Bunchland

Listen to the first single from Esperanza Spalding’s upcoming album

Spalding’s new single featuring Algebra Blessett is pretty catchy and beautiful, but what really got us in this video was the intro; do school kids these days get enough African history? We imagine it’s better now that Black History Month is observed every February, but we can’t recall learning anything about African princes and democracy back in elementary school. (Though, to be fair, we also didn’t get much world history until high school — elementary school history is a lot of Samuel de Champlain ’round these parts).

We’d like to know if any Bunch families have special Black History Month traditions, or if you plan to set aside some time to talk to your kids about important figures in the quest for Civil Rights.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. There are some 20 million only children in the U.S., so why does there still seem to be some sort of stigma about an only child?

2. The Christian Right is getting upset with the Girl Scouts, first because they raise pesky little feminists, and then because they had the gall to admit transkids who identified as female. Oh you Fundamentalists! Why can’t you be the nice Christian let’s-love-and-accept-everybody-and-play-fair” Christian?

3. Do politics belong on kids’ toys and television? Some parents are upset about the lack of breastfeeding on Sesame Street because they use to show a heck of a lot more of it and now not so much.Other parents are pushing Mattel to create a bald Barbie to push more cancer awareness. Niche market sure, but that might be really nice for kids whose moms/aunts/cousins might be going through chemo therapy.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. A new collector Barbie has pink hair and a sweet chest plate of a tattoo. Is this inappropriate for kids, or is it merely reflective of the women a young kid might come across? We can think of quite a few awesome moms and dads with a whole lot of ink. Mary Elizabeth Williams made a good point in saying that while this doll isn’t specifically meant for little kids, it’s ‘s not a bad way to promote the idea that blond and All-American isn’t the be-all and end-all of beauty.

2. Adoption: Giving a child up, or placing a child with a family that can care for it better than you? Prudie FTW.

3. Shy kid? Relax, it’s not a social phobia.

4. We linked to some sort of discussion earlier this week, but that babies and screen time conversation just doesn’t go away.  Read more...

From the same site that taught us how to give Barbies natural, curly hair, now they’ve figured out how to remove the doll’s lipstick.

Nikki at Braids, Beads and Beyond (a site which, by the way, seems to know everything about caring for your kids’ afro-textured hair) wasn’t crazy about a doll’s harsh lipstick, so she dabbed at the doll’s lips with a bit of nail polish, and the dark colour came right off.

A slightly more detailed explanation on the Braids, Beads and Beyond Facebook page.

We came across this awesome tutorial on Black Girl with Long Hair

For almost as long as there have been Barbies, there have been Barbie’s friends. You know, Midge, Kid Sister Skipper, Teresa, Christie, etc. But aside from changing their hair colour and flattening Skipper’s chest, the dolls all basically look the same. But if Christie, Midge, Teresa and various other Barbie pals were created so black, ginger and Hispanic kids had a doll that better resembled them, why stop at hair colour?

Then we came across this post on Black Girl with Long Hair, who in turn got her tutorial from Beads, Braids & Beyond. Turns out, sisters are doing it for themselves. How cool are these dolls?

So sure, we could have just linked to their awesome results, but it looked like fun so we made our own natural hair doll following their tips. First, we acquired a dark-skinned Barbie.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

Radiohead announced that they’re releasing a new album… on Saturday. What!? We know. They announced it this morning and they’re releasing it at the end of the week. Do your kids know Radiohead?

So, it’s Valentine’s Day. To celebrate, fourteen couples in Thailand are going for a world record kiss: 32+ hours of non-stop smooching. Via The Toronto Sun

Staying in tonight? Nigella Lawson says to make a “date steak,” or if you don’t eat steak, then make this curry. For dessert: churros and chocolate sauce. Via NPR

Have you heard? Broken up since 2004, Barbie and Ken are back together. Apparently co-starring in Toy Story 3 brought them closer together again. Something tells us that the kids playing with Barbies are completely unaffected by this news.Via Entertainment Weekly  Read more...

What we’re reading about today:

Ryan at Pacing the Panic Room confesses that he hates the playground. But his daughter’s at the age when she needs to make some friends.

GeekMom Kathy got a kick out of the “Barbie Blunders” she found over at the National Museum of Play. Did anyone (besides kitsch-loving gay men) buy Earring Magic Ken? What makes the earring magic?

OK, so we all love Buzz Lightyear and Wall-E and Carl from Up! What makes a CGI character lovable and what makes some of them just weird? Salon talks to a Dreamworks expert who says that too human = too creepy. The Incredibles worked so, so well because the family weren’t too realistic and all of varying shapes and sizes. What are your favourite CGI-animated characters?

Check out this 9-year-old Tanzanian boy reenacting his favourite movie, Commando. Via BoingBoing:

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