Episode 13: Sandy Offenheim: My Life as a Song, Book or Game

Nellie Jacobs interviews Sandy Tobias Offenheim, songwriter, poet, teacher, performer, singer.She was 'just' a young housewife who made up songs for her children. She used to call her ditties "dumb little nothings," not realizing how great they were and their impact on other people. With the 1974 launch of her first songbook "If Snowflakes Fell In Flavours" and the recording of these songs in her first album of the same name the following year, Sandy Offenheim became a trailblazer for children's songwriters and entertainers. Over 30 years later, CD orders still pour in. On finding her website, her fans (comprising three generations living in all parts of the globe) write about their emotional connection to her songs. During our interview, Sandy shares specific details of how she went from stay-at-home mom, to songwriter/singer with four best-selling CD's (the basis of two television specials), to concert performer on stage with her family. She\ talks about why she left behind the music business, why and how she became a teacher of English as a Second Language - and the books (one published, the other a manuscript with accompanying CD nearing completion) that developed from that experience. Sandy also reveals the reasons for self-publishing her very personal poetry book about her father's Alzheimer's, and a teeny bit about her secret new project. Sandy entertains and educates us, punctuating the hour with some of her songs, poetry and chants and ten useful hints about how to be more creative-thinking.