If you’re in the tri-state area Sunday, August 21st from 11-1p, come meet Super Why! in Newark, NJ. You can also enjoy exciting events, craft & activities at the “Kidz Zone” and catch one of minor league baseball’s most successful teams, the Newark Bears,  take on the Quebec Capitals at 1p.  Kids Club 13 members get in FREE & sit along the 1st baseline! For more info go to K!ds Club 13

And just a reminder, NEW Super Why Episodes premiere Sept. 12th on PBS Kids!

I just want you to imagine a four year old little girl who would sit in front of the television and talk to Mister Rogers most every day.  She learned how crayons were made, what to do with the “mad that she feels”, that there are “many ways to say I love you” and most importantly, she learned that Mister Rogers liked her just the way she was.

That little girl was ME.

Because of Mister Rogers, I grew up believing how powerful television can be for preschool children. I studied child developmental psychology, like Fred did, and I wanted to create interactive, educational shows that would help kids learn, just as Mister Roger’s Neighborhood did for me.  As a result of being so influenced by him, I grew up to create Blue’s Clues for Nick Jr and Super Why for PBS Kids.

And now, my life has come full circle as I get to create Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.  The four year old little girl in me gets to actually play in the Neighborhood of Make Believe!  Like all the preschool fans of Mister Rogers out there (Hello!  Let’s keep talking!), I had a story for all of the characters from the Neighborhood of Make Believe.  I just knew that Daniel Tiger grew up, got married and had a son named Daniel.  And Daniel wears a little red sweater and sneakers,  just like Mister Rogers did!  Daniel talks to kids at home and as a shy, sweet, four year old tiger, he is curious about the world.  He is also most caring, and is learning and sharing with the children at home.

Joanne Rogers, the widow of Mister Rogers, has been the one that’s caused me to hold my breath, waiting to see what she thinks of all of the work we’ve put into this passionate endeavor.  Waking up this morning, in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, I read Joanne say, “I was so excited because the old feeling is there. I think  Angela Santomero really captured it and I almost cried because I felt such relief.  I’d been anxious not knowing what to expect, but, oh, Daniel is just so cute. I can’t imagine everybody won’t love him, and I’m delighted…”

Sometimes for the pre-school set, mealtime gets a little tricky…especially when we’re trying to teach them the importance of making smart food choices.

Let the good folks at www.uncommongoods.com toss a little fun into the mix with their whimsical dishware.  It probably won’t turn them into a Michael Pollan disciple overnight, but it’ll help foster their interest/love of foods with various colors & textures.  Why not let a little fun assist this time of the day?

Seen here: Ms. Food Face Plate & Construction Plate & Utensils

Our youngest turns 8 years old today.  1/2 way to 16 (sigh).

While many family movies should often be restricted to just that audience, we uncovered the following (from when she turned 3) & we couldn’t/shouldn’t hold back.

Enjoy!

I  recently returned from a week away with Angela and the girls.  Note the omission of the word “vacation” which I’ve reserved for the long gone days of Penrod’s/Beachcomber T’s…being 1 of 8 guys stuffed into a 1BR motel (simply because the brochure said it was “conveniently located near the beach”), sleeping with a solitary pillow in an empty bathtub (which at the time was actually more comfortable than it sounds) and awaking slightly before noon for the delicacy of an egg sandwich on a hardened & questionable roll at the corner bodega.

Don’t get me wrong, my family’s had it’s share of dining with the princesses and pruning my flesh from the 17th time down the flume, while our neighbors in the NE were shoveling out, but the word vacation has gone through a transformation process as I’ve aged.

So this time, to really get immersed within it all, we decided to stop cold turkey…to UNPLUG.  Which was, for the most part, a success.   We needed to escape it all & leave our laptops at home.  And after being pleasantly awoken by our daughter’s friend at 6:30a, via FaceTime on her stowaway iTouch, we tucked that away as well.  Into our suitcase for the remainder of the vacation.

The unplugged environment left us with more time for connect the dots, pictionary on random napkins and just spontaneous laughter, conversation & a few tears.  Overall, a success.  And I didn’t have to wash that smudged stamp off the back of my hand when I returned home!

Taking place for the third consecutive summer, Super Why Reading Camps are interactive learning adventures that show children the power of reading and guide them as they play with letters, sounds, and words. Featuring a comprehensive curriculum developed by noted literacy experts, this year the program has been expanded from one to three weeks.  Each day the 4 to 5 year-old campers participate in a range of fun literacy lessons, games, crafts, exercise and music that will help them practice key strategies for reading success.

