Customer Reviews

Farm Country Ahead [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Farm Country Ahead" is by far, Fred Levine's best work. My son (almost 3) watched it many, many times and has learned a lot of vocabulary and information describing where common types of food come from. The video describes different pieces of farm equipment (combine harvesters, forage harvesters, cow milking equipment, etc). Much of the video is devoted to the growing and production of everyday food items such as peanut butter, jelly, potato chips, milk, etc. It goes in to detail with respect to how dairy cows are fed and milk production. The little one aptly nicknamed this movie "the cow poop movie" as it describes what they do with the manure from the dairy (it's actually quite amazing.) I thought "Road Construction Ahead" and "Home Construction Ahead" were also great videos but this one stands on top. Levine's videos are remarkable in that they don't get too "silly" and clearly describe the events being seen while maintaining interest with children.

I bought this for my grandchild so he could see the workings of a farm. My husband grew up on one, but I was from a small town in the midwest. We watch this EVERY time he comes over, which is often. Some days we play it 2-3 times. As a city girl, I learned things about a farm I did not know. He loves it! He is almost 3 and sits quietly through the entire tape. Great tape! Being into bulldozers, we also have Road Construction Ahead and he likes it too, but likes the cows and bread making on the farm tape. These are a must have for every little boy AND GIRL.

This is an excellent video for all ages. It shows how our foods are made starting with planting them then actually making them in the factories. It is very well narrated. My 16 month old son never watched anything on tv not even cartoons. We showed him this video and after a few times watching it he is completely addicted. He has to watch it 3 or 4 times a day.

Fred Levine has his hand right on the pulse of 3 to 6-year-olds here. This is fun at the same time it's educational, showing how each food in the host's lunchbox is made as well as the hard work and the many steps involved in growing and preparing food. Teachers could use this with the first grade social studies curriculum and parents can use it at home to show kids where their food comes from. It prompted lots of interest and discussion from our kids such as: "We learned how peanut butter is made." "Can we make potato chips?" "I saw how they used cow poop!" "Can I go to a real farm and ride on a tractor?"

Like the other two videos I own from Little Hardhats (Garbage and Road Construction), this one is excellent. Tons of action with just enough talking to know what's happening, this one is a new favorite for my 3 yr old son. Tilling the soil, planting corn, feeding and milking cows, and many more of the things that go into filling up your lunch bag are covered in fascinating detail.

The only thing that keeps this outstanding tape from receiving a five-star rating is the addition of something new to the series of tapes: a five-minute commercial for their other products at the start of the tape. If you're adept at fast-forwarding through the marketing hype, your small children will love this video.

My daughter absolutely loves these series and it has been a favorite pick of her selection for over 3 years now (she is now six). I like the ideas of bringing farm life, road construction (isnt that scene where they blow up the mountain great? uhmm what educational value is there in playing it backwards though??? :-), firefighters, house construction etc. to the kids in a format they can easily understand, and yet these video could accomplish so much more I think! For example, the farmer rides his big tractor in the field, and he is doing something obviously, but the narrator does not specify what. My daughter asks "what is the farmer doing right now, mommy?" and fortunately i have a vague idea. But in the movie, nobody tells the kid if he is seeding, fertilizing, harvesting grain or bailing straw, which would be a side product of harvesting grains... I'd like these videos to go just a little bit more into details, be instructive in their narrations as well as pictures.

I have a 2 year old boy and a 4 year old girl, and they cannot get enough of this video! My son in particular holds Rusty, the narrator, in extremely high regard :). He stands on a box in the playroom and recites long tracks of narrative from the video ("milk comes from cows every day!", "do you know where the food in your lunch comes from?"). Of all the videos in our collection, this one is tops (even competes with Nemo).

I have watched this farm video and the rest of the series many times with my young son. Of course, the young are easily absorbed with images of the world they want so much to know more about. And, in spite of uninspired camera work and mediocre editing, this video delivers some of that world, albeit the world of massive corporate agriculture. I do like the arc of the video in that it starts with a sandwich and glass of milk and works backward to their sources. However, in the dairy sequence, witness the calves, locked in cages, bottle-fed some modified milk-like liquid. Disturbing images, especially for a viewer raised on a small farm. Most of the planting/harvest procedures shown are large, mechanized assembly line methods, replete with chemical additives, herbicides, and insecticides. And all of the video, like the rest of the series, is set to some of the worst music ever committed to tape, inappropriate and distracting noise. All of the above are a part of our world, to be sure, but there are better examples to explore and promote.