Without comparing every single DVD, it looks like the only thing missing vs. the 16 DVD set selling on Amazon is the "Lots of Letters" 2 DVD set--and that it's $159.99 there (vs. $49.99 + $5 shipping here, for the record):

http://www.amazon.com/Word-World-Collection-Educational-Wordworld/dp/B0040F3U12

and that does not include the flash cards.

Wordworld is a great show and my kids love it. But $50 worth of DVD's is a really hard "impulse purchase"

FYI, 3 Season's of shows are available on Netflix Streaming

froogling for wordworld dvd gets $3 per DVD for some titles, didn't look for all of them.

When I first read it, I thought it said:

"World War 14 DVD Collector Set with 25 First Words Large Learning Flash Cards"

I thought to myself, "Wow... skipping the 3rd through 13th wars, jumping right to WWXIV, then teaching the kids some words. Not random at all."

I haven't watched WordWorld, but my cousin and I were talking about this show yesterday. What are the odds it'd be a deal today? So, whether or not it's a bargain.. purchased it for my 17-month old daughter.

My kids love wordworld and it's a great show, but that's an awful lot of DVDs.

My solution? Tivo! Then they can watch WW whenever they want...

Does this include any words in other languages?

I'm a mean mom - our kids don't get to watch TV... with 2 PBS exceptions, one of which is Word World. I give this show (and Between the Lions) full credit for teaching 3 of our kids how to read before they turned 5. How can you not figure out words are made from letters when P-I-G and D-U-C-K are being stuck together to make some dang cute animated animals? Then they go around making words out of letters and singing non-horrific kinda catchy songs (I'm partial to Monster Makers).

Watching "W Drought" too many times can cause serious side effects, though. Our 2yo asks for W-A-T-E-R half the time because she thinks it's funny. Her loving parents use it as a party trick to show off what incredible parenting skills we have :-)

P.S. If you really do want your babes to get a taste of Alex Rogan, watch Tick Tock Space Clock with them and keep calling the robot a beta unit... you make a big enough deal about it they'll be believers soon enough.

If you want to buy them retail, this page links you to the parent company; under activities they have some WW coloring pages (oooh, I like Sid, too and Pocoyo on YouTube is fabulous for teaching castilian spanish).

Facebook rumors say the production company went bankrupt, so there may not be more episodes past season 3. Get them now and your kids can resell them on ebay just like you're selling your precious comics tonight so you can afford to buy this set before it's gone!

I, too, seriously restrict what my kids watch on t.v. and how much, but this show is definitely worth watching! We watch it on Netflix, so I'm not interested in buying this set, but if Woot sold the stuffed animals of the characters where you can take apart and put together the letters, I would definitely buy that! Does anyone know where you can buy those? I used to see them at Target before I knew about the show, but can't find them now.

We have 3 of these DVD's that the boys just love. These are great for the car, and the repeats we can gift to his friends! I'm in for the stack!

I wont be buying these. To each their own, but preview these shows on YouTube before buying if you're unfamiliar with the show. You might like them or not. I considered buying, but watched a few episodes on YouTube. The duck character is beyond annoying and I wouldn't want my kids picking up on his characteristics. I'd rather find another way to teach them how to read. There are lots of alternative options!!

P is for Pig!!

My 2 yo LOVES this show. She learns more than just words, they are really nice and compassionate to one another and help each other through various capers. I too stream it through netflix! This would be a very tempting offer, except when you add tax & shipping it's gone from $49 to nearly $60.

My 4 year old loves the show and if we did not have every episode on her DVR, then this would be a buy for sure.

She started watching WW over a year ago (she turns 4 October 2nd) and it is still one of her go-to shows.

(Tolerable for us adults as well... it can be pretty funny sometimes)

Krumlov wrote:Does this include any words in other languages?

yep, it includes the Eskimo word for Icehouse, as the picture shows....

tj willy wrote:My 4 year old loves the show and if we did not have every episode on her DVR, then this would be a buy for sure.

Yeah, but you never know when the DVR will crap out on you. We lost every episode of SuperWhy when it happened to ours.

I've taught many kids to read using flash cards with the phonics method. This is a good deal for the money except that it looks like all the words are in caps.

While that may not seem so bad, it's better to start off in all lower case, and then introduce case only when it's called for. Children pick up on these things more than we may realize, so starting out with words that are entirely capitalized will make something incorrect seem normal. With children, it's usually a lot easier to learn something than to unlearn something.

In for 3. Great gifts for my relatives with kids in the 1-5 year old range. My own kids are too old for it, but they also loved the show and second the parental testimonials for Word World and Between the Lions. Great shows, and remember to support your local PBS station and local school and public libraries.

One of the copies is going to my local public library.

Do these teach via word recognition or letter sounds/phonics? The former seems to be popular these days but really doesn't seem to be an efficient way of teaching kids to read. There are a lot more words than letter sounds, and once you know all the sounds you can read anything, not just words you've seen before.

egockel wrote:FYI, 3 Season's of shows are available on Netflix Streaming

No... I just checked netflix, and only one episode appears available for streaming. The others are available for DVD rental.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

mdickinson wrote:No... I just checked netflix, and only one episode appears available for streaming. The others are available for DVD rental.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

I just looked at my account - did the search and if you click on "word world" in blue, it expands and gives you the seasons, click on a season to expand to give you the episodes available. Quite a few in the list.

Also - yes, they use all caps. I guess it's not phonics, because the charactors visually put the letters together to create a word and the word turns in to the object they wanted to create - for example....

B O X <-- put the letters together and you get BOX and the letters squeeze together and form a box while still showing the letters the box is formed with. (sorry that was probably confusing).

I made my own "flash" cards on my computer and printed them off...

If I *had* the money to spend, I'd probably buy this. But since I'm already paying for Netflix and can make my own flash cards...I can use the $60 for a field trip to the zoo or arboretum.

I don't have the cash for this at the moment, but Word World is a great show. My son loves it and prefers to have closed captioning on, too. We turn closed captioning on for any show whenever we can.

Krumlov wrote:Does this include any words in other languages?

I don't believe so. My son loves this show. We watch it on Netflix, and as far as I've seen, it's all been in English.

mdickinson wrote:No... I just checked netflix, and only one episode appears available for streaming. The others are available for DVD rental.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

---
It's 3 seasons. Netflix has started using only 1 picture or cover to represent all seasons of a show. Instead of having to look up season 1, then season 2, and so on. Now you just pick your show, and all the seasons (they have license to show) are under that one picture. I keep this show in my instant queue for my son. He's 4 and loves it. When I hover over the picture for wordworld, it says 2007-2010 Seasons 1-3.
It does appear to offer other seasons by DVD only.

Hope this helps.

jkflutterbug wrote:I, too, seriously restrict what my kids watch on t.v. and how much, but this show is definitely worth watching! We watch it on Netflix, so I'm not interested in buying this set, but if Woot sold the stuffed animals of the characters where you can take apart and put together the letters, I would definitely buy that! Does anyone know where you can buy those? I used to see them at Target before I knew about the show, but can't find them now.

I got most of them from Target around 2 years ago when they were on clearance and they came with a DVD too. They're great toys b/c they stick together with magnets just like the show. Unfortunately, I don't think that they make them anymore but you can still grab them on eBay. Used ones are reasonably priced but new ones are super expensive. I should've bought extras to resell 2 years later! Lol

edchang00 wrote:I got most of them from Target around 2 years ago when they were on clearance and they came with a DVD too. They're great toys b/c they stick together with magnets just like the show. Unfortunately, I don't think that they make them anymore but you can still grab them on eBay. Used ones are reasonably priced but new ones are super expensive. I should've bought extras to resell 2 years later! Lol

Thanks for the info!

"14 DVD’s that reinforces pre-reading concepts and skills"

Sadly, basic grammar principles such as subject-verb agreement will not be reinforced.

"Fosters a love reading"

Is this some kind of hippie crap? Do these DVDs contain a recipe for special brownies?

bleatzor wrote:Do these teach via word recognition or letter sounds/phonics? The former seems to be popular these days but really doesn't seem to be an efficient way of teaching kids to read. There are a lot more words than letter sounds, and once you know all the sounds you can read anything, not just words you've seen before.

They definitely teach some phonics in this show. The only one that comes to mind at the moment is "two o's make the sound of oooo" - a song they sing in a few of the episodes.

Well, the comments and a brief youtube search here talked me into it. I'm in for one.

Sorry for the double post. Too quick on the doubleclick.

I'm in for one set. Cheaper than Baby Einstein and Baby Genius- and gets good reviews.

yardenxanthe wrote:They definitely teach some phonics in this show. The only one that comes to mind at the moment is "two o's make the sound of oooo" - a song they sing in a few of the episodes.

You can't forget S-hark!

bleatzor wrote:Do these teach via word recognition or letter sounds/phonics? The former seems to be popular these days but really doesn't seem to be an efficient way of teaching kids to read. There are a lot more words than letter sounds, and once you know all the sounds you can read anything, not just words you've seen before.

They do more than just word recognition. Phonics, rhyming and if nothing else, it helps kids recognize the sounds of the alphabet. The character encourage each other to sound out words.

In for 1 of these.

This is by far one of the greatest kids shows on TV today. Shockingly, it came out many years ago and I had no idea about it. I found WordWorld by chance going through the kids U-verse channels and decided to give it a look because of the title. To my surprise, I saw the educational value this show provides and my almost 2 year old son has been a sponge, taking in everything this show has to teach. It amazes my wife and I everyday when he says whats on the show.

I highly recommend this set!

Bring this deal back!!! I missed it a year ago and I'm STILL kicking myself. Bring it back!!