I hope my friends in the Northeast were able to enjoy this weekend’s snowstorm. And for those in a warmer climate..no need to share your weather report, as we’ve got over a month to go with the cold stuff.  Enjoy your week everyone!

Share your winter fun picts with everyone by sending them to me at Angela@AngelasClues.com – subject “winter”.

..always surprised when I bump into an old friend in NYC! Blue’s Clues

I am proud to announce that Amazon Studios, the original movie & series production arm of Amazon.com, has greenlit for production our creative arts curriculum Creative Galaxy. Amazon Studios announced today that Creative Galaxy is 1 of 5 children’s test pilots which have been selected.

“Our children’s series come from industry luminaries with credits such as Blue’s Clues, Sid the Science Kid and Dino Dan. We think parents—& our very youngest customers—are going to love the magical combination of entertainment & learning that they’ll discover in these children’s series.” said Roy Price (Dir. Amazon Studios).

My incredible team at Out of the Blue Enterprises and I are thrilled to be working with Amazon Studios & can’t wait to soar into a creative arts curriculum with Creative Galaxy. We know that art can have a powerfully positive effect on children & through our proven signature approach to preschool television, we will actively help young viewers learn how to think creatively in their own lives. Working with Amazon Studios has been fantastic & we look forward to jumping further into the production process.

Creative Galaxy is an animated, interactive art, adventure series, designed to inspire kids’ creative thinking through crafts, story, music and dance. The series was created by Angela Santomero, creator of Super Why! (the Emmy-nominated literacy series), Blue’s Clues and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

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Is Your Babysitter a Thief?

As my daughter & I spun faster and faster on this metal, corkscrew-ish playground contraption, we chuckled at each others’ inability to control the speed nor eject ourselves from the ride. Our laughter erupted into uncontrollable hilarity. And for a brief second, I stepped outside myself to capture a mental snapshot of that incredibly beautiful image of her happiness, for what I hope will last forever.

She has the deepest, big brown eyes which were looking into me and overflowing with life and pleasure and love. To know that it was something I had done or shared with her to create such joy, caused my eyes to do more than well up.

That’s it..there’s no greater feeling.

Even though I knew this moment was fleeting, I had to get off before I threw up. So I essentially did some fall/jump combination and landed gracelessly on the ground, with my daughter’s butt immediately smacking me right upside my head. Laughter erupted again..transformed into the hiccups for her..resulting in further cackling from us while rolling on the ground holding our stomachs, from a case of laughter induced cramps.

Selfishly, it’s difficult for me to know that someone (aside from my family or close friends) could share similar, intimate moments with my daughter. But some time ago, when I learned that our sitter (of a few years) had been stealing from us, I was insensed.

I spent many years hating her. Not because of the money. That was the easy part..the known part.

I hated her because I let her in..treated her like family. And in return she showed me how careless I was.

The big tough man, I would pretend to be, almost cried when I threw her out of our house. Why? Because I allowed such a stranger the opportunity to spend such time with my child..to say nothing of what my child might have learned from her.

Eventually, my hate turned to pity. And now I’m grateful that the experience forced me to see clearer & straighten out a few priorities.

[info: Babysitter Background checks]

As a writer for kids television, every so often I hear “I’ve got THE idea for a kid’s show!”

Perhaps a tad more than every so often..perhaps.

While the concept is crucial in developing any new property, it’s the follow through on all of the intricate components that brings it all together.

And where can we immerse ourselves within the diverse styles of animation, production know-how, distribution rights, the evolution of digital media, the nail-biting pitch process, brand development and the dreaded B-word..budget, to list just a few?  The Kidscreen Summit.

Regarded as the biggest Kids’ Entertainment Event, the Kidscreen Summit takes place this year in NYC on  Feb 5-8th

For those preschool writer’s out there, you’ll want to check out “Inside the Writer’s Room: Preschool” at Kidscreen. Moderated by Joe D’Ambrosia (VP Original Programming Disney Junior), I’ll be on the panel with preschool writers Joseph Mazzarino, Adam Peltzman, Josh Selig & Craig Shemin speaking about keeping the CREATIVE front & center, while consistently bringing quality content to our viewers.

See you there!