My wife Wendy sent me an email earlier today about Nickelodeon and Addictinggames.com and how Nick was promoting inappropriate content to kids. Here’s the text of the email:

Did you know that Nickelodeon, the children’s media empire, is promoting sexualized and violent video games to children as young as preschoolers? Its popular gaming website, Addictinggames.com, features games such as Candy the Naughty Cheerleader, Bloody Day (“Back alley butchering has never been so much fun. . . . How many kills can you rack?”) and the Perry the Sneak series, where gamers take the role of a peeping Tom trying to catch revealing glimpses of scantily clad and naked women. Nickelodeon promotes, and links directly to, Addictinggames.com on its Nick.com website for children and even on its Nick Jr.com, its website for preschoolers.

Please visit Democracy in Action to tell Nickelodeon to stop promoting sexualized and violent videogames to children.

The content of some of the games on AddictingGames.com is truly shocking. Please demand that Nickelodeon stop directing children to a website which features games such as:

Stick Figure Penalty Chamber 2: “Small, black, stick figure death can happen in so many different ways! Do you choose shotgun to the face, or acid in the lungs?”

Naughty Classroom – “Here’s your chance to fulfill your ultimate childhood fantasy. Naughty Classroom will leave you begging for more homework.”

Dark Cut 2 – “More macho surgery! No anesthetic. No antiseptics. Just rusty knives, corn whiskey, and lots of blood!”

Foxy Sniper – “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. Fear me, because I am a crack shot! Assassination isn’t just a job; it’s a way of life.”

Please visit Democracy in Action to immediately stop promoting AddictingGames.com on its websites for children

Being skeptical I went to the Nick and Nick Jr. but found nothing approaching anything like what is described above. So I sent Wendy an email saying basically “Come on, there’s no links to anything like this, what a poor job of advocacy these guys are doing.”

But I thought I’d better double check myself – just in case I was missing something. Sure enough, at the bottom of the games page on both Nick and Nick Jr. there’s a section for Addicting Games:

If you click the link for “Flash Games” this is what you get:

Granted the number of click throughs from Nick Jr. is probably pretty low – but for better or worse plenty of parents probably park their kids in front of Nick Jr confident that if they aren’t getting an enriching experience they’re at least not going to be exposed to anything bad. But I think Santa stuffing a gun into a zombie’s mouth is probably not something most people would suggest for toddlers.

Now people who know me know that I am a pretty bad person, but even I realize that this is inappropriate. Come on Nick, WFT?

If only I could make a recording urging the kids to leave me a message at the beep! But instead I settle for saying through the closed-door “Mommy’s not here, try again later” the only one who seems to buy it is my 2-year-old, Josh. He always responds with “Daddy?”… Oh hell yes sucker!! It’s your turn Daddy!

Life with 5 kids is a circus and I am the ring master whom a lion will eventually turn on and devour.

Jackson is now 8 weeks old and my beautiful little “oh shit  how’d that happen” baby is perfect. He breastfeeds like a freakin champ, sleeps like an angel and poops like he has a serious case of IBS. Often I wonder if he’s bored because he sits around crossing his eyes, making funny faces and farting as loud as he possibly can and thats how my 12-year-old acts when he’s bored.  I try to entertain Jackson but he just looks at me like “my funny faces are better than yours, what else you got?”

Joshua aka The Hulk aka The Tyrant is lovin having a little brother… maybe a little too much and I imagine Jackson thinks we’re nuts for letting this 2-year-old monster who stalks around saying “me hulk, me crush you” near him. Josh is great with the baby, but he has this crazy idea that he can pick him up and that he can sleep in the bassinet with him. So I’ve been sleeping with one eye open for the last two months.

Since Jackson’s birth I’ve started to suspect that my other 3 think I’m the dumbest person alive and incapable of doing almost everything.

The other day Sarah whose 8 and in the 2nd grade waited until her Daddy  got home to get help with her homework. When I asked why she didn’t bring it to me she simply responded “It’s math Mom.” WTH? Believe it or not I can add and subtract!

