YES!!!! Our new Colors and Shapes DVD is HERE!!!! I’m thrilled that it is ready to go, and I hope that you will all LOVE it!!!! I also have a fun little free printable easy reader book to share with you that was illustrated by my very own daughter, Katie! And it is all about my new little “grand puppy” named Penny, who belongs to my daughter, Kimmie and her husband Gabe! I hope you enjoy reading about our family’s adventures (and misadventures!) with our newest furry family member, and about our newest DVD that I am so proud of!
But first, let me tell you a “wee” bit about our new DVD! It has all of our great color word songs that you may already know (and hopefully love!) from Sing and Spell Vol. 2 and the shape songs from Jumpin’ Numbers Vol. 1, but we have had them animated with authentic children’s artwork! Yes, we paid some wonderful children that I know to create some beautiful pieces of art that adults would NEVER be able to recreate in exactly the same way! Then we put them together into an all new DVD that will hopefully be entertaining enough for children to even watch at home! My wonderful husband, Greg, is the brains behind this new direction for us. He contacted some of his friends that he used to work with at Disney and asked them to come up with a design and a new direction for our DVD’s so that they would interesting enough even for reluctant learners to watch at home, and hold their attention. They came up with a design, and then we took it from there. Greg taught one of our staff members, Krista, how to animate the artwork, and then he sort of gave her work a professional “polish” when she was done with each song. I am so amazed at his skills. What a blessing! Here are some screen shots from the new DVD:
I truly hope you and your students LOVE and LEARN from our new Colors and Shapes DVD! And if you would rather watch online, click here to rent on Vimeo! Enjoy!
Also, check out the map on the wall behind me in the photo above. That’s a close up of it below. We have been putting a pin in each new country that we have sold to! We are up to 49 countries world wide!!!! I realize I’m bird walking BIG TIME here, but still: Just read this list!
United States, Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Columbia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Liberia, Zambia, Spain, Malta, Italy, Egypt, France, Germany, UK (including Ireland and Scotland), Norway, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Saipan, Guam, (both Saipan and Guam are Commonwealths of the US), Taiwan (technically a part of China), Japan, South Korea, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus, Kenya, Hong Kong, Ghana, Belgium, Brunei. That’s 49 countries, if you count Ireland, Scotland, Saipan, Guam, and Taiwan as separate countries. That’s my list in 2014! Our new map, pictured above, has even more!!
As you may have guessed by the text of my little book and by the moisture on my shirt, Penny is a puppy with a “wee” problem: she piddles when she is very excited to see her favorite people! And it turns out that Penny LOVES to spend time at our house and at the HeidiSongs office! You see, Kimmie is substitute teaching while she is waiting for her credential program to begin, and when she does not get called to teach, she works in our office.
When they adopted the Penny, Kimmie started bringing her with her to the office so that the puppy wouldn’t be alone all day in their apartment. And Penny decided that she LOVED it there, due to all of the attention we all showered on her, passing her from one lap to another, to another, and then to another! Now, every time she comes to see us, we have to greet her outside or in the restroom, because she gets so excited that she piddles all over the floor (or my shirt, if I forget and pick her up instead!)
This led to the writing of a new little story that I patterned after Joy Cowley’s Mrs. Wishy Washy story. Naturally, I used my own life experiences to write the book, but also used an old favorite book as a “mentor book” to set the pattern for the story. You may wish to tell your students this story before they read the book, and then encourage them to use their own experiences to write stories of their own. And using “mentor texts” to help write books is always a great idea! (That means, choose a book you really like and sort of copy the style or pattern of the book.)
Eventually, Penny became comfortable enough with our two little dogs at home to even spend the weekend with us when Kimmie and Gabe went out of town! However, our two little chihuahuas, Ruby and Jasper, are just a little bit jealous of her, we think! Ruby, especially, seems to “pout” when Penny comes to visit. She doesn’t like “sharing” her mommy! Dogs are so much like people!
My daughter that did the illustrations, Katie, graduated last year with her degree in Art Education, but then decided that teaching really wasn’t her thing after all. She she has been using her artistic skills in our HeidiSongs office, and has been designing and laying out our brand new Colors and Shapes DVD, which incidentally just came in TODAY! Many of the designs that you will see on it were put together by my sweet Katie, (24), who is my oldest daughter. (By the way, she’s single, smart, independent, and doesn’t have that many blonde moments!!!)
And while I am bragging, this is my daughter Krissie! She is our Office Manager at HeidiSongs. We really don’t know what we would do without her!
Okay, caught you yawning! I know that this post is WAY too long! But when do I ever really tell you about my personal life, anyway? Here is your free download of the Penny Piddles book. Thanks for reading!
– Heidi
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