Even though I was 16 when Reading Rainbow premiered on PBS on June 6th, 1983 (probably the first Monday after school got out!), I was definitely aware of the show even then. I was sad when it stopped airing last summer, but exec producer LeVar Burton tweeted that “Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in the works”, so hopefully Kaitlyn will get a chance to watch it some day soon!

For those of you who didn’t watch it, Reading Rainbow was a unique form of educational media because each episode focused the themes of a classic children’s book and then explored those themes both by having host LeVar Burton read the book as well as showing live segments related to the theme. It’s the third-longest running children’s series in PBS history history, after Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street!

Share the magic of Reading Rainbow with your kids by purchasing episodes on DVD from a site like shopreadingrainbow.com. They also have free teacher’s guides and links to resources that help introduce the concepts to students, then guide them to explore the concepts through learning activities. They have over 153 episodes on DVD to help with language arts, math, and science, all are closed-captioned and about 30 minutes long. They aren’t cheap though; MSRP is $29.99 and shopreadingrainbow.com’s price is $25.45.  BUT, shipping is FREE, and you are paying for a piece of American television history, which is totally worth it!

Share with me in a comment – did you watch Reading Rainbow or did your kids? Any memories of it in particular you’d like to share? Comment away!