Customer Reviews

Bumblebee Kids Vocabulary Builder 1

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This video is simply fabulous - but inappropriately marketed. This is a first class infant stimulation video in the same class as the best of the Baby Einstein Companies products. My toddler- now 1 year old LOVES this video. The main value is not vocabulary - I would think that most toddlers would learn all the words presented between 18 mos. and 2 years old, anyway. By watching this video, infants & toddlers learn to associate the 'real thing' with other representations of the object (like kids playing with or using the object, and toy-versions of the object). There is a language skills benefit that the infant / toddler learns to associate the word spelled out on the screen with various representations of the object with the spoken word. Besides all of this, it is highly engaging for a number of reasons.

Like many similar (infant stimulation / development) products, the sound track is classical music, mostly Mozart. The voice on the tape is a woman's, and she says a word (like train, teddy bear, ball, dog, nose, etc.) in a non-monotonous way (this is a big problem with other videos of this type). Then we see a series of shots of kids of all ages using or interacting with the object, a live-action video shot of the object, a still-shot of the object, and a toy-versions of the object. Some of the greatest features of this video are that it includes animals like dogs & cows that my daughter - like most toddlers - loves to watch. Also, it is well known that infants / toddlers like to see faces, especially other babies. There are numerous shots of kids of all ethnic backgrounds and ages - shot in very engaging ways including close-ups, and doing things (like bouncing a ball - for "ball," or eating with a spoon - for "spoon"). The production quality of this video is superb, and you don't get the sense that the producers cut corners by inserting cheap computer-generated animation (which I have found are not good at keeping babies' attention).

We have a rather complete library of infant stimulation / development videos, including all of the 'So Smart' Series, Baby Einstein Company's videos, the BabyScape videos, and a Baby Genius' video - all of which I have reviewed on this site. I consider this video, "Bee Smart Baby," and Baby Einstein Company's "Baby Van Gogh" - the 'best of its class.'

Just bought for my 18 month son...The dvd is not great but not horrible either, my son seems to loose his interest (compared to Sesame Street...Who wouldn't? Ha!), but keeps his interest with the baby einstein ones(we have all of them)they use alot of puppets were this cd uses Real life objects with an occasional puppet reinacting the words. This dvd is clear and repetative which I like...Example: Jump (shows children,animals jumping)Eat (shows babys eatting etc.) then it goes back and recaps all the diffrent action words. He laughs when they get to the word "tickle". They repeat alot of the words which other tapes do not (Einstein,So smart) which in my opion is good to reinforce.
My son needs the repetition, My son also has a slight language delay so that is why I bought this tape. The einstein tapes he has been watching since he was about a month old and they did not help my sons language even with me interacting with the videos, although he enjoyed them, I used to rave about the Einstein videos to every mother,bought them for my friends kids and then I found these other dvd's. I would highly recommend taking a look at the "Baby Babble" cd by talking child. That is a excellent tape done by 2 speech pathologists. That video he likes and it keeps his attention.
To sum this up....I would say this ranks 2nd compairing to all other language tapes that are on the market, Baby babble being ranked #1.

My son is diagnosed with autism and did not begin to use functional language until he was two and a half years old. We tried everything to get him to speak more and to speak clearly. Then my mother-in-law found Bee Smart Baby. Although it's targeted for younger children, it was perfect for my son. The objects used to build vocabulary are those that my son was familiar with and enjoyed learning about--trains, cars, planes, body parts. Within a few days of watching the video he could say every word on it! We realized then how much our son was a visual learner and we'd recommend this video to any parents who have a child with language delays. Now, just a few months later, our son's vocabulary is over 100 words and growing every day. Thank you, Bee Smart Baby! Looking forward to your new volumes!

My son loves these dvd's. I was suprised to see that some thought so badly of it. We have some of the baby einstein's and my son likes them as well, but with the baby bumblebee series he repeats everything that is said. It has really taught him so much. The einstein series he seemed to just laugh at and not so much learn from. Im sure he did learn, however with the bumblebee series, he sits with his crayons and colors and watches the dvd and repeats what is being said. Background info is my child is not considered speech delayed (tested) but a bit of a slow talker (2 1/2). These dvd's have helped a lot. Since some reviews have been not so good, I would suggest trying to rent these somewhere (if possible) since the price is kind of high.

