The musings of ME:
SAH mother of 3 kids, spouse of a doctor-in-residency, caretaker and teacher of random children.


Friday, October 9, 2009

My Favorite Shows For Kids







Every day we watch one of these shows when my preschoolers wake up from nap. They are both on PBS kids. SuperWhy is my favorite. It is a reading show featuring the "Super Readers" who solve problems based on stories found in favorite fairy tales and nursery rhymes. It focuses on several facets of reading, such as spelling, letter recognition, letter sounds, context clues, etc. It has catchy music and has several games during the show that the kids enjoy playing while they watch.
I think it is a great show for kids who are at any stage of reading. Young kids (ages 2-3) will enjoy recognizing the "super letters, " while older kids (4-5) enjoy figuring out the sounds and spelling words with Princess Pea. Even older kids (ages 6-8) would enjoy figuring out the super story answer and helping SuperWhy "zap" words to try to figure out how to help the characters with their problem.
Jackson LOVES this show! He will get up and dance around when he hears the theme song. Now, when we are out and he sees letters on billboards or signs or even on food packaging, he'll say, "You see the super letters, Mama?" It is so cute, and it gives me a teaching opportunity to say, "I see the super letters. What letters do you see?" Lately when he sees the show, he is beginning to be able to "spell" with Princess Pea. She will tell them what word they are going to make, and say, "What letter makes the sound rrrrr?" Jackson will holler out "R!" Now that he can recognize all the letters in the alphabet, we have been working on the sounds they make, but only minimally in the bathtub with his foam letters.
The other show is called Sid the Science Kid. The main character, Sid, is eternally curious about why and how things work. He discusses it with his parents, interviews his friends about what they know about the topic, and then brings his questions to school where "Teacher Susie" helps the class go through the scientific method to find out the answer. It has helped me get my group excited about Science. I admit I have never considered myself a science enthusiast or a great science teacher, but this show has helped me see how easy it can be to teach science, even to younger kids. This week in our apples unit, I decided that we were going to cut open an apple and observe how it changes. The kids have been very excited about it.
Anyway, just thought I'd share. If you haven't seen these shows, you ought to check them out. They get both my parent and teacher seal of approval!! ;)

3 comments:

nikko said...

We love both of those shows, too. Even my older boys love watching them and singing along to the tunes. :o)

I have a good life said...

First, thanks so much for your comments on my blog.

Second, we don't really watch TV, but LD has recently fallen in love with Super Why. I will have to DVR Sid, too, and check it out! :)

Holly said...

Im sorry but I cringe when Sid comes on...Mya loves to watch both of these, but I find Sid to particularly grate on my nerves at 9 in the morning.