Channeling Your Preschooler's Curiosity With Curious George
Preschoolers and early elementary aged children are naturally curious and into just about everything; this is why we give them a kitchen cabinet of their own, plug up all the outlets, and put the breakable things out of their reach. Even with all that, there is still plenty in this wonderful world to be curious about. If we can properly channel this wonderment, kids can learn so much and truly be prepared for all the things they will be learning in the future as they grow.
Enter Curious George on PBS. The series of Curious George books started in 1941, a collaboration between husband and wife H.A. and Margret Rey. The Reys wrote seven books between them, and over the years there have been many adaptations of the books for children such as board books and "based on" books. There have been a few movie adaptations of the story, and now PBS has a children's series.
Curious George follows the format of many of the PBS shows for children, with two separate episodes broken by a live-action intermission segment. George and his beloved "Man in the Yellow Hat" split their time fairly evenly between an unnamed big city and their country home, complete with a cast of secondary characters unique to each place. It doesn't matter where George goes, though, he makes friends with everyone and manages to get into everything that it's possible to get into. This natural curiosity is channeled into a quality TV show that piques everyone else's curiosity and gets them engaged in learning about math, science and logic skills without even realizing it.
Each episode introduces a concept that you can then expand upon on your own time. George learns math concepts such as how "0" beside a number changes its value, how to divide liquids so everyone can share, breaking up groups into sets for ease of counting and more. Science is brought to the front in episodes dealing with animal growth cycles, weather, aerodynamics, gears and the like. Thinking and observational skills are tweaked when George learns to observe the world and around him and use the things he knows to solve problems such as whether his cat friend his guilty of scratching up restaurant furniture or finding animals by observing tracks.
The beauty of shows like this is the opportunities that they create for you when you go out in real life, observing and interacting with people and the world. While Curious George is a fairly new show, there are dozens and dozens of time over the years that we as parents have used things we've seen in the TV shows our kids watch to help relate concepts and improve understanding of something they don't quite get at first glance. "Remember when George was trying to...?" would be a good starting point for explanations with your children.
The live-action intermissions found in each episode generally relate to the main concept of the first episode in each show; children of approximately the show's target range are shown doing projects or experiments that have something to do with what was just covered. This is much like the "Cyberchase For Real" segments at the end of the Cyberchase show, in that it shows that these concepts aren't just esoteric ideas, but have real value in the real world.
The one downside to the Curious George show is that fact that nothing bad ever happens to George. He frequently gets himself into scrapes or destroys things that would ordinarily bring down the wrath of expensive lawsuits, but it always manages to turn out "just right" in the end. Goofing off with a backhoe and destroying the entire frame of a partially constructed building? No problem, because by doing so George accidentally uncovers the water main leak that was causing problems before he arrived, saving the project. Getting into an empty office and painting large murals on the wall — without permission, of course — is no problem because the owner actually thinks it's wonderful art and loves it. The Man in the Yellow Hat is apparently made of money since he not only maintains a city apartment and a large country home, but can also afford to clean up George's financial mistakes such as ordering 100 dozen doughnuts (rather than one dozen) or accidentally tossing all the newspaper route papers down the stream when making paper boats. Consequences are almost unheard of in George's universe, which I think is a real shame. Curiosity is a fabulous attribute, but it must be tempered with reality and consequences, and children will not learn any of that while watching George gleefully plunder his way through life.
One additional resource that can be found is the Curious George sub-site at PBSKids.org. PBS maintains an excellent website for children, with a site for each of their shows, and George is no exception. There are several games available on the site, relating to concepts such as counting, greater than/less than, patterns, and more. Parent/teacher resources and ideas are on the site, as well as video clips of many of the live-action segments.
Overall, I give George a qualified thumbs-up. If your preschooler is the type to, well, "monkey see, monkey do" then you might want to skip over Curious George, but if you can use George as a good example of things NOT to do, then by all means give it a try. My children are too old to be learning anything new from George, but I can see where it would be a great extra resource for gently introducing concepts in age-appropriate ways while at the same time being extremely funny and sweet. Way to go, PBS!
