This month, Global Wonders introduces an educational DVD series that encourages children to share, compare and discover the cultures of their family, friends and the world. Designed for children ages two to seven years, the DVDs engage children with stories of fun-filled play dates where everyday activities are transformed into moments of wonder and discovery. The characters as they sample food, play games, learn vocabulary words and experience a variety of cultural holidays, music and traditions.

Global Wonders was created by Rashmi Turner, a working mother and former executive at The Walt Disney Company who previously led educational productions, product development for media lines of businesses, marketing, and communications, for The Baby Einstein Company.

Learning about world cultures

With Global Wonders, children can gain a more enlightened view of the world around them. It’s also a great way to start a dialogue about different cultures if your children are the type who ask embarrassing questions like, “Why does that lady have a red dot on her head?” or “Why do those people have dark skin and talk funny?”

My children know people from India, France, Sweden, Mexico, China, Taiwan and Napal. We enjoy shopping at Asian markets and Mexican carnicerias, and frequently dine out at restaurants that serve Vietnamese pho, Chinese dim sum, Pad Thai, Japanese sushi and Baja Mexican seafood dishes.  So learning about other cultures isn’t new to our children at all though as parents, we do get our fair share of embarrassing questions.

The Global Wonders series

Coming to Target, Toys “R” Us and Amazon on October 21, 2008, the first series of DVDs include:

• Global Wonders: Around The World
• Global Wonders: India
• Global Wonders: Mexico
• Global Wonders: African-American

Recently, the children and I watched a sample of the Global Wonders series. Nathan, being eight-years-old, didn’t care for the video. Basically, he’s too old for it. These are much better videos for the preschool, pre-K and kindergarten crowd like five-year-old Lucie who enjoyed the program immensely. She sang along with the music and repeated the foreign words and phrases when prompted.

I enjoyed the animation. It’s similar to Disney’s Little Einsteins, which isn’t a surprise since Ed Wexler is the animation director, character designer, and art director. He’s an Emmy-nominated, 20-year veteran of Walt Disney Animation and worked on Little Einsteins. (Click here to learn more about the Global Wonders Creative Team.)

I also liked how they approached world culture. The Global Wonders series puts an emphasis on what cultures share rather than differences – everyone celebrates birthdays, children like to play sports, and we all enjoy music.

I appreciated that they showed grandparents and an African-American dad who is a college professor, too. Other positive role models include families who spend time together and children who like to learn, sing, be outside, and play sports.

Lucie and I give Global Wonders a thumbs up.

Take a Global Wonders moment

Here’s a sample from Global Wonders: Mexico about Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead:

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