Maven Says: Watch Word World!

Parent Bloggers gave me the opportunity to review Word World, a new PBS show for 3-5 year olds debuting September 3rd (coincidentally my daughter's fourth birthday!). I opened up the new DVD on our vacation trip hoping that the new-ness would keep everyone occupied. Much to my delight--it did! Boobah, my soon to be 4 year old, is not much of a TV watcher, she likes to have the TV on but not much catches and holds her attention. She watched the two, eleven minute, Word World segments without a peep.

I pulled the DVD out again today to watch with my girls. My six (going on sixteen) year old declared "I really like Word World, even if it is a baby show." High praise from the child who is into shows that I think are much too old for her. The characters (shown down the left hand side) are cute and their bodies are made up of the letters that spell their name. A very cool concept, my only concern was that the word is sometimes backwards when the animal is facing left--I know, not something your preschooler will notice but I did. In addition to the animals, many of the structures spell their names as well--see the house with dog? I thought the gate and dock in the Runaway O episode were really well done so its not distracting that the object spells a word.

When the characters build a word they pull out the letters, put them in order and sound out the word. This is preceeded by a catchy little tune and funky "build a word" dance. I'll tell you a little secret--I generally don't like kids TV shows and find it torturous to watch them with my girls. This show was entertaining, educational and it didn't make me want to run screening from the room. I may have to put it on the DVR list for rainy days--I'd much rather have my kids watch this than a lot of what is on today. The fact that they BOTH like it is a definite bonus!

Keep your eye out for Word World on PBS starting September 3. Check out Parent Bloggers for the full list of Word World reviews to see what others think.