Word World eBooks

There were some great kids' events in NY this weekend. We went to the falconry show in upper Central Park and had a wonderful time--thanks to everyone who put it on, and I hope you found your runaway hawk! Or, flyaway hawk, I suppose. (It's kind of cool, actually, because a wild redtail hawk spooked the captive bird; it's cool because the redtail population is so resurgent in the city.) Afterwards we walked west past the Seinfeld diner to Grant's Tomb, which was nice to teach a little Civil War history to the six-year-olds.

Then on Sunday right here in Ft. Tryon Park, a three-minute walk from my apartment, was the annual Medieval Festival. This event always looks like a lot of fun but it would be a lot more fun if they would hold it on a Saturday so that those of us who keep the sabbath on Sundays can attend and even spend a little money. Not that they're hurting for attendance, but it just bugs me that every year our daughter begs to go and even when we do walk through with her it just makes her sad that she's not able to spend any money or skip church meetings to stay the whole time. It just makes it not worth going into the park at all, and it riles me that so many events are held on Sundays when so many families are not able to attend (and religious observance isn't an aberration; there are really a lot of families who keep the sabbath--and I do recognize some do it on Saturdays).

Anyway, that's a tangent, because I was going to say that even though I'm still iPhone-less Saturday after the falconry show a friend was showing me the eBook app he has for his kids but which features some subpar literature, in his opinion. But that family is a big WordWorld fan fam, so I wanted to note for their sake and everyone else's that there's a new WordWorld eBook application for all kinds of different devices, iPhone and iPad included.

My schedule hasn't permitted me time to check it out, but I have strong confidence in anything associated with WordWorld. It should be top-knotch, with some good phonics skills built in amidst the narratives and production design. Here's a bit of the press release, from a couple weeks ago:

NEW YORK, September 16, 2010 - Just in time for the 2010 Back to School season, Don Moody, creator of the three time Emmy™ Award-winning television series WordWorld is launching a new, free eBook library available online now and on iTunes in October--for iPhone and iPad. WordWorld has been demonstrated by a U.S. Department of Education funded study to improve early literacy skills. WordWorld’s eBook library extends the learning lessons introduced in the television series.

The WordWorld eBook library consists of five dynamic educational WordWorld stories. Children may read the eBooks on their own, be read to by a caregiver or have stories read aloud to them by the eBook narrator. By clicking select words in each eBook, children build words and watch letters “morph” into WordFriends™. A Caregiver Guide accompanies the eBooks, providing caregivers and educators strategies to maximize the tool’s educational effectiveness.

“Children and [the WordWorld] eBooks are a match made in educational heaven!” says Linda Labbo, Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. “Words come to life on screens in unique ways that invite children to interact with stories, characters, and language. The interactivity scaffolds children’s attention and provides age appropriate prompts that ensure an entertaining and educational experience.”

The WordWorld eBook library supports the curriculum delivered through the WordWorld television series. It provides the groundwork upon which emergent readers can build early literacy skills. Each eBook promotes story comprehension, age-appropriate vocabulary, rhyming, print awareness, phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge.