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!

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.

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.

...and I'm 40 yrs old! I really like to watch with my nieces and nephew, because they're learning to read (2 have been learning and 1 isn't ready yet). From a learning perspective, it helps because the kids have been shown the spelling out and *creation* of a word, so when we're practicing their reading, I can get them to spell & sound out much easier when I remind them of that visual from Word World.

Aesthetically, I like the imagination in the creators. Every new word they build, I wonder what the final product will look like, and am always surprised. My fave has to be dog's HOUSE.... you ever notice that the open windows in the O sorta make the HOUSE into DOGHOUSE?

I also really like the song that Ant & Pig sing in the playground about how 2 friends can say "I like you" just by playing together in the playground.. so true, so simple! And since they can't use the seesaw well, and ant can't reach the swing, they build a slide.

I loved the vintage Electric Company, and this is one of the only shows I've seen that honors that phonics method of showing words being built (remember "sl....ide.... slide; bl....ind....blind; k... ind... kind")

While many kids' shows teach important values in their stories, or teach words, I love that WordWorld teaches within the context of their clever stories and songs. Well worth every kid and grownup watching, as well as its awards!

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.