A few days later Braeden (my 6-year-old)  got pissed off and threw his toy truck against the wall causing it to break into a thousand little pieces- that no one could ever put back together. I picked up the broken parts and headed for the trash, he stopped me by screaming.. “you can’t fix it but Daddy can!” I swear my husband has these kids so snowed! They think he’s the freakin Dalai Lama of fixing shit when he’s actually Tim “the Toolman” Taylor.

My 12-year-old, Lowgan thinks I’m dumb but in a different way then the others.. he thinks I’m dumb and old. OLD!?  I try to tell him that 29 isn’t old and I try to convince him I’m cool by dancing around the house to the Black Eye Peas and fitting 50 cent into conversations- so HE knows, that I know its cent not cent(s)… but I’m pretty sure it just convinces him even more that I’m dumb and old.

Having 5 children hasn’t been as bad as I expected during my pregnancy with Jackson. Because at that time I thought I would be caring for 5 kids, keeping a spotless house and cooking edible meals. What I’ve learned over the past 8 weeks is this:

1. If they aren’t bleeding it’s not really a fight and I should let them work it out on their own.
2. As long as there’s a clean cup for coffee the rest can wait.
3. Hamburger Helper really isn’t that bad.
4. Delegate- “Do I have clean work clothes?” says my husband “I don’t know, did you wash any?” says me.
5. My best friend is Nick Jr.
   
6. If all else fails send them to Daddy and/or blame Daddy.
   
7. It’s easier to sleep topless when breastfeeding a newborn.
8. If I’m not tripping over stuff, the house is clean.
9. The couch is an excellent locale for clean clothes.
10. Appointments are merely suggested times for arrival.
    

I just found out that one of mine and my sons’ favorite kids shows was dropped from Nick Jr./Noggin. They’ve been airing re-runs of the first season for a while now, so I decided to look online and see when the new season of The Upside Down Show would be starting. Turns out never. Seriously? And Max and Ruby is in it’s 4th season, a show about 2 bunny rabbits that looks like the animation was done in the 1950’s and can put my 3-year-old to sleep?

The Upside Down Show is by far the best show for preschoolers on tv right now, rivaled only by Sesame Street…and since it’s co-produced by the Sesame Workshop, it’s little wonder. My kids love  it…and for good reason. It’s funny, inovative, smart and totally entertaining…not to mentioned educational. The award-winning show stars world-renowned Australian comedy duo Shane Dundas and David Collins, known as The Umbilical Brothers. These guys are incredibly talented, and the show rests completely on their creative shoulders. The whole concept is really fresh, especially to parents of young children who grow so very weary of snoozers like Little Bill or Oswald.

Dear Nickelodeon Execs,

Seriously?

Sincerely,

Your Disappointed Audience

PS: …and also,

–hothumblepie

On as SIDE NOTE:
I know I said that from now on I would focus more on Disney, but I just thought of something…

If someone says Orange Soda or “Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, Can I take your order?”  or maybe even “Aw, here it goes”….Two people will come to mind….Kenan and Kel.

Kenan and Kel, both had a show on NICK (which is still relevant to this blog seeing as it is an aspect of children popular culture) where they dressed up as other persons and tried to deceive people.

Since this was on a children/teenager-oriented network, was america trying to suggest that boys dressing up as girls was okay…could this show have influenced children into doing what their favorite characcters Kenan and Kel did. Did America realize this and try to correct it…could this be why shows like Tyler Perry’s Madea is intended for adults…could this be why Nick had canceled Kenan and Kel and had REALITY shows like Slimetime LIVE. or better yet this could be why nick renamed their networks to more age-linked names: Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nick @ Nite….

