MEDIA ADVISORY: 4/29/21

PBS KIDS DVD RELEASE FROM PBS DISTRIBUTION  THIS MAY

Below is a listing of the upcoming PBS KIDS DVD that will be released from PBS Distribution slated for May.    Every purchase helps support public television for all.   Families can also find full episodes of PBS KIDS series for free on their local PBS stations, the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel and PBS KIDS digital platforms, including pbskids.org, the PBS KIDS Video app, and the PBS KIDS Prime Video Channel.

Programs available: PBS KIDS: 15 Sports Stories – 5/18/21           Run Time: 220 min. on 1 discs           SRP: $6.99

Free kindle books for kids

There are many free kindle books for kids out there. Here is just a few I have found.

            

Nature Scavenger Hunts

 

Have you ever been on a nature scavenger hunt? I think it would be a fun thing to do with the kids. What you do is make a list or print a free list (with or without pictures) from the internet and go to a park, lake, beach, woods (as long as your in nature) and find the items from the list. The first child to get all the things wins. You can work in groups or alone but the key is to have fun, learn, and explore. 

You can make themes for the lists. You can organize the hunts by categories. You can say hunt for everything that is a certain color, shape, size, only plants, only animals, only insects, a certain activities, etc. The options are endless. 

Here is a list of some of the ideas I have.

• small bird
• large bird
• prickly leaf
• smooth leaf
• leaf that's not green
• smooth bark
• rough bark
• pinecone
• ladybug
• dragonfly
• ant
• fern
• acorn
• dandelion 
• lizard
• snake
• fish
• spider
• caterpillar
• snail

Well you get the idea. This is a great thing to do with the kids because it gets you outdoors, gets some exercise in,, it gets the brain going by sparking creativity. Best of all it doesn't cost anything. 

Free Virtual Zoo Cams

Here are some virtual Zoo Cams for anyone who is interested. 

• Johari & Oliver Giraffe Cam - Animal Adventure Park: Johari will be giving birth soon!

• Check out the Smithsonian's National Zoo's Panda Cam
• Check out several animal live cams at the Cincinnati Zoo here
• Check our several African Wildlife live cams via Explore.org
• See what is on the San Diego Zoo's Live Cams here
• Houston Zoo has live cams from 7 A.M. – 7 P.M. CST
• New England Aquarium has several live cams, check them out
• Oregon Zoo has some pre-recorded educational videos
• The Dallas Zoo has "reels" of various zoo animals on their IG 
• Check on the condor live cams from Ventana Wildlife Society
• Here is a pre-recorded virtual field trip from Seattle Aquarium 

Also be sure to check out PBS for a ton of educational videos perfect for kids.

10 good reasons to garden with the kids

10 good reasons to garden with the kids

This is my list of ten good reasons to actively get your children helping in the garden. These are mainly just my opinion and these are in no particular order. If you would like to comment with your favorite reasons to get the children in the garden, please leave a comment. 

1. The kids are going to be interested in eating healthier if they are helping grow their own foods in fruit and vegetable garden.
2. Playing in soil helps with sensory input. Sensory input helps develop the mind and keep it sharp. Some believe that sensory input can be therapeutic.
3. Gardening can help with motor skills. Digging the dirt, planting the plant, watering the plants, and harvesting the fruits and vegetables all help with motor skills.  
4. Gardening will help teach responsibility. You have to care for your garden or it could wilt and die. 
5. Gardening will teach patience. Hard work does pay off. You have to be patient and wait for the plants and vegetables to ripen or the flowers to bloom.
6. It can help with self confidence. They will be proud of what they can grow with just a little bit of help or guidance. 
7. Fresh Air. Gardening outdoors will get your children outside more often and into the fresh air.
8. Extra exercise is another added benefit. You would be amazed how much exercise gardening truly is. 
9. It teaches science. You need a proper environment to help a plant grow proper and you can take this time to teach them the parts of the plant and what is needed to properly grow plants. 
10. Family bonding. You can take this time to make memories with your children and bond with them.

So here are my favorite ten reasons to get your kids active in your garden. And remember it is okay if they take too long to dig the hole, if they water a bit too much, if the plant isn't perfectly straight. It doesn't have to be a perfect garden but it will be YOUR garden TOGETHER. Enjoy the time with the children and have fun. And if you don't have room for a garden, that's ok. They do make window sill containers to grow things as well. 

Happy Mother's Day

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I don't care how you came about being a mom. If you fill the mom role in any way this day's for you!

Join Microsoft Rewards

Join Microsoft Rewards!!!

