Shopping Brains
January 11, 2004

Boohbah, PBS, and Toys

boohbah toys From Ragdoll Ltd., the UK company that brought us Teletubbies, now comes Boohbah -- a new show for toddlers with brightly colored non-human characters ... this sounds vaguely familiar. ;)

But there are reported differences. Boohbah is "interactive" television for 3-6 year olds. According to the PBS site:

Boohbah is different from most educational TV. It is intended to foster a style of active viewing in which the things that children learn from viewing are not determined primarily by the content of the program, but rather by the ways that young viewers (and the grown-ups who care about them) engage with the program. Woven into the design of Boohbah are opportunities to help children build skills in five different learning areas:
  • Movement
  • Mathematics
  • Problem Solving / Science
  • Language
  • Imagination
Boohbah launches in the US on January 19th on PBS. Boohbah toys and merchandise won't be available in the US until mid-2004, but there are UK shops with these "five colorful atoms of energy" (Humbah, Zumbah, Zing Zing Zingbah, Jumbah, and Jingbah) in various toy forms.

On a final note -- is it just me, or do the Boohbahs look like the result of an unnatural union between a Teletubby and an Overlooker (alien on Star Trek)?

Resources

Posted at 11-Jan-04 | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Comments

My 14 month old daughter can't get enough of Boohbah! She loves the show so much that she says "Bah" in the morning when she wakes up. She points to the t.v. for me to turn on. After Boohbah she doesn't really care to watch anymore. I got a little bit carried away so i bought the whole set and a light up zing zing zingbah (did I spell it right?).

Posted by: Frances at March 23, 2004 10:42 AM

*laughing* My 16 month old daughter and i watched it the first time by accident; I had never seen it before. Now we go into the den and the first thing she does is point to the tv and goes "Booo-bah hiiiiii!"

I don't think she's ever liked a tv show before!

Posted by: Eleanor at April 9, 2004 01:08 AM

My 2 1/2 year old had seen this program only twice and became a boohbah fanatic. He sat up in bed one night said boohbah and proceeded to go to the living room to watch. Needless to say there was quite a fight to get him to understand not until tommorow. I now have taped several shows for him. I also am buying him some figures. I myself like to watch them.

Posted by: Judy at April 12, 2004 03:01 PM