HOW IT ALL BEGAN

I was watching Blues Clues with my son and could see it was feeding his mind, but I quickly noticed what it wasn't feeding...it wasn't feeding his soul. It was in that moment I felt God saying, “why don’t YOU make a show that does both?” The wheels started turning in my brain. I certainly had the technical know-how--I’d been making videos and commercials for almost 20 years. I’ve always enjoyed music and writing songs--I even recently began playing the ukulele. I also had a little space in my basement that I could turn into a tiny studio. That settled it, I was definitely... GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT. Isn’t that how it always is, God speaks and the heart says, YES! but the brain says LET ME GET BACK WITH YOU. (Perhaps that’s why the bible doesn’t say, “...and you will be given the desires of your...brain.”) Anyway, it was a two-year process of God pushing and pushing until finally I, my family and my brain, all agreed to take a big leap of faith and self-produce a Christian children’s video.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

From the outset, my goal was to create a Christian children’s video that would enrich my own children and go beyond the basic ABC’s & 123’s. Through one of my previous video projects I learned a lot about brain development & cognitive skills which only confirmed what we parents already know--the brains of our kids really are like sponges--so exposing them to more academically rigorous material, even when they’re young, will have both immediate and long term benefits. And since our kids like to watch the same program dozens, if not hundreds of times, I knew the show really could teach a lot and give toddlers and preschoolers a significant head-start for kindergarten.

THE FIRST SHOW

My oldest son learned to count to 10 pretty quickly, but I noticed 11 to 20 was a lot harder. I also noticed that most of the books and videos on counting stopped at the number 10--coincidence?. So I decided the first two shows would be about counting. Episode One will focus on counting to twenty and Episode Two will be about counting to one-hundred and beyond. (Academically speaking, if a child learns to count to 20, it doesn’t take too much more to teach him the pattern so he can count to 100 and higher.)

THE WORLD OF CRANIUM’S ARK

So does Cranium’s Ark use the latest 3D technology and mind blowing special effects? No--Cranium’s Ark is kickin’ it Old School--So imagine a world of animated flannel-graphs! (It’s like Sunday School illustrations come to life!) Except for Captain Cranium, who’s played by me (I can play ukulele--a vital Ark Captain skill-- plus I’m really all I can afford)--the characters and the world all look like they’re made of some kind of material--felt, satin, corduroy, etc... I wanted the show to have a tactile feel that looks like you can reach out and touch it. There’s Wesley the Lion™, Dumont the Zebra™, Thomas the Walrus™, Renee Panda™, Gladys the Platypus™, and a whole boatload of other animated, fuzzy, felt characters, who will have your child learning, laughing, singing, and praising. Ultimately, I want to give Christian parents and home-schoolers a tool that will turn a little TV time into time well spent.