So, I remember all too clearly being 9+ months pregnant, on my way to the hospital with my husband, making grand gestures to all my neighbors of “We’ll be back with the baby!” and “Today’s the big day! We’re going to have a baby!”
…3+ hours later we sheepishly returned home
…no baby
Today was not the day.
Well, that’s how I felt at #SXSW! I was so excited to give everyone a sneak peek of our much labored and beloved Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood! We were ready! We were going to share with the world our new little creation! And then…
…technical difficulties.
…no sneak peek.
Today was not the day.
However, what I did get to do was show everyone who came to have a glorious PBS KIDS SXSW BREAKFAST was our vision, our goals, and a sneak peek at some of our beautiful visuals. Hurray!
Daniel Tiger, the son of the original Daniel Tiger is our star. He’s four years old, he wears a little red sweater and sneakers and talks directly to the preschool home viewers the way Fred Rogers did.
Our characters are “the next generation” of characters from the Neighborhood of Make Believe. All of the original characters have grown up and they all have preschoolers of their own.
Introducing…..Prince Wednesday (King Friday and Queen Sarah’ Saturday’s later in life baby), Miss Elaina (daugther of Lady Elaine and Music Man Stan), O the Owl (nephew of X the Owl) and Katerina ‘meow meow” Kittycat (daughter of Henrietta ‘meow meow’ Pussycat).
The friends live and play together in the newly imagined and expanded Neighborhood of Make Believe created with hand crafted textures and love.
And, WAIT until you hear the music!
Our curriculum is based on little musical strategies that are all singable and relevant to preschoolers (and us, parents) for use every day. So, “What do you do with the mad that you feel?Well, when you feel so mad you want to ROAR! Take a deep breath and count to four….1,2,3,4”.No really, how great would it be if more adults put this this skill into action as well?!
The Fred Roger’s Company is the expert in socio-emotional curriculum and have literally written the book (& thousands of shows) on how to talk to kids about these issues. At Out of the Blue, we’ve painstakingly researched all of these strategies with kids, themselves, to get them just right. We’re proud to say that kids in research can’t get enough of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. They are singing, learning our strategies and using them already in their lives!
So, no, we didn’t birth a baby at SXSW.
But we did get a lot of new wonderful blogger aunts and uncles who came to support us and who will be there, at the ready, when our new baby Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood actually does premiere THIS FALL on (where else?!) PBS KIDS!
How frustrating, both times! The show sounds wonderful, I loved Mister Rogers neighborhood both as a child and as a parent. Wishing you much luck with it!
You can only move forward…though I needed to get that out of my system. Thanks for commenting Kathy! Can you tell I’m excited?!
I’m so excited to see the new show. Just reading your description of the characters brought back some fond memories of sitting in front of the TV as a child watching Mr. Rogers. My daughter loves shows with singing and fun little adventures. We will be watching for the premiere! Let me know if I can help promo it in any way.
After many, many years of roundabout talk & development we’re quite excited with Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood as well. And to have Mister Rogers’ and FCI’s vast work to use as a springboard, we’re able to equip a lot of children with the life skills they will need to happily move forward. The end goal in what we both do is quite similar, no? 🙂 Thanks Kellie.
Sorry to hear about your technology disappointment…
Nothing like a machine stealing your moment of pride 🙁
It hope it will reassure you to know that children saw the preview online and adore it! I showed it to my dear boys (ages 6 and 2) and I can confirm that they unabashedly –LOVED– IT. These guys never sit still for anyone or anything, yet they were affixed to the screen and just HAD to watch it over and over again. Especially our 2 yr old. He excitedly shouted and signed “again!!” until we played it again (5 times, to be exact!) He especially loved the music. His feet were all-a-tapping and his legs wiggled merrily with each song… he even tried to sing along! Honestly, we couldn’t pull him away from the computer screen. You’ve really hit the mark! I hope you are proud of what you’ve created. I think that Fred Rogers would be. 🙂
I can’t tell you how happy that makes me! Messages such as yours are the BEST perks of my job. Thank you Jim!!
I was at this breakfast! I didn’t even remember the tech difficulties until I read this because it was so awesome. I don’t even have kids, but when people ask me what the coolest thing I saw at SxSW was, I’m telling them about Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
I blog about public relations, and I’m super excited about the 3 or 4 PBS kids and Daniel Tiger blogs I have slated. I’d love to find the clip of Fred Rogers you showed us. It was so moving. Is it available online?
Thanks for sharing your story at SxSW and thank for giving me (and everyone) a little piece of our childhood back.
Soudns to me like you have another hit on your hands! I love Daniel Tiger and his little red sweater! Excited to see what goes on in his adventures! Keep up the great work, Angela and team!