At Netflix Girls Rule and Smart is Cool on Project Mc2 #StreamTeam

All-new Netflix 
original series Project Mc² 

Here at ChiIL Mama, we're all about smart girls, STEM and STEAM. I have a 12 year old daughter entering an IB (International Baccalaureate) Academic Center honors program for junior high this fall, so we know smart girls rock. We're so excited that Netflix has a new mystery series where smart IS the new cool. My daughter and I have watched all the episodes out so far and it's a hit!

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own. ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama next month, for more Netflix fun in Chi, IL and beyond!

This month our Netflix Stream Team Theme is: The Final Countdown/ Back to School

Many of our friends and readers have already send their kids back to school, with fresh supplies and Pinterest worthy, clever grade signage for those BTS photos. Here, we are truly in the final count down. My kids start a week from today, the Tuesday after Labor Day. In the meantime, we're still enjoying the final days of summer by playing outdoors, relaxing with our new 2 month old Husky/Malamute puppy, Howl (named for the Miyazaki anime movie, Howl's Moving Castle), and watching Netflix. 

We quite excited about the brand new Project Mc² Netflix Original Series, that premiered on Aug. 7, for older tweens. 

It's girl powered mystery solving like Nancy Drew and her friends from waaay back in the day, plus modern gadgets, STEM skills, fashion, a multi culti cast, and a ton of brainy fun. It proves smart is the hottest BTS trend. The show features four supercool teen spies who show how girls can use their science smarts and math problem-solving skills to save the world. 

Check back with ChiIL Mama early and often. We'll have lots more photo filled Project Mc² features in the coming month. Thanks to Netflix for sending us a fabulously fun Stream Team box of Project Mc² goodies, experiments and more, including a Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister Doll & DIY Lava Lamp kit ($25.00 value) we'll be giving away shortly to one lucky reader!

Sure, summer's been fun, but the summer slump is real. Netflix is ready to help. We've got some awesome educational Netflix TV shows and movies for a variety of ages listed below to get you started. Whether your kids are going back after Labor Day, like mine, or they're already into the first days of a new school year, families can get kids back to firing up those brain cells, while having so much fun they won't realize they're learning. We got sucked in to Project Mc2 and binge watched the first season. These girls are brainy and beautiful. And they're poised to make science and math skills super cool.

The days of smart girls dumbing it down to fit in are over. Bullies beware. SMART is the new COOL.

Check out Project Mc2, only on Netflix.

Need Some Smart Flix Inspiration? Check out this brilliant list of kids movies and TV shows to stream, from our friends at Netflix. Got younger kids? The offspring of favorite fairytale characters in Ever After High's new Way Too Wonderland adventure (debuted Aug. 14) empower kids to write their own life stories. Whether Royal or Rebel, your actions, behaviors and choices are your own to make. Get the little ones ready for new experiences with shows like the Netflix original Dinotrux from DreamWorks, (premiered Aug. 14). Prehistoric hybrid dinosaur-construction vehicles team-up to use their different skills to solve problems and show that even the most uncommon of duos, like Ty-Rux and Revvit, can form friendships of a lifetime. Early learners can also go anywhere and be anything by letting their imaginations soar on a Reading Rainbow journey, now available to stream.

ChiIL Mama will be back in September with more Netflix fun. Have a great back to school season and check back with ChiIL Mama soon.




And remember... smart is the new cool, for boys and girls!

Disclosure: Once again, ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own. ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama next month, for more Netflix fun in Chi, IL and beyond!

Netflix: Family Shows That Show All Sorts of Families #StreamTeam #Netflix

What family archetype are you? Are you multi culti, a blended family comedy, a drama, or family of super heroes? Are you an unconventional family headed by a same sex couple or grandparents? Here at ChiIL Mama, we embrace all family types because variety rocks and love comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. 

This month our Netflix Stream Team Theme is: Family Is What You Make It

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own. ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama next month, for more Netflix fun in Chi, IL and beyond!

Here's my family gettin' our geek on at C2E2 Comic Con in Chicago, where we were jazzed to see Netflix' original series, Daredevil has been renewed. 

We adore families that play together! Check out some of these cosplay fams, rockin' the pop culture at C2E2. Some families you choose, and some you are born into. If your family digs movies and TV shows like we do, check out Netflix. They're a big source for family fun on your schedule!

Maybe your family style changes from day to day. Even though we look like a "traditional" old school nuclear family with 2 married parents, an older boy and a younger girl, we're still a uniquely quirky modern family. My family appears geeky when we have press credentials to cover big comic cons like C2E2, Wizard World and Anime Fest. We seem sporty when we're cheering the kids on in gymnastics and ultimate frisbee where my daughter and son both placed 2nd in state respectively. We may look artsy at theatre openings and gallery shows, and urban while exploring our sweet home, Chicago. We're the traveling type when on the road, and we're a rock family when it comes to covering music festivals and shows. 



