Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #927 in DVD
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 10

Customer Reviews

Disappointed..wish it lived up to online demo
Wow, I'm disappointed. I really should have known better.
I've been working in the field of early childhood for over a decade. Most of my graduate-level work focused on infant and toddler development. Why wouldn't someone like me know that flashcards and monotonous repetition are unhealthy and boring for toddlers and total unproductive? Because, like most parents I was wooed by the thought of super-babies.
You see I have 2 year old twins and every time I saw those darned infomercials I thought "if they can do it.., well shucks, so can I".
I tried that online demo and my boys just loved it. They picked up on it the very first time they tried it. I was so excited I bought the whole kit for them for Christmas.
Well, what arrived was a boring video that my boys were expected to watch 2x a day (added to a daily regimen of flashcards and a book featuring the same 10 or so words) that went something like this:
TIGER. This is a tiger.
Mouth. Can you touch your mouth?
BABY. Are you a baby?
At one point during the first screening I heard my boys having the following conversation, "Tiger? We just did tiger."
"We have to do it again."
"Oh, man!"
They had that exact conversation each time they watched the DVD. As repetition seemed a theme they wanted to contribute.
We were all bored. And irritated.
The boys wanted nothing to do with the flashcards or their book. They like plots and they're way beyond, "Baby Lauren is waving!" They love the Leapfrog videos and know all of their letters and letter sounds. I'd rather develop their word attack skills with that series than use this sight word approach. Today I mail back "box-o-genius" and look for some of those cool word puzzles.
For those of you who are chronic optimists, I can see how this program MIGHT work with babies ages 9 months to 24 months, but the videos need to have several versions which change the way they present the words. The same pictures, silly costumes children make learning time more like baby torture. How about reading to your child and pointing out the words instead of propping them up in front of the TV? As much as children enjoy reading the same books over and over this is sure to have the same effect with the added bonus of parent-child interaction.

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT buy this for a child over the age of 2 1/2. And, as a former Kindergarten teacher who has taught children to read, don't waste your time buying this for a kindergartener. The Leapfrog videos, games and toys are way better.

BEWARE
This product will teach a child to MEMORIZE WHOLE WORD SHAPES, not individual phonetic letters and sounds. The ability to "read" will depend on how many words the child has MEMORIZED. This will not teach a child to spell or to sound a word out which is the most effective way to teach a child to read. If a child knows the alphabet SOUND he/she can spell out and read ANY word. As an Occupational Therapist I'm not surprized that so many children today cannot properly spell or read. Programs like this is the cause. There are MANY MANY FREE WEBSITES online (like Starfall) that will lay the PROPER GROUNDWORK FOR READING and SPELLING.

great product so far
i ordered this about one month ago and my daughter has been watching it for the past month. So far she has learned where her mouth, eyes, toes and arms are, arms up and down ... which i'm super excited about is whenever i ask her and she shows me where they are. I cant believe this actually works so far and btw my daughter just turned 1 and she's really starting to communicate more with her words now. I can say my daughter is a very active child, she's always moving around but when its time for the video she sits so still and anticipates. I think this video is pretty great so far but she did get a little bored towards the end of the month of watching the first video. She would walk away and look at the screen and repeat, i wasnt sure why she did that but as we started the second video last friday, again she was glued to the screen and didnt move an inch. She especially loves it when i get physical along with the video, like when the video says crawl, i get down on the floor and crawl, she cracks up. SO we'll see how far along she progresses at the end of the second video. There are 5 videos total. Also, i love the sliding word cards.. Its a card with a word on it and when you slide the card open, there's a picture of something that goes along with the word. Thats a must have for me.