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Video's and DVD's for educating both yourself, and your infant
Brightening Minds - Birth to Two Years
My husband and I love this DVD. While there are many MANY books out there on playing, entertaining, educating, etc. your baby - who has time to read them when you actually have a baby!!! And if you are one of those super-dedicated parents who does read the books, do you actually remember what you read in them? This DVD makes it nice and simple. It concentrates on several critical areas of a baby's development, summarizes it for you in a logical way, gives you fun games to play with your child and explains how those games help your baby's development. The DVD is very well organized -- it's divided into age groups so you can listen to the part that is appropriate to your child's age. (Thank goodness, because as a new mommy, I only have capacity to remember a few pieces of new information each day.) The DVD format is also very convenient - it allows both parents to learn the information together if they want. This DVD has become my new favorite gift to give at baby showers.
Brainy Baby - Right Brain (2000) (For ages 6 to 36 months.) While there are many tapes designed to stimulate a baby's mind, Brainy Baby is unique in addressing left and right brain functions in distinct programs. Called "whole brain thinking," the theory is that if children are stimulated to use both sides of the brain--preparing them to think logically and creatively--they will become more adept at learning and problem solving. Capitalizing on this research, the folks at Small Fry Productions (makers of Bilingual Baby) have produced a two-volume set to develop the whole brain. Volume one helps stimulate the right brain, which research shows is the center for creativity, intuition, and imagination. To engage such processes, the program uses imagery (such as ink blots and clouds transforming into familiar objects), color recognition (by way of deliciously gooey paint), and patterns (from nesting shapes to 3-D objects). Unlike the So Smart! approach, there is enthusiastic narration during the 32-minute program and more variation between segments. Employing the so-called Mozart effect, the program utilizes classical music (believed to enhance a child's spatial intelligence) from impressionist era composers Debussy, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. Whether or not a parent is interested in the push to "develop a child's creative side for a smarter baby" (as the film's literature espouses), there is another compelling reason to consider the Brainy Baby series: pure enjoyment. Parents will get a kick out of watching their toddlers respond to the visual feast before them. And the accompanying classical melodies make it palatable for parents too. --Lynn Gibson
Brainy Baby - Left Brain (2000) (For ages 6 to 36 months.)
As a member of a local pre-school association as well as a clinical
psychologist and mother of two young boys, my friends and colleagues and I
have found all the Brainy Baby DVD's to be wonderful tools to use with our
children. And, they make great gifts for friends with new babies and for
children's birthdays.
I brought this video at the point when my
son knew what a letter was, but could not distinguish one letter from
another. He loves the video and he will repeat the information as he goes
through the video. We have owned it for about a month and he knows about
half of his letters. The video starts off by singing the alphabet and the
letters are shown through a puzzle. Then the alphabet is said and show just
as letters on the screen. Next they go through the alphabet. "Big A. Little
A. A has two sounds. A a a Apple, a a a ape, a a a acorn.", etc. They go
through about 5 letters, and then they repeat the letters through a test.
"Do you know what sound the letter A makes?" "I know a a a ape and a a a
acorn." Finally, they sing a song about the alphabet and different objects
to help remember the letter sounds.
I am a bilingual Spanish (Cuban)/English speaker. It is very important to me that I teach my son Spanish. I bought this video to reinforce my teachings. I am very pleased with all that it covers. It reviews the numbers 1-10, colors, common nouns, some parts of the body, Mommy, Daddy, common verbs, hello, goodbye, yes, no, and how to say please and I love you. It does some reviews with questions and answers for things like, "How many books are there? There is one book.", or "What color is the snowman? The snowman is white." (obviously in Spanish). The words for all of these are displayed in Spanish on the screen in large print and in English in small print. There is a lot of repetition to reinforce the lessons. They missed some obvious things, like how to say thanks you and some parts of the body (like arms), but I guess you can't get everything in. They also use a couple of words that are different from my dialect, but there are so many dialects, I can't see how they can avoid it. They also sing Mary had a Little Lamb in Spanish (no words are shown onscreen while doing this, which would have been nice). But, overall, a very good DVD and worth purchasing. Find out more about this title
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Excellent
resource!, August 20, 2003 