The first week is all about “ Super Why and The Three Little Pigs” and some of the reading-powered activities include a “Lickety Letters Craft Activity,” where participants find the letters of their name and make a colorful sign; “Letter ID Bingo;” and the entertaining and educational “Freeze Dance Rhyming Game.”  On the last day of the week, campers invite their caregivers to come join in the literacy fun! Watch the short video above, which illustrates the power and appeal of the Super Why Reading Camps in action.

We created the Super Why Reading Camps to bring the mission of the show one step further by working directly with preschoolers at a grassroots level to help them learn to read—and develop a lifelong love of books. As educators at heart, we were excited to find a way to bring our proven Super Why curriculum from the show and into classrooms. The amazing improvement in literacy skills we see from kids starting the program to when they leave is inspiring and uplifting for us. Kids get motivated, want to read, and truly learn!

Read the entire WGBH post

Only 1 1/2 weeks remaining!  Tapping into the 30 million monthly unique visitors on iVillage, the iVillage PBS Kids Summer Reading Community Challenge will run from June 6 to July 15 and will features free literacy-building resources for parents and children designed by experts at PBS Parents and PBS Kids. Angela Santomero, creator and executive producer and head writer of PBS series Super Why!, will provide daily reading activity assignments, answer parent questions and offer advice throughout the online event. Guest coaches such as cast members, characters, authors and series creators from PBS Kids will also provide activities and ideas each week.

[Jump into the Challenge!]

In the fine cuisine category for kids, Disney’s Family Fun just posted some cleverly whimsical ways to get your preschooler (& above) to enjoy new or “never gonna touch it” foods.  Very cute and fairly simple directions should assist the pickiest eaters in enjoying their creations.  Seen above, the folks at Disney pay homage to Eric Carle with The Very Tasty Caterpillar.

[check out the post]

Since we’re on the subject of summer travel & vacation time, I thought I’d share an interesting lesson we learned on our last family trip. It was our first day at the resort. We had settled in to a cozy spot on the beach, under an umbrella. I looked out at the turquoise sea, watched my girls start digging in the sand, and I thought, “Oh, let me just take a quick glance at my e-mail.” In an almost embarrassingly loud voice my six-year-old screams, “Mommy!  This is not an e-mail-cation!”  She repeats herself, matter of factly. “This is not an e-mail-cation, this is not a phone-cation, this not a camp-cation, this is a family vacation.”

Got it. Loud and clear. No phones, no e-mails, not even an hour at the resort’s kids’ camp.

Vacation is supposed to be a time to shut off from the world and play with the kids. And we did. We also devised a list of family negotiated rules for future vacations. In addition to the fact that there must be a pool for the kids, good food for the adults and minimal crowds (even if it means going to the Caribbean during off season), we decided on the following:

• No (or limited) e-mails or phone calls on vacation: Who knew this would be as huge of a stress reliever as it is? Truth be told, if I ever need a quick fix, I excuse myself and go to the bathroom (shh!).

• Beach in the morning for the parents and the pool in the afternoon for the kids: Silly as it sounds, negotiating this up front made us much happier. We got the calm and relaxation of the Caribbean Sea for half the day. Then we spent the afternoon at the pool being social, negotiating crowds and going down slides and off diving boards. Fun. For the kids.

• Dress up “fancy” for dinner: It was much easier to get them out of the pool with the promise of our family dinner dates. The routine also provided nice down time in between day and night activities.

• Special vacation song: This was a happy accident but we brought a new CD on our trip. Now, every time we hear that CD we feel like we’re back on vacation.

In our house, we approach chores much the same way we teach skills on our shows: we start small and then gradually give our kids more responsibility. Our girls started “helping” us around the house at age two because, like all preschoolers, they loved to help. They would put away their toys, throw out their napkins at snack, get us a paper towel roll from the pantry (that one had them happily occupied for a while).

At around five to seven years old their chores included setting the table in stages (napkins, placemats, cups with ice), cleaning up their rooms. At ten, we wanted the chores to foster independence and responsibility: making simple meals in the kitchen, being responsible for themselves (getting ready for school is a chore!), making their beds, feeding the dog.

[see Angela’s entire Greenwich Magazine Article]