Wife and Mommy

My kids love Super Why!  I just heard Bito saying, “Welcome to Story Book Village!” as he opened our front door!  Cupcake marvels that the characters are allowed to stand on bookshelves. BabyMuffin loves the bright colors, sounds, and songs.

I love Super Why! too. Really, what’s not to love?  It’s a great show with four cool characters:  Whyatt, Princess Pea , Little Red Riding Hood and Pig (from the Three Little Pigs).  These characters transform into super reading heros.  They jump into familiar books to solve every day problems that a youngster might encounter.  

Beyond that, the show introduces preschoolers to reading concepts: alphabet power, word power, spelling power and the power to read.   And my kids really, truly get into it.   Cupcake stands at the television and points to the correct letters.  Bito sounds out the words and understands the concept of rhyming words.  

So I was totally giddy to be invited to PBS Headquarters with my DC Metro Moms friends.  We had the pleasure of meeting Angela Santomero, Creator and Executive producer of Super Why! and Lesli Rotenberg, Senior Vice President of Children’s Media at PBS.  Ms. Santomero, who also created Blues Clues, went through the process of how the Super Why! series was brought to fruition.  (Aside here:  Ms. Santomero is very personable, warm, and witty.  She answered my biggest question about Super Why!–why are there three kids and a pig??)   We learned that research proves Super Why! helps children learn to read.  The DC Metro moms exclaimed that we’d love to enroll our kids in a Super Why! camp if it was offered here. 

I love Super Why! even more after attending this meeting!  Sure, I thought it was a great show that engaged my kids for 25 minutes while I get ready in the morning.  But after hearing the how the show is very carefully crafted, I am really impressed with the teaching aspect of it.  It’s good television that I don’t mind encourage my kids to watch!

As we left, we were given a preview of activities that are on the PBS Parents website.  Learning with Super Why! correlates activities with the episodes, but are different from activities on the parents and teachers sites.  This gives you and your Super Reader a chance to work together to explore the learning benefits of Super Why!  Thanks TechSavvyMama for the heads up that this is live as of today and available to you now!

My Posse (read:  the kids) and I haven’t gotten to doing these activities, I confess.  But Amy M.  of TeachMama has!  Amy is a teacher, reading specialist, mom, and blogger.  She and her three kids–ages 5, 3 1/2, and 2, have been engaging in the new lessons throughout the week. On her TeachMama site you can find a run down of activities for Days 1 , 2, and 3 (with the other days to come!) along with the instructional methods used with her children, an account of how she’s modified the activities, and a very honest account of how she perceives the activities as a mom and teacher. Amy’s PBS Love posts are awesome resources but so is the rest of her site!  If you have young learners in your house and are looking for ways to incorporate a fun and easy little lesson into each day, check out all of Amy’s great ideas (thanks again, TechSavvyMama for letting me know that Amy’s doing all this awesome legwork!).

Super Why! airs on WETA at 6:30 AM and on MPT at 8:30 AM.  At least it does in this house…