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Meet Flippy's Funologists Patty Gennings (patty@busykids.com) 
What do Flippy and Patty Gennings have in common? They both spend part of their year in cold places. For Patty a skating rink is a very familiar sight as she watches her children take to the ice. She will admit Flippy probably does a better job at keeping warm in a cold place!! In her spare time outside the rink she volunteers at her children's school both in the classroom and the school library. It is here that she sees the difference between children with strong basic skills and whose skills still need developing. This is why Patty stresses basic skills in the early childhood classes that she teaches. While helping to develop BusyKids.com she continually emphasizes the need for available activities that parents and children can have fun with, while developing necessary skills. She wants simple activities that bring parents and children together. Working side by side provides the togetherness the child craves and the parents recognition of their child's developmental strengths and weaknesses. Patty sees this accomplished by using materials at hand to be creative, imaginative and funny. Prior to what Patty is doing now, she was a caseworker with the Department of Social Services. She also served as a Project Coordinator with the National Evaluation Systems, and educational consulting firm. In this capacity, she was responsible for coordinating programs designed to test and evaluate student's academic performance as directed by various State Departments of Education. She is a member of the Connecticut Association of Educators of Young Children. Her education includes:
Lee MacDonald (lee@busykids.com) 
Flippy and Lee have no problem working together. Like Patty, Lee can be found in cold places. He thinks nothing of bundling up and spending several hours out in the cold night air looking through his telescope at the winter time sky. For Lee, a father of a 40 something and a grade school child, the creation of Flippy and his Fun Weeks was a welcomed "ice flow" coming to town. He is keenly aware of today's dad's necessary involvement in their child's development and education. He gives to us a perspective as to how far parenting has come for dads. Lee is our communication lifesaver around BusyKids.com. While you people click on Flippy for tips, hints or more details, we click on Lee. He has had 35 years in the communications field with a third of that time serving the educational market. While baffling us with the technical department, he somehow manages to make it all work. Without him, Flippy might still be in Antarctica. His education includes
Annie "B" MacDonald (annie@busykids.com) Annie "B"s connection to Flippy does not come via cold places. Any time the temperature drops below 35°F; you can hear her talking about warmer climates. Annie and Flippy find a common avenue in the area of Funology. She has a great way of getting down to the child's level and playing with them. Annie and her daughter create many of Flippy's songs as they drive down the road singing. We often wonder what would happen if she was stopped for speeding and had to explain that she was creating a new song for Flippy! (Instant ticket we're sure!) Like Flippy she enjoys art and created her first penguin out of paper mache at the age of 12. We guess even then that it was destined for Flippy and Annie to meet. 
She has worked in the educational field for twenty-five years. In college, she volunteered with Headstart and worked a summer reading/science enrichment program. She has worked in private and public schools as well as an Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center and her local Parks and Recreation Department. For a number of years, she worked with hearing impaired children. As a mom, she volunteers at her child's school working with the art teacher and the library and creating bulletin boards for the school. She has a real fondness for children's literature and many of her ideas begin in children's books. Annie presently teaches infants and two-year-olds, as well as Kindergarten Creativity, and arts and crafts classes. She began Mother/Child arts and crafts classes several years ago when parents asked for them. She is forever coming up with new and crazy ideas. Her education includes:
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