Calvert Come Read with Me

A section on the interconnectedness of things introduces a story, not published by Calvert, titled The Earth and I. The story goes like this:

The Earth and I are friends . . . I tell her what's on my mind.
She listens to every word.
Then I listen to her.
She helps me to grow.
I sing for her. I dance for her.
She sings for me. She dances for me.
When she's sad, I'm sad.
When she's happy, I'm happy.

After the reading, the gelfins reinforce the message of the book, by praising it as a good book and affirming its message. Personally, I think talking to the Earth has to fall either into the category of prayer (for those who literally believe "she listens to every word") or just plain squirreliness ("I used to talk to the wall, but I find talking to the Earth is more fulfilling. When I listen, I hear her little voice inside my head. She loves the way I do the lambada."). And what the heck does it mean when the earth "dances for me"? Earthquakes, maybe?

Calvert tells me that nobody has complained about this book, so either it's just me or everyone else is working around it or everyone else isn't watching the videos with their kids. Or we've all become so used to overblown praise of the earth and the environment that we don't even notice when it ascends into the realms of worship/loopiness.

Come Read With Me is Calvert's unusual pre-reading course. It doesn't teach phonics per se. Instead it introduces story readiness, alphabet sounds, context clues, and picture clues in the setting of a video saga about little creatures in a fantasy land. The muppet-like creatures, including the "wise creature," an iguana with red eyes, are trying to find out about the past history of their country, Zigzat, with the help of a friendly archaeologist. The importance of reading is stressed.

Like most Calvert courses, this one comes with a lot of kiddie-friendly supplies:

· Eight videos
· Come Read With Me guidebook that leads you through the 40 lessons
· Come Read With Me Activity Workbook
· Me? A Mess? storybook
· Two "gelfin" finger puppets (a gelfin is one of the little creatures that lives in Zigzat)
· Lots of construction paper and newsprint drawing paper
· Two Calvert pencils
· Yarn
· Two boxes of large crayons
· Pencil sharpener
· Glue stick
· Kid-sized, round-tip Fiskars scissors

Here's the story line. Russ Green is an archaeologist trying to find out what happened to all the people who used to live in the big city there. He meets a bunch of little critters, like the gelfins Dilsey and Nik, the tropical bird Jando, and the iguana Tam. Together they explore the wonderful world of words and stories. For example, one lesson explores words that start with b. Russ uses a stone he found in the ruins that has on it a series of pictures of objects whose names start with b to illustrate to Dilsey and Nik that a story has a beginning, middle and end. The next episode explores words starting with t with Jando and Tam, including Russ's tools and toolbox and of course Tam's name. Russ reads a book called Tools by Ann Morris. They share a riddle and a song. And so it goes. A lot of story reading and story telling. A little phonics. A lot of language activities emphasizing non?phonetic ways of guessing words.

This program has the students trying to read words before they learn all their letters. Also, the words are grouped, not by their phonetic similarity, but by categories like "color words." Sometimes the groups of words are not related at all, e.g., brown, red, cat, green, map, yarn, yes. In one spot in video 8, someone asks: "What is that word again?" and is told, "Look at the picture!"

Come Read With Me is cute and charming without being saccharin. The videos are all TV-quality and entertaining. This course does introduce the letters and their sounds, Sesame Street style, one letter a day over a period of weeks. If a child is having difficulty hearing the sounds in words, it is bound to help. It certainly does emphasize-again and again and again- the importance and worth of learning to read. The ancillary activities are fun. It has even won a Parent's Choice Award. Even so, I can't agree with its approach in the areas I outlined above. The buying decision, however, as always is up to you.

--Mary Pride