In my interview with James Mayhew, he makes several suggestions for introducing children to the arts. One topic in particular caught my attention: Opera. I don’t have a great deal of experience with opera, but I like what I’ve heard. At a summer music festival in our city, the local opera company puts on short fairy tale productions for children. My kids enjoy the demonstration, but I never pursued it as a family activity. I couldn’t actually think of more than one opera suitable for kids. I wrote Mr. Mayhew with a follow-up question, and he kindly provided the following response:  Read the rest of the story...

In November, our Wanna Have Fun Hen wrote a post on award winning children’s author and illustrator James Mayhew. Mr. Mayhew has written over 20 books (and illustrated many more), including the very popular “Katie” series in which a young girl goes to various museums and has adventures in famous paintings. He is passionate about introducing children to the arts, including music, ballet and visual art. Despite a surfeit of ongoing projects, Mr. Mayhew recently agreed to answer a few questions for the Five Hens and I had the honor of corresponding with him.  Read the rest of the story...

The BIG Adventure Video Series by Little Mammoth Media is a favorite at our house (see our recent post Choose Your Next BIG Adventure).  William VanDerKloot, a Peabody award-wining director/producer, and producer of the BIG Adventure series was gracious enough to answer a few questions for us on Five Hens.  Find out what the Hens wanted to know about Mr. VanDerKloot and Little Mammoth…

How did you get started making videos for kids?  Read the rest of the story...