Join the Circus — Get Discounted Tickets!

The Greatest Show on Earth is on the road and is stopping in St. Louis Oct. 15-18 at the Scottrade Center.

This year, Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey® Circus live performances provide edge-of-your-seat entertainment for the young and young at heart. And they’re giving you the chance to just about “join” the circus by providing an All-Access Pre-Show, which begins an hour before the show starts live on the circus floor. Your kids will have the chance to meet the performers, try on costumes, and get close and personal with the circus! The All-Access Pre-Show is FREE to all ticket holders and is a must see!

• Offer #1: Get 4 tickets for just $44 by entering the code “MOM” at select ticketing channels. Offer good on all weekday performances, which includes all weekday evening and Friday matinee performances; minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets can be purchased at $11 each.
• Offer #2: All weekend performance tickets will be $4 off the original price.
• Offer #3: Get the best Circus Celebrity, Front Row and VIP seats available – There are reserved seats in these sections just for you! Enter the code MOM. No discounts available on these sections.

Don’t Miss This Free Family Play Date!

If you’re looking for fun and FREE ways to entertain your kids this fall, you need add the Family Play Date to your calendar on Oct. 3.

This fun-filled event at the St. Charles Convention Center will have activities to entertain children ages 8-months to 8-years-old, and it’s completely free (including free parking). The event is presented by Parents as Teachers.

One of the featured exhibits is BLOCK Fest, a hands-on block-building extravaganza. We all know kids love playing with blocks, and BLOCK Fest takes that activitiy to a new level. What you may not know is that playing with blocks helps children develop early math, science and literacy skills in a fun, interactive way. (I already knew that because I participate in Parents as Teachers, and my parent educator is always sharing that kind of useful information with me. If you have kids age 3 or under and you’re not already participating in PAT, you should check into the program.)

In addition to BLOCK Fest, there will be dozens of other activities for your kids to enjoy at the Play Date. Exhibitors include Abra-Kid Abra, Gymboree Play and Music, Magic House and Vetta Sports, plus many more.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so come early and wear those kids out — maybe you’ll get a nap out of the deal, too. Concessions are available if you want to stay all day. For more information, including directions to the St. Charles Convention Center, go here.

MTV VMA’s Provide Teachable Moments

I don’t think it’s often that the MTV Video Music Awards provide a teachable moment (except to tell your daughters what NOT to wear). But last night was a real exception, as it provided not ONE but TWO teachable moments (in addition to the fashion thing).

In case you didn’t watch — here’s a brief summary of what happened, or you can watch the video below. Taylor Swift won Best Female Video instead of Beyonce. When the very young country music singer was trying to say her thanks, Kanye West jumped on stage, took the mic said he thought Beyonce had the best music video of all time. When the camera panned to Beyonce, she looked embarrassed. Poor Swift was speechless and despite the audience booing West and trying to cheer her on, she left the stage without uttering another word.

All of us Mom’s have had to try to comfort our children when someone else achieves something they wanted for themselves. We’ve had to have conversations with them about good sportsmanship. On the flip side, we may have had to try to help them cope with the ugly behavior of someone who may be jealous of their own achievements. The awful, pathetic and selfish outburst by Kanye West last night on the VMA’s gave me a chance to say to my kids, “See how ugly that appears. Jealousy and poor sportsmanship happen everywhere, and it’s just as unattractive on a national stage as it is at a swim meet or football game or on a golf course.”

Then a little later in the program, Beyonce won the final award for the night. When she took the mic, she briefly talked of how she felt when she was a teen and won her first VMA award. So, she called Taylor Swift back on stage and gave the mic to her. She “made right” by what her ill-behaving supporter Kanye West had done to Swift. Teachable Moment No. 2.

I know a few of Beyonce’s songs and I know she can dance like nobody’s business. Now, I also know she is a class act. Somebody raised her right.

Disney On Ice Review

My toddler enjoyed her first Disney show last night when we attended Disney On Ice 100 Years of Magic at the St. Louis Family Arena. My experience with Disney is that they usually deliver above your expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed. Everything from the props, songs, characters, and skating was fantastic — as evidenced by the fact that my toddler (22 months), my niece (age 2) and my neighbor’s daughter (age 2) all stayed several acts past intermission.

