Earth Day is almost upon us, and a first-year PBS Kids show "Sid the Science Kid" from those creative folks at The Jim Henson Company and KCET/Los Angeles is telling tykes it's OK to get dirty. And CC loves it.
It's actually the first time I've had to watch something twice because my child was entranced by a jazz-singing earthworm. Yeah, you read that right. Complete with fedora, no less.
Sid is a preschooler who is uber-curious. Asks lots of questions. Loves his mom and sings about it (hoping CC will belt one out soon ... or just start rapping her love for me). And has pre-K friends who have some seriously smooth moves on the playground.
The episode we watched, "The Dirt on Dirt," tackled the question of what makes dirt dirty? And what the heck is in dirt? CC kept asking, "What's that? What's that?" as everyday detritus -- and something wiggly -- was pulled from the ground. (She also liked to point out who was the mama and who was the baby. A favorite game of hers lately.)
The program is geared toward kids ages 3-6, and CC is still a little young for it. The structure of it, though, is similar to what I would expect from a classroom. The teacher encourages the kids to explore, write down/draw what they've found, ask questions, talk about it and then spin that off into fun games. It kinda makes me want to go back to preschool myself. (But so does nap time.)
That kind of analysis, although fun and wonderfully animated, is probably something that's in store for CC next year. But, hey, she's only 2. The thing is, she does love watching the kids interact. And don't forget about the singing earthworm. Anything that engages my toddler while trying to teach her something gets a hats off -- fedora or otherwise -- from me.
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