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Awards
We are proud to have received three Telly awards and two Videographer
awards for the Can Do program
Recognition
In addition, we have been nominated for a Parent Choice award
Media Attention
The following appeared in the Union Democrat
Can Do Kids Find a Niche
By, Michelle Maitre
Envision a cross between "Schoolhouse Rock" and "The Jane Fonda
Workout" and you just might get an idea of the content of one of the educational
videos created by a new Sonora-based business venture. U Can Do, started last year by
Sonorans Laura LaNier and Cindy Rivera, uses the musical techniques of the '70's era
"Schoolhouse cartoon shorts plus the exercise and movement of a workout tape to teach
math facts.
Each video starts "The Can Do Kids" seven youths from preschool to high school
age who lead the exercises and impart mathematical knowledge. "Subtraction is just
addition, backwards," one of the Can Do Kids explains in "Subtraction
Safari," one of the four videos created by U Can Do.
Students are put through their paces - with leg lifts, arm curls, sit ups and marches -
and encouraged to chant along as the Can Do Kids count down addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division tables. A short warm-up begin each video, and students can
follow along at their own pace - younger children with low-impact exercises and older
students picking up the pace as the video progresses.
Each $19.95 video package contains a Teacher's Guide and Student Workbook, so students
reinforce their lesson visually with mathematical problems.
"Each video has its own flavor," said LaNier. "We wanted to do math facts,
and we wanted to appeal to different styles of learning." It all started because
LaNier and Rivera, both home-schooling parents, were looking for an easy and accessible
way to teach their children multiplication.
"Kids love it because it's fun and it's not flash cards," said Rivera, an expert
in multi-sensory learning techniques who introduced the physical education aspect as a way
to get children involved in the lesson while also giving them some fitness.
"We tried to use the most up-to-date exercise techniques," Rivera said. "If
you follow the kids on the tape, there's no chance you'll overdo it."
Although the videos can be used in a classroom, one of LaNier's and Rivera's main goals in
creating U Can Do was to provide a teaching tool to other home-schooling parents.
Parents can pop in one of the 20 minute videos and have time to complete other chores
while their children are studying mathematics and physical education.
"The approach is two-pronged," said Rivera. "Students are learning the way
they like to learn, and at the same time they're learning the things they don't like to
learn."
"It's like two subjects in one," said Can Do Kid Nicole Rivera, Cindy's daughter
and one of the stars of the video.
More than 600 videos have been sold nationwide since U Can Do was started a little over a
year and a half ago. Besides home-schooling parents, the videos are popular with
special-needs children and those with attention deficit disorder.
LaNier and Rivera sell their tapes by attending various conventions throughout the United
States and by word-of-mouth advertising. The company takes its name from Philippians 4:13,
"You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you." A theme song based
on the verse and composed by Steve Gentry is recurrent throughout the tapes. U Can Do is a
true family venture. LaNier and Rivera wrote, created and directed the videos which were
taped and filmed in the Oakdale studio of LaNier's brother, Ron Cole. (Digital Media
Productions, Inc.) The Can Do Kids are LaNier's and Rivera's own children or friends of
their families.
"We wanted to have real kids that other kids could relate to and say, "I could
do that," LaNier said.
"We've already seen how (the videos) have helped lots of other kids," said Jimmy
LaNier one of the Can Do Kids, who found that participating improved his own math skills.
"At the last convention we went to, a lady who bought all of the videos said her kids
got up early just to watch the videos." |
