Recently, we’ve been introduced to WILBUR, a great new television series from Discovery Kids Channel’s commercial-free READY SET LEARN programming. WILBUR is a calf, who along with his friends Dasha, Ray, and Libby, inspires preschoolers with a love of reading. We’ll be reviewing WILBUR on September 3 and new episodes air the week of September 10 in conjunction with National Literacy Month. WILBUR is on at 11:00 AM (ET) on Discovery Kids and 7:30 AM (ET/PT) on TLC. Here is an interview with Jill Luedtke, Kim Anton and Tracey Hornbuckle, the three moms who created WILBUR after meeting a real life calf on a Utah farm.1. Tell us about Wilbur. Wilbur is an enthusiastic calf  who helps to show preschoolers in a new series that reading and books are fun.  As part of Discovery Kids’s READY SET LEARN!, an award-winning, commercial-free programming block for preschoolers, Wilbur inspires a love of books and reading.

2. What was your inspiration for Wilbur? Raising little ones at the time, we wanted to instill in them a love of books and reading so after we met a real little calf named Wilbur on a farm in Utah, our idea for the series became a reality.

3. What challenges did you encounter when launching it? It was raising the financing and finding the right partners for the production

4. What has surprised you the most in launching and running Wilbur? It’s not really a surprise because we designed the series this way, but we still love seeing and hearing about little ones watching and enjoying Wilbur.  It’s especially touching to hear about a son or daughter who asks for Wilbur or will out of the blue say to their mom or dad “Books are Moovelous!” 

5. What resource has helped you the most in starting up?  Our greatest resources have been our tenacity and perseverance, our similar work ethic, and our faith.

6. We have many busy moms (and dads) reading Mom’s Favorite Stuff who would love to know how you balance your family life and running a small business.  With three partners, our job at balancing is easier than if we were each working alone.  That coupled with the fact that we can work early in the morning, during school hours, and then again at night, enable us to “balance” work with our families.  We three can fill in for each other in any aspect of the business and each of us understand that family comes first.  It’s great to have partners who are also like sisters.

7. Tell us what’s next for Wilbur.  We’re taking the series worldwide, and stateside there will be books, toys, dvds, etc. available, along with new episodes.