Just food for Thought….EITHER WAY I THINK ITS SAFE TO SAY THAT NICK HAS SOMEONE FELL OFF THE MAP SOOOO

BACK TO DISNEY

3 more days, tomorrow is the midnight release party at the Common Ground at The Vibe, 18+, 9pm-2am, $5 all night and Curtiss will also be having copies of Snick @ Nite for sale, so be there tomorrow!!

here’s his video for his second single Banging on a Trash Can sampling Doug ||Free Download||

Lagunatic decided that the best way to get a good start on the day was to give the kids breakfast with out having Nick Jr playing in the background. The goal was that they’d focus on eating and I wouldn’t get caught up in on-line stuff. They’d finish faster, start pestering me and then we’d actually go out into the world and get shit done! Shocking concept, I know.

Well, it worked….kind of:

“Mommy! I don’t hear any noises.”

“Noises?”

‘Yeah, television noises.”

“That’s because the tv isn’t on.”

“I know………………………Hey, Mommy?”

“Yes, sweetie pie.”

“Don’t you need to check the weather?”

Crafty little rascal that one. However, unless Wubzy has Larry Sprinkle bound and gagged in the Green Room closet I don’t think his little ruse is going anywhere.

Even though we’ve never seen Yo Gabba Gabba on TV, my son and I were introduced to the characters on the Nick Jr. website where there are games, videos and music available.

I received an email from the PR company that’s promoting the new Music Is Awesome CD featuring hit songs from the TV show, wanting to know if I would be interested in reviewing the CD. Since and were listed on the list of artists who are included, I figured this would be music that both my son and I could enjoy.

Music is Awesome

When the CD arrived, my son asked me to put it in right away so on the way to school one morning, we listened to the first 16 songs (it’s a 15 mile drive). My son loved it and couldn’t wait to listen to it again when we got home from school yesterday, which meant that I had to go out to the car to get it so we could play it in the house, download it onto our computer and put it onto his iPod for his listening pleasure.

Be prepared for your kids to want to get up and dance once they hear the music! Be equally prepared to start singing, “Party In My Tummy,” as you prepare dinner.

You can check out the songs on Amazon and download individual songs or the entire CD.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Biz Markie on the Yo Gabba Gabba set

It looks like the folks at Yo Gabba Gabba! are in full swing, taping new episodes for their third season. Here’s a pic of Biz Markie who does the feature “Biz’s Beat of the Day” on the wildly popular Nick Jr. show. Check out more of the show’s production blog, Yo Blogga Blogga.

—- Stay Juicy!

Desde el pasado 28 de septiembre el Nickelodeon de Estados Unidos ha cambiado totalmente su imagen así como los bloques de programación. Saliendo del típico logo de fondo naranja, cambiando su forma unas 1000 veces (en ése país), podía ser calquier cosa: desde un cohete, un ovalo, una nube, una calabaza… cualquier cosa. Siempre del mismo color y la misma tipografía, hacía que fuera más entretenido, preguntándose cómo sería el próximo. El logo estándar yo diría que es el ’splash’.

Para Nickelodeon es un gran salto (es como si de un día para otro cambiaran el logo de MTV, o Cartoon Network) cambiando 28 años de historia. En el único lugar donde lo seguiremos viendo es en los finales de los créditos de cada Nicktoons o series y películas creados por Nick.

El logo de Nick Jr. siempre fue el nombre Nick acompañado por el Jr., era más chico que el primero y con un color celeste. Éstos también variaban sus formas: personas, ranas, hipopotamos, estrellas, entre otros.

En Estados Unidos se estrenó el 28 de septiembre, se espera el cambio el Latinoamérica para el 2010.

Como ven el naranja continúa identificando a la marca. Lo que más me llama la atención al ver la palabra ‘Nick’ es la ‘i’ con el punto que se va estirando sin despegarse de la ‘i’. No sucede lo mismo con la ‘j’ de ‘jr.’ El punto final de éste está sobre la ‘r’. El color  de ‘jr.’ se conserva como su antecesor. En Nick@Nite, se usa el ‘@’cosa que antes no se utilizaba el ‘at’ (pronunciación del arroba). En todos los logos ‘k’ y la ‘t’ son mayúsculas pero están a la misma altura que los demás. La forma y terminación que tienen todas las letras hace que resalten su circularidad, se puede apreciar más en ‘Nicktoons’ y en el caso de Nick@Nite el ‘@’ ayuda a concretar esa idea o ‘TeenNick’. En éste último se agrega una ‘n’ al nombre. Antes era TEENick.