Join InstaGC

Need extra money for the holidays or just because then join InstaGC today! InstaGC, also known as IGC let's your earn free and instant gift cards (and in some areas checks) by completing tasks, watching short videos, or searching the web. When you cash out your reward is instant on the screen. Just click below to join!

Bad experience with Seresto customer service

     You all know normally I do not write these kinds of posts. But in this case I feel the need to. I'm not one to put down a company or share a negative experience especially when deal with customer service in general because one person doesn't represent the company and people have bad days and direct anger in wrong places. It happens, people make mistakes. But when you have almost and hour and half with two customer service reps in the same company for the same reason you have to look at the customer service training that the company provides. The following is about a Seresto Large size dog collar I feel is defective. I purchased it 5 days prior to use and have been using the collar for a little over a month. 

     I bought a Seresto Flea Collar for $60 at a local pet store, which I found out was an authorized dealer, through the phone calls. The collar is defective and not effectively working, in my opinion, and their customer service is of no help. First I had a hard time getting through to talk to a live human. It took over 15 minutes to talk to a live person and that wasn't due to holding for next available, that was due to the prompts sending you in literal circles. 

     Then when I did get a hold of a live person before she even found out what my issue was she started spouting "facts" that weren't even close to being true and trying to tell me about my situation before she even knew it but even that aside... Customer service advised me to wait 8-10 to give the collar time to work as I had only waited 5 weeks. Mind you when we begun she had zero fleas and now she is showing fleas, not a lot but to me any fleas are bad fleas. But despite that I was willing to wait more time and even told them so as long as I had a way to reference this call if I needed to call back in about this specific collar and incident. In my opinion this collar isn't doing what it was paid to do. That's where things started to fail. So I told the customer service (technical support) lady that I felt this tin/collar was defective, that I have faith in the store I purchased it in and in their product but this one collar must have slipped past their quality control (hey, it happens, I get it). After many minutes of her over-talking me, being rude, and acting as if I were unintelligent, she said she would give me a reference number and then in the next breath refused to give it to me or even make a reference number. She then accused me of yelling and I said no my I wasn't and that I had witnesses sitting by me who could hear our phone call and with that the customer service rep hung up on me. LOVELY, right!?.
So I call back, getting through much quicker this time. The call in issues I had had in the previous attempt seemed resolved. I was feeling much more hopeful. I opened the call with a friendly hello and told her how the last rep hung up on me and if she felt frustrated at any point to not hang up and to transfer me to her supervisor. But before you know it the same conversation ensues with another member of their technical team and she informs me they have to make a reference number by law and she doesn't know why the other lady said she wasn't going to do it, and then provides me with such number. She then goes on to tell me misconceptions about their collars and things other people have done wrong to make them less effective. This is okay, it's troubleshooting. Here we go now we are getting some where. Or so I felt, conversation was going great until I referenced back to the customer service rep that had hung up on me because it was pertinent to our conversation. For some reason this infuriated the customer service rep I was speaking to and the call went downhill from there. She said she was talking to me not the other lady. She then accused me of not listening to her because I referenced the other call. Yes, I did reference it, it was pertinent to the question she asked me. She started repeating herself with things that I had thought we were passed. She got very ignorant and mean very fast and for no just cause then says "I am going to terminate this call", when I told her that her flea maturity rate was off. She then yelled I had no questions for her and she did it, she hung up. I got the reference number at least but what good will that do me? I have never seen worse customer service. They weren't hearing me or my concerns or the situation at hand. Both customer service reps were acting like they were reading randomness off their prompter not even reading for the right prompts. You figure if you going to spend that much on a flea collar that the customer service center would have nicer, more helpful people working in the call center. 
     

Slow Cooker Cake

Recently I was looking for a delicious desert that wouldn't heat up the house and I came across the idea of a Slow Cooker Cake.  This is a delicious, inexpensive cake that can be made in any slow cooker and because it doesn't use the oven it doesn't heat up the house.    It's very simple and doesn't even require a recipe.  You take one box of your favorite cake mix and one can of your favorite soda and mix them together in a greased crock pot and set the slow cooker to low and place on the lid.  No need to stir.  After 3 hours a knife or toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake.  There is no need to add the oil, eggs, and water that you normally would, just the mix and a soda.  

First one we tried was the best so far.  We took a yellow cake mix and a can of Coca Cola and made the cake.  We scooped it from the slow cooker and served it warm beside Ice Cream.  You can also add fruit or desert toppings if you like to the mix.  A friend I have met on InstaGC says her favorite is Chocolate Cake Mix mixed with Root Beer. 

If you try this recipe can you please come back and let everyone know what your favorite has been so far?