And of course our family wouldn't be complete without including all the 4 legged "children"--3 guinea pigs and 2 large dogs, not to mention the 3 tanks of fish.





Living in a large, urban metropolis, my kids have a number of classmates and friends with 2 moms. And even growing up in the suburbs of Ohio, I knew a family with a gay father who divorced his wife to be with another man. Which reminds me of Grace and Frankie, a new Netflix original comedy along those lines. Have you caught it yet? Check it out.

Brand NEW-- Grace and Frankie just premiered earlier this month.

• Grace and Frankie, Netflix's new funny and fearless original comedy featuring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, is a perfect example of how today’s families can shift, rearrange and blend in unexpected ways. When Grace and Frankie’s husbands leave them after 20 years of marriage—to be with each other—the women find themselves facing a change that they never expected, but they shift their perspective to get through it together with the support of their new blended family and, of course, a sense of humor.  show's premiere on May 8.

• What is it about your modern family that you wouldn’t trade for anything in the world? Explore the things that make other families unique by watching one of the titles in our list below -- whether it’s the Gilmore Girls’ dynamic mother-daughter duo or puppet brother in Crash & Bernstein. Then, ask your kids what it is that makes your family special. After all, family is what you make it.

Here are some sweet recommendations for shows with unique family dynamics via our friends at Netflix. 

• 1. Lily's Driftwood Bay
• 2. The Tigger Movie
• 3. Guess How Much I Love You: S1E5 Big Like You
• 4. Angelina Ballerina: Superstar Sisters

• 1. Crash & Bernstein
• 2. Life with Boys
• 3. Spy Kids
• 4. Russell Madness (Available 5/10)

• 1. Raising Hope
• 2. The Fosters
• 3. Gilmore Girls
• 4. Life Unexpected

•  1. All Hail King Julien (new episodes 4/3)
• 2. Littlest Pet Shop: Season 3 (4/21)
• 3. Lalaloopsy: Festival of Sugary Sweets (5/2)
• 4. Puss in Boots (new episodes 5/8)
• 5. H20 Mermaid Adventures (5/22)
• 6. Richie Rich: Season 2 (5/22)
• 7. Mako Mermaids: Season 3 (5/29)

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own. ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama next month, for more Netflix fun in Chi, IL and beyond!

Check out more of our favorite original C2E2 photos below:

Family is what you make it, indeed!

Netflix Premiers Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt THIS Friday #KimmySchmidt #ad

Netflix Original Series:

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's hilarious new comedy series starring Ellie Kemper (The Office), Jane Krakowski (30 Rock) and Tituss Burgess (30 Rock), premieres on Netflix THIS Friday, March 6th. 

As a Netflix Stream Team blogger, ChiIL Mama got a sneak peek at the first six episodes. Check out this hilarious new comedy, as Kimmy embraces a world of change. Meet Kimmy and her friends in the trailer below.

From “30 Rock” executive producers, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock comes this hilarious new comedy series starring Ellie Kemper (“The Office,” “Bridesmaids”) as a woman who is rescued from a doomsday cult and starts life over as a nanny for an Upper East Side socialite (Jane Krakowski from “30 Rock”) in New York City. Armed with just a backpack, light-up sneakers and a couple way-past-due library books, she takes on a world she didn’t think even existed anymore. http://www.netflix.com

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own.

Catching Up on the Present
Hey parents, while you're busy changing diapers, making dinners and doing everything to keep your little person alive, it's pretty easy to tune out everything else. You may know the theme song from Sofia the First, but you're left wondering, Sam Smith, who? But as your kids grow older, you finally have time to catch up on life -- kind of like how Kimmy re-enters the world after 15 years below ground. Can you relate or maybe this still sounds like you? 

Here at ChiIL Mama, my son is turning 14 in a few weeks and my daughter is 11. So, Kimmy would have been in the bunker my son's entire life and the duration of my parenthood! There have been a lot of changes in the world for better and worse in the past decade and a half. We always made a point to bring our kids with us to concerts, fests and multicultural happenings in Chicago and beyond, so we didn't miss much except SLEEP! Introducing our kids to our pop culture favs in TV, music and theatre has been one of my favorite aspects of parenting.

Kids Can't Break Us
Kimmy is strong as hell -- kinda like parents. And just like Kimmy, parents go through a lot those first few years as they find their new identity as Mom or Dad. You may not have been living under a rock for 15 years, but the adventures of parenting can change you in surprising ways. 

Here at ChiIL Mama, we agree wholeheartedly. All major life events--births, deaths, moves, career changes, weddings and divorces change people. Even parenting carries different challenges as the kids grow up. I have friends who handled the toddler years with ease, and their kids are now pushing every last boundary as teens.

Truly, the only constant is change. We enjoy Kimmy's optimism and scrappy tenacity in the face of reinventing herself and learning to negotiate society today. She has a childlike joy in indulging in everything she's missed out on for 15 years, and a stubborn strength that makes her a great role model. Check out this Netflix original series and let us know what you think.

@TheKimmySchmidt | fb.com/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own.