I apologize as my subject title is not very clear but that is the state of my mind right now! There are tons of educational DVDs available in the market, some of them are outright not-educational ( IMO–baby einstein) . These kind of DVDS seem to breeding by themselves as every time I search the net I find atleast 2 new ones.
My question is : If you could purchase only one educational DVD set other than LR software , which would you buy and why.
The reason is I would like to get some for my child but want to limit on the purchases. Thanks
I am also really choosey about what we purchase for our daughter and hands down (no pun intended)… Baby Signing Times and/or Signing Times (depending on your child’s age-- infants through toddlers, maybe even young preschoolers will better enjoy Baby Signing Times).
We have been using these DVDs to learn ASL ourselves and to teach our daughter since she was about 4 months old. About the same time we started she was able to sign for “milk” when she wanted to nurse! After a great big fall when she was around 9 months, I began to nurse my daughter to comfort her… while she nursed I discussed with my mom whether we ought to bring her to the ER (being a new mom I feared some awful neurological damage)! While we discussed what to do my baby signed that she was “happy”! What a relief!!! Obviously no serious damage done!!! It definitely helps in preventing tantrums that would occur due to lack of communication skills! One morning after my husband has left on a trip for work, my daughter woke up, pointed to his pillow and signed “Daddy”! I was able to use sign as a vehicle for understanding that my daughter really felt Daddy’s absence and I was able to share with her that I missed Daddy too but he loves us and would be home very soon!
When my daughter was about a year old she came into the kitchen and started roaring and then signed “lion”! I asked her if she was pretending to be a lion and she giggled with delight… followed up by a few more roars!
The music is enjoyable! And it provides a multi-sensory approach… you hear the word and see it written, watch a demonstration of the word, use your body to communicate the word through ASL and sing a song incorporating the word, sign and any applicable actions (i.e. “jump”).
I never feel guilty about letting my daughter watch Signing Times… and even though it holds her attention long enough for me to get a little work done… I usually find myself watching, singing and signing right along with her!!!
My daughter is now 21 months and has well over 100 signs in her vocabulary! And now that she is using words to communicate she still signs right along! An out-of-town friend of the family just recently met our daughter, she was so impressed and said “whatever you are doing, I have got to do when I have kids! she is a genius!” While I certainly took some enjoyment out of her comments, I had to be honest and say that, while my daughter is bright she is probably not a genius… she simply has the been given the tools to communicate at a very young age!
Signing Times made my dream of teaching my daughter ASL a reality! It is invaluable to my family! And it’s multi-sensory approach is sure to benefit any child’s learning style!
Good question, saniso. I know how you feel I am constantly checking out all the baby dvds out there. I think most of them fall flat.
I hope not to offend anyone, but I think Baby Einstein is basically bunk.
we checked some out from the library when my daughter was almost a year. It didn’t really seem eductional and didn’t hold my daughters interest at all. I liked the one called Baby Shakespear. It had some nice poems in it. Emma thought that one was alright too( there was a train in it). Other than that can’t say much for them. I think they are a waste of time and money.
We sign with our daughter and around the same time we checked out some Signing Time. The instant Emma heard the baby laughter at the beginning she was intrigued. She loved it . She immediately started signing “Signing Time”.
and would ask for it all the time. We limited to once in the morning and once at night on occasion.
Tornado has got it right, if you ask me. Emma is now 19 mos. and speaks and signs in conjunction. She can retell whole stories, usually annecdotes about Mommy making some kind of silly mistake, or Grandpa bonking his head, something she finds utterly hillarious.
I highly reccomend it. Try anything in the first season(m we like it best) or Baby Signing time to start.
Also, I think if I could afford it I would get Tweedlewink. I previewed one on Youtube. Emma loved it and I thought it was awesome. Maybe I’ll hot the lotto. :rolleyes:
Good luck. Be strong. Don’t believe the hype.
I definitely agree that signing time is a wonderful series. It is so awesome for your child to be able to communicate before he can speak. The really great thing (besides teaching signs) is that they also show the word so your child can learn to read some words too. My son absolutely loves ST; he signs for it every night. It has become a part of our bedtime ritual.
That being said, I would also highly recommend YBCR. If you are interested in teaching your child to read, or at least get him started with reading, this is a great way to do it. My son has learned so many words from the videos and the cards. He has also leaned about many animals and body parts.
I understand you too, we as parents want to get our money worthed , from my personal experience, depends of your kids age, for babies ill recomend baby signing time, your baby can read.
For toddlers I recomend your baby can read also and leap frog dvds…
I highly recommend YBCR. My daughter is 5 and a half months old and she loves it. I can’t really tell yet how much she has learned, but my guess is a lot because she enjoys it and it is fun for her. (I hope I’m just not a naive mom lol ) She also likes the BST video, I’m about the get the volume 2. But I think you question was releated to LR, so I’ll say YBCR.
I’m new her… but I’ve read about YBCR before. I’m contemplating on it, but the idea of exposing your child constantly to TV is a concern to me. Furthermore, the words taught on YBCR is limited. I couldn’t add more words when I like. The cards provided by YBCR are also limited. With Doman’s flash card and LR, I have better control over the words I want to expose my child to.
