Numberblocks

I absolutely love this show. My 5 year old could count to ten with occasional mistakes, but showed little interest in written numbers and math concepts until watching this show. Nearly a year later at 6, and he's counting and writing numbers up to 100 and beyond not because he's asked but because he wants to. He's also got a pretty good conceptual understanding of addition and multiplication (5 tens is 50 for example). He actually developed the concepts before getting the rote counting down which I think is really awesome. When he counts aloud, it's not because he's memorized a bunch of words in order. It's because he really knows what each means. He's a very strong-willed kid and usually learns only when he's passionate. So this show was perfect for him. He'd been obsessed with lego for since he was 2.5 years old, and I thought written academics might be a bit uninteresting for him by comparison. Fortunately I was wrong, and thanks to this show math and numbers have really started to click for him. He's been in Montesorri schools where written academics have not been pushed at all. So almost everything he knows on a written level (I'm sure the Montessori materials and his years of lego led to some intuitive understanding) is thanks to the spark this show created in him (and patient parents who have answered many many math questions over the last year!).

My family came across this a year ago and it's quickly become a crowd-favourite! The youngest (3) is deaf and has Down's Syndrome but she adores the show regardless. The characters are all very energetic and while some of them can show some so-so behaviour, the other characters always reprimand them kindly about it, teaching good manners and enforcing good behaviour. There are so many themes with each episode and they're very short and sweet. We didn't expect much going into it, but they do an excellent job of working in narrative, music, and creative thinking. Once you get past the first two seasons, they don't just focus on counting, addition, and multiplication, but they add multiplication, division, even squares, cubes, and roots, comparisons, patterns, both complex and simple, and all in a fun and easy format to learn. They also repeat concepts in new ways and reaffirm what's already been taught, finding ways to incorporate the new and the old. Our 6-year-old is learning things that he normally struggles with in school and it's much such a difference for him. Our 13-year-old and 16-year-old, and even I are totally hooked and actually enjoy watching with the little ones. All too often you'll hear someone in the house humming or singing the songs from the show. The Treasure of Hexagon Island special (on their YouTube Channel) is by far our favourite, but there are plenty of episodes on Netflix (Canada).