Rent "Big" + Visit a County Fair = Kids Off The Couch

It's a fact of life that when kids are young, they yearn to be big... but that adults would gladly trade their responsibilities for the idyll of childhood. The sweet comedy at the heart of Big gets right to the core of this truism, and Tom Hanks captures this capricious mood perfectly as 13 year-old Josh, who wakes up one morning in the body of a 35 year-old toy company executive. Elizabeth Perkins plays a co-worker that falls in love with his youthful energy (who can forget the scene at the cocktail party when he eats the tiny cob of corn, typewriter-style) and Robert Loggia his boss who delights in the fact that Josh actually wants to play with the toys they are producing (the two dance on the floor size piano keyboard that is still the main attraction of every FAO Schwartz location). Josh makes his wish to be "big" to a scary Fortune Teller at an amusement park, so we invite you to indulge your own inner child by paying a visit to a County Fair. Watching the kids climb aboard an ancient carousel's beautifully painted animals is much more fun - in our minds - than standing in line forever at a theme park and we all love the take-away of connecting to a farmer while petting his goat, or meetingsomeone who has grown an unusually large pumpkin. Good old-fashioned fun keeps us all young at heart. (Click here for more details on the film and adventure.)

Fall Reading Curriculum from Kids Off The Couch

What is better than discussing books you love with your loved ones?

We love this time of year -- engrossed in English classes, the kids are reading classics like Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and that means lots of rich dinner table chatter about some of our favorite literature. It's a great parenting perk to revisit these titles by keeping up with the syllabus (we are getting to read The Scarlet Letter again). Here are a few more ways to keep you and your readers on the same page -- literally!

BANNED BOOK WEEK:
Something you might not know but should: The vast majority of books that your kids are reading in school have been, or could be, at risk for extinction! Imagine if your youngsters were denied access to classics like J.D. Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye and Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Do your kids know that their beloved Harry Potter came under attack in the late 90's, and J.K. Rowling's series is considered to be one of the most strongly challenged books of the 21st century? Some other shocking titles that almost didn't make it to your shelves: The Great Gatsby, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Lord of The Rings. See the ALA site for a complete list of books banned after 1990. Support FREADOM of expression and your child's access to important literature by celebrating Banned Book Week at your local library or bookstore. Click here to learn more about the week-long celebration (Sept. 26-Oct. 3) and to keep up with the fight for educational freedom on Twitter.

START A BOOK CLUB:
Beginning in the fourth grade, we organized Parent-Child Book Clubs by choosing four or five friends and meeting four times over the course of the school year. It almost didn't matter which books we chose (although we had fun with everything from Avi to Jane Austen); it was the conversation that came up in the group that we remember. Now that our kids are older, they read a lot of the same types of books we do - our teens loved The Da Vinci Code, so we're all racing each other through Dan Brown's latest thriller The Lost Symbol, which was a blockbuster even before it hit the shelves, yesterday!

Here are a few websites to help you organize your own book clubs - click here for great book choices from Planet Esme, and click here for advice about running the group. We love Mother Daughter Book Club.com for it's excellent suggestion list.

Happy Reading --
Kids Off the Couch

Kids Off The Couch

Tell us your favorite book club choices: info@kidsoffthecouch.com

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The Princess Diaries + High Tea and Etiquette Training = Kids Off The Couch

A return to school means a return to polite society -- which has us worried because we are pretty sure our kids left their manners at the beach! Kids who watch Princess Diaries will delight in the funny misadventures of Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) as she is transformed from a gawky teenager -- "I can't be a princess! I'm still waiting for the normal body parts to arrive!" -- into the poised and self-possessed princess of Genovia. Parents will want to pluck the Queen (played by Julie Andrews) from the film to infuse a little royal etiquette in their own children; that's because this G-rated comedy reminds us all that good things happen when people's manners improve. We were pleased to discover that our local Etiquette School offers a well-rounded range of instruction - from proper grooming and posture to polite telephone etiquette and the art of introduction - and concludes with a five-course dining tutorial that will prepare any child for attendance at a royal state dinner. We experienced a few comedic fits and starts as a group of 6 to 12 year-olds struggled to get the hang of being graceful and refined, but our 9 year-old now even folds her dirty napkin over her chair whenever she temporarily excuses herself from the dinner table. As the Queen exclaims to her assistant once Mia masters her lessons, "Aah, Charlotte, I think it's time for tea."

Click through to City Savvy for the best spots to take your girls for High Tea in your city

Boredom Busters + The Last Lazy Days of Summer = Kids Off The Couch

In the spirit of seizing the lazy days that remain, our family compiled a collaborative wish list and hit the town for a whirlwind bender of indoor ice-skating (one of the more labor intensive activities) and spicy Indian dining (obviously, as per mom's request), for an unforgettable breakup with summer. Here are a few tips requiring a little less parental sacrifice for your Labor Day weekend.

1. When Life Gives You Lemons: The Lemonade War, a book by Jacqueline Davies, is a tale of the sugary competition between two siblings over who sells the most lemonade; it mixes a romping story with basic business concepts and inspired our kids to unfreeze some lemonade mix and set up camp by the curb! In the book, Jessie and Evan duke it out for top dog, and in real life, our kids who are no strangers to sibling rivalry, went toe to toe for who could raise more money for a back-to-school splurge.

