Over Christmas vacation, the first grader got to watch more TV then she has since July. We typically limit her TV consumption, and while she continues to like her old standbys like Sesame Street and Toot and Puddle, we are always on the look out for new cartoons.
One of our new favorites is on Qubo Channel and is called The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog. Each 30-minute show is broken into two 15-minute episodes. Alfred and his friends, Camille the wallaby and Milo the skunk, uncover a mystery in nature and then proceed to solve it by discovering clues, researching, and problem solving. Alfred also uses a hand held device called a Detectaberry which can record pictures, video, sounds, and can take fingerprints. Once the mystery is solved, it is explained to the viewers.
The episode we watched most recently had the crew playing outside as a storm came in. Milo was pretending to do magic when all of the sudden, there was a glowing light that moved across the field and then vanished. The kids, er, anthropomorphic animals, looked for clues to discover what the light could have been. After some research, they came to the conclusion that Milo was not a magician after all and that it had been ball lightening. In another episode, Camille and another character end up with blue hair. After much sleuthing, they discover that Woad leaves have blown into the town's water supply.
Why I like this show: it encourages my child to think and the mysteries often involve things in the natural world. She will often come up with her own theory as to what has happened. Then as the story progresses and she is given more clues, she revises her theory. When she figures one out on her own she is so proud. The ones she doesn't figure out, like the ball lightening, are teaching moments. The female character, Camille, is smart, curious, well read, and has a fantastic imagination. I also appreciate when they stump me and I learn something too.
