eebee’s been a busy puppet!
BETTER PLAY TIPS on BETTER CONNECTICUT TV SHOW
Back in August, I got a voice mail from Kara Sundlun, the co-anchor of a new morning talk show, Better Connecticut that airs on the CBS affiliate station, WFSB, Channel 3 in Connecticut. Kara’s a new mom and, as it happens, she and her daughter are eebee fans. She asked if I’d be willing to come on to talk about eebee and our approach to play and development. Here it is…eebee’s first LIVE TV event: http://www.wfsb.com/video/14270913/index.html.
The response was so positive that Kara asked me to return as a “regular” to talk about play and development and to share some of the play ideas we showcase in the “adventures.” I start on October 22 and will appear every two weeks! eebee and I are pretty excited. If you live in the CT area and get WFSB, please tune in.
Better Connecticut is a TV counterpart to Meredith Corporation’s www.Better.TV video-based web site. Meredith is the publisher of magazines including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle, American Baby, Parents and Fitness, Better (state name goes here) shows are also now airing in a number of other Meredith owned stations across the country.
INTO THE MINDS OF BABES
A while back, I also received a phone call from Lisa Guernsey, a former New York Times journalist and young mom who was doing research for a book about electronic media and very young children. I spoke with Lisa about our approach and how critically important developmental research was in eebee’s creation. The book, titled Into the Minds of Babes, was just published. In addition to saying “the eebee videos look and feel different from the Baby Einstein model,” she notes that we have the support of one of the leading experts on the importance of play for early development, Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and then goes on to describe our approach to play and language. If you’re even the slightest bit interested in better understanding the how, when and what about using tv and computers around your kids under the age of five, I highly recommend your reading this book (and it’s not because eebee was described positively!!!). The book is thoughtful, balanced (Lisa presents both sides of the argument and dispels a few myths, too), well -documented, and practical. Here’s a link to Lisa’s site to find out more: http://www.lisaguernsey.com/books/booksIntoTheMindsOfBabes.htm
HOT MOMS CLUB
The topic of TV for children under the age of two, clearly, is a hot one. Given my POV that what your baby watches can and does matter, I was also recently asked to write an article for the very cool hotmomsclub.com website. The article is running this month. Let me know what you think. You can also post a comment on the hotmomsclub site. Here’s a link to the article, Baby TV: Not so Black and White: http://hotmomsclub.com/showthread.php?t=2377.
MOTHERHOOD LATER
I also received an e-mail from Robin Gorman Newman, one of the founders of Motherhood Later, an organization for first-time moms over the age of 35 that describes itself for “moms with more life experience than baby experience.” (www.motherhoodlater.com). (Robin had her first child at age 42.) Robin and I spoke on the phone and discussed ways in which we might work together. I suggested that I would be happy to come to speak about play, development, TV for toddlers and eebee at one of Motherhood Later’s moms night out gatherings. I had the pleasure of meeting Robin in person and joining her group a couple of weeks ago. The moms, ranging in age from 35 to 52, were a very engaging group. Our conversation ranged from a discussion of the cultural pressures for early academics to ways to evaluate TV/video for very young viewers. Check out this group’s website.
Checkout
I got a call the other day from Supernanny.com. The editor, Rhianon, asked if we’d be interested in sharing some “eebee play ideas” with the Supernanny community. Before I said, “sure,” I asked…as I always ask, “how did you hear about eebee?” Rhianon responded, “We heard about it from our moms. We checked it out and we liked the approach.” As I thought about it, the call made a lot of sense to me…eebee and Supernanny are both practical resources for real parents with real kids living in today’s world. We chatted a bit more and I agreed to write an article for the Supernanny website.