Yo me quedo con el logo “verdadero” con el que todos identificamos, pero creo que dentro de unos meses me acostumbre.

Lo que no me gusta: es que no permite es que se convierta en otros logos, como el anterior, que podía tener miles de formas. Es muy rígido.

Lo bueno: al ser todos iguales son de alguna forma como una “familia” y puede ser fácil identificar cuáles son sus canales hermanos infantiles. Lo comparo con los logos de TVE. La 1, la 2, el canal 24h, etc. son todos iguales, lo único que varia es el color (y obviamente el nombre).

Comparación

En Estados Unidos. Nicktoons, Nick Jr. y TeenNick son canales independientes. Podemos comparar en América Latina a Nicktoons Network con Nick Hits. Por cierto. Me pregunto cómo será el nuevo logo de Nick Hits…seguramente (estimo) conservando el mismo color de ‘Hits’ lo demás sería igual a los demás.

Videos

Cambio de look de Nick at Nite (US)

Yo Gabba Gabba! will kick off its first ever U.S. tour November 14th in Los Angeles.

The show titled, There’s a Party In My City will be coming to the following cities:

• Los Angeles, CA Shrine Expo Hall Saturday, November 14, 2009 11AM and 3PM
• New York, NY Beacon Theatre Saturday, November 21, 2009 11AM and 2PM
• Chicago, IL Rosemont Theatre Saturday, December 5, 2009 11AM and 3PM

Tickets are available this morning at 10am via Ticketmaster
and YoGabbaGabbaLive.com

A one-of-a-kind live event, YO GABBA GABBA! LIVE: THERE’S A PARTY IN MY CITY will feature music, animation, games, singing, dancing, and special musical guests. Favorites such as “Party in My Tummy” “Hold Still” and “Get the Sillies Out” will be featured in the show. Special guests will also join the party on stage rocking their favorite ‘Dancey Dance’ moves.

Starting Monday, Yo Gabba Gabba will launch their 3rd season with celebrity guests like Andy Samberg, The Roots and MGMT dropping by to hang out with the gang. Additional guest stars appearing throughout the premiere week include hip-hop legend Biz Markie, teaching preschoolers how to beat box in the recurring “Biz’s Beat of the Day” segment, singer/illustrator/composer Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO) in the recurring “Mark’s Magic Pictures” drawing segment, skateboarder Ray Barbee and musical guests Reeve Oliver, Lady Tigra and Little Ones.

We have 2 Yo Gabba Gabba ‘Music is Awesome’ CD’s (available nationwide on October 20) to giveaway. The CD features music from the hit show along with tracks recorded by some of the aforementioned guest stars.

To enter, just tell us which character you like the best!

Extra Entrants:

• Blog about our giveaway! Tell your readers about our giveaway and then send us the link in a separate comment for an additional entrant to the giveaway.
• Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/growingyourbaby or ‘Tweet’ about our giveaway
• Regardless of outcome – ALL bloggers who blog about our giveaway will be linked back in our winners post.

*All comments are moderated and may not appear immediately*

Giveaway Rules

Good luck!

