Granny Ranny's Coming Attractions

How are kids really using social networking services and what does it mean for businesses trying to gain them as customers?

Find out in Grunwald Associates’ latest, ground-breaking national research study, conducted in cooperation with the National School Boards Association and underwritten by MySpace/News Corp, Microsoft, and Verizon.

This comprehensive investigation of kids’ social networking will give you valuable insights into kids use and attitudes regarding various social networking services, the most popular features and content, safety-related issues, advertising and premium service product opportunities as well as parents’ and school districts’ reactions and responses.

The Study
The study is comprised of three parallel national surveys with Kids ages 9-17, Parents and School District Decision Makers with carefully constructed, nationally representative samples of 1,000 teens/children, 1,000 parents and 250 school districts. Data preview available now. Request sample data slides and cross-tabs.

Following are some examples of the key strategic questions addressed in this study:

What social networking (SN) sites are kids really using and what are they doing there?
What features and content attracts kids to visit some sites frequently and what makes them stop using others?
What do kids really want to talk about?
How are kids using handhelds and cell phones for social networking?
What are kids’ attitudes about advertising and ad placement in social networking sites? What do their parents think?
What are kids’ attitudes, reactions and expectations regarding branded content? How do parents feel about premium service options?
How are kids and parents using SN technologies to communicate with each other?
How is social networking use interacting with other media use, especially television?
What safety issues or problems have kids encountered?
Are kids aware of online safety behaviors and where do they learn these behaviors?
Which kids are breaking the rules and what are they doing?
Do families and schools communicate with kids about their use of the Internet, social networking sites and potential safety issues?
How do parents feel about school policies regarding their children’s use of the Internet and social networking sites?
What social networking technologies are used in the classroom?
What role do educators see social networking playing as an educational tool, now and in the future?
How strongly are educators pushing home SN activities and other home Internet use today?
Click here for detailed topic lists for kids, parents and school district administrators.

Bruce Apar, author of the following article and Dad to Harrison who passed away five years ago, is a long-time board member of KIDS FIRST! Bruce always put his kids first and continues to do so. Bruce’s retelling his tale brings tears and a smile to my face at the same time. His love of family and life are as refreshing as spring. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do and see the promise of new life.

I remember this week. I remember it five years ago.

It was another birthday. It was spring in the air. It was the madness of NCAA tournament hoops. It was the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It was the birth of a legacy that every day emboldens my soul.

When Harrison needed his third open heart surgery in 2003, the first open date at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was March 20. It is the same city where, in 1987, Harrison sprang to life from Elyse at Pennsylvania Hospital, the place Rocky’s son was born, in the movies.

Fifteen years later, we sensed serendipity in returning to the city of Harrison’s birth for a critical operation, scheduled on my birthday, no less.

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” wrote 18th Century poet Alexander Pope. In that spirit, tethered to the oxygen tank that let both him and us breathe easier while he was quarantined in our home for the prior 11 weeks, Harrison walked purposefully to his appointment with destiny, full of the same combative confidence as his Philadelphia soulmate of the silver screen.

Where our son and Rocky were worlds apart is in physicality. Whatever form of undiagnosed dwarfism visited Harrison, it severely stunted his growth short of even the legendary Tom Thumb, of P.T. Barnum fame.

What we grew to admire with parental pride is a fortitude, self-esteem and charisma that belied his 37-inch, 37-pound frame.

Thanks to Harrison’s passion for sports — he briefly competed against peers virtually twice his size — I learned the inner resolve it takes to hold your head high even when low to the ground.

Thanks to his academic honors and way with words, I learned — as he addressed classmates at the 2001 Mildred E. Strang Middle School graduation — “Dreams do not come easily, but if you stretch enough, nothing is out of reach.”

Starting a secret diary the eve before his surgery, Harrison believed it inevitable that, the next day, he would “… give my dad a refreshing birthday gift wrapped in flesh — a son’s healthy heart.” Less than 24 hours after authoring that, Harrison emerged from the operating room with his dad’s birthday gift pulsing like new. Then, the next day, came cardiac arrest. The best efforts of six doctors huddled over him were not enough: Harrison was gone.

“Will daddy ever be happy again?” our daughter Elissa asked Elyse three days later.

At first, you are not sure, and wonder forlornly if hope, as Pope poeticized, ever again will spring eternal.

Yet, just as spring always returns, so, somehow, does the prospect of better times ahead.

At the foot of the flagpole at Harrison Apar Field of Dreams in Yorktown Heights, a plaque is posted three-feet from the ground, the same height as Harrison, to remind kids and adults alike that the true measure of a person is never in inches. It is in character.

Such is the legacy of a little person who continues to influence those who knew him, and those who never met him.

As the rites of spring are renewed, I revel in the return of kids like Harrison making the joyful noise of bat on ball and giddily cheering on their teammates.

I can hear that tiny umpire voice right now, uttering his two favorite words: Play ball!

For the rest of my March 20s, I want but one thing: That Harrison knows he came through on his birthday promise by giving me the gift of a lifetime: His.

