Swiper, no swiping! (Dora the Explorer)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Dora the Explorer
Date:	02/10/08 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good combination of education and entertainment

Disadvantages: American accents

Dora The Explorer is a TV show that airs mainly on Nick Jr, the Nickelodeon channel for younger viewers. This is channel 615 on Sky. Dora is a Spanish girl who lives with her family and goes on adventures with her best friend, Boots the Monkey! Each episode is roughly 20 minutes long and has entertainment and education for the kids.

Each episode, Dora and Boots have a series of puzzles to get through to help someone or save something, or get something back from a tame villain of some sorts. They interact with the viewer at home, and ask for their help in choosing the right path, or help in finding something hidden on the screen, for example. Dora is more of a tomboy than a girl, with short hair and shorts and boots to treck across the countryside and through the woods, up and down mountains, in all kinds of weather.

My son does enjoy Dora, as well as the other programmes on this channel, but more recently, he has turned his attentions to the Disney Playhouse channel, ever since he worked out how to use the Sky remote and remember the relevant numbers for the channels! Dora is quite educational, and as a lot of the words they teach are in Spanish, I found that William knew the Spanish words for 'jump', 'look out' and a few others. as well as some basic numbers. This is quite handy.

What is a bit of a shame, but can't be helped, is the pronounciation of some of the words. The show is American, and so some words are pronounced differently to how we would do so, but this is no problem as long as the kids don't watch this too much and get in the habit of saying things differently.

I rate Dora the Explorer very highly. William also likes the show Go, Diego, Go! which features Dora's cousin, Diego, who is also a child but cares for animals. Both shows are equally as good, and have a nice combination of entertainment and education.

Summary: Good show for kids