We moved to Idaho in the summer of 2013. I love Idaho and the area in which we live. I love being close to Boise but still far enough away that we're in a small town. This was the right move for us. We have seen great blessings in our lives as a result of choosing to live closer to a temple. We have had greater opportunities for our children to see and do things they otherwise wouldn't have been able to experience in Eastern Oregon.
Life is forever coasting on rollers. It's unpredictable. And unpredictability goes against all I wish for myself. I live to maintain stillness, tranquility, and stability. But there are other plans in others' minds. Things have happened. Big things. Things that I don't wish to share on a public blog. And a lot of little things have happened. Little things that are so overwhelmingly numerous that I'm having a tough time narrowing down a thought to share on my own blog. So I'll share something that's been in the works for a while and that is special to me.
I have a YouTube channel called Explore With Mrs. Jon that I started on January 5, 2016. Sam and I came up with the idea in a sort of roundabout way. I'd been working on recording an audiobook (another long story), and I'd thought about doing a channel on YouTube where I could just read books! I'd basically be doing an audiobook for kids. My idea was that I would be sitting in a chair and reading books, with the camera in the point of view of a young child sitting on someone's lap, reading the book along with the voiceover. Then I found out that just reading someone's book on YouTube would be considered copyright infringement, so that idea didn't pan out.
One day in December of 2015, some friends of ours came over to visit, along with a their preschool-age children. These children were glued to their iPad on YouTube, watching random videos. The videos were not very interesting to me, but the kids loved them! When I was told that the style of video they were watching was actually very popular and that there were several channels with this model, I was shocked. People in these videos only showed their hands opening toys and playing with Play-Doh. There was no skill involved. Sam had a great idea: I should start a channel and make videos like that! Uh, no, I said. Especially if it has to do with Play-Doh. I can't stand it. I never had it in my house (on purpose!) when I had little kids, so I wasn't about to play with it now.
Sam's idea morphed after a day or two of trying to convince me that I should start my own show into telling me I could be doing marketing for our nearly-finished video game, Explore With Farmer Jon. I would be Mrs. Jon, who was an old farmer's wife who loved exploring new places. I would involve characters from the game and use music I'd written already. I would talk about basic things like colors, numbers, letters, animals, and I'd use Play-Doh and eggs in my episodes. And I would open things...a lot of things. Eventually, when the game was finished, I would play the game on an iPad and kids would want to play it because they were already familiar with Mrs. Jon and the characters of the game! Brilliant plan!
The next day, we went out and bought some toys and fun things for the show. I just decided to get started and be okay with failing at first. I'd find my stride. So, nearly two years, 538 videos, 546,673 views, 738 subscribers, and 874,964 minutes of watch time later (as of October 5, 2017), I'm still going with the show. These stats are nothing to sneeze at. I've even got my own studio and future plans for exciting changes I want to make with the show. I've got five or six dedicated fans who care when they see me or when I post things on Facebook or on YouTube. One is Matilda Rei, the very best fan in the universe. If she's a fan of yours, you'll know it!
So, there's more to explore with Mrs. Jon than what I've laid out here. There is a baby chick hidden in every episode. There are songs, stories, stickers, artwork, toys, games, and lots of times I mess up. But the main thing that brings me joy is imagining a child somewhere in the world learning English from my show or being excited to hear my stories or to learn about something new. I've made flags from every nation in the world using Play-Doh. For each nation, I've informed the world of how the people living there may greet them if they visited that place. I've gotten mostly familiar with the names of Thomas and his train friends. I've grown and progressed in the show, learning that I can make mistakes and be okay with it. And that's huge.
I have a YouTube channel called Explore With Mrs. Jon that I started on January 5, 2016. Sam and I came up with the idea in a sort of roundabout way. I'd been working on recording an audiobook (another long story), and I'd thought about doing a channel on YouTube where I could just read books! I'd basically be doing an audiobook for kids. My idea was that I would be sitting in a chair and reading books, with the camera in the point of view of a young child sitting on someone's lap, reading the book along with the voiceover. Then I found out that just reading someone's book on YouTube would be considered copyright infringement, so that idea didn't pan out.
One day in December of 2015, some friends of ours came over to visit, along with a their preschool-age children. These children were glued to their iPad on YouTube, watching random videos. The videos were not very interesting to me, but the kids loved them! When I was told that the style of video they were watching was actually very popular and that there were several channels with this model, I was shocked. People in these videos only showed their hands opening toys and playing with Play-Doh. There was no skill involved. Sam had a great idea: I should start a channel and make videos like that! Uh, no, I said. Especially if it has to do with Play-Doh. I can't stand it. I never had it in my house (on purpose!) when I had little kids, so I wasn't about to play with it now.Sam's idea morphed after a day or two of trying to convince me that I should start my own show into telling me I could be doing marketing for our nearly-finished video game, Explore With Farmer Jon. I would be Mrs. Jon, who was an old farmer's wife who loved exploring new places. I would involve characters from the game and use music I'd written already. I would talk about basic things like colors, numbers, letters, animals, and I'd use Play-Doh and eggs in my episodes. And I would open things...a lot of things. Eventually, when the game was finished, I would play the game on an iPad and kids would want to play it because they were already familiar with Mrs. Jon and the characters of the game! Brilliant plan!
The next day, we went out and bought some toys and fun things for the show. I just decided to get started and be okay with failing at first. I'd find my stride. So, nearly two years, 538 videos, 546,673 views, 738 subscribers, and 874,964 minutes of watch time later (as of October 5, 2017), I'm still going with the show. These stats are nothing to sneeze at. I've even got my own studio and future plans for exciting changes I want to make with the show. I've got five or six dedicated fans who care when they see me or when I post things on Facebook or on YouTube. One is Matilda Rei, the very best fan in the universe. If she's a fan of yours, you'll know it!
