For a while now I’ve been following The Adventures of Seymour and Hau – an online adventure for kids produced by a couple of super creative Buffalonians. With the Internet being so unpredictable, I can only imagine what it must be like to have kids online browsing freely. Thankfully there is some great online programming for our youth, and some of it is being produced right in our own community. I spoke to author Melanie Morse a while back about the production series that she and co-author Thomas McDade have launched, and I found it very refreshing that much of what she has come up with was inspired by her her own kids and the family’s life in Buffalo – Melanie’s professional career is that of “…an experienced elementary school educator who also developed curriculum and taught programs for early childhood and elementary school children and worked in conjunction with the Buffalo Museum of Science… and was even a Children’s Literacy consultant for Buffalo State College.” That in itself sounds like an adventure.
Basically, the premise behind the adventure series is based on a relationship between a young boy named Seymour and his alien friend known as Hau. The two find themselves traveling throughout the world in search of valuable life lessons, which in turn they pass on to the reader. In each episode they meet a young friend from another culture who is in need of some sort of help. “We’ve all tried to dig to China when we were kids,” Melanie writes on the website. “Why? Because we wanted to know what it was like there! It’s an age-old curiosity that has never gone away. A desire to know about places that are past our hometown, but under our same sky; to ‘see more’ of our world. My boys are very curious about other countries, and once you offer a fact they get hungry for more. Then, you’d better be prepared for the subsequent stream of ‘why’, or at least ready to hunt for the answers together!”
On June 1st, the final chapter was released (Chapter 18), meaning that the entire series can now be viewed online. Allow your kids to start their incredible journey with two lovable characters that will soon be fast friends. Join them on their adventure starting with a trip to Marakesh, Morocco where they will learn about a foreign culture and the country’s similarities and differences. It’s a free trip, and the knowledge to be learned is extremely valuable. Just like their names, it’s a chance to ‘see more’ of the world and learn ‘how’ things work.