KIDS FIRST! News

Get ready… get set… learn about Discovery Kids’ preschool destination READY SET LEARN!, arriving for the first time ever on two compilation DVDs February 19th from Genius Products and Discovery Kids. Discovery Kids has uniquely designed all aspects of READY SET LEARN! to promote emotional intelligence: the skills needed for effective learning and an optimistic and resilient approach to life. The stories and characters from the programs in READY SET LEARN! demonstrate important skills regarding practice, persistence and patience, as well as many other skills for managing the frustrations of early childhood. As Paz, our lovable penguin host demonstrates, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!” In addition, the READY SET LEARN! programs promote specific learning content that is also invaluable to a child’s development. For example, a program can encourage school readiness skills and creative play. READY SET LEARN! is an outstanding teaching and learning tool for children and their parents or caregivers to enjoy at home, not only on television, but now, for the first time, also on DVD!The READY SET LEARN! DVDs will each feature multiple episodes of the fun, energetic series “PAZ,” “WILBUR” and “THE SAVE-UMS!,” as seen on Discovery Kids Channel and TLC.Each DVD will also feature bonus episodes from other popular READY SET LEARN! series, including “TODDWORLD,” “BIGFOOT PRESENTS METEOR AND THE MIGHTY MONSTER TRUCKS”, and “PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD,” plus “HIP HOP HARRY” and “HI-5” music videos. Packaged with finger-puppets and an activity booklet, each READY SET LEARN! DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $14.95.SynopsesPAZ:Paz, an adorable five-year-old penguin, delights and engages young viewers as companion and host of READY SET LEARN!, Discovery Kid’s preschool programming destination. Every Paz episode is designed to promote Emotional Intelligence; skills needed for effective learning and an optimistic and resilient approach to life. The pint-sized penguin has a big imagination and looks at the world with the wide-eyed optimism, energy and curiosity that is inherent in preschoolers. Appearing in both animated and puppet form, Paz provides educational and story-based segments inspired by the interesting things that happen in a preschooler’s everyday world. Paz is based on the popular book series by Irish writer Mary Murphy.WILBUR:Books are fun…books are empowering…and according to Wilbur, an enthusiastic young calf, “Books are Moovelous!” With a nostalgic red barn as a backdrop, a loveable crew of barnyard animals, and cutting-edge puppetry techniques, Discovery Kids gets a jump-start on teaching early literacy skills to preschoolers with this captivating series inspired by three moms and designed to inspire a love of books and reading.Read more about Wilbur on Ranny’s blog.THE SAVE-UMS:This new breed of 3-D animated super action heroes will help prepare preschoolers for their role in the 21st century. The colorful, pint-sized Save-Ums utilize whimsical helicopters, space ships and other cool machines to solve problems and nurture an interest in technology and critical thinking. Preschoolers will learn the principles of cause and effect and the impact of cooperative play. The Save-Ums are victorious because they work together. Small is Powerful! Believe it!

The new Super Friends comic book series for DC Comics comes out March 19. The series, written by Dr. Sholly Fisch, is designed for young school-age-kids and is filled with new adventures featuring classic heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman in age-appropriate adventures.It contains puzzles, cut-out activities and more — all designed to get kids reading, and inspire kids to be “super friends” to the people around them. More details on this title can be found here.”Super Friends” will be available in comic book stores across the country, or by subscription.The first issue is scheduled to appear on March 20.

“Can we watch this some more? I bet I can make an instrument like that,” my ten-year old enthuses. Super young engineers have “Peep and the Big Wide World,” and now, older engineers have “Design Squad,” thanks to producer Marisa Wolsky and her team. Produced by WGBH , Design Squad is a PBS reality television show where teens between the ages 15 and 19 design whimsical machines in order to win a college scholarship.Although the show highlights teenage kids, it appeals to younger children, also, making the viewing an entertaining and educational family event. “Can I see just one more episode?” asked Hudson, an eight-year-old KIDS FIRST! juror. “I love this show!” He set up his laptop and watched one episode after another in the series online. This is not unusual according to Wolsky. Statistics show that ¼ of their audience watches online.How is this series different from a million other reality shows out there? Well, for one thing, there are no product placement. Parents don’t have to worry about subliminal commercial advertising when their child is watching this show. Also, the kids are competing for an opportunity to go on in life, using their natural smarts and the information they learned on this show.The students on the teams put in a lot of effort to yield great results. Once filming began in the first season, Wolsky found that it was inspiring to see the cast of eight evolve over the season with growth both socially and academically. The winner of Design Squad receives a $10,000 college scholarship provided by the Intel Foundation.One of the biggest hurdles Wolsky and her team had to overcome was creating two-day challenges that had a satisfactory result. Season one taught them about time constraints, which included shopping time and finding challenges that appropriately fit the time frame. They made some slight changes so the teens in season two can focus more on the engineering and creativity. Season two is off to a terrific start with episodes ranging from building furniture with cardboard to building a safe roller coaster in the backyard.Season Two premiers April 2008. Check Design Squad for more details.

They are set to launch an interactive website for the animated preschool series “Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies.” Designed by NDi Media, the site underlines hands-on learning and, like the series, features wildlife videos from the National Geographic and BBC archives. Among the many other features, upon entering each visitor is given an animal egg to care for while on the African savanna that slowly hatches.

When you submit a title to KIDS FIRST!, who knows where it can take you? The award-winning producers of “The Tillamook Treasure” can tell you since their film was picked up for distribution through their KIDS FIRST! connections.Independent title, “The Tillamook Treasure” won the Moving Pictures Magazine award at the KIDS FIRST! Best Award ceremony in October of 2007. Equally impressive, the film was created mostly by a single family. Mom, Jane Beaumont Hall is the Director, Dad, Richard Doyon is the Executive Producer and their daughters, Suzanne Marie and Janine Doyon, played major roles in the movie. Jane Hall took a few moments to share with us what KIDS FIRST! has done for them and their film:We saw that KIDS FIRST! was making quality children’s programming available to many children by traveling around the country. Our film is about a young girl whose family is breaking up, and she discovers what really matters as she hunts for a buried treasure. Our movie was right in line with the good values that KIDS FIRST! promotes – wholesome and fun.KIDS FIRST! sent our film out to many festivals which increased the awareness of the movie. Then, as a surprise, they asked if they could rep the movie for distribution purposes. We said “yes” and they arranged with Maitland Primrose for North American distribution. Since distribution is the name of the game in filmmaking, they were tremendously helpful on the business end of our movie as well as the festival promotion. Maitland Primrose also cares about social values, but it is unlikely we would have connected to them without KIDS FIRST!’s assistance.I think the biggest piece of advice I could offer new independent producers is in the writing. Get the best script you can before starting pre-production because time becomes a factor after you start. Also, our casting director, Dino Ladki, was of immeasurable help in finding quality actors to star in our production. The bigger the stars, the easier distribution is to secure. We had an amazing cohesive team that got stronger as time went on. Obviously, the Director of Photography is a huge factor and Rene Jung of Jurifilm, is a saint to work with. He made the pictures sing even with the budgetary factors we were constrained by. But bottom line it is the writing.We are so pleased to have won the Best Independent Film Award from KIDS FIRST! Having this kind of endorsement from as well respected an organization as KIDS FIRST! means a lot in letting the viewing public know that the movie is family material and well worth seeing. Not only that, but the Awards Ceremony was great fun!**Remember, the deadline for festival submissions for the Second Quarter 2008 is January 15! Details and applications can be found on the KIDS FIRST! web site.