It was great!  What I did was draw on the tremendous imagination and energy of my kids and we came up with a movie called, "The Next-to-the-Last Starfighters," in which they ruled over the galaxy -- in peace, of course. 

They simply loved the idea!  Especially when they saw the finished movie.  From that point on, they were hooked. 

The more I think about it, I still can't believe more people don't do this.  Especially now that video and computer technology, availability, and affordability have caught up with each other.

My daughter, Julie, is now in her mid-20's and has a little boy of her own.  Here's what she says about her child-acting career: 

Little girls always dream of being singers, dancers or movie stars...and I was one of those little girls, I confess! I was a closet actress and rock star, and I admit it with a straight face!  . . . I look forward to helping create these kinds of memories for my son, (now 5 months old) when he is older and ready to help me write a script! 

(Click on the picture to see Julie's full statement and a couple of pictures of her in action.)

The boys loved it, too.  Did they ever!  Caleb, Craig, and Zech flew around the universe in spaceships, had space battles, laughed a lot, and imagined themselves as hero's of the galaxy.  They even had a rendezvous with Captain Picard and took the Enterprise out for a cruise.  Craig still makes video movies and is very active in this internet project.  Josh and Julie were the villains, and they really liked picking on their little brothers. 

Now, none of us went to film school.  And when we started, we had no idea what we were doing.  But film school or not, this hobby is simply terrific!  And anybody can do it. 

The surprising thing to me was the outcome.  I thought we were just going to have a fun project for the summer.  But I am not exaggerating when I say, it changed our lives. It set us on a wonderful journey of family togetherness, love, memories, and happy memories.

So, do yourself -- and your kids -- a favor, go make a movie with your kids.

You won't regret it.  And they won't forget it.

Oh, if you want to, you can do it like we did . . . one blind step after another.  We figured it out, you can too.  But if you want some help, my kids and I have written up our 20 years of experience and have put it all on a CD so you can see it.  It's got movie clips from all of our movies (about 10 or so), music videos, skits, memorials, and more.  And it has lots of instructions on how to do things.  It was a lot of work, but here it is:

click here

But whether you get this resource or not, do yourself and your kids a favor:

Go make a movie with your kids!