We're still working on reading readiness with Sparkle, and we're doing okay. I just want to give a big thumbs up to the PBS series "Between the Lions." I read about the series on Shannon's blog and we got the first season for the boys for Christmas. We really like it!
It's all literacy training stuff, not just identifying letters but putting sounds together, organizing letters into words, and interacting with various stories and books.
Plus, it's the only kid's show I've ever seen where the theme song doesn't make me want to pull out my hair.
And (last thing, I promise) many (most?) of the characters and cast are African American. The boys pointed out that the boy lion cub (Lionel!) has dreadlocks. (He's an animated lion puppet, so I guess I didn't notice at first.) The dad lion has long hair like Beloved and "kind of" has dreads, per their assessment. It absolutely does matter to them to see African Americans in their screen time and books, as well as in their real lives.
So, to summarize... Between the Lions, Season 1: Wonderful, we highly recommend it.
(Does any one know-- Why don't they sell the other seasons? I would buy them! I don't imagine that producing DVDs of a PBS show would be very costly and could make them a lot of money. I must be missing something...)
Every time Small Sun sees a African American character on a show or in a book, he yells "he's brown like me!" Sometimes he yells it in real life, at people, as well. :) It really does matter to have inclusive media and surroundings!
Posted by: Kohana | Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 06:39 PM