Some recommendations

First, I have some apps to recommend. 

Presidents and Aliens

You answer trivia about U.S. presidents and if you get the answer right, you get a shot at some aliens.  Weird, but I thought Braeden, who is currently powering through his AP U.S. history summer homework may be interested in it sometime.

He came upstairs and I said, "Look at this."  He sat down next to me and played for about 10 minutes before he had to go to work.  He thought it was great and was really good at it too.  Random historical knowledge.  That's my boy.

Another one I got was Mind Snacks.

You can select a language and I picked French.  Emma may take French this year.  (Hopefully she'll get to, her schedule is messed up.)  I thought maybe we'd be stuck somewhere waiting for an appointment and I'd say, "Here, practice some French."

I showed Emma the app.  She LOVED it.  She wants to speak French.  A lot.  She has since she was in 5th grade.  (I'm not sure why.)  Emma quickly mastered everything at the free level and begged me to buy the next 50 lessons.  She said I could take it out of her "allowance." (Allowance is in quotes because I always forget to pay them their allowance.)  I gave her the go ahead and paid the $4.99 for 50 more lessons and by the end of the evening she had mastered 60 words.  That's my girl.

I also bought a math bingo app for Mark so he can practice multiplication and division.  I'm not expecting him to love it but it may keep him occupied while we're waiting somewhere sometime.

Also, our family is always on the lookout for TV shows and movies we can all enjoy.  We rarely watch actual TV, but prefer Netflix and Hulu and Amazon instant streaming.  They are family friendly because we can watch whenever we want and as much as we have time for.  Sometimes finding content that is family friendly is more of a challenge.

Here's some things we liked, and you might too:

Studio C

This is a comedy troupe that does short really funny skits.  It is on BYUtv but you can watch episodes online.

As Time Goes By

This is a British series from the 90s.  It stars Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer who are fabulous actors.  They play a couple that was in love when they were young.  He went off to the Korean war and they lost touch then 38 years later they reunite.  It has wonderful characters and we loved watching it.  Our older kids watched it with us some while Mark was on his trip.  I don't think it would have held Mark's attention but they liked it as much as Adam and I.

The Catherine Tate Show

This is more sketch comedy and it's also British.  Catherine Tate plays a variety of characters and they are very entertaining.  (Some of them are rude and we skip them.  Netflix makes it easy to skip.)  I can't decide which character of hers is my favorite.  Funny, funny.

Also, our perennial favorite, Keeping Up Appearances.

Another British sitcom from the 90s.  This is a show about Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "bouquet" by her) and her long suffering husband and colorful family (all the sisters have floral names:  Rose, Daisy, Violet and Hyacinth).

Adam's favorite character is Daisy's husband, Onslo:

Finally, here is a new discovery.  Also British (we would be considerably less entertained around here without British television).

Going Postal

It's a mini series (2 episodes).  It is quirky and steam punk and funny and entertaining.  Several times, especially at the beginning when we were trying to get a grasp on just what it was we were watching, Adam and I would look at each other...wha?  But soon enough we embraced it and all of us enjoyed it.  It is about a con artist who gets caught and his punishment is that he has to be the post master.

Now see, it's not just about pizza this summer.  We also sampled some British TV.