Earth Month Exploration

This month our Netflix challenge was to reflect, appreciate and educate ourselves on all that the planet offers. As many of you may have figured out by now, this isn’t something I do on a regular basis. Of course we celebrated respected earth hour by hanging out with our friends (something we do each year). This year our wine club coincided with Earth Hour and so we enjoyed a candle-lit exploration of some fine aged wines. Honestly I’m horrible when it comes to this topic and I don’t really think about the results of our actions. I live in a little cocoon … not a good things. I know. 

Then very randomly the hubs made us watch Blackfish one evening. It was getting pretty late (think 3 a.m.) and I still couldn’t stop watching the documentary. This most certainly isn’t one for the young kids and truth be told I’d heard about complains about zoos and marine parks but I hadn’t spent the time to really dig deep about what the issues were. This documentary on Netflix was definitely an eye opener for us. I thought I LOVED SeaWorld! I had seen the baby Orcas they were talking about (when I was at SeaWorld during my younger days) and it was absolutely horrible and heart wrenching to think of the behind the scenes happenings. Blackfish focuses on Tilikum, an orca held by SeaWorld, and the controversy over captive killer whales. SO much for my dream of one day owning a killer whale ( okay I’m not serious about it but it was an aspiration during my youth, especially after watching Free Willy!). While the documentary is fairly one sided, I definitely urge you to check it out if you’ve been a fan of live Killer Whale and Dolphin shows as I have been. I’d still love to take the kids to see these animals one day and while it would be great to do so out in the ocean, my guess is that a spot like SeaWorld may be where it is more likely to happen. I’m hoping that authorities taking care of these animals actually do that – take care of them. Much like a human orphan needs TLC so do these young creatures. It is a depressing but eye opening documentary for those like myself.

Disclaimer : I am part of Netflix Canada’s Stream Team and get perks as part of my association, but as always, opinions are always totally mine! 

Enough with the sad talk. We got a list of some conversation starter cartoons for the toddlers and I was surprised to see Little Monkey watch the Go Diego Go! and Dinosaur Train (thanks to a recommendation last month from a reader!) on repeat. I didn’t know this but the Red Eye Tree Frog episode is the very first one in the series and she’s watched it numerous times. The Tree Frogs really resonated with her. I didn’t even know what a Tree Frog was! I was told ” MOM…we have to save the rree PPogs!“.