I had anticipated that with our young audience, we might make it to intermission, but our young girls — dressed as the princesses Cinderella, Belle and Ariel — were either mesmerized and sitting in their seats or on our laps, or they were up clapping and dancing.  Other “Disney stars” in the show were Mickey & Minnie, Tinkerbell, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mulan and Pinocchio.

Here are a few photos from our fun night:

My toddler shows her joy at being dressed like Cinderella

Kissing cousins -- the girls greet one another outside the Family Arena

Ariel, Cinderella and Belle wait for the show to start

The girls are mesmerized by the skating/singing princesses

The only downside to the show, in my opinion, was that it started off with the Genie from Aladdin, soon followed by a shark from Finding Nemo, which frightened my niece at first. But as soon as we had princesses gliding across the ice, all was good. Cinderella, Belle, Ariel and Snow White graced the ice together, which was a magical number for any young princess in attendance.

Here’s a few pictures from the show:

Ariel

Cinderella

The Genies that scared my niece

Disney Parade of Lights

The show is in St. Louis until Sept. 6, and Disney on Ice via Mom Central is offering my readers a coupon code to use when purchasing tickets from Metrotix.  By entering MOM in the MC promotion code spot on Ticketmaster, you can purchase four tickets for $44 for weekday matinee shows or get $4 off the ticket price for the weekend tickets.

These coupon codes also are good on upcoming shows in other cities, including:

Let’s Do Spelling Tests, Not Obama Politics in School

UPDATED 9/4/09 2:45 P.M. (see below)

Next Tuesday, President Obama plans to use part of the school day to address our nation’s children via a “Back to School” message. According to the White House, the purpose of this message will be to challenge students to work hard, set goals and take responsibility for learning.  But like a lot of conservatives, I suspect the speech has a much more pointed agenda — like indoctrinating our children to his socialist way of thinking.

Perhaps my cynicism about the speech stems from the “shared responsibility and commitment” language. Perhaps it comes from the fact that he’s trying to socialize our health care. Perhaps I’m just paranoid. Regardless, I prefer to do the teaching about politics and shared responsibility. I’d like my kids to stick to the basic academic subjects at school, like spelling tests.

The White House is encouraging school districts across the nation to take the time to watch the speech, and have even thoughtfully provided activities and questions to use after the speech. Check out the Menu of Classroom Activities for Pre-K through 6th Grade.  Here are some of the questions:

What is the president trying to tell me? What is the president asking me to do?
What new ideas and actions is the president challenging me to think about?  What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

He’s asking us to rubber-stamp his ideas on health care, banking, Wall Street, taxes, foreign policy and the environment. And he’s brilliant because he’s trying to get our kids on board. We need to be smarter.

I haven’t heard whether my school district will be taking the time to watch this speech. If it does, my son will be going out to lunch with me during that time. Perhaps we’ll practice his spelling.

————

Apparently, the White House is back-tracking a little bit on the President’s plan to request help from students. Check out this article.

Also, I contacted my son’s school principal and here is part of her response regarding whether the President’s address will be shown to students:

“As a district there is no district wide expectation that we are expecting all teachers to have students view this broadcast in their classrooms.  If a teacher feels it is appropriate for their class and curricular objectives, they may have student watch the broadcast although at (school name removed) we have agreed that we would tape it first and preview the contents prior to a class showing.  We recognize that there is historical value since this is the first time a President has publically addressed students.  As with all external resources to our curriculum, teachers should decide how participation and use of the source contributes to the learning and achievement of our curriculum objectives according to Board Policy.  The RSD curriculum is objective, non-partisan and non-sectarian.  We do not endorse candidates, platforms, or parties.  RSD does respect the office of the Presidency and the President’s position of the leader of the nation.  All teachers have been asked to consider the curriculum, knowledge, maturity, and competence of the class when making a decision about the use of controversial issues as this address may be considered by many.  Teachers at (school name removed) will offer alternate activities if they do determine this is a good resource and connects to their grade level curriculum.  Teachers will also inform parents in advance of their decision to view this address.”

Take Time to Feed the Ducks

I’ve been pretty busy with writing work lately, which is a very good thing. I’ve got the “best of both worlds” as Hannah Montana might sing. I get to stay home with my toddler, but I also have a decent freelance writing/communications gig that helps pay for some of our “stuff.”

Still, when I get busy, I have to remind myself to take the time to enjoy said toddler — particularly when the weather on Sept. 1 resembles the weather in mid-October. In other words — you gotta take time to feed the ducks. We did just that today.