One of my biggest dreams while growing up was to be famous for writing. As I entered adulthood, I realized that I wanted to write for children. I wanted to help and teach children through entertainment. I realized how difficult it would be to make a living at writing, so I also studied to become an elementary school teacher, so I can help, teach, and entertain kids one class at a time. Then I had kids and realized that the best way to help my kids (and their kids, and their kids, and so forth) as well as their friends was to focus on being a great parent and raising great kids (plus I get to be the neighborhood mom-on-call for all the neighborhood kids), so I set my teaching and entertaining dreams aside and stayed home to be super-mom. It was the best decision I've ever made, and I'm eternally grateful to my husband (also a great parent) for helping me do it.

I started writing non-fiction for adults to satisfy my teaching urges, and I entertain kids wherever I go. One of my favorite things to do is draw pictures and make up stories about them with my babies. I've decided to start putting some of those pictures and stories on a website, Corla Kids (still in its very early stages), that I'm designing for my kids and their friends, so they can see them and print out activity sheets and games even when I'm not available to tell stories and draw pictures. (This project is one of the reasons I haven't been writing or designing much elsewhere.)

As I've been working on this new website for my kids, my dreams have grown even bigger. I'm not happy with just writing or drawing pictures. I'd really like to create little movies and video games too. So I've been spending the last few weeks studying animation and cinema. (Video games will be later.)

In my house, we're giant fans of Sesame Street, the Muppets, Sunnypatch Friends, Todd World, Dora and Diego, Sponge Bob, Dexter, and the Robinsons. I've been mesmerized by how children's entertainment impacts generations and gradually changes the world.

The arts, stories, pictures, sounds, and movements, are powerful tools for making the world a better place. Nothing inspires us or makes us think the way that the arts do.

So right now, I may not be able to travel to Uganda to save the children or replant the rain forest tree by tree, but from my home, while still tending to my job as super-mom, with the resources that I have, I can still do something to help children. I can even help animals along the way without having to adopt every single creature at the animal shelter, and I can help the environment without moving into a hut in the middle of the woods. I can spread the word and inspire change. I can teach kids how they can make a difference now and even more when they get older. I can raise money to support people working in the fields and on the front lines. I can help kids laugh and escape the stresses of the world for awhile. I can do something, anything, other than sighing about how difficult life can be and wishing somebody would do something to fix the biggest problems.

And, unlike with Kristen's Guide, I don't have to do it alone. I can join forces with all sorts of story tellers, musicians, scientists, historians, teachers, visual artists, programmers, etc. Lots of them are within my reach, and with them the weight of the project doesn't just rest on my shoulders.

Honestly, I've never before been so excited about doing a project. Even if my children and their friends are the only fans of Corla Kids, it has still been one of my greatest ideas.

Labels: Activism