Quality Educational Preschool Programming...in Spanish!

It is good to know that all the discussion over the Latino drop-out rate and the paucity of Latinos going to college is beginning to result in some serious focus on Latino children and early education. A trumpet has been sounded and bilingual schools, while still fighting discrimination and misunderstanding, are starting to be recognized for their many benefits. Bilingual teachers are being recognized for their important role and some are even being treated as heroes. More and more companies are turning their attention to creating products and services for bilingual and Spanish-speaking families... and new ones are emerging with overwhelming success.

One of these is V-me, the largest and most widely distributed block of world-class educational pre-school content in Spanish TV from international leaders in quality, including Sesame Workshop, Thirteen/WNET, LazyTown Entertainment and Cromosoma.

This month, V-me began airing PEEP and the Big Wide World, on the Spanish-language network Monday through Friday from 9:15-9:30am. The Emmy Award-winning animated science series, bring its animated stories, science, and the wonders of everyday life for the first time to Spanish-speaking and bilingual preschoolers.

It is produced by WGBH and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario and Discovery Kids. Given WGBH Boston’s pioneering legacy in the production of children’s programming, this new partnership strengthens V-me’s commitment to education, information and quality entertainment for Latino families.

Young viewers join Peep, a newly-hatched chicken, Chirp, a smart and sassy robin, and an endearingly, egotistical duck named Quack on all their wide-eyed adventures—from discovering shadows, to investigating mysterious tracks, to learning about gravity. Underlying the series is a comprehensive science curriculum that uses humor, entertaining plotlines, and lovable characters to engage viewers in a way that allows them to learn about science without even realizing it. Each episode contains one animated PEEP story that highlights a specific science concept and one live-action video that presents real kids playing and experimenting with this same concept in their own “big wide worlds.”

“PEEP is a wonderful vehicle for fostering early science exploration and understanding, presenting science in a way that tickles the fancy and funny bones of our young preschool audience. We are thrilled that V-me—which represents the best educational preschool programming on Spanish TV—is adding PEEP to their children’s lineup and introducing the characters and real world science concepts of the series to Latino families,” says executive producer, Kate Taylor.

“On the educational landscape, there are tremendous gaps for Latinos and science, and research has demonstrated that PEEP effectively brings meaningful science experiences to preschoolers,” said Guillermo Sierra, Vice President of Programming at V-me. “By bringing Peep to V-me, we are able to expose our young viewers to science exploration early and foster an understanding that lasts them a lifetime.”

A Spanish section of the PEEP and the Big Wide World Web site is also being launched at http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.org/. Here, families can access numerous animated PEEP stories and their related live-action videos featuring real kids playing at home and outdoors. Additional online resources in Spanish provide Latino parents and caregivers with ideas for fun, educational hands-on activities that extend their child’s science learning beyond the show.

Our amigas over at Spanglish Baby are giving away SIX baskets full of PEEP Goodies. So head on over and throw in your comments for a chance to win!

Who knows, by introducing your child to science early, you may be molding the next José Moreno Hernández or Elsa Salazar Cade.