Word World

I found Word World by accident, and my grandson loves it! It's a great way for little ones to learn to sound out letters and form basic words. I also like how the words form the actual word (hat becomes a hat, etc.).

Bravo!

I am not fully decided on this one yet. I like the idea of characters and items being made out of words. However, like one of the other posters on here, I find duck annoying (especially his horrible fake twangy accent). I also find the plot line slow. However, my 4 year old loves it. She likes that everything is made of letters. It doesn't keep her from reading --- she is reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level. However, some days mom needs a little break and some days she gets to watch 20-30 minutes of TV. So I think if she likes it, I'd rather her watch this than a lot of other cartoons out there. I like LIttle Einsteins and My Friends TIgger and Pooh, but I don't like Phineas and Ferb and never gotten into the WOnderpets.

Wow. I caught this show by chance one day and was so impressed I had to look it up to watch it again. What a wonderful and fun way to teach spelling! In this computed-animated show, all of the animal friends, main scenery, and "props" are made out of the letters of their word. You have to see it to truly appreciate it. There is a dog made out of the letters d-o-g, a house formed from the letters for house, etc. Heck, during a camping episode if you look closely you will see that the flames of the fire are made out of f-i-r-e. The adventures of these animal friends center around building items from the letters that form their word. For example, when the pig is "baking" a birthday cake, he grabs the letters c, a, k and e then when he puts them together, the word animates to form a cake (with frosting!) out of the letters. In another episode, the frog and dog are building a tent, and the tent won't go up until, after several tries, they finally sound out the word and put the letters in the correct order. The animated adventures are split into roughly 10 minute segments, perfect for the very young age group that is obviously targeted.

If the quality of the show stays the same as the few episodes I've seen, I'd buy this series on DVD in a second.

My 2 1/2 year old daughter absolutely has been memorized by the show since we found it a little over a year ago. She instantly loved Dog and Duck. Soon after that she was trying to "build a word" with her foam letters and easily started saying her letters.

Some of the best things the show has going for it are (from the site): "WordWorld is grounded in scientifically based reading research and incorporates the recommendations of the landmark report Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000). "

" Literacy experts and advisors in the fields of child development, psychology and education are an integral part of the WordWorld team and review content throughout the development process."

"The curriculum draws from four skill sets critical for young children's emergent literacy: print awareness, phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge, comprehension (including vocabulary development) and socio-emotional skills. "

It has won an EMMY and the Gold PARENTS' CHOICE AWARDS.

Hands down it is one of the best kids show that is one of the few that are top of the class. This is one of the must see shows on TV if you want your child to learn something while watching TV.

they make kids shows.

why are ducks always the loud-mouthed firecracker who can never do anything right? Disney and warner brothers cartoons. the stereotypes are consistent in this show. in this case, DUCK also has a southern twang.

it accomplishes its intention to teach phonics and spelling conventions, but it is of note that requiring animation to hold someone's attention to a story means it discourages reading. fortunately, the jokes are not funny, there is almost no story, and the characters are tedious, so there will be no emotional attachment.

the animations are relatively well-done, but it seems that the show was conceived of by graphic designers segueing into character design. creative typography is a very appealing trick for graphic designers. on this show, since the character design is not especially inspired/ iconic, i can assume that this is a portfolio piece.

overall, while i can appreciate having children learn spelling with ease, i don't know if they should be exposed to mind numbing story lines and DUCK.