"I'm Dr. Ruth Wordheimer. It Must Be Time for Another Long Word Freakout!"
Written: May 31 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: My child really learns from it, humor for the adults, entertaining but solidly educational.
Cons: Sam Spud Parboiled Potato Detective (yuk!), bores children not ready for it.
The Bottom Line: This excellent show is well-executed, humorous, and very helpful for children who are in the process of learning to read.
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| dagny21's Full Review: Between the Lions |
I've been trying to get my child to watch this show for eons, simply because I was entertained by it. Until he started learning phonics through other programs though, my son was very bored with this show and would often ask me to turn it. Once he knew the alphabet and all the sounds each letter made, he started to show interest in the show again, but then he got confused and frustrated because he knew capital letters and the show is in all lowercase.
Hint: If I had to do it again, I would avoid teaching my son capital letters as the first step in reading. I found that transitioning from making sounds associated with capital letters to reading words usually written in lowercase letters to be problematic.
Between the Lions
This show is about a family of Lions (Mother Cleo, Father Theo, Daughter Leona, and Son Lionel) who run a library. Lionel knows how to read very well already but his younger sister Leona does not. The show is run very much like Sesame Street, but for older children. There is a mix of live actors, puppets, and animation, and each 30 minute episode is made up of many brief segments.
Some Segments on this Show
There is always a core, themed story involving the library and lion family. But, interspersed with this are always many different segments.
Dr. Ruth Wordheimer
This is a live action segment featuring the real-life Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She plays a therapist and handles 2 different types of patients. First, there are the "long word freakouts" where a character will come into her office extremely upset about having to read a long word. These words are always words that can be sounded out in parts, and Dr. Ruth shows tells her patient to calm down and helps him sound out the word. Then he leaves happy. Second, Dr. Ruth councils words that are not happy. For instance the word "sad" might come into her office, and Dr. Ruth will show that word how he can change by sending away his "s" and replacing it with a "gl" and becoming "glad."
Gawain's Word
Adult watchers will be amused by this segment that is a loose pun on "Wayne's World." This is another live action segment that takes place in a grassy area called "blending field." Two knights in armor crash together to make a word. The first knight might be "Sir sl," while the second knight could be "Sir ip." The knights charge toward each other, each shouting their name "sl....ip, sl...ip, sl..ip, sl-ip, slip!" When they crash into each other, they do whatever action is indicated by the word they've made. In this case, they would slip on the grass and fall.
Tiger Words
This is a cartoon segment that is an obvious pun on Tiger Woods the golfer. Tiger is on the verge of winning a tournament. All he has to do is correctly write a word. But, he always messes it up and then has to correct it(which he does in a variety of ways), after which he wins the prize. On today's show he had to write the word "trip" in order to win a "Trip to Tripoli." He wrote "tr_p" successfully and the announcer made all the sounds for us. Then, he accidentally wrote in "a", making the word "trap" instead of "trip." Since he wrote in pen he couldn't erase, so Tiger got out the lawn mower and cut away the "a" and put in an "i" to make the word "trip."
Cooking with Leo and Cleo
Cleo and Leo are cooking some sort of meat. The recipe on today's segment was "Tickled and Pickled Ribs." The step by step instructions tell them to grab a stick, then tickle the ribs, then pickle them for 24 hours. Cleo and Leo go along with all steps fine, but the last step in any recipe they make always calls for some sort of cooking. At this point, Cleo and Leo always decide to just eat the meat raw, since they can't wait any longer. This segment doesn't involve any sort of sounding out, but each word is pointed at as it is read in the recipe, and all of the items (ribs, stick, etc.) are labelled.
What all of these segments have in common is that they teach effectively along with entertaining. And, most of the humor is sophisticated enough to amuse any adults who happen to be watching. There are many, many other segments on this show, and the only one I don't find amusing at all is the "Sam Spud Parboiled Potato Detective" which just seems tasteless.
Perfect for Beginning Readers
After successfully completing the program at Headsprout.com and the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, my 3 1/2 year old son is supposedly reading at a second grade level. And now he is just glued to this show every morning. He knows how to read many of the words they feature on the show, but there are plenty that are new for him, and it's good review for him in any case. Now that he's at the right point in his development for this show, he no longer finds it boring or confusing, and it reinforces the skills he's learning from other sources, and even teaches him something new occasionally.
Final Recommendation
This show not only effectively helps teach your child to read, but it's amusing for adults, and - most importantly of all - it makes reading seem really fun. Try it out on a child of any age, if they don't like it, try again once they've begun to learn to read. They'll likely love it.
Recommended:
Yes
Type of Program: Educational
Best Suited For: Whole Family
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Epinions.com ID:
dagny21
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 in Kids & Family |
 - Top 500 |
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Member: Christine D
Location: Alaska
Reviews written: 388
Trusted by: 66 members
About Me:
Happily married mother of one boy.
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