Customer Reviews

The Magic School Bus - Creepy, Crawly Fun!

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This tape consists of three unrelated episodes, two of which are very good. The first is, "Going Batty," which reveals the amazing facts and myths about those wondrous creatures of the night. The second, "Spins a Web," shows us how different spiders hunt and catch their prey and is also very good. The third, "Inside a Haunted House," attempts to explain dynamics of sound on a preschool level. It's a complicated subject that was over simplified. The writers of this episode didn't seem to have a complete grasp of the subject themselves. It's an entertaining story but not as informative as the other videos.

I homeschool (unschool) my son, and the Magic School Bus series is GREAT for teaching kids science. We have 4 DVD sets and a few VHS's.

If you're unfamiliar with the premise, the central characters are Ms. Frizzle (a teacher), her class, Liz the lizard and the Bus. Ms. Frizzle takes her class on crazy field trips, where Bus--and sometimes the kids!--experience a transformation so they can get closer to the action. (For example, become a bee or turning into water droplets.)

One of our most recent purchases was Creepy, Crawly Fun! and it's excellent as always. These three episodes are:

*Inside the Haunted House - Acoustics and hearing
*Going Batty - Nocturnal creatures and echolocation
*Spins a Web - The life of spiders

There is also a few interactive and DVD-ROM features, by my son hasn't used those.

This CD runs about 90 minutes and is supposedly geared towards children 3-8. Personally, I think the age-appropriate range is more like 6-10 because of the complex concepts introduced.

However, if younger kids enjoy it--more power to them! It certainly can't hurt to introduce science to younger kids if the Magic School Bus holds their interest.

My 8-year old son really enjoys the series now (he didn't get into it when he was younger), so I use the Magic School Bus series to supplement our learning/experimenting with science principles. And, my son seems to love Creepy, Crawly Fun--especially where Ms. Frizzle's voice is distorted!

Also, this would be a great DVD for Halloween time--especially since it's educational!

I was quite surprised at the quality of the programes, so much infomation on so many levels. Easily digested visually and verbally. It presents facts that are both sound and accurate for the range of age groups specified. As a teacher I can heartily reccommend the Magic School Bus series.
If you want to know more about bugs, bats and spiders this is one to have . I would also reccommend MSB Bugs,Bugs, Bugs!!! which is about Ants, Butterflies and Bees. Both of these DVDs are up to MSB's usual standard of excellence.

My son and daughter love this magic school bus dvd. they watch it all the time. he is four and she is two. also, they love the human body dvd. well worth the money.

The DVD is excellent in teaching scientific facts, for instance, my 3 year old loves the episode on bats, and has learned much from it. (She corrected me when I said bats were blind.) I also give it high marks beause the teacher does not always answer the children's questions, but instead leads them to a situation where they can discover the answers themselves through interaction and experimentation. My only negative comment is to get to the situation always involves some "magical" transformation. It just seemly highly ironic to juxtapose scientific explanations with impossible magical transformations, but the kids love it.

I got this for my kids because I think the Magic School Bus is great. Fortunately, the kids like them too! Good elementary explanations of everyday things that get kids asking questions, AND listening to the answers. Very enjoyable and easy to watch. These aren't really my favorite episodes, but they are good!

Although I really enjoy the educational series of The Magic School Bus, the item took 30 days to arrive. I've ordered other Magic School Bus dvds and have all arrived within a week. I'm unsure if Amazon is using a different company to send out the videos. The viedo was to be a Halloween gift for my nieces but it did not arrive until after Oct 31st. The order was placed in plenty of time to receive prior Oct 31st date. BEWARE of the shipper, it may take longer to get your DVDs. Back to the series...YOU MUST BUY THE SERIES. Lily Tomlin is excellent and the my nieces have grown to love the series and in fact it is their new favorite cartoon. They HAVE to take it with them on car trips, sleepovers and grandma's house. Its come to be their security blanket. Beware they will begin telling you how things work. LOVE IT!

My kids both LOVE the Magic School Bus videos. My son watched one in Kindergarten and raved about it so much that we bought them all--and we've never been disappointed. We have all learned fun, new facts. The kids watch them again and again.

Very fun and educational!!! Very creative and fun to watch!! Colorful--bright and great kids!!! Sooooo much fun!!

First-rate educational entertainment for the whole family.