PBS Kids & iVillage are hosting a Summer Learning Twitter Party, Tuesday May 24th 9-11pm EST

We’ll be discussing The iVillage + PBS KIDS Summer Reading Community Challenge to promote summertime reading and other important (& fun) summer tips.  I’ll be a brand panelist @angelsanto, along with: @pbskids @kateklimo @ericaperl @angelamatusik @kellywallacetv @theaumsmama @sharonmomof6. The moderators will be: @jylmomIF@Dadventurous@troypattee and @MomItForward.

It looks like an incredible group of people and an informative night..with prizes & giveaways as well!   #gno information! • #gno featured

Pull up a keyboard & join us!

You know that first moment when you knew you were going to marry the boy you were dating?  My moment was when I saw Greg hold his sister’s newborn daughter, Morgan.  As soon as we heard she was born, we drove five hours non-stop from DC, in our senior year of college.  We got to the hospital right after visiting hours, but rather than listen to the nurse, we did what any 20yr old would do and hid in the bathroom until the nurses left.  And then we met Morgan.

She was five hours old, all of 5 lbs and had long chicken legs that she refused to keep under the blanket.  Greg scooped her up and talked with her about how happy he was to meet her.  I swear Morgan smiled right at him and we both melted.   We have watched Morgan grow and have enjoyed her every step of the way.  Her many first words, her silly faces, her love of ice cream and corn on the cob.  We were there on her first day of kindergarten and coincidently my first day of graduate school.  And now….she has graduated college!    

It’s one of those milestones in life when everyone needs to stop their crazy busy lives, travel to Rhode Island and spend the day celebrating someone they love.  Even our niece flew in from New Orleans to be there.  I was so proud. We played the game, “One of the many things I love about Morgan is…” and everyone had amazing things to say…. Her smile, her creativity, her sense of humor.  But her mom said it best, “Morgan is the type of girl that crawls into your heart and you never let go”.  I firmly believe that life is all about stopping to celebrate and to tell and show people, while they are still here, how you feel about them.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Anna Quindlen recently reflected on parenting. She reminded us to stay in the moment and not get burdened by all the things we “have” to do. The dishes can stay in the dishwasher .  But traveling 5 hrs to meet the baby that will stay in your heart forever and being there when she graduates college is what life is all about.  Congratulations, Morgan!  I’m so proud of you!

What do we do when our kids nag us to buy things that we know they don’t need? Set up an allowance. It is a great opportunity to give your kids the experience of managing their own money. It’s based on the same philosophy I use with my shows. I want kids to be interactive—to point and yell and participate because I believe that they learn better that way. Similarly, giving kids money in the form of allowance, enables them to learn about money—mistakes and all—by using small amounts of it..

[see Angela’s entire Greenwich Magazine Article]

As a creator of childrens television programs, a reviewer can be your best or worst friend.  It seems that kids tv is the last thing reviewers want to talk about.  It’s not as sexy or interesting to them as say, reviewing the season premiere of Modern Family.

Every once in a while you meet a reviewer like Tim Goodman.  Tim understands and appreciates the vision behind educating children through television.  He asks great questions and sees the value of a solid curriculum married with great stories, characters kids love and good humor.  As the Chief TV Critic for The Hollywood Reporter, Tim would like parents to read his reviews and make choices for themselves about what kinds of shows they are opening the door for their children to play with.  I still have the review that Tim wrote when we premiered Super Why!

So, as an avid viewer of Modern Family, I get it.  But I always want to meet the critics who can help me spread the word about my shows so we can empower kids who will strengthen our next generation!  Well, Tim and I met up at this year’s Television Critics Press Tour in Pasadena, CA and we chatted about the blueprint for good tv, viewing tv from a child’s perspective and shutting it off if it doesn’t sit well with us.  See my interview with Tim Goodman on PBS.org/parents/theparentshow and let me know what you think!

I’m a big Michael Pollan fan (author of Omnivore’s Dilemma) and we have little quotes of his throughout my house. Quotes like, “It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.”   The truth of the matter is, it’s harder to eat well than not.  Which is why the earlier we learn about positive, healthy eating the more likely we are to incorporate it into our lives.  Such is why I was thrilled to meet, the Emmy nominated producer/director and children’s book illustrator, Dave Schlafman.  He makes all of this food knowledge fun with his latest creation, Fizzy’s Lunch Lab (PBS Kids).

[See Angela’s interview with Dave Schlafman on PBS.org/parents/theparentshow]

If there was only one thing that I could pass onto my girls, it would be a strong sense of self.  This would give them the strength to be great decision makers that can direct their own course in life, and in turn positively effecting others.

Carrie Brownstein (star of the IFC comedy Portlandia) apparently had a similar desire to empower girls through the process of music making.  Not old school, fashion plate lead singer, but actually performing good ol’ rock-n-roll to show how proud you are to be who you are.  After all, a VOICE, is the best thing to give our girls!

