Martha Speaks Goes to Washington for President’s Day

Have you heard of the kids show Martha Speaks?

It’s an incredibly cute show from PBS Kids aimed at 4 -7 year-olds, about a dog named Martha who one day eats a bowl of alphabet soup which suddenly gives her the ability to talk. I love the show because one of it’s primary goals is teach the meaning of up to 20 new words per episode. Kora and Logan love the show because Martha and her friends are very adventurous and often find themselves in silly situations.

We recently received and watched the DVD screener for Martha in the White House. Kora and Logan loved it and, once again, I was impressed by the vocabulary words sprinkled throughout the characters’ dialogue. Martha in the White House is a special-two part episode in which the new President of the United States is looking for a dog to come live in the White House. If you’ve seen the show before, you already know Martha is going to recommend a few of her own friends. The adventure doesn’t end there, however. One of the President’s aides phones Martha after hearing she can speak and asks her to report to the White House immediately.

I won’t give away the entire show, but will let you know it is very cute, appropriate for it’s President’s Day release, complete with new vocabulary words centering around the government, and it also teaches viewers a bit about pet adoption and animal advocacy. You can view clips of the show here and here.

The show will be airing on President’s Day, Monday, February 15th. In Cleveland, you can watch it on WVIZ  at 7:30 am and 2:30 pm. All others be sure to check your local listings for exact times.

Along with the DVD of the episode, we also received a Martha Speaks tv tie-in book. Our book is titled Shelter Dog Blues and Kora and Logan like it so much they have been taking turns sleeping with it. It’s a very thick book, almost 100 pages long which is right up 4-year-old Kora’s alley. She loves to flip through big books and enjoys pretending to read the words. Logan is a bit young yet, but he does like looking at the pictures.

In case you were curious, Martha is based on a real dog. According to the press release I received, “Susan Meddaugh was a young children’s book illustrator when a neighbor named Martha found a stray and asked Meddaugh if she could give the dog a proper home. The dog was named Martha as a tribute. Shortly after Martha’s arrival, Meddaugh was feeding her young son alphabet soup. He wondered what happen if Martha ate the soup. Would she speak? A perfectly simple questions from a seven-year-old got the author/illustrator thinking“ and Martha Speaks was born. 

For it’s humor, creativity, and goal to improve our children’s vocabulary, Kora, Logan, and I give Martha Speaks:

A Big Thumbs Up!

Thanks to WVIZ/PBS for providing the dvd screener, book, and information for this post. No compensation was provided for this post. The opinions are mine, yours may differ.