2. Twinkle, Twinkle "I Can See a Star!" This week, the moon will be growing (in astrology-speak the moon is in its waxing gibbous phase) and Jupiter will be the second brightest object in the sky. Check in to see what your local observatory has planned, or spend a night on your back gazing up at the stars and tracing the glow of the big dipper. Or click here for a weekly star report.

3. Game On: Hearts, gin rummy, poker, spoons and the latest craze, golf, are games that our card sharks master in large or small groups of friends. Send your dealers to Card Games, a website full of instructions that will keep them from squabbling over the rules. We shook up new interest in old board games by creating a challenge course, setting up games in rooms throughout the house, mapped the order to play them, and then started the clock. The kids played checkers for 15 minutes, Yahtzee for longer, and a revved up Monopoly for 30 minutes.

4. Get Caught Reading: Are your kids out of shape for their upcoming English classes? To spur them back to the page, try plot-driven books -- mysteries have worked best for us this summer. Our girls like their stories in a pop froth--they adore anything by Meg Cabot and went crazy for Avalon High. Click here for a list of mysteries that were particularly intriguing for our boys, who hadn't done any reading for pleasure since Harry Potter's last tale hit the shelves.

5. Outdoor Movie Night Everyone's celebrating the long warm nights -- google your city plus outdoor cinema to see what film's your local outdoor venue is screening in the waning days of summer.

6. Just Park It: Taking a page from The Double Daring Books for Girls, our kids set up a water balloon relay race. The goal? Which team can pop the most balloons with their butts the fastest! This next tip is one we bet you've never tried before--it's called ice blocking! Pack a blanket, pick up some uncut blocks of ice at the wholesale ice store, and zoom down the park slopes using your blanket wrapped ice slab as warm-weather sled -- ice on the grass, blanket to protect your bodies! What could be cooler? We plop down a picnic lunch (mix it up with hummus, veggies, and grape leaves) after a few hours of running a muck, then end our day with an All-American treat from the ice cream truck.

See you after Labor Day!

The Devil Wears Prada + Vintage Shopping = Kids Off The Couch

The Devil Wears Prada provides a behind-the-scenes peek into the ruthless world of high fashion, chronicling the tale of a young woman who unexpectedly lands a job as an assistant to feared Runway Magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played with wicked wit by Meryl Streep. In between snarky banter and catty carb-deprived models, the film showcases an enviable wardrobe as it weaves a delicious but cautionary tale about a girl who nearly loses her soul in the dame-eat-dame world of careerist New York. Inspired by the geek to chic transformation of the heroine, played by Anne Hathaway, we took a different approach to this year's back-to-school shopping excursion. Exploring vintage shops and local thrift stores is an ideal alternative to expensive department stores and upscale boutiques, not to mention a perfect way to discover one-of-a-kind treasures. We headed out for a Sunday of shopping, starting downtown at the weekly Flea market, and working our way down the resale shops in the hip neighborhood. One of our favorite parts of the whole experience was watching our girls strut, pose, and model their discoveries. At the end of the day, swapping out Hermes silk for the oh-so-in funky floral print and snagging sets of chunky bangles for just a few bucks made both our wallets and our daughters very happy, and gave new meaning to the phrase, "Oldies but Goodies!"

Click here for our favorite shops, some insider tips on what to look for when you're rummaging, and for more about why we love this film.

Madeline + French Art and Culture = Kids Off The Couch

In August, the French famously take a month for vacation and this week's Popcorn Adventure reminds us to do as the French do -- relax and enjoy life! Starting with a screening of Madeline, a delightful adaptation of Ludwig Bemelmans' classic books that was shot in Paris, and continuing with a dose of culture delivered by spectacular French artworks, we urge you to celebrate the simple pleasures as summer draws to a close. Any child familiar with the comforting rhymes and gorgeous illustrations of the Madeline stories will take delight in this 1998 adaptation replete with Madeline on a moped zipping around Paris, mixing it up with Miss Clavel and Pepito. We spent a day at our local museum looking at Impressionist paintings and found ourselves talking with the kids about how French culture has influenced the American ideal of beauty. Last stop of our petit staycation was a quick visit to our favorite cheese shop where the cheese monger offered the children a few tastes of France. Thankfully, we'll always have Paris!

Click here for an in-depth look at other French films and books for children, and tips for conducting a cheese tasting with your family.

Julie and Julia + Taking A Food Tour of your Town = Kids Off The Couch

Julie & Julia hits the big screen this weekend and watching Meryl Streep and Amy Adams fall in love with cooking reminds us how lucky we are to live in a food-obsessed culture. We grew up eating frozen peas and limas from the Jolly Green Giant, so Julia Child's exuberance about fresh ingredients found at Parisian markets and formal French cooking techniques learned at Le Cordon Bleu has helped us explain to our kids why we get so excited visiting a Farmers' Market or finding artisinal cheese at our local market. It was Julia's quirky genius that brought a love of fine food to every kitchen in America and this engaging film celebrates Julia Child as well as her affect on a "regular" person like Julie Powell. Stuck in a dead-end job, Powell cooked her way through every recipe in Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, transforming her life as a cubicle-bound lifer to popular author. We expanded our palate during an organized tour through our city's original Farmers' Market to celebrate National Farmers' Market Week, sampling food from around the world and listening to tantalizing food anecdotes from our passionate guide. Our kids managed to try flavors from nearly every continent -- we think both Julie and Julia would be proud!

Click here to learn more about the film, about National Farmers' Market Week and how to find a food tour in your town