Mother Goose Club: Rhyme Time learning for your Preschooler ~Review~

Early childhood research has shown that familiarity with nursery rhymes helps young children learn to read. When preschoolers read, recite, sing or clap along to rhymes, they develop a feel for the sounds and structures of language, the first step in becoming successful readers. Mother Goose rhymes also introduce children to characters, drama, simple story structure and a host of new vocabulary words, all building blocks for early literacy. Perhaps most importantly, children are delighted by the singing, clapping, and finger play in nursery rhymes, and learn to associate words and verse with joy, laying the foundation for a lasting enthusiasm for reading.

Mother Goose Club is a series of 1-minute educational programs for preschoolers promoting early literacy. The live-action series features six colorful characters from the Mother Goose world: Teddy Bear, Jack B. Nimble, Little Bo Peep, Baa Baa Sheep, Mary Quite Contrary, and Eep Mouse, who invite viewers to sing and dance along to favorite nursery rhymes.

The Mother Goose Club, an Emmy-nominated series of 1-minute educational programs, is featured on many PBS affiliates.  Mother Goose Club videos are also available on their facebook and youtube pages.  In addition to their videos the Mother Goose Club also has 2 CD soundtracks of their nursery rhyme songs, a coloring book, and stickers.  These can all be purchased in a set (with the DVD) for only $32.

The CD was the first of the set we tried.  I have to admit that I don’t really like most of the music on the CD’s.  It’s not the nursery rhymes or the actual music, but there is the occasional adult singer who seems to think they’re performing in a opera.  It would have been much better if they’d just left the singing to the kids.  That said, Big Brother loves the CD’s and can listen to them play on repeat.  He now independently sings many of the nursery rhymes. 🙂

What I LOVE about the Mother Goose Club Super Pack is that everything in this set is perfect for “learning time” lessons.  The other day I wanted to do an active sort of lesson with Big Brother.  I popped in the DVD and selected “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear” we watched the minute long segment a couple times and learned the song and dance.  Then I had Big Brother color the corresponding coloring page.  He’s not a big fan of coloring, but he was so excited from watching the DVD clip and doing the dance along with it that he colored the whole picture with unusual precision! Yay, I was a happy mama!

As if I wasn’t impressed enough, I went onto the Mother Goose Club website and clicked on the parents tab at the top of the page.  If you homeschool your young children or simply like to help them learn at home you’ll LOVE the parents page on the Mother Goose Club site!  They have 5 different rhyming activities (that can be done with or without the DVD) that parents can do with their children to help teach rhyming.  At the bottom of the page they have printable alphabet writing pages in uppercase and lowercase!  This former preschool teacher is very pleased.

Check out all the fun videos and activities on Mother Goose Club’s facebook page.

You can watch their videos on youtube, and get the latest scoop on their twitter page.

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products at no cost to myself, in order to facilitate a review. The opinions expressed are honest and are entirely my own.