life so that, in Pausch's words, "dreams come to you."

Whether your child wants to be a fireman, ballerina or a robotics engineer, talking about their dreams is the first step in giving them wings to fly!

Diane and Sarah
Co-founders, KidsOffTheCouch.com

Talking to the Animals: Babe + Animal Acres in Acton

From the first days of parenthood, the barnyard looms large. We sang "Old MacDonald", and read a gaggle of baby books, all of which featured characters that go quack and moo. Animal characters faded into the background as our kids grew older, but there's no age limit to learning how it feels when a pig wiggles its snout on your leg. We spent a wonderful day at Animal Acres, a farm sanctuary in Acton, California, where its founder rescues and cares for animals that are usually raised as food. Visitors are encouraged to cuddle up to many of the animals; our kids got to know a Brahma Bull, laughed at water fowl fighting over their food, and got cozy snuggling lambs on their laps. After making friends with barnyard denizens, we went home and screened Babe, a farmyard fairy tale about a pig with hidden talents. We highly recommend this clever, Oscar winning film for everyone in your family -- after enjoying the clever dialogue and wry humor, bacon will never look the same. Click here to learn more about the amazing woman who runs this unique animal sanctuary. Your local County Fair is also a great way to see farm animals up close and personal. The Orange County Fair is open until August 3rd.

Visit the Kids Off The Couch Website for more great ideas on food literature, "before you go tips", discussion starters, movie red flags and much more. Sign Up today to have a kid-friendly adventure delivered to your inbox every week. We'd also love to hear back from you about your adventure!

Rent National Treasure + Go On A Scavenger Hunt = Kids Off The Couch

Treasure The Good Times

If you were too busy grilling hot dogs to talk with your family about why we celebrate the Fourth of July, why not let Nicholas Cage do the explaining? Our kids adore National Treasure, and we were happy to discover that the film offers a pop-culture tour of the icons of our nation's birth -- from the Liberty Bell to Independence Hall. Cage, whose name is Benjamin Franklin Gates in the film, plays a descendant of Freemasons who hid a fabled treasure in America during this country's formation; in order to find it, Gates must unravel clues about early American history, including a key map to the treasure trove which is located on the Declaration of Independence itself. We'd tell you whether or not he decodes that well-guarded map and finds the treasure, but that information is classified! Our kids are always ready for riddles, and love going on a Scavenger Hunt. When they were little we did simple hunts, and increased the games' complexity as they grew older: Treasure Hunts around the neighborhood when they were in Elementary School, and Amazing Race competitions in malls and parks for pre-teens and teens. If you can master the creative planning, you'll never again be puzzled about a birthday party or day of downtime!

Click here to visit the Kids Off The Couch Website for more on visiting a full sized replica of Independence Hall at Knott's Berry Farm, for a professional scavenger hunt outfit which is fun for adults and to learn more about the sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which is just out on DVD

Stories from the Sea: The Secret of Roan Inish + Mami Wata at the Fowler Museum

Want to make a splash with your kids? The Fowler Museum at UCLA is creating a special day for Kids Off The Couch families on Wednesday July 16th : a film screening and private tour of a their current mermaid exhibition. Join us at 12 pm to screen one of our favorite family movies -- The Secret of Roan Inish -- an exquisite film that gives life to the Irish legend that seals can shed their skins and become human. Then, at 1:45, just after the film, The Fowler has invited us for lemonade and cookies in the courtyard, followed by privately guided tour of Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas, a multi-media exhibit showcasing an ancient deity who appears as a mermaid and snake charmer. From the opening super-sized video projection of the ocean (which our kids used as a backdrop to mime their surf moves), to incredible headdresses (that wowed even our most dedicated sparkle wearers), Mami Wata charmed a new generation. Visit the Kids Off The Couch Website here for the full adventure, conversations starters, tips for going as a group and advice on how to extend the adventure like a visit to the Marine Mammal Care Center

To RSVP for the Kids Off The Couch screening and tour, click here. If you can't make the screening, you can still join us for the exhibition tour!