Two quick photos from the annual conference of the NAEYC where we gathered with 20,000 early childhood educators. We had the honor of sharing the Opening Plenary, “A Celebration of Literacy”, with award winning children’s book author, Vera B. Wells (”A Chair for My Mother”, “More, More, More” & many others), and with Dorothy Strickland, researcher and literacy expert. There were 9,000 people in the room for the session REALLY. That’s 9,000 people scat singing with us, doing the motions to the Ballet Dancing Truck Driver, yodeling and singing together in American Sign Language. We followed that with a workshop on the music & literacy connection. The screens were big enough for an outdoor rock concert. We’re the little dots under the screen and the NAEYC sign. WOW!

We had 2 wonderful sessions at writing songs with students from D.C. Scores, a branch of America Scores. The students have both soccer training and poetry writing classes. ASCAP hooked us up with the program and since it was voting time, we wrote a song called “VOTE FOR ME”. Check out the program on the web. We’re inspired and look forward to more.

BILL HARLEY is one of our favorite storytellers, songwriters and performers. He’s a dad with 2 kids and Bill has figured out how to engage us all with the realities of family life-entertaining, thought provoking, community building. We sing a few of his songs including “Dad Threw the TV Out the Window” and “Is Not, Is Too”. Bill’s got a brand new chapter book for kids ages 8-12 that we know you’ll love, “The Amazing Flight of Darius Fobisher”, on Peachtree Press. If you like Roald Dahl (”Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”) you’ll like this. It includes evil aunts, missing parents and flying bicycles.

Bill just did a show in our area and we got to talk with him about the book. He started it 12 years ago and has done at least a dozen rewrites in the process. We asked him how he chose the topic and he said, “One day I sat down and wrote a paragraph about a kid riding a bicycle and it took off in the air. Everything else came from that. In the book there are a lot of references to Greek myths and me being a storyteller is very much a part of the book, because the narrator is a wise-guy storyteller. ” On the topic of writing, Bill said, “I write for an hour every day. The most important thing is showing up”.

“The Amazing Flight of Darius Fobisher” is available in most good book stores online and in person. It’s also available with all of Bill’s other books, storytelling CD’s and music CD’s at www.billharley.com. If we’re doing our jobs well, we’re turning you on to other music and folks we think you’ll like. It ain’t about us, it’s about the community. Bill comes highly recommended!