Giveaway Closes Monday October 13th, 2009

This Past Week’s Activities>

Math | Sequential Order, Addition, Measurement, Geometry, Calendar:

• Jumpstart (CD Rom) -  Number sequence
• Scholastic Brainplay (CD Rom) – Addition, Math Olympics
• Internet activities:
  • Measurement – “Time to Move”
  • Geometry – “Let’s Tessellate!”
• Calendar day, date & month reviewed.  We made a school calendar to hang in her room.
• Basic geometric shapes reviewed

Language Arts/English | Reading, Parts of Speech: 

Educational Viewing: 

School House Rock – topics covered:

• Verbs
• Adjectives
• Conjunctions
• Nouns
• Adverbs

Also:

PBS Kids (NPT):

Martha Speaks

Reading – Scholastic Brainplay (CD Rom), I Spy Treasure Hunt

Science | Electricity & Inventions:

School House Rock (educational viewing):

• Electricity
• Mother Invention

PBS Kids (NPT):

Dinosaur Train

Foreign Language | Spanish

Jumpstart (CD Rom) Spanish

Computer Tech | Computer Time:

CD Rom – Jumpstart & Scholastic Brainplay

Internet – PBS Kids Island, I Know That, Nick JR, PBS Kids

Physical activity/dance | Trampoline time & Fresh Beat Band (Nick JR)

###

I researched and wrote several pieces of branded content for this NickJr.com parenting feature, including:

Dora’s First Aid Kit Checklist

Blue’s Car First Aid Checklist

Blue’s Important Phone Numbers Printable

Blue’s Babysitter Checklist

Dora’s Emergency Phone Numbers Magnet

Click any image to read in a larger view.

Lots of computer time.  Our star pupil is a computer nut!  I have no problem with that .

Computer Tech | Computer time:

The usual websites.  I observed her hand-eye coordination, keyboarding and hand/finger placement abilities.  She’s doing very well.

Educational viewing:

Science – Zula Patrol (Qubo): Weather

Lang Arts/English/Vocabulary – Martha Speaks (PBS Kids): Truman’s Secret - Where has Truman been and why is he acting so weird? He’s hiding in the garage, lurking in the shadows. He finally agrees to tell the whole gruesome story, but will it be too horrible for them to bear?

Vocabulary

(E) appearance, self–conscious, mortified, flaw, vain

(I) picture, horrible, barber, photo, haircut

Physical activity| trampoline time

-Recess

NKJ-085 : NICK JR Yellow Skirt & Blouse Set

Item Code : NKJ-o85
“NICK JR Yellow Polka-Dot Skirt & Sleeveless Blouse Set”
Size : 2T
Material : 100% Cotton
Condition : New Without Tags
Price : RM34/set

This cheerful sunny yellow 2 piece set is bound to brighten your daughter’s day. The sleeveless collared blouse buttons down the front with sweet floral detailing on the left side. The skirt is elastised at the back for quick and easy dressing and a comfortable fit. And has built-in panties which button down with 3 snap-buttons. A thoroughly lovely set!

Today’s  Activities>

Computer Tech | Computer time:

• Various games on Nick Jr.com
  • As always, computer terms are discussed/reviewed as she is working.  I have shown her how to use the refresh button when the web page is loading improperly, and how to double-click the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop to open the homepage.
• Various learning activities on Funschool.com

Math |Counting to 100:

• Web activity -  Count Along to 100!

 Language Arts |Nouns (common & proper):

• Web activity – Noun Dunk

Science | Animals (the activity helps students to understand angle & force):

• Web activity:  Eggs of Destruction

~Recess

Today’s  Activities>

Computer Tech | Computer time:

• PBS Kids website activities:  Sid Science Kid, Dinosaur Train (Science)
• Various games on Nick Jr.com
  • As always, computer terms are discussed/reviewed as she is working.  I have shown her how to use the refresh button when the web page is loading improperly, and how to double-click the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop to open the homepage.
  • Terms discussed:  icons, web browser, search engine, Google, double-click

Math | Counting to 100 &  Time by hour, 15 minutes:

• Flashcards

Vocabulary | Words asked about:

“Mommy, what does _____ mean? 

• stroll
• re-unite
• herbivore
• barter

-Recess

Proving my ingenuity with a tissue box, I created several crafts for NickJr.com, including a Blue’s Clue’s piggy bank and “favorite things” box, a train, and musical instruments.

Click the images to visit the site.