Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19078 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Just what I've been looking for!!
We've had this DVD for 6 months and it is still my little one's favorite. We have been living in the US for quite some time and since my baby was born I have been searching for a product just like this! Cuéntame un cuento has it all: beautiful catchy songs, native speakers, lovely short stories, plenty of new vocabulary (numbers 1 to 20, days of the week, fruits, clothing...)

In fact, Cuéntame un cuento seamlessly combines real Latin-American lullabies and songs with interesting and fun stories that my 18-month-old baby loves. It is really nice to see him interested in this DVD, it gives us plenty of ways to speak and have fun in our native Spanish language.

A small treasure!!
After many recommendations, on a trip to Mexico I bought the whole collection of DVDs by A LA VIBORA DE LA MAR for my grandaughter, as a means to encourage her Spanish...

What a wonderful gift it turned out to be!! The featured songs and poetry transported me back in time to my childhood in Mexico, and have certainly brought back many wonderful memories... As for my grandaughter (who is now 18 months old), she has been enjoying these DVDS for ten months now, and they are still her very favorite ones. She sings and dances to the beautiful songs... and is always walking from room to room whith the boxes of her DVDs under her arm.

We are all delighted to hear her sing the nusrey rhymes and try to say the poems and stories that form part of our Hispanic heritage. This is truly a small treasure.

A must-have DVD for babies under 3!
First all all, I have to say that I write a column reviewing DVDs and CDs for babies and kids in a small monthly publication. As you can imagine: I've seen them all!

The A la Vibora de la Mar series truly stands apart in every sense: the beautiful images, the soothing music, the catchy songs, the engaging sound effects, the poems and rhymes... every little detail in these videos reveals a high quality production (this, sadly, can not be said for many DVDs in this category). They also expose a deep understanding of how babies learn.

I decided to write this review (my first one for Amazon) only because I am convinced that there should be at least one of the A la Víbora de la Mar titles in every household with babies under 3! (My enthusiasm comes not only from my research, but also from using this series with my own child).

Fortunately for babies, these DVDs do not intend to constitute a traditional foreign language program. (Do not expect the "pollito-chicken" structure or the tedious repetition of words and phrases...) And this is just great! Babies do not need language courses!! At this age, their brain is biologically prepared to grasp language NATURALLY... Anything else, may actually become more of a hindrance in his language-acquisition process. The best way to teach your baby a foreign language (whether you speak it, or not) is to expose her constantly to the SOUNDS of that language as early as possible, hopefully before they are 3 (optimal: before they turn 1!).

I can not emphasize strongly enough how important this is. It actually constitutes the "trick" in language learning. Vocabulary and grammar can be grasped at any age: there is not a big time-constraint for this: as adults, we continue to learn new words and we can easily learn or correct a grammatical structure... This is not the case with SOUNDS. If we were not exposed constantly, as infants, to the sounds of a foreign language, we may never be able to reproduce them (or even "hear" them... thus our impediment to reproduce those sound).

So it doesn't matter if you as a parent do not understand what is being said (babies who watch a DVD at an early age, do not understand what is being said in their own language either... it just doesn't matter). What matters is that the complete inventory of Spanish sounds is presented throughout the 123 CUÉNTAME UN CUENTO DVD, embedded in song and rhyme, not in isolated words and phrases, which, alone, do not help much during this stage. Furthermore, the sounds of Spanish in this whole series are presented in the type of speech to which infants respond best: melodic, soothing, rhythmic, using "parenthese" strategies, and just a tiny bit high pitched... The DVD makes use of repetition as a learning tool, but in a nice pleasant way that is never boring.

Another plus: it is entirely in Spanish. This is completely desirable in foreign language videos for this age range (babies 0-3). Needless to say, only native speakers are involved.

Also from this series:Los Colores de Rufino and Do Re Mi Nino