Product Details

• Directors: Ph.D. Mary Coleman Allen Gfroerer
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Start Smarter
• VHS Release Date: September 19, 2002
• Run Time: 32 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000070HJX
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,216 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

DiscoverySchool.com, June 2003
5 STARS & Award-Of-Excellence! This video never misses a beat, and its educational focus is a breath of fresh air

Product Description
Top Pick. Oh, we just love this new made-for-babies video offering by the studio of Start Smarter, Winner of Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products! It's not as polished as some, but it's filled with excellent learning opportunities. Words, such as "on" and "bubbles", are spelled out using alphabet blocks, voiced clearly, used in sentences, and then demonstrated in clever ways. Classical music provides the audio backdrop for playful puppet sequences and fascinating objects. Start Smarter Relax & Learn is filled with fun sound effects, such as a giggling baby, and amusing sequences. Vocabulary words are repeated frequently by both adult and child narrators. Plenty of entertaining peek-a-boo scenes and other surprises are added for extra fun. We love the musical selection featured in Start Smarter Relax & Learn -- there is a pleasing variety of styles from different composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms--and it's "real" (not played on toys). It's both stimulating and relaxing for young children, and it won't grate on parents' nerves either. With this video, children learn, amongst other things, that a square has four sides, a ball is round, and eggs come in different colors. Children are encouraged to participate (by attempting to draw shapes, for example). And, some of the sequences are positively hilarious! We've tested plenty of baby and toddler videos over the years, and we recommend