About Us

Concept Videos, the producer and distributor of the Preschool Power! DVD series (also on videocassete), has been making award-winning documentaries films and how-to videos for more than 35 years. The Preschool Power! series is our flag-ship product.

When the first two programs were released, the series immediately created a buzz with children's media critics, parenting foundations and early childhood development experts. And before long the series had received more than 20 stunningly good reviews The consensus was that there just wasn't anything else quite like Preschool Power! out there and it was a great educational program.

Soon savvy parents began to take notice and word of mouth about the fresh and innovative series began to circulate--parent to parent.

Since those early days, millions of children have viewed Preschool Power! programs on public television. And hundreds of thousands of parents and virtually every library in the United States have purchased Preschool Power! DVD's and video cassettes

How it started

The original ideas behind Preschool Power! began in 1991 when Carey Sutton, a writer-producer with Concept Videos, enrolled her daughter, Blake, in a Montessori preschool in North Carolina. After spending time there as a teacher's assistant and observing the Montessori Method in action, Carey realized the potential for a great children's video series.

"I was amazed at the things these little kids could accomplish on their own. I saw them feeding the bird, serving up snack time and then cleaning up afterwards. Small children were putting on their own shoes, socks and jackets without the teacher's help! I hadn't realized little kids were capable of that level of mastery and self-reliance."

The system really respected children. Montessori teachers broke down 'lessons' into their smallest, component parts. Then each child was given her own private instruction in how to accomplish a 'work'.

Once the child learned all the steps involved, they were free to practice on their own - but always at their own pace and only if they chose to. Watching these programs, you'll notice how all our little teachers look calm, confident and absorbed in what they're doing.

Carey also found it fascinating to see younger children watching slightly older students at work - learning from them by example. What fabulous role models they were for the younger kids!

The idea for Preschool Power! began to take shape:

Real children as the only teachers

The Concept Videos production team decided the videos would star real preschoolers demonstrating interesting skills and activities like the ones Carey had observed being practiced in the Montessori classroom. It would be something new and different--kind of a How-To series for young children and homeschooling parents.

Using real children for the demonstrations would keep kids at home interested--and also encourage them to try things for themselves. Plus they could watch it again and again as much as they liked.

Once the idea got into production, Concept Videos hired a team of certified Montessori instructors to design all the core demonstrations and train the assembled cast of little teachers.

Everything was shot in close-up detail so that children at home could see exactly how to perform tasks like thorough hand washing, making a cheese-and-cracker snack, putting on a jacket solo - the kinds of day-to-day physical tasks that build self-confidence and motor skills.

Easy to follow, closeup demonstrations and young children teaching was a big start -- revolutionary in fact. No one had ever done it before (and they still haven't because it was so time-consuming working with non-professional kids).

But a long string of demonstrations alone would make for pretty dry viewing. It had to be entertaining, too!. And that meant well-paced, with lots of variety; jokes, tongue twisters, face-making; science tricks; costumes and fantasy play; dancing and moving around to encourage children at home to get up and join in the fun before settling down for more watching.

Being a preschool Mom herself, Carey was tired of syrupy, saccharine and lackluster "children's music" She was determined not to inflict this on parents who bought Preschool Power!

Original songs and a near-non-stop music track were created that adults as well as children could enjoy together. And variety being the spice of life, our composer and lyricists drew from a wide variety of musical genres and moods - foot- tapping country-western, rock-and-roll, old-time jazz, calypso, reggae, even Gilbert and Sullivan and Renaissance-style madrigals!.

Actual results

Carey's daughter, Blake, and many of her friends from that Montessori school were the stars of the show. Blake is now starting the Ph.D program in computer science at the University of Virginia. And K'idar Miller, (another big hit with kids over the years) is finishing his BS in Business at Harvard. You go, Preschool Power! Kiddoes!

And a surprise!

Despite the fact that Preschool Power! wasn't made with special needs kids in mind, it has developed into a runaway hit with parents of children with ADD,ADHD, dyslexia and, most notably, autism. The fact that these shows can repeat the lessons over and over and do it in such an entertaining way appears to be a large part of the success here. And parents tell us that special needs children become very attached to their little television teachers

"We're very proud of all the awards Preschool Power! has won," says veteran film-maker and President of Concept Videos, William Connell.

"But what means the most to all of us on the production team is knowing that we've been able to make a difference in the lives of the little folks we've reached--and the parents who love them!"

Back to the top