If there’s one thing the past year has affirmed for us, it’s that when the going gets tough, the tough get thinky. The wee minds we serve never stopped asking big questions (and there were lots to ask this year), so we did whatever we could to keep pace with them. And you know what? In spite of all the challenges we all had thrown at us in 2020, we still managed to make things happen. We wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and enjoy the happy parts of 2020.
We made new stuff!
- We launched our new Wall of Wonder learning portal, and we loaded it up with free interactive activities, games and puzzles, and videos for kids, and lesson plans for teachers and parents. It includes big questions about the environment, fairness, leadership, and more!
- We released our newest book “Mildred Builds A World” in both book and interactive ebook format.
- The last three videos in our “I Was Wondering…” series went live! They covered fascinating topics like the environment, curiosity, and philosophy itself!
- We also recorded “I Have A Question” storytime videos for all of our picture books!
We reached out (virtually speaking)!
- We were proud to be the first online workshop in the Milton Public Library’s “Speak for the Bees” series for kids. We had a fantastic chat about our relationship with the environment.
- We were in three episodes of the Ed Talk Radio podcast, and appeared in the spring edition of their Access and Equity magazine.
- We ran two sessions in this year’s online conference for CPSI, and philosophized with both big and little thinkers from around the world.
- We also hosted two activities as this part of Milton, Ontario’s Culture Days festivities, and we talked food and numbers with all kinds of budding philosophers.
- Not wanting to miss out on festivals and fairs, we were part of the online version of Word on the Street and the MCRC markets.
- We ran free online philosophy chats for all kinds of kids, and donated thousands of books to local and provincial charities, to keep conversations going during lockdowns.
We won stuff!
- Our earlier release “If You Met A Yeti…” was awarded a Nautilus Silver Medal for Children’s Illustrated Fiction , and an IPPY Bronze Medal for Children’s Illustrated eBook!
Asking “Why?” has never been more important that it is right now, than it has been over the past year. It’s never been more important to encourage little thinkers to be critical and creative. We want to thank the kids, parents and teachers who read, watched, played with and learned with our materials, and we’re especially grateful to those of you who’ve reached out to us with kind words.
Rest assured, our 2021 will be just as busy for us. We’ll keep churning out things to help young minds find joy in big questions.
Happy New Year, everyone! Be safe, be well, be thinky.