Watch a Monkey-Movie Marathon on PBS Nov 23rd and Share Your Tips for Teaching Science and Math!

[Melanie Mayo]

Sponsored by PBS Kids

Announcing the Monkey-Movie Marathon on PBS, Nov 23rd!

celebrating the holidays by inspiring a love of science, math and engineering in young kids

Plus, tell us how you playfully explore these important concepts with your own children. 

Curious George is the kind of character my kids can relate to: smart, daring, full of energy and, of course, curious. We've had countless hours of fun pouring over this little monkey's mishaps in books, and Curious George on PBS is one of the few things I'll let my kiddos watch on TV.

I never feel bad about letting them snuggle up for a half hour of Curious George because afterward they're immediately asking questions and wanting to know why and how George manages to do the things he does. George's quest to understand the deeper workings of everything he touches (to the great exasperation of The Man with the Yellow Hat) reinforces their own innate need to explore and understand—and that is empowering.

And, frankly, when it comes to science, math and engineering concepts we need more ways of empowering our youth. The PBS crew has done a pretty good job of this: providing ways to learn with Curious George on PBS, on their educational website, or by printing their family activity booklet that is packed full of screen-free ideas.

Their PBS Parents site also has a cool list of episode inspired science experiments that require simple materials and are safe for the little ones. Talk about fun! The Marvelous Meringues experiment provided just the right level of learning and laughs to keep the kids wanting more. And, it plays into type of science and math learning we are already doing at home—creative activities that are inspired by everyday living.

Whether it's baking a cake or building a birdhouse, we want to hear your best tips for empowering the curiosity of the little ones in our lives. Let's inspire each other by sharing the simple and unique ways we have found to work science, math and engineering concepts into playful learning. Post them below!

And don't forget to catch the PBS Holiday Spectacular monkey-movie marathon on Nov 23^rd!—with back-to-back airings of the original Curious George feature film, starring Will Ferrell & Drew Barrymore, Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey and A Very Monkey Christmas..

[JudiAU]

I really, really dislike that Mothering is promoting licensed media for kids. Really. REALLY.

[philomom]

Originally Posted by JudiAU 

I really, really dislike that Mothering is promoting licensed media for kids. Really. REALLY.

Me, too! And those Best of Mothering awards seemed like thinly veiled adverts too. What has Mothering sunk to?

[AdinaL]

Best of Mothering polls are chosen by the community, not thinly veiled advertising at all. We picked things that had been reviewed and then allowed the community to nominated what they felt was best.  What resulted is what this round of polls was made up of. 

This, however, is not the thread to discuss that in.  I would be happy to further discuss the Best of Mothering awards if you wish to PM me about it. :)

[Attached2Elijah]

My daughter LOVES Curious George. She has been asking for the last couple of weeks to try the solar lasagna cooker they make on there. I think we will do something like pizza in it though. I'm just waiting for a sunny day... we haven't had too many of those here in Ohio lately, lol.

For her birthday party, we made a Paper M'ache pumpkin that she was curious about from watching Curious George. She has learned about 1's, 10s and 100s places from the doughnut show they do. She has learned TONS. It's definitely a wonderful resource. If you're against TV, fine, don't watch it... but some of us enjoy a little educational TV and what our children can learn from it. We really love to see things on PBS and then re-create the experiments at home. PBS is one of my greatest resources and not just for cartoons such as Curious George but also shows like 'Nature' and 'Nova' as well. I'm glad to see 'Mothering' featuring it a little. Both my daughter and my son love the PBS website to learn and play. They have excellent games on there to stretch their little minds.

We always talk about Science. It's something we regularly have discussions about around the dinner table. The younger two join in when they can but just hearing what we discuss sinks in. I love when my son or my daughter is playing with their friends and spouts some kind of Science information they have heard us discussing. It really makes me see that they are paying attention even when I'm not sure they are.

I have always included my children in cooking (measuring, talking about why yeast/baking soda, etc makes things rise, etc), cleaning (mixing up homemade cleaners), Gardening (figuring out where each thing should go for the best growth, etc), crafting (measuring, mixing up fun stuff), etc that I do because there is ALWAYS a lesson in those things that include math and/or science. It's in everything that we do. I have always encouraged them to ask questions about what we are doing in everything in life. EVERYTHING is a learning experience.

[LovelyNJ]

"providing ways to learn with Curious George on PBS, on their educational website, or by printing their family activity booklet that is packed full of screen-free ideas."

   How about the screen free idea of not watching tv...the idea is not even radical anymore. I think the only ones who stuck around after Mothering stopped publishing were the ones who really believed in natural parenting. However, as this type of lifestyle has become more common, people are turning to other publications that quite frankely have better articles/communities. Instead of advertising Mothering smartly and changing the format, I'm watching it sell out. No one is here because they want a curious george marathon. Mothering will never be able to generate enough income selling out to compete with the larger magazines and websites. I say, bring the magazine back in a modern form with young, vibrent moms writing articles. Print it as cheaply as possible like all the other magazines, or even have it on the website and have moms write articles. There is such a huge market for this type of thing today. Such a shame to have the oppurtunity to be a success and change the world and not take it.  

[trekkingirl]

This really surprised me. Not something I expected to see on MDC.

My kids like curious george and they love science. We homeschool and love science but have yet to do any experiments seen on curious george

[Amatullah0]

Surprised me too! Even more surprising than seeing the AD, then seeing the email about it, was that I didn't see any threads discussing it.

I'm sad to see Mothering sink so low :( It used to be such a nice place to visit, but now, sadly, it's overrun with ADs, those that reinforce what Mothering used to be about and apparently those that don't as well. I have a 2 year old at home asking me to click on the monkey on the side of the forums. Thanks for reinforcing the ubiquitous licensed media characters. 

I'd love to see Mothering come back to its mostly ad-free days, but I'm not sure that is going to happen. Too bad. I guess I will have to stick to my other forums, especially since Mothering seems to only be getting worse and worse as time goes on.