Customer Reviews

Maisy's ABC [VHS]

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

 

 

If you currently own other Maisy videos, you'll find this one to be a little different. Instead of 5 mini-episodes, it is one long one. It introduces each alphabet letter, the sound it makes, and then for 5-30 seconds Maisy finds things that begin with that letter, and the word appears on the screen. Many of the scenes are taken from prior shows, like "E" is demonstrated by Eddy Elephant in the egghunt episode. But there are plenty new sequences as well. My only disappointment is that they use all the same old music. And no new songs are introduced like the other videos. Whether it effectively teaches ABC's or not, I'm not sure. I think my daughter is too young to tell, but it's a fine introduction to the alphabet and certainly 3-4 year olds should benefit. All in all, a well done video and a must for die-hard Maisy fans.

We bought this video shortly after my son turned 2, when he had just mastered his numbers up to 12 and was starting to take an interest in letters and had started pointing out a few letters on signs.

He was absolutely riveted to this video! We already owned 2 other Maisy videos, which he also loved, but he asked for this one exclusively for a month until he had mastered the entire alphabet. What a thrill it was for him and for us when 3 or 4 weeks later he could say all the letters in order as they flashed by in the closing credits. Sometimes we hear him practicing his alphabet after we tuck him in for the night. His pronunciation of letters has also improved a lot. He points out letters and spells out the letters in words everywhere we go now--on street signs, on license plates, on trucks, in the grocery store, you name it.

I was worried that once he learned all the letters he would lose interest, but that hasn't been the case. In this video they also teach kids what sound each letter makes and several words that start with that letter. Before long, my son would see an "H" on a sign someplace and would yell "H" then "huh" (the sound of the letter) then he would say a couple of words from the video that start with the H sound--"horse" and "hop." He does this especially with letters that remind him of his favorite segments in the video--we all get a real kick out of him saying "J....jaguar" whenever he sees a J or "S...snake...ssssss" when he sees an S.

When he does this, I try to add on a few extra words that he already knows which start with the same letter but which aren't featured in the video (e.g. "hat" and "head" when he says "H...huh...horse...hop"), and he seems to recognize the similarity in sound.

I have one quibble--I know there aren't many words that start with X, but most of the words they feature for X start with the X SOUND, not the letter X. The narrator will say something like "X is in 'excuse me' too." To their credit, they do show the word on screen with the X highlighted, but the distinction is probably lost on younger viewers.

I think that for my son, this was a case of the right video at the right time. We enjoy the whole Maisy series, and parents will love the fact that the understated music is very pleasant and enhances the tape without ever being annoying.

This one is highly recommended, and for preschoolers working on numbers, Count with Maisy is another good choice.

I bought this video because my 2 year old adores Maisy, which she sees on "Noggin". However, I had to cringe, horrified when I watched this: the phonics taught in this ABC video are tremendously WRONG. For example, "B" is for "buh". "S" is for "suh" (should be "ssss"). "T' is for "tuh" (should be "ttt").

As a reading specialist, I can't tell how many children have developed problems in decoding due to this type of faulty phonics instruction.

If, for instance, your child tried to phonetically sound out the word, "big" - she would say "buh-ig". Or for "snake": "suh-nake".

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Do NOT buy this video. It is extremely bad pedagogy!
As much as we love Maisy, we are exchanging it for another story.

My 2.5 yr old has learned the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes from Maisy. We have all the videos and only wish that there were more.

My daughter has always enjoyed Maisy books and videos and she received this video for Christmas. Rather than have short stories this is one long video concentrating on the alphabet. Each letter is given a couple of minutes and several words are highlighted. Not only do they show the letter but have many words so you can hear the sound and also use the words in sentences. I think the video has really helped my daughter's vocabularly, sentence building skills and pronouncation. A great Maisy video - any Maisy fan would love it.

It's wonderful. My two-years-old son like it very much. He watches the video at least four times a week. He also watches "Count with Maisy". He is now crazy for Maisy and likes all the product of Maisy. He learns many words from the video.

i love this video, primarily because it doesn't concentrate on A B C D but rather ah, be, ce, de... it makes much more sense to try and teach kids how to read/spell by using the annunciation method, and this video does a great job of it.

i bought this video for my 2 year old and he loves it. the narrator goes through every letter of the alphabet and associates a word with each letter - for example - "L" is for lemonade . it is a fun and educational video.

This is another great video bought for a 19 month old boy who is now three and still loves to watch this video. He has learned the entire alphabet by age 2! I thought this video captures a child's heart with the colorful fun loving and imaginative characters while learning in a very relaxed environment. This was the only video that did not introduce him to instances of other characters acting or talking (shouting)rough or them getting hurt of some way in the cartoon. I let him see a cartoon where the characters were fighting the bad guy and it upset him so much that I deleted all of those cartoons entirely from his young viewing experience.

I bought this video for my daughter because she loves Maisy. I teach 1st grade, and when we watched it they say the wrong sounds for some of the letters. For example for t they would say "tuh", when it should really just be the t sound without the uh on the end. When working on Phonics in Kindergarten, the children say just the consonant sound without adding a vowel sound onto the end.