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BITS OF
INTEREST
AND INFO.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

EDITOR

TV Without
The Hard
Knocks

You've got to wonder exactly
what they are watching, but
they certainly are
watching. The
typical

* "Elephant Show" stars popu-
lar entertainers Sharon, Lois
and Bram.

* "Super Stories" has a group
of wise-cracking puppets who
take children on a series of sto-
rybook adventures.

* "Ballooner Landing" is set on
a guest ranch just for children
where residents include a pink
parrot named Prudence, a flea
named Tex Critter and a
friendly pup named Do Good.

* "New Zoo Revue" is a musi-
cal show with Freddie the
Frog, Henrietta Hippo and
Charlie the Owl.

THE APPLETREE

* "Forest Rangers" features a
team of children and teens
who become involved in all
kinds of adventures as they
help protect wildlife and the
environment

8

child
spends
four hours a
day in front of the
television set, and it's
not all "Barney" and "Kratt's
Creatures."
In fact, by the time they're
12 most children will have
seen 8,000 murders on TV.
Now a new cable show,
which has no violent program-
ming at all, has just come to
Detroit It's called "kidZtime,"
and it can be seen locally 7-9
a.m. and 2:30-4:30 p.m. on
Time-Warner, channel 51; TCI
channel, 63; and Comcast,
channel 3, 6 and 13.
Launched in Denver, kidZ-
time comprises seven, half
hour programs: "Elephant
Show," "Super Stories," "Bal-
looner Landing," "New Zoo
Revue," "Forest Rangers" and
"Rockets."

* "Rockets" is a squad of four

youth who deal
with issues like s
ling rivalry, disabili-
ties and children's
rights.

Now It's
Time
To Make A
Rhyme

If the dark days of winter make
your little ones blue, here's a
fun game to help see them
through.
All you need are a few pieces

of paper, a pencil and a hat
First, Mom or Dad will need
to come up with about 10
words that have easy rhymes.
Here are some ideas:
blue
bed
eye
book
me
bear
day
sew
wine
sock

Write each word on a single
slip of paper and place in a hat
Next, have one child at a time
pull out a paper and quickly
see how many rhyming words
he can think up.
With older children who can
write, you may want to make
this game a little more chal-
lenging. First, give each partici-
pant a piece of paper and pen.
This time, though, Mom or
Dad should pull the words
from the hat and read them
aloud. Allow each child 1
minute to write down as
many rhyming words as he can
think up; continue until all the
words in the hat have been
used.
You can award all kinds of
prizes: For the longest overall
list, the longest list for a sin-
gle word and the most unusu-
al rhyming word.

o--mite!

You may be under the impres-
sion that dinosaurs are extinct.
Be assured, you can still see
them at the Detroit Science
Center.
Through March 9, the sci-
ence center is hosting the Mid-

west premiere of
"Dinoscience," a traveling ex-
hibit from Research Casting In-
ternational (RCI), which
created the dinosaur skeleton
displays in Jurassic Park
The exhibit features six full-
sized dinosaur skeletal displays,
four wall-mounted skeletons,
six skulls, a walk-through Su-
persaurus rib cage, a Dino Dig
sandbox and interactive com-
puter programs. The largest
skeleton on display (of a Tyran-
nosaurus Rex) is almost 17 feet
high and 32 feet long. Also in-
cluded are a variety of fossils,
eggs and hip and jaw bones.
The Detroit Science Center
is at 5020 John R St. For 24-
hour recorded information, call
the museum, (313) 577-8400.

A Capitol
Idea

If you know your holidays, you
know that Presidents' Day
comes each February, in honor
of some of our most prestigious
leaders.
Today's politicians might opt
for one of those elegant, im-
ported pens to sign documents,
but Thomas Jefferson and John
Adams had something a little
more natural: Berry ink.
You can make your own
berry ink, much like that actu-
ally used in the 18th century,
with just a few, simple ingredi-
ents.

NOTE
THESE INKS ARE
MESSY AND WILL
STAIN, SO DRESS AP-
PROPRIATELY AND BE
SURE TO COVER YOUR
WORK AREA