Schoolhouse Rock Still Rocks

Anyone who was around in the 70s and early 80s remembers those Schoolhouse Rock music videos that came on during ABC’s Saturday morning cartoons. Animated shorts with catchy tunes like “Three is a Magic Number,” "Conjunction Junction," “I'm Just a Bill,” and "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here" taught the children of America about math, grammar, civics, etc.

Emmy Award-winning Schoolhouse Rock was the brainchild of David McCall, an advertising executive whose son was having trouble learning multiplication tables but seemed to have an excellent memory for pop song lyrics. McCall decided the solution to his son’s troubles was to marry education and music, and thus began the songs and animation that eventually became, the edutainment phenomenon, Schoolhouse Rock.

In the years that followed, David McCall with help from George Newall, Tom Yohe, Bob Dorough, Radford Stone, Lynn Ahrens, et al., tackled material in almost every area of elementary education. The result is a few dozen three-minute music videos that make learning fun and remarkably memorable. If you grew up during the Schoolhouse Rock era, I’ll bet you still remember the lyrics to some of those songs and still have not forgotten the lessons they taught you. Can you believe that was twenty to thirty years ago?

The good news is that all of these Schoolhouse Rock videos are available on DVD, and the subjects they cover are still relevant. You can take an enjoyable stroll down memory lane while your child has a blast learning about all sorts of subjects.

The comprehensive Schoolhouse Rock Special 30th Anniversary Edition DVD is available from most DVD retailers and generally costs less than $15. Please note that this material is geared toward elementary school children. Preschoolers will be able to enjoy the music and animation, but will probably find much of the subject matter too complex to understand. Also note that this Schoolhouse Rock DVD is controlled by Disney, so prepare to be assaulted with commercials when you press the play button.

Learn to Read Between the Lions

Between the Lions is a show formatted in the tradition of Sesame Street; however, the target audience is a little older. Between the Lions picks up where Sesame Street leaves off. While Sesame Street concentrates on letters and numbers, Between the Lions focuses on learning to read.

Between the Lions, centers around a pride of lions who inhabit a library and share a love of reading. Each episode contains a variety of cartoons, skits, and songs performed by puppets and animated characters. Theo, Cleo, Lionel, Leona, Arty Smartypants, Martha Reader, Cliff Hanger, et al. each use their methods to make reading simple for youngsters. Celebrities such as Bruno Kirby and Elmo often drop in for guest appearances.

The weakness of Between the Lions is that the show reruns episodes with tremendous frequency; however, the episodes are of great quality and make reading easy and fun.

LeapFrog Talking Words Factory Provides Excellent Introduction to Reading

Professor Quigley, Leap, Lily, and Tad are back in Talking Words Factory, the logical sequel to the Letter Factory DVD from LeapFrog.

In this follow-up, the young cartoon frogs spend a day at the Talking Words Factory with Professor Quigley as they learn how words are formed.

The story first tackles the most important letters: vowels. Professor Quigley demonstrates that vowels are special because they stick letters together to form words. From there, Quigley uses the Word Whammer 3000 to form simple three-letter words like cat and bat. Then he moves on to four-letter words (like stop and best) that use blended consonant sounds. (A toy version of the Word Whammer 3000 is available from LeapFrog as a complement to this DVD.)

Each phase of the story includes a catchy little musical number to add to the fun and help your child remember each lesson. The story uses many of the familiar talking letter characters from the Letter Factory video to remind your child of the previous lessons in phonics.

The Talking Words Factory DVD is very thorough. In a little more than half an hour, the characters present the basics of reading. The one negative about this video is that it moves very quickly and contains a tremendous amount of information for a young mind to absorb. The producers should have considered not going beyond three-letter words for this DVD and saved the four-letter words for the next sequel.

Please note that, since Talking Words Factory is rather advanced, your child must have the alphabet and phonics mastered before he or she will be able to understand this video. Even though this DVD does stand on its own, it shares a lot of elements with Letter Factory. It is highly recommended to use the two videos together.

Overall, Talking Words Factory is an excellent teaching tool for introducing your child to reading. It will take dozens of viewings for the lessons to sink in, but this video illustrates some concepts that are invaluable to budding readers.

Genius Burnout

When teaching your child, keep the principle of “genius burnout” in mind. Genius burnout occurs when a highly intelligent or talented person gets overwhelmed by the pressures of his or her gift.

For the learning process to be effective, it cannot be stressful. If a child is placed under large amounts of stress for long periods of time, the child may eventually rebel against education. To keep your child interested in learning, make certain the process remains fun and positive.

Your child should see education as recreation. Always attempt to keep learning as interesting as possible by keeping it playful and interactive. If your child shows resistance to your teaching methods, ease up and give the child a break. Experiment with different techniques until you find something that your child finds enjoyable. Once you tap into your child’s interests, the learning process will be exciting and productive for both you and your child.

Remember, it is always easiest to learn when you are having too much fun to realize that you are getting an education.

Tupperware Shape-O Toy Puzzle Ball

The Tupperware Shape-O is one of the most recognizable toys in the history of developmental products. This odd looking red and blue plastic sphere has long been a fixture of children’s playrooms. We’ve all seen those little yellow shapes scattered across the floor and many of us have had the pleasure of repeatedly opening and closing this contraption for excited toddlers.

For those of you who do not already own a Tupperware Shape-O, here are some of the product highlights and developmental benefits.

The coloring of the Shape-O is a bold palette of primary colors. The sphere is half red and half blue with assorted yellow pieces. These colors contrast well, which makes the toy attractive to small children and simple to use.

There are ten of the yellow pieces. Each piece represents a different shape (e.g., circle, triangle, square, etc.) On the surface of the sphere are ten corresponding holes. The object of the puzzle is to get each piece into its proper hole. This appears to simply be a game, but it is much more. The Shape-O is a tool for teaching the important developmental behavior of matching. As the child matches each piece to its corresponding hole, the child learns to study and compare each shape. By recognizing the differences and similarities between each shape, the child begins to build an understanding of space and proportion. This is a crucial step in developing the ability to interpret and differentiate more complex shapes.

Each yellow shape piece is numbered with digits and a corresponding quantity of dots. The numbers and dots make the Shape-O a helpful tool in teaching the child the concepts of numbers and counting.

The one negative feature of this product is the opening and closing mechanism. To open the sphere, you must pull handles at the poles of the sphere and twist the hemispheres in opposing directions for many rotations. The Shape-O’s red and blue hemispheres will eventually separate just enough for you to turn the Shape-O horizontal and vigorously shake the toy until all of the pieces fall to the floor. To close the empty Shape-O, you must spin the hemispheres in the opposite direction until the toy tightens down and the two hemispheres fit together snuggly. This procedure may sound simple, but you will quickly grow tired of all the work. Once your child masters this puzzle, you will start experiencing conflicting feelings. On one hand, you’ll be happy that your child is getting smarter, but you will grow to dread opening and closing the toy.

The good news is that the Shape-O is worth the effort. It is a wonderful developmental toy that will provide your child with hours of fun and some valuable lessons in shape, differentiation, counting, sorting, and memory.

Oh, and by the way, it’s Tupperware, so when your child’s Shape-O gets dirty (and it will), you can always toss the whole toy (pieces inside) into the dishwasher.

Jump into Learning with LeapFrog

LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. is an educational toy and video company which is widely known for the revolutionary LeapPad electronic interactive reading tool. LeapFrog makes a wide variety of educational toys that promote basic learning skills through casual play. LeapFrog has a line of educational DVDs that teach letters, math, reading, etc. LeapFrog also has education products for children all the through way high school.