7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Alphabet teaching tool I've found!, September 30, 2004
This review is from: Baby's First Impressions: Letters (DVD)
This is one of the few videos I will let my kids watch! It does an excellent job of teaching. It teaches both the subject matter and object recognition/vocabulary using real photography.
Drawings in animated videos can be hard for inexperienced little ones to recognize--plus my 2-year-old daughter is frightened by animation! So Baby's 1st Impressions' real videography is far better.
My children love the bright colors, fun movements, good music, and cheerful children. The videos are pleasing to an adult's eyes and ears, too.
Most of all, kids love the learning! I've never seen age-appropriate material presented in such a simple, uncluttered, unconfusing video. My daughter has learned a lot from these videos very quickly!
I really like how they say and show the initial letter, then say and show the object, putting the rest of the printed word onscreen, as well. Even though they're only teaching letters, not reading, it's nice to subtly include the big picture, too.
I do wish they would do an additional video with lower-case letters, though. This one teaches only capitals.
Best of all, everything in this series is 100% moral and positive. No one is dressed immodestly. No one is fighting or crying. There are no simply no negative lessons hidden in it to create problems where none had existed before.
The target audience (toddlers and preschoolers) should not feel pressured to learn academics yet; they should all still think of learning as a game. But so many kids' videos and books show a character very frustrated and discouraged while trying to learn new things. Even if the other characters are trying to help the learner have fun and understand, by showing initial agony, the videos leave the impression that learning is difficult and painful. That's not so bad if your child is already struggling, but if he's enthusiastic and untroubled, why spoil it? Babies' 1st Impressions shows kids at all stages of learning just enjoying the process.
(The same thing goes for media which supposedly teach how to overcome fear, or rudeness, or selfishness. It's great for parents to creatively help a child who's already afraid of the dark. But introducing masses of unafraid children to the idea of imaginary monsters just may create new problems! Kids come up with enough challenges on their own without adults introducing everyone else's. Baby's 1st Impressions doesn't introduce ANY negative scenarios.)
I just wish Baby's 1st Impressions would expand and do the same thing with more complex material marketed to older kids. Anything needing memorization would work with the same approach. Cities, states, presidents, the periodic table of elements, anatomy, phonics, math facts-all done in a fun, repetitive, positive manner. Wouldn't that be great?
I highly recommend Baby's 1st Impressions: Letters. You won't regret it!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent video for babies and toddlers, August 29, 2005
This review is from: Baby's First Impressions: Letters (DVD)
My twin sons have had this video since this they were about 6 months old. Now, at 23 months, they recognize every letter of the alpahabet and are well on their way to reciting the alphabet. They also know which letters certain words begin with, such as "A" for Apple and "O" for Owl. Besides being educational, this video is also entertaining. They love the music and love the live action. While allowing children to watch television and videos is a highly controversial topic at the moment, I have never hesitated to show them any video in the First Impressions Line. They also have Numbers, Colors and Shapes, and have learned an amazing amount from each one of them.
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