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Mid-July doesn’t exactly constitute the dog days of summer, but for parents with kids to keep entertained it’s certainly close enough. Summer break is only half over for most kids across the United States, and that means parents have at least another month of kids with nothing but time on their hands.

To combat the boredom that can crop up during this time of year, parents should check out Sling Freestream. Freestream is, as the name suggests, completely free to all users, whether they subscribe to Sling TV’s live TV service or not. The service offers hundreds of free streaming channels, including some selections that are tailor-made for keeping children entertained.

Watch Now $0 / month sling.com What Are the Top Kids Channels Available on Sling Freestream?

Sling Freestream’s channel count has grown to over 400, and it offers more than 41,000 titles to stream on-demand as well. No...

Adam Hendershot

Thanks for welcoming our celebrity blogger — Elisabeth Röhm!

The actress, 37, best known for her role as Serena Southerlyn on Law & Order, has a busy 2011 ahead of her.

She can be seen on the big screen in the upcoming films Chlorine, Transit and Abduction, and plans to continue her role as spokesmom for Juno Baby.

In her latest blog, Röhm — who is mom to 2½-year-old daughter Easton August with fiancé Ron Anthony — looks back on her own love of the written word, shares her and Easton’s favorite books to read together, and asks for your picks.

I’ll...

Children's entertainment group HIT Entertainment announced Monday huge growth in full-year figures driven by strong merchandising and licensing sales of key characters in the U.S. market. The company, whose properties include Bob the Builder, also unveiled a slew of U.S. broadcast and merchandising deals for new preschool series Rubbadubbers. HIT chief executive Rob Lawes unveiled pretax profits of £18.3 million ($28.4 million) for the year to the end of July, up from £2.7 million for the same period a year ago. Revenue for the period soared 131% to £121 million ($188 million), of which £73 million ($113 million) came from business in the United States, where exposure of titles such as Bob the Builder, Kipper and Angelina Ballerina is only in its second fiscal year. Pretax profits before goodwill amortization and exceptional items totaled £27.3 million ($42.3 millon) compared with £7.5 million a year ago, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization jumped 170% to £44.3 million ($69 million).