[See Angela’s interview with Carrie on PBS.org]

It’s not often that I hang out with astrophysicists during my day.  But if they’re anything like Neil deGrasse Tyson (director of the Hayden Planetarium), I’ll make it a point to more often!  My interview with him for The Parent Show reminded me of what I truly love about kids..their creative process.  They’re not all about getting the right answer..but the creative journey that takes place while learning.  This inquisitive nature of children allows them to make ideal budding scientists.  Take a guess who often gets in their way though?

Oh, and he loved our Blue’s Clues “Sink and Float” game with Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper (physics for preschoolers!) and our Blue’s Clues Planets episode (which was displayed at NASA!)

[See Angela’s interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson on PBS.org]

This is something we do quite often on television.  It’s part of our philosophy behind creating shows with a foundation in education but that kids want to tune in.  We always incorporate humor that is age appropriate.  But, we also always use humor to diffuse a situation.

For instance, in Super Why we have this intense moment (probably not “intense” to most people but for us this scene was intense!) when Super Why finally confronts the BIG BAD WOLF.  We have been searching for him the whole episode and he is finally here. And he is BIG.  And he is BAD.  So, what do we do? First we ask why.  The Wolf says, “Because it says so in my story, I am the Big Bad Wolf.”  Hmph.  Point taken.  So, in true Super Why style we change the story to save the day.  We turn the BIG BAD wolf into a SMALL GOOD wolf.  And you know what happens?  He cries hysterically (amidst violins in the background) because he has no friends.  If only (sniff) he had some friends (sniff) he wouldn’t be so BAD and blow down the pig’s houses.  Well, this was HYSTERICAL to our audience.  And it diffused the tense situation.  I need to try that at home.  Not sure I can change the mood of my daughter when she is acting all BIG AND BAD but I’m sure I can find a way to keep my emotions in check and DIFFUSE WITH HUMOR!

Interviewing Johnny Tartaglia was amazing.  First of all, sitting in the audience watching him act, sing and puppeteer on Avenue Q gave me the chills.  I just knew he was the real deal.  And getting to know him as a person made me realize just how creative, funny (really funny!) and inspiring he is.  He has so many grand ideas that I was quite excited for him when he launched ImaginOcean.  He spent a lot of time with me and my girls explaining how he created the puppets, the sets, the black light that gave the show a flourescent underwater “feel” and where his ideas for the story originated.  My girls are mesmerized by live theater and we spend so much time in our basement watching their plays on a make shift “stage” that Greg had built (with a red sparkly, functioning curtain, room for drums, etc). Their understanding of how theater comes together allows them to think about detailed aspects of theater and their creative play has blossomed.  They think about the music, the directing, the story, they choreograph dance numbers, and think about the props and backgrounds.  I know they are learning a lot through this dramatic play and their self esteem builds with every performance.  So, thanks Johnny, for inspiring my girls among the millions of kids you inspire every day!

CLUES:  

– Read How Does the Show Goes On by Tom Schumacher.  An amazing book about all aspects of theater with real tickets that come out, a script excerpt, and a playbill!

– Encourage all kinds of creative, dramatic play.  Just like pots and pans could be drums, a paper towel role could be a telescope or a scepter or a baton!

– Listen to the music of a Broadway show before seeing the show or movie and have your kids act out a song from their imaginations.  (Examples:  Annie, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Prince)

[See Angela’s interview with John Tartaglia on PBS.org]

Having an interactive component to media increases learning!

We used this hypothesis when creating Blue’s Clues and Super Why. We know that kids can practice skills and retain information better by doing. Therefore, if we were to replicate the “interactive” experience on television, would kids learn more? In fact, they do. Dr. Jennings Bryant proved that kids who watched Blue’s Clues scored better on standardized tests than kids who don’t watch Blue’s Clues. In addition, Dr. Deb Linebarger also found that kids who watch Super Why score better on standardized reading tests than kids who don’t watch Super Why. I will post these studies in another post.

The new research out from Georgetown University’s amazing Dr. Sandra Calvert, looked at young preschoolers and computer games to see if an interactive component improves kids learning. And it does.

So, when you hear your kids screaming from the next room (SUPER STORY ANSWER IS…FRIEND!) or when they are playing an interactive learning app, they are learning. What they are learning? Well, that all depends on the content.

CURIOUS BUDDIES RESEARCH SYNOPSIS

Eighty-eight percent of 24- 36-month-olds are exposed to screen media, spending an average of 2 hours on a typical day with television programs, DVDs, computer games, and video games. Not all screen media are alike, however. A video presentation cannot respond contingently to a child’s actions like an adult or a computer game can. We asked whether playing an interactive computer game improves children’s success at transferring information from the screen to a real-life situation.

30- and 36-month-olds either watched a video of characters popping out of their hiding place, played an interactive computer game where the characters popped out of their hiding place after the children pressed a computer key, or watched an adult find the hidden character through a one-way window. Children who watched the adult find the characters or played the interactive computer game found the characters in the real-life room better than the children who watched the video. These findings suggest that children’s learning from a screen can be improved by adding an interactive component to the experience.

To read the full report from Georgetown University’s amazing, Dr. Sandra Calvert, click here: Curious Buddies Research