Consider this five-part series an alternative to homework if the kids are balking at doing their own. Canada's Super Speller (Monday through Friday, 8 p.m., CBC) features a smart bunch of cute kids representing all parts of the country, although this home-grown spelling bee doesn't quite have the flash or professionalism of the better-known U.S. bee, Scripps National. Instead, it's pretty goofy with the 12 preteen contestants forced to talk to a giant computerized head that acts as a co-host with CBC News anchor Evan Solomon. The head - the self-described duke of the dictionary, Jared Alpha Omega - spouts more spelling puns than should be legally allowed in a one-hour show. The kids must work their way through increasingly difficult words in some interesting ways as the week progresses - spelling against a 40-second clock, for instance, or unscrambling words and then spelling them correctly. Filmed at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., this week's episodes represent the national finals, whittling 12 contestants down to one champion: Canada's super speller. They're competing for bragging rights, a $20,000 RESP grant and a new laptop.
Catherine Dawson March
Also airing
Make the Politician Work (Sunday, 10:25 p.m., CBC): In this 25-minute special, Defence Minister Peter McKay goes back to school, too - military boot camp. It's a great bit of schadenfreude, watching Private McKay get his head shaved and learn to respect the iron rule and sharp tongue of his sergeant at base camp in Petawawa, Ont. It's priceless, really, even if McKay only spent two days in training. Still, it's not often you'll get to hear someone tearing a strip off a government minister when he has to stand there and take it.