Bruce Apar is the guest of Ed Ciffone’s UTY Watchdog Report, on Yorktown Cablevision channel 74, Friday, March 21, at 9:30 p.m. Read his blog at

NCNlocal.com.
Please consider making a contribution to the Foundation named in Harrison’s honor which makes possible the “Field of Dreams.”
Harrison Apar Field of Dreams Foundation
P.O. Box 1383
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
[email protected]

Based on ohe critically-acclaimed children’s book series, “The Seeker” will be released on DVD March 18.

Will Stanton, a young man who learns he is the last of a group of warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting the forces of the Dark, travels back and forth through time. Will discovers a series of clues which lead him into a showdown with forces of unimaginable power. With The Dark rising, the future of the world rests in Will’s hands.

This is an action adventure film that will keep you on the edge of your seat almost from the get go. Based on Susan Cooper’s book, “Dark is Rising” for which she won both a Newbery Award and a Carnegie medal in 1974. Although die-hard devotees to the book are likely to be unsatisfied with the changes in the storyline, for those who don’t have that issue this is an awesome movie. Alexander Ludwig’s portrayer of Will is believable even if he seems to be pulled into a role that he doesn’t relish undertaking. The missing elements to the screenplay that connect the story to British folklore are indeed missing but the special effects that bring snakes to life and collapse the glass solarium with a flood of water make this compete with the likes of recent movie releases of the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia books. It helps to remember that logistically, screenplay has so fewer pages than a novel so you can never include all the elements of a great book in a film. It’s violence level is pretty tame for today’s pre-teens and teens but certainly there are enough scary elements to give younger viewers nightmares and fears.

“The Seeker” features an impressive cast of film and television veterans including Golden Globeâ-winners Ian McShane (“Deadwood”) and Frances Conroy (“Six Feet Under”) as well as Gregory Smith (“Everwood”) and sci-fi fan favorite Christopher Eccleston (“Dr. Who,” “Heroes”). Winner of numerous family-friendly honors including the KIDS FIRST! First Seal of Approval.

Have you seen the New Mr. Men Show? This delightful TV Series airs on the Cartoon Network and is based on the Mr. Men books created in the 1970s by Roger Hargreaves. According to urban mythology, Hargreaves drew the initiative prototype character after his son asked him what a “tickle” looked like. He drew an orange blob with extremely long arms and la voila, Mr. Tickle was born. Hargreaves is now one of the best-selling authors in the U.K.; the Mr. Men and Little Miss books have sold more than 100 million copies – nothing to frown at.

The TV show was created by Chorion Silver Linings’ executive producers, Diana Manson and Kurt Mueller as well as writers Eryk Casemiro and Kate Boutilier. I had the pleasure of chatting with them a couple of weeks ago about the show and about the work that Chorion Silver Lining is doing.

First of all, let me tell you what an impressive duo these two are. Diana Manson has worked in the entertainment business in some way, shape or form in Australia, UK and the US for 25 years. She has run a record label, a music publishing company, been an on-air radio announcer, producer on- and off- the West End in London, toured rock bands and produced albums. Along the way, she segued into children’s television, founded Silver Lining Productions, sold it to Chorion and moved to the US where she became EVP Creative and Development for Chorion Silver Lining Productions.

Kurt Mueller served as VP of Creative Development at Sesame Workshop where he worked his magic in bringing together creative teams of writers, producers, animators and authors to create interesting shows. Some of the properties he has developed are: “The Upside Down Show,” “Pinky Dinky Doo,” and “Sponk” -the first ever improvised comedy series for tweens.

One of the “secrets of their success,” according to Ms. Manson and Mr. Mueller is that they look for strong book properties that have an established audience and will adapt well to television. When asked how important it is that the properties perform in other arenas – ie. Mobile telecasting, Internet, etc., their answer was that first and foremost it must make a good TV show. Good criteria.

Each episode of The Mr. Men Show features two 11-minute episodes filled with comic elements ranging from long sketches to “Chaplin-style” interstitials to music videos and dance interludes, incorporated into retro-style animation. Each of the 25 characters in The Mr. Men Show has a distinct personality that have universal appeal:

The Mr. Men Characters
• Mr. Bump
• Mr. Messy
• Mr. Grumpy
• Mr. Strong
• Mr. Tickle
• Mr. Rude
• Mr. Nosy
• Mr. Small
• Mr. Stubborn
• Mr. Persnickety
• Mr. Quiet
• Mr. Lazy
• Mr. Bounce
• Mr. Happy
• Mr. Noisy
• Mr. Scatterbrain
• Mr. Nervous

Jo Wyatt, the voice of Little Miss Sunshine, Little Miss Helpful, Little Miss Naughty and Little Miss Scary.

The Little Misses
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Little Miss Chatterbox
• Little Miss Whoops
• Little Miss Naughty
• Little Miss Scary
• Little Miss Helpful
• Little Miss Calamity
• Little Miss Daredevil

In the show, all the characters live in the same city, Dillydale, which on the surface looks fully functional, but upon closer inspection you see it is ruled by wackiness. I think it’s this silliness that gives it its charm. The characters really have universal appeal – Mr. Grumpy, Mr. Messy, Little Miss Sunshine — there is a character to suit your mood.

Theme from the Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNo6vWKw1jg

WANT MORE: http://www.mrmenshowblog.com/