Review: Word World

It was with trepidation that I agreed to do a Parent Bloggers Network review of World World, the new PBS show for kids that premieres on September 3, 2007. My kids don't watch that much TV and not necessarily by my choice.

But I know I can't keep my kids away from television forever, so they may as well be watching something educational. And Word World comes with a pedigree -- it was developed by leading literacy experts and partly funded by the Department of Education.

In the interest of full disclosure, PBS sent me a free DVD of two 11 minute episodes of Word World. We brought it with us to Chicago and Annabella (age 4) was hooked. She watched each episode several times on the plane. In Chicago our friend Caleb (age 2) also enjoyed the show, although he lost interest after about five minutes.

Word World stars "The Word Friends," cartoon animals that are made of letters. For example, the dog is made of the letters D-O-G. In fact, many of the objects in World World are made of the letters that make up the word the object is. If I'm not making any sense, check the Word World Web site to see for yourself.

Did Word World teach Annabella to read or help her become more "reading ready?" I have no idea. My totally personal, unprofessional opinion is that if we'd spent the time actually reading or just interacting instead of watching the DVD, that probably would have done more good. Most experts recommend that you watch these kinds of shows with your kids, but if you're anything like me then you watch these shows while you can take a break to do something else.

Word World is aimed at 3-5 year olds, which I respect since I'm definitely against all the TV that's shown to babies these days, especially considering that recent study that says that infants might be better off watching American Idol.   

Comments

[Kent Goldings]

There's nothing wrong with a little Elmo. In any case, my daughter really likes slide shows and home videos.

[Ruth H]

I have to admit I HAVE A SOAPBOX! And I think I have written concerning it in the past on your comments, or maybe just in emails. But if any program doesn't emphasize phonics it won't work very well. I think parents reading to their children is the best way to make readers, and if you are reading Dr. Seuss you know he used rhyming and sounds to really interest children. At Annabella's age my children were extremely intrigued with making rhymes and jokes with words. I think she probably has a wonderful background for reading. DVD's and TV are okay, but some of the older singing tapes, probably on CD's or DVD's now, have wonderful rhymes and are excellent teaching tools. You know once you get those songs in your head as a parent or grandparent they never leave. I still find myself singing a cloud song my granddaughter had.

[Ruth H]

I have to admit I HAVE A SOAPBOX! And I think I have written concerning it in the past on your comments, or maybe just in emails. But if any program doesn't emphasize phonics it won't work very well. I think parents reading to their children is the best way to make readers, and if you are reading Dr. Seuss you know he used rhyming and sounds to really interest children. At Annabella's age my children were extremely intrigued with making rhymes and jokes with words. I think she probably has a wonderful background for reading. DVD's and TV are okay, but some of the older singing tapes, probably on CD's or DVD's now, have wonderful rhymes and are excellent teaching tools. You know once you get those songs in your head as a parent or grandparent they never leave. I still find myself singing a cloud song my granddaughter had.

[Yolanda]

Well, after viewing the short clip on their website and seeing he way objects are made of words, I must say that it would take a lot of familiarity with letters and their shapes for a child to pick up on the fact that everything in Word World is made of letters and that these letters combine to name the object that they are viewing. I'm not a linguist or literacy expert, but I do have a BA in English and have been reading for at least 26 years. It took me seconds to recognize the letters on most of the objects, and I actually know what the letter combinations should be. I can't see a 3 to 5 year old child grasping the concept of reading this way.

[Matthew Spearman]

As with most videos, they are of minimal educational value without the accompanying parent involvement while watching them. But that kind of defeats the purpose of a video, as you mentioned, it provides a good break for the parents.

Even movies don't seem to sink in to the three-year old mind. I've watched Cars several times with my almost four year old. He remembers the characters and reenacts some of the scenes in his imagination play around the house, but I think he misses the broader theme of friendship in the movie. At the end, when the Doc Hudson car is crew chief and then Lightning goes back to help the other car that crashed, thus forfeiting winning the Piston Cup, I am in tears. My son is not. He asks, "What happened to Lightning?" And I choke out, "Nothing. He just helped that other car."

[David Berent]

Word World is a great show, my 27 month old loves it. He knows the entire alphabet and can spell out the "babies-r-us" sign when mom took him to the store. The key is the show makes learning the alphabet fun.

We are heavily involved in the limited shows he watches, but this one is always on the DVR for when we need to get ready for work.