Photograph by George Sakkestad
Jill Avery Zuleeg and her now 4 1/2-year-old son Tanner enjoy watching the 'All By Myself' videos he helped inspire.
Videos help kids to help themselves
Moms create video production company
By Shari Kaplan
Putting a literal spin on the "necessity is the mother of invention" idiom, three local mothers have became inventors themselves.
The ringleader is Jill Avery Zuleeg, who lives with her husband and two children in the Glen Una area between Los Gatos and Saratoga. One day, when Zuleeg's son Tanner was a shade short of three, he ran into her bedroom exclaiming, "Look, Mom! I did it all by myself!"
When she looked at the sandy-haired boy, she saw he had taken the initiative to dress himself from head to toe--albeit awkwardly--for the very first time.
"He was walking on cloud nine all week. He kept bringing it up," she recalls, calling this "a defining moment" for her son.
A former marketing executive with Apple Computer, Zuleeg searched for videotapes for Tanner--and his baby sister, Autumn, for when she's older--to encourage self-sufficiency and self-esteem, but found nothing. She was especially interested in videos on two other rituals parents and children often disagree upon: bedtime and going to school.
And so Zuleeg and her ex-Apple friends Carmela Zamora Robertson (a mother of two) and Michele Free (a mother of one) got together for some brainstorming sessions.
"I talked with Carmela and Michelle because they're passionate moms, so I knew they'd tell me what they really thought," she says, chuckling. "We can be pretty blunt," Robertson adds with a grin.
These mom rap-group sessions resulted in All By Myself, Inc., their video production company, which has just come out with its first volume, titled All By Myself: Getting Dressed. Using digital cameras and Apple iMovie editing software, the women recruited their own children and those of their friends to demonstrate how to get into various types of shirts, pants, dresses and shoes.
Combined with amusing instrumental background music and an animated ladybug helper named Buddy, the video was an instant hit with both the younger set and parents, according to Zuleeg. "It's so simple that no one's thought of it." she says.
"Kids love watching other kids doing things," says Robertson, whose sons, Duncan and Riley, are both avid Buddy fans. "Sometimes parents are tempted to save time and do things for their kids. But once you can get kids to do things themselves, then suddenly you have time to do something else."
"When children watch the videos, they will be self-motivated to try things 'all by themselves' because they learn by observation," Zuleeg agrees. "And for parents and other caregivers, the videos are a reminder that, given opportunity and encouragement, children can do many things."
The next volumes coming down the All By Myself pike are "Taking Care of My Pet," "I Can Help," "Getting Ready for Bed" and "Going to School." For the pet video--which features dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, goldfish, rodents and reptiles-- they even enlisted the help of local veterinarian Timothy Govers, of the West Valley Pet Clinic.
For more information about the All By Myself video series, call Zuleeg at 408.529.0893 or visit www.allbymyself.com.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
