Through our connection with MotherTalk, for whom we do book reviews, we were lucky enough to receive a review DVD of WordWorld, a PBS show that will debut this coming September.
WordWorld focuses on (oddly enough) creating words, and helping children learn words through fun and recognition after subtle repetition. They call it “pandelearniumtm“!
The DVD included an intro to WordWorld, and 2 episodes “The Runaway O” and “The Birds”. We enjoyed the 3-D computer animation on them, as well as the soft-spoken male narrator.
Within this special world, all the characters, buildings, and things are made out of words, like the dog and house at right. It’s fun, and yet it reinforces word recognition and builds comfort with reading and letters.
The really cool thing within WordWorld is when the words come alive – for instance in the episode “The Birds”, an egg cracks and out comes a B, I, R, D, and then they combine into a baby bird! My 3 year old was so excited and was clapping each time a “WordThing(tm)” happens. Those “AHA moments” encourage both excitement and comfort with letters and reading.
I love the idea of words making all the characters, and reading as a fun adventure. We’ve got some learning disabilities and troubles with reading in this house, so a program that makes reading appear fun as well as subtly reinforcing a lot of words (by having the characters, buildings, etc made out of words) is a program I am going to love!
The characters in WordWorld are fun, and have both faults and good points. Pig is a great chef, but he loves to eat and needs work on his manners! Sheep is shy, but she uses costumes to break out of her shell. Frog is the intellectual, but not all of his inventions work. Duck is funny and also rather pushy and acts a bit like a preschooler. Ant is a leader, and overcomes his small size with strength & leadership. Dog is the non-verbal one (why is it that dogs are the ones who don’t talk?), but yet he loves letters and helps find them for his friends. There are other characters who round out the world, too. All of the characters seem to be equally enjoyable, which is nice – sometimes one character is annoying, or only one character is good.
We give WordWorld 5 spotlights out of five – it’s a fun show with learning that doesn’t overwhelm the story. The packaging says the show is designed for ages 3-5, but I would say 2s would likely enjoy it, and my 7 year old also enjoyed it, and then went straight to reading books to me! My 9 year old wasn’t entranced, but I found the story very watchable – I won’t mind watching it with the girls at all when it comes out in September.
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