Constantly? It is recommended you show it twice a day. Each video is about 20 minutes long. And you are not supposed to limit yourself to those words. They actually include hundreds of words, and you are supposed to teach more using whatever method you choose.
I think it depends on your childs age. We have YBCR but did not have the best results with it. For a baby I think it might be good. If your child is a little older (1 year plus) then I second the leapfrog DVDs, they taught my son all of his letters and sounds very quickly and easitly. Now that my son is a little older and focusing on phonics we have had excellent success with Preschool Prep Meet the sight words. They are inexpensive and he learned 15 new words in one week and even was identifying hem in different contexts.
Hi saniso,
I am so happy to find this thread. You referred me as your ‘soul sister’ in one of your posts, I was so touched. IMO the age of the child matters. Some DVD’s work for some kids, while it falls flat with some. If you are trying to teach reading then I would suggest to go for YBCR. I would also suggest Leapfrog letter factory to learn the alphabets and its sounds. After your kid has mastered it, I would suggest to go for Preschool prep sight words vol 1- 3. I have and am using this with my kid and have had good results. Try what you think will suit your child. I usually show videos of programs from youtube to my kid and if he is interested I go forward with buying it. Trust your instincts. Nobody knows your child better than you do.
Gee I wish this thread was around about a month ago, I would have saved a bit of money. Never mind. I too have had great results with YBCR. My son watches it only once a day in the mornings while eating breakfast (I posted a topic not long ago to see if that was a good idea). I’m happy to report that while showing him the matching flashcards one day last week, when he was not eating, all of a sudden he grunted twice to “dog”, trumpeted with one arm to “elephant”, arms went up to “arms up”, roared to “tiger” and clapped to “clap”. I almost fainted as we’ve only been watching it for about 6-7 weeks.
Modern day Sesame Street is not great at all (and Elmo’s voice is just irritating), doesn’t hold his interest and has no educational content. I also tried an Australian starter video call My Little everyday ABC. While the claims are pretty high, it is very slow and my son is getting off the couch by “D”. It does have a CD Rom with it which might be good but Starfall.com is great and is free. It also doesn’t sound out the letters like with phonetic dvd’s so I think that is a miss.
I’ve watched a Baby Einstein dvd at a friends and thought it was rubbish. My son was also pretty disinterested.
thank you so much for all the responses, I am signing with my child but just what i read through books. Is signing time still good for a child of 20 months and does it use ASL? Also I have read some good reviews about leapfrog letter/word factory.I am going to check if my library has that. Anjie, thanks for your response too, I had rented preschool prep for colors and shapes and honestly I found it tooo boring(but its not for me…i know!) and my daughter gave me the usual, “is that all you can do” kind of look. Also showing the you-tube idea is great just to check out things.
but i would love to see how the “meet the sight words” turns out to be.
meanwhile I had some good results with just a few weeks of YBCR and will see if I can find a good deal at Amazon. Thanks again for all your support!
Brainy Baby videos are very nice. They definitely teach something. There is lots of talking. You might find them at the library, I did. I have viewed a few and found them to be very nice.
Baby Einstein DVD’s are beautifully done, in my opinion. The music is great. Unfortunately, they only provide visual stimulation, since they say hardly anything. They are very passive and babies are only entertained while watching them. It is too bad they don’t learn anything from them.
Baby Signing Times begins at infancy and goes through toddlerhood. Signing Times is for children ages 1-8. Often libraries carry Signing Times. I would rent both versions and see which appeals more to your child. Both BST and ST use ASL. It is also helpful because they show an adult, Racheal, introducing the sign and then they show babies and children signing. This is great because you see the different ways children can sign-- they often “mis-pronounce” a sign, just like they do when first learning to speak. You can learn more at www.signingtimes.com.
I am posting a few product reviews soon, so you might want to read them. I like signing time…I dont think you need to have the whole set to start off with, so buy a few and buy something else that focuses on written words to get started. I think YBCR is a good buy to start with. Save money by doing your own flashcards. And buy through Amazon where you can to save on postage when you look to expand your range. I think babies get bored and then get interested at different times, so dont put your eggs in one basket. Have a bit of a variety.
We now have Little Reader and Little Math and use those a lot.
When I was pregnant with my daughter we started purchasing the Little Einstien dvd’s. My daughter likes them but I have stopped showing her them since I realized they aren’t really teaching anything. It’s unfortunate too because we own about 20! :ohmy:
We own several signing time video’s and HIGHLY recommend them to everyone! My daughter can not get enough and for that matter neither can my 10yr old son. The video’s are clear, easy to learn from and fun. My daughter asks for more signing time all the time.
We also have Your Baby Can Read and Preschool Prep meet the Sight Words.
We started with YBCR and she likes it but it doesn’t seem to hold her interest long.
We just received Preschool Prep as a trial from a friend and my daughter loves them. It funny because they repeat the word about 20 times beofre they go on to the next one but she sits still and has begun repeating and reading the words already.
We are still using YBCR though and she practises the words outside the video with flashcards and LR.
hi my baby is 22 months old and she is still signing and also she is learning to say some words in english. We don’t speak to her in english only in spanish and french and when she says a new word is always in english. I think the videos of signing time help her a lot not only to learn the signs but also how to say it in english.
