Earlier this year, Jelly Bean Sports, a Chicago-based production, instruction and research company, became the first company of its kind to introduce its own animation into the early learning sports classroom.
Instructional in nature, the :30 second videos are a prototype that is just a small part of a larger "original content" generation initiative. The nearly decade old company aims to begin creating more in the way of preschool content for children ages 0-5. It believes its sporty but versatile brand offers a unique angle in this space.
Testing the quality of their work hasn't been a problem. The Company possess a built in early learning audience. Its early learning in sports instructional business already offers families with young children sports entertainment. Given this area of their business is a highly competitive space, Jelly Bean Sports has chosen to broaden its footprint in the market digitally instead of organically.
Through the use of a tablet like the Apple i-Pad, the Company's Coach Performers are able to quickly and easily able to carry and access the instructional content. Utilizing the Company's own proprietary sports language and graphics, sports skills are brought to life and broken down in a simple Step 1...Step 2...Step 3 fashion. Set to music, young children, normally hard to focus, are quickly fascinated by the tablet technology and the cute, colorful and sporty jelly bean characters.
While there is no voice narration or speaking by the characters on screen, the Sport Shorts videos are short, :30-second in length, and easily narrated by the Coach Performers. "It is all," according to Jelly Bean Sports Co-Founder Dr. Brad Kayden, a.k.a Coach Pickles, "simply just another tool we can use keep young children, that have a hard time paying attention, focusing longer and interested in learning sports." Short, simple and it makes learning fun, it is hard to argue its kid-compatibility.
Kayden would continue, saying, "By breaking sports down into their simplest terms, we can teach young children basic sport skills but also reveal to parents important areas of the learning process that are often overlooked. In the end, the advantages video provides can be big.
Video, says Kayden, beyond contributing to both children and parents' learning, also helps to better isolate for them how to celebrate small wins together. This contributes to their enjoyment and fun shared inside the learning experience. Teaching parents and children to speak the same sports language, celebrate small wins together and enjoy the fun of shared learning experiences are all important parts of the early learning sports process.
Sport Short :30-Second Series Overview
The 3-step instructional sequences, 12 in all, highlight three skills from baseball, soccer, basketball and football.
Baseball includes: fielding, hitting and throwing
Soccer includes: dribbling, passing and shooting
Basketball includes: dribbling, passing and shooting
Football includes: passing, kicking and carrying
At the end of the day, what Jelly Bean Sports offers families a more contemporary way of teaching young children that aligns closely with the ways they like to be taught.