My son, 21 months old, LOVES these videos! He has really picked up a lot of words from them and amazes me each and every day. He calls them the "buzz" videos and is always asking me to play one. He'll refer to something by name, shocking me, and then I realize it was a word from the tape. These tapes are well worth the money and keep your child's interest. At 21 months my son likes volumes 1-3 of this series, but volumes 4&5 are a little advanced for him (three syllable words).

My 20 month old son is speech delayed and I bought this DVD based on all the positive reviews I've seen. Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought it was horrible. First of all, it barely held my son's attention. But the worst part was that I absolutely cannot stand the music! I could barely make it through watching it even the first time. Same thing with volume 2.
We bought the Baby Babble DVD about 6 weeks ago, and I think it is much better than these Bumblebee DVD's. My son can watch Baby Babble over and over and over again.

I purchased this video and all the tapes in the series, including Math and action words for our 2 year old son who was not very verbal. These tapes are absolutely incredible. I wish I had found out about them when he was younger. I bought them for our son on the advice of a teacher. Well, I must say that after watching the first tape only 2 times, our son was repeating ALL the words. Now at 2 1/2 he has all the tapes MASTERED, including the action words (verbs) and now is working on the Math. Honestly, I wish they would make more tapes to help children put words together, which he is finally doing. If your child has a speach delay, or not, these tapes are so great. I would watch the tape with him first and talked about what he saw and then he would watch it alone and act out the tapes. If a giraffe came on he would go and get his toy giraffe and say the "giraffe" etc. He even saw a bone on a store window and remembered it from the tape and said "bone". What I like is that they show the actual word, like a real giraffe, and then toy ones also. Very well made tapes. Our son is speaking up to par now and I know these tapes are to thank. I love them and am so thankful for them. Don't even hesitate, they work.

my son jacob barely had a 2-5 word vocabulary at the age of 20 months. my pediatrician and i (a RN) were both concerned. he did not use nonverbal communication either. we were beginning to think he was mildly autistic because of his noverbal, and limited comfort w/ socializing w/ others. after watching this video, he could identify body parts when asked to point to them, and was able to say eye, nose, mouth, ears!!! my pediatrician and i are estatic to say the least, and i have now ordered the complete 13 disc set. my four yr old son, dennis, also enjoys the video which i found surprising. he has no delays of any kind, and still enjoys the videos, even if they are a bit simplistic for my 4 yr olds developmental level. i highly recommend this to other mothers concerned about their child's speech delays.

My daughter (now 15 months) has been on a fairly steady diet of Baby Einstein videos (1 per day) since she was 10 months old. I was looking for a series of videos that would capture her attention in the same way, and, based on reviews, opted to get this series. I have to say that she interacts much differently to this set of videos. In the Einstein series, she will clap, laugh, point and sometime imitate the actions she sees. I haven't seen her do much imitation, but she nonetheless will sit and watch these videos. At first, she would only pay attention for about 10 or 15 minutes, but she will now sit, watch and interact for the entire 30 minutes. I think this is because of the way the video is formatted. For one, the word (usually 23 or 24 per video) is written and spoken over a variety of images of that object. For the word 'train', for example, you will see a real train, toy trains and children playing with trains. This seems to be captivating to her, she will point to all the images and try (sometimes) to sound out the word of any object she knows. In this regard, I think this video is good for helping toddlers make the connection between a written and spoken word and an object, as well as different categories of that object. I think the other reason she is generally quieter during these videos is that the musical score is more background, and doesn't accent the video segments as for example, in the Baby Einstein series. For this reason, I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars.

When our daughter was under a year old, we used to swear by Baby Mozart and anything in the Baby Einstein series. However, since she turned 13 months, we have found the Bee Smart Baby series to be the *best* investment. Our daughter (now 18 mos.) enjoys watching these videos and as she gradually learns the words, she excitedly names the objects when they appear on the screen. We read to her on a daily basis, but these videos have definitely increased her vocabulary tenfold. As a bonus, the videos have a soothing quality for adults- classical music and friendly/smooth voice describing the visuals. Highly recommended!