MomReviews

I am completely hooked on NBC’s “Journeyman”, which airs Monday nights after “Heroes”. The writing is solid, the lead actors are terrific, and I like the whole mystery-detective aspect of it.

In each week’s episode, Dan Vassar, newspaper columnist, finds himself traveling back in time, going back anywhere from a few years to a few decades, and saving someone’s life. Then for the rest of the episode, he has to figure out why he saved that person, as he continues to travel back, usually as the person he saved is getting older, in order to guide that person to whatever their purpose for being saved is. I know, it’s confusing, but you just have to go with the flow.

It’s fun to watch Dan, played by Kevin McKidd (”Rome”), try to figure out where in time he is, figure out how to get along without the currency from that time (shopkeepers keep thinking his 2007 money is counterfeit because it looks so different), and most of all, avoid running into himself and his now-wife. He is guided during his time travels by his former love, Livia, and has a wife, Katie and son, Zack at home. Oh, and his older brother is a cop who is getting suspicious of all of Dan’s unexplained disappearances.

I have this history of watching new shows and then they get cancelled. But I’m really hoping that won’t be the case for “Journeyman”. Next to “Heroes”, it’s my favorite show on TV!

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I’ve got TWO copies to give away of the Disney Channel Original Series DVD, “Hannah Montana-Life’s What You Make It”, starring Miley Cyrus as a supposedly ordinary high school girl with a secret rockstar identity. It’s rated G with a running time of 90 minutes.
For one entry in the giveaway, leave me a comment on this post, and tell me what your favorite Halloween candy is. If you don’t eat candy or celebrate Halloween, tell me something interesting about yourself

For TWO entries in the giveaway, leave me the comment, and either add me to your blogroll or subscribe to my blog feed, the link is in the upper right sidebar.

For THREE entries and my undying gratitude, leave me the comment, add or fave me, AND write a post about the contest linking back to this post! This contest will end on October 30th. You MUST leave me a legitimate email address in the comment field, and you must be willing to give me your full name and address (in a separate email!) if you win. Sorry, U.S. shipping only at this time. Good luck!

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It started with three Moms wanting to create a show that would get preschoolers excited about reading. Jill Luedtke, Kim Anton and Tracey Hornbuckle saw a need to enhance early literacy skills among young children. After a visit to a farm where they met an adorable calf named Wilbur, they thought a barnyard and cute animal characters would be the perfect setting.

They created Wilbur, an adorable calf who lives on a farm with his friends Ray the Rooster, Dasha the Duck, and Libby the Lamb. The show originally aired in April, and on September 10th, just in time for National Literacy Month, Discovery Kids’ READY SET LEARN! will air five all-new episodes of Wilbur. I received a preview copy of four of the episodes, in the form of a DVD, and Kaitlyn and I (and sometimes Nathan) have been watching it for a few weeks. Kaitlyn is pretty hard to please with anything that isn’t Dora or Diego, but after a few short airings, she will now watch a whole episode at a time. I know she loves the farmyard and the animals, she is fascinated by chickens! So I think Dasha is her favorite

Our DVD has these four episodes: “Getting Into Shapes”, “The Wright Stuff”, “Two Reds Are Better Than One”, and “Thanks For Everything”. Each episode follows a basic format, there is some kind of dilemna, Wilbur starts wiggling (I know how it sounds, but it’s really cute!), and then Wilbur reads a story to show that books are full of ideas that can help with problem solving. The stories are not real books, they are made up to fit the episode, but the idea is that books are fun, and the viewer sees the animals reading books filled with exciting and helpful information.

The characters themselves are puppets, and when Wilbur opens a book and uses his hoof to scan the words “Once Upon A Time”, the book comes to life with animation. Each story is also read a second time by real kids shown in video format, to reinforce the story and it’s message. I think Kaitlyn was more interested in the puppets, but I’m sure older kids will enjoy seeing real kids as well.

“Getting Into Shapes” is about Wilbur and Ray wanting to play the Great Shapes Game with Libby but she doesn’t know how to match an object with a shape made from tracing it. Wilbur reads “There’s a Hole in my Bucket”, about a zookeeper trying to bring water to a thirsty giraffe. Wilbur reads each page and then turns it. After the book is over, Libby still isn’t sure how to match the shapes, so a video is shown of kids reading the book. There is also a video of kids talking about different shapes. Then Libby understands how to match an object to it’s shape!

“The Wright Stuff” has Wilbur trying to reach his balloon which is stuck in a tree. He is jumping, but he can’t jump high enough. Dasha is flying by, so she gets the balloon down. Wilbur wishes he could fly, and they read “The Wright Way to Fly”, about Orville and Wilbur Wright. Then Wilbur tries to build an airplane, but none of his contraptions will get him off the ground, so he reads the book again. Wilbur figures out that he needs something to lift him in the air, so he gets a bunch of balloons, and he is lifted off the ground, just like he is flying!

“Two Reds Are Better Than One” has Wilbur dressed like the Big Bad Wolf to put on a play about Little Red Riding Hood. The problem is, both Dasha and Libby want to wear the red costume. They read a book called “Two Snow Whites”, about Sibby and Darlene, who both want to be Snow White in the same play. Sibby and Darlene decide to make up their own play with two Snow Whites in it. After reading the book, Dasha and Libby still both want to be Red Riding Hood, so they read the book again. When Ray wants to be the Big Bad Wolf too, they all decide that their play will have two Snow Whites and two Big Bad Wolves! I have to say, Kaitlyn was a little freaked out at the Big Bad Wolf costumes.

“Thanks For Everything” has Dasha hitting a ball, and Ray picking it up and handing it back to her again and again. We can see Ray getting frustrated because Dasha isn’t saying please or thank you. Finally he says to her that he wishes she would say something to him, but she doesn’t know what she is supposed to say. They read “Dolphy Learns Two Important Words”, and after the second time through, Dasha realizes that she needs to ask Ray to please hand her back her ball, and then to say thank you when he does!

New episodes of “Wilbur” start airing September 10th, at 7:30 a.m. on TLC, and at 11:00 a.m. on Discovery Kids. Both times are Eastern Standard Time. I also saw in the TLC listings that previous episodes are shown every morning at 7:30, which is a little early for Kaitlyn to start watching TV in the morning, but that’s the beauty of a DVR! I hope you will tune in to “Wilbur”, I think it’s a terrific show that will really catch the attention of preschoolers and help foster their love of reading.

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