Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knows of an educational dvd to teach the alphabet and counting. My daughter can say the alphabet and count to 20, but is not too good at recognising the actual letters and numbers yet. I play games with letters and numbers but was wondering if there is another method that may be helpful.
Many thanks!
The Leapfrog series are quite popular. Many people feedback their babies learn ABC from just watching the 20mins video.
My DD don’t like it though. One particular character scared her. But this may be just her.
Preschool Prep
Meet the Letters
Meet the Numbers
You can buy the Brainy Baby that consists of about 15DVD( not sure how many DVD it has), two of it is teaching ABC and 123. It has good illustrations and songs somemore.
Preschool Prep all the way! Since your child is a toddler, even if they don’t seem “into it” just leave it on in the background while they are playing. The flashcards & books are amazing too, I have and recommend the whole set!
Thank you for mentioning TmT :yes: I was wondering about these series myself. I do not have them yet ( am about to get them!), but was a bit hesitant wondering if it is too much animation vs education, if you recommend them I would definitely try them for my DS. Karma to you for recommendation!
Yes, and my daughter likes LF Math Circus, she got into putting blocks into the number groups after watching that video!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animal-Alphabet-Numbers-DVD/dp/B00005J6UB This is my girl’s FAVORITE dvd for letters.
Wonderful catchy melodies with songs and National Geographic video footage about animals for each letter of Alphabet. For some reason, it worked the best for her. It is good quality and has no animation, just documentary type footage of the animals ( which is what we were specifically looking for). We wished it had also name of the animals written on the screen when they show them, but they just have the letters for learning alphabet. But I created flashcards with the names of the animals and showed them along with video. These are her favorite flashcards to read! She always asked for them with and without the video!
Hope you like it too!
I wish I can get their DVD for animal numbers, but was not able to find it in the States…
Skylark-
It’s so funny, I had never really considered the idea of too much animation! My sister gets on my case a bit thinks I’m strict (and cheap 
) for not allowing my kids any broadcast TV. Now, I’ve been outdone LOL.
I tend to find the animations on PP and My Montessori House are very simple and less overwhelming for a small child then typical kids cartoons, even leapfrog. I would use PP far sooner than I would LF with your DS’s age if it was my child, I worry about the business at that age. And there’s no real plot to speak of that the child must follow along. The only words spoken on the DVD are the names of the letters on MTL If you reinforce with their matching flashcards, he’d probably solidly learn his ABCs/letters in a few months to under 2 months I would guess. 80% of the kids in their study learned them in under 2 months.
I also like that they have Spanish play options on their colors/shapes/numbers/letters videos. The sight words DVDs are great as well for learning about 50 sight words, and now the kids can move on from the alphabet to letter sounds/phonics with continuity using their Meet the Phonics DVD’s they just released. Yes, they are are animated no doubt. But done in a simple, straight forward way IMO, and the learning totally outweighs it. They flip the letters upside down, the kids can recognize them from any direction, big, small, upper and lowercase. My kids never struggled with d & b or p & q for example, and I wonder if these videos helped because it just ingrained it all so well.
TmT,
Nice, I was already considering these, but wanted a review from someone with similar educational standard as I 
As I simply did not have a chance to go through the DVDs and see for my self ( I preview all my Russian viewing materials, but rely on BK forum parents for good recommendations for English, Spanish, Chinese).
It is not that I am opposed to cartoon presentation per se, but I am trying to not introduce too much “busy busy” viewing to them for as long as I can help that. Some edutament is just more entertainment then education these days, that wht I actually heard about some of the LF videos. I only used their Math Circus and Alphabet one with DD, but not with DS.
Thank you for your review, I always looking for good recommendations!!!
As far a broadcast TV, we do not have it in our house as well :yes: I just see a huge difference in learning abilities and concentration between children who always have TV going in background and those who only view selected programs occasionally, there is also more structure and rhyme and reason to it overall, and that in itself helps kids. So I am with you on that :yes: My parents were like that with me, so we are sticking to this rule too 
I think it worth in a long run…
I am very very picky about TV. My son had no TV until he was 18months then I introduced him to baby signing time to help with a speech delay. He learnt a lot more signs from that then what I had been teaching him for well over a year.
I have recently been reviewing the Preschool Prep series and they are very very good. Like TMT said, the only words spoken are the names of the colors, shapes, letters et al relevant to the DVD. The way that they word are said over and over again constantly reinforces.
My son learned letters from watching ABC videos with me on youtube, it was free too
We got my son the preschool prep, leapfrog series and various other dvds but he loves the personalized alphabet dvd we got from http://www.thatsmeontv.com/store/
I wish they had one for numbers
Also if you have an iphone or ipad there are soooo many free apps