Although the VEry SOUND of DOra's anNOYing VOICE MAkes me CRINGE (that's how she talks, in case you don't know), and the theme song from "Go, Diego Go!" gets stuck in my head and replays itself ad nauseum every night from 4-5am, I have to credit those two adorable characters (note the sarcasm) for a major increase in my 2 1/2 year old daughter's vocabulary and knowledge of obscure animals.
Tonight at dinner, while eating her pterodon-shaped chicken dinosaur, Daphne said, "Look, Mommy! A harpie eagle!" A WHAT? Who the heck knows what a harpie eagle is? Evidently she does. And a few days ago, Daphne was walking around the house going, "Where's the kinkaju?" (I'm not sure how to spell that. I should ask Daphne.) It started about a month ago when Daphne surprised both of us by suddenly counting to 5 in Spanish. It sounded like this: "Uno, doe, bless, gado, CINCO!" We weren't sure what she was saying until it came to the crecendo of "cinco!" at the end. And then we promptly passed out, we were so impressed. But we didn't know where she had learned it. Then we finally put dos and dos together when she also started saying "GRAcias!" and "SI!" on a regular basis. And then we started noting the grande number of things that she has learned from Dora and Diego: puma, pygmy marmoset, jaguar (she formerly called all large cats either a tiger or a lion before Diego came along and set her straight), humpback whale, chinchilla, "Say click!," the concept that sticky tape fixes everything (which will no doubt lead to disaster later in her life), "Salta!" (which I think is Spanish for "more salt, please."), "Swiper, no swiping!", maned wolf, ayuda me, mariposa, spectacle bear, and a myriad of other random rain forest animals that I have no idea how to pronounce, but she does.
So don't ever think that all TV does is melt your kids' brains. Evidentally it also helps them learn how to rescue endangered animals using magical backpacks that turn into hang gliders if you say "Activa te!" The useful knowledge our kids will now have access to cannot be weighed, not even aginst the heavy price we parents must pay for such an education, namely losing our minds every time the show comes on. (Now excuse me while I go blow my brains out to drown out the theme song to "Go, Diego Go!" that is playing in my head after writing this blog.)
5 comments:
Sawyer is into Dora (sometimes Diego too, but mostly Dora) and he says words in Spanish all the time too. His favorite is counting to ocho, and counting coins. :) Hey, if they have to watch annoying shows, at least they're learning something, right?
We have been in your same situation... annoyed with a show & then amazed at the things Hannah has learned & later shared! It really is impressive.
What about that nifty backpack?? Maybe it could turn into a big diet coke?
They do say that Noggin is like preschool on TV. Jen said that yesterday Mason asked her a question to which she didn't know the answer: is earth a dimension? I should caveat that with the fact that he learned about dimensions and universes from video games, lol.
My 3 year-old niece likes to say DELICIOSO! when something tastes particularly good. And yes, why does that Dora have to yell when she talks?
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