Poor Chauncey!!!

Does anyone else watch Mad Men on AMC? This week I literally gasped and screamed "Noooo!!!!..." at the TV as a creepy ad exec character heartlessly abandoned his beautiful Irish Setter (Chauncey) on the streets of New York. Had I still been eating my mashed potatoes, I probably would have uncontrollably hurled a spoonful at the screen!

The show is really annoying me these days. "Where are all the good men?" people ask. Well, lemmie tell ya... it's not on Mad Men. In fact they should rename the show CREEP Men. I've watched the male characters treat the women like crap for almost two full seasons, but that, topped with the recent dog storyline, is... IT. To quote Obama... "ENOUGH!" Sorry Peggy and Betty, I will always wonder what became of you... but I'm never watching the show again.

GRR...

Wisdom of the Wild

One of my favorite Sunday shows is Nature (on PBS) and this week they aired my favorite episode so far: Wisdom of the Wild (according to my TIVO, it's also scheduled on KLCS for Thursday, August 28, 2008 @ 8PM, so check your local listings... you might be able to still catch it!) In this program, they highlight the incredible abilities of chimps, horses, elephants, dolphins... and even insects, and focus on how we can use these other species as models for improved health, efficiency, and empathy. By treating an animal with respect and consideration, much can be learned and shared, whether that animal be a dog, cat, frog, dragonfly, or... human :)

Warning: Animal-loving viewers are sure to be teary-eyed throughout (in a heart-warming way!), so have your Puffs Plus on hand. Also, there is footage towards the very end of the program that briefly shows a very sad clip of lab chimps being used in hepatitis trials (if you're like me, you may want to close your eyes during that part of the scene...)

Tiny Treats for Tiny Tots

How adorable are these supersmall burger-themed cookies? Yes, they're cookies masquerading as burgers, and they're really easy to make, too! These are great fun for kid's parties, or even for whimsying up grown-up potlucks, meetings, & BBQs.

Here's what you need:

* nilla wafers (for the "bun")

* green-tinted coconut (lettuce)

* peppermint patties (meat)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Tint your coconut (try shaking it in a plastic bag with a couple drops of food coloring & water) and set that aside. Arrange about 2 dozen wafers, round-side down, on a cookie sheet. Top each with a peppermint patty.* Plop them in the oven for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes just until they start to get a little glossy. Remove, and quickly add on the coconut and top bun. Sprinkle on a few sesame seeds for that "extra-real bunnish" look. You could also skip the whole oven thing altogether and just use tinted frosting to bind your toppings (orange frosting for cheese, red for ketchup, yellow for mustard.) When you're all finished, put them in cutesy cupcake liners... then save some for your guests and... devour the rest yourself!

*Side Note: Please remember that chocolate is for humans only, and should not be shared with any of our furry friends, most especially dogs.

Puppies & Preschoolers (Cognitive Connections)

Around the winter holiday season, the National Geographic Channel was showing this fantastic TV special called Dog Genius, and they've been reairing it recently. It's really wonderful, so if you love sciencey things, and you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend you TIVO it (it's playing again Saturday, August 17.) It talks specifically about how dog-human interaction has effected canine evolution, and it's fascinating. One of the things I found most interesting was the testing regarding canine comprehension of human gestures (especially the pointing experiments.)

For me, the most incredible and exciting study revolved around fast mapping. Rico (the handsome border collie in the photo) has demonstrated what appear to be fast mapping abilities, and these are highlighted on the show. This is a really big deal, because until recently, it was believed that only humans could use fast mapping to gain and retain new knowledge.

Those who work with young children are probably already familiar with that term, but, in a nutshell, "fast mapping" is basically... quickly learning through making assumptions. Fast mapping abilities allow children to form hypotheses about the meaning of a new word after a single exposure. Most children usually start fast mapping between the ages of 2-3, and use it to gather a large part of their vocabulary. During the TV program, they used a great, clear example: Say a child knows what a cow and pig is, and the child is presented with pictures of a cow, pig, and a cockatoo (a new, unfamiliar animal.) When asked to point to the cockatoo, the child can successfully infer that because she already knows what the cow and pig is... the unfamiliar image must be the cockatoo. The child has used fast mapping to learn what a cockatoo is. The belief that dogs may also use fast mapping is extraordinary!

It will be exciting to see what future cognitive studies reveal. The clarity of communication between human & canine is truly unlike any other interactive species dynamic... and it seems that there may even be similarities in the ways we learn, as well!

Poodley Pupcakes

Check out these delicious-looking & cutesycute cupcakes created (for humans) by superbaker (& crafter-filmmaker) Holly Klein. She used mini-marshmallows & red hots to make those unexpectedly detailed, winsome, frenchy pup faces. I'm thinking these would be perfect for a preschooler's birthday party. Or... well... for breakfast!!!

Planet-Friendly Pretend Play

Here's a supergreat preschooly idea I found on the Woodmouse Loves Crafts blog: Instead of automatically throwing your cardboard packaging into the recyclables bin, look for serving suggestion photos on those old food stuffs boxes... and carefully cut those suckers out! When combined with pretend play kiddy kitchen pots, pans & plates, the pictures of yummy delicious fruits & meats (and pancakes!) make for ideal imaginary meals. What an earth-happy alternative to plastic toys! It's free, easy, and as the images get gunky and bendy, you can just toss them in the recyclables bin and replace with new pictures!

Possible learning extensions:

Observation: Encourage "food pictures spotting" while your family is cooking/preparing food/eating. Take note of any special boxes with great food images, and remember to set them aside to save.

Sensory Exploration: If your child goes food picture spotting cuckoo-bananas and requests saving flimsy, non-cardboard images (from bags, magazines, etc.), cut those out too. Let her feel & discuss the difference in texture, strength, etc.

Sorting: Have your child sort the sturdy paper and flimsy paper (sometimes it can be hard to do just by touch alone... you can also try holding the image up to the light... can you see through it?... We can often see through flimsy things...)

Creative Art Expression: Use the non-cardboard images to make a food collage (by gluesticking the pictures onto a plain piece of construction paper, or a paper plate.)

Team work: Older children can be in charge of cutting out & distributing new pretend play food images for their younger preschoolish siblings (enthusiastic participants can even set up a grocery store type shopping experience.)

Choices/Counting: Have a set monthly "shopping" day. Let children switch out old worn images for new ones (tossing three images? Count them out, then "shop" for three new ones.)

Environmental Awareness: Together, place any worn images in the recyclables bin.

Pretending is fun!

The Girly Girl Gang

Pottery Barn Kids has just come out with their Halloween line, and this year it includes some of the cutest, unabashedly girly costumes ever: a bluesy peacock, happy sunflower, fuchsia butterfly, and pink flower princess. Their products always have that cozy, homemade feel to them, and these can be used throughout the year for dress up dramatic play, tea parties, etc. Many of my craftwise preschool parents use the Pottery Barn Kids costumes as inspiration each year, and then fashion their own unique custom versions (ala "But I want to be a GREEN butterfly!") using leotards, tulle, chiffon, & felt.

Besides the girly girl costumes, I also spotted this unusual, supercomfy&warm-looking hedgehog costume, and a creeptastic furry rat treat bag (not shown) that oddish little ones will find gleefully weird. Achieving adorableness has never been so easy!

Mini-Entomologist Mania

Preschoolers just love talking about bugs... and who can blame them? Bugs are cool! Plus, most bugs are little (and so are kids !) Learning that little things matter can be a great way for young children to build their self esteem, as well as help nurture developing empathy skills (it's so very hard at first to resist the urge to squish squiggly stuff !) With grown-up guidance, careful insect observation can also open up wondrous concepts like cause & effect, growth, etc. and provide opportunities to count, discuss colors, shapes, sizes, and so on.

There are lots of activities crawling around the Internet, and endless books with great lesson plan ideas for creative projects (some of which are detailed in one of my previous blog listings.)

I recently discovered something lovely: Mirah & Spectratone International have an intelligent experimental concept album (called Share This Space) that is built around an insect theme. Click on this link for a sampling. It's artsy grownup music (lots of orchestra-oriented instruments; an odd yet sophisticated blend of folksy-alt & classical/chamber music.) Songs revolve around beetles, larva, flies, and monarchs... and lyrics tantalize growing vocabularies with sciencey million-dollar word zingers such as "oxidize," "pupate," "pheromones," and the like; fantastic for no-stress osmosis-style potential learning absorption. Perfect to play during insect-themed art or while quietly exploring buggy puzzles, plastamounts, & picture books.

Background music brainwashing rules!

With Cats it's Different...

Training dogs is mostly easypeasy... This image goes out to anyone who's ever had a feline friend :) Visit Heidi & Isaac's Westcorinth Studio Etsy site for more clever cat craftables (yes, they do kitty portrait commissions!) They also have a treasure trove of eco-friendly wonderful woodworks. Sit. Stay. Shop!

Hero Bulldog Saves Drowning Kittens!

Tired of all the endlessly creepy stories on the news these days? Finally(!) A Happy dog story is getting a little press coverage... and watching this one is sure to warm your animal-loving heart! Click on the link to meet Napoleon (aka "Nappy"), the wise, kind, and heroic English Bulldog who recently rescued six drowning kittens from a watery grave.

Batman shmatman... who needs that guy?... Three cheers for Nappy, our summer's real-life, four-legged, adorably squishy-faced, non-human hero: "Hip-hip hooray! Hip-hip hooray! Hip-hip hooray!"

Puppy Programming

Saturday, August 9, the Fine Living Network is running a megablock of doggie-oriented shows, beginning at 11:00am (PST.) Highlights include an afternoon (1:00pm PST) special featuring the top dog-friendly cities in the nation... will Long Beach or Huntington make the list (as they did with Dog Fancy's Dog Town USA 2008 rankings)...? Set your TIVOs now :)

FYI: Cool Kids' Parties is a series that's also on the Fine Living Network. Every episode is full of supergreat, creative & non-cookiecuttery ideas. If you've got human little ones, you might want to give it a glance, too. Yay Fine Living Network!

Puppy Zen: An Ode to The PLP

"He likes to visit his animal friends in the meadow. And he stops to sniff at curious things in the grass- spiders and caterpillars, hoptoads, and little green grass snakes."

Long live the Poky Little Puppy!

Puppy Games 2008

The Canine Olympics...? You say you'll just take a peek, and then you wind up sitting there grinning and giggling in front of the TV for over an hour watching puppy soccer, swimming, and general puppy cutie-pieness...

Animal Planet is airing the festivities:
Aug 08, 9:00 pm
Aug 09, 12:00 am
Aug 23, 8:00 pm

Aug 23, 11:00pm

...my money's on the Boston Terrier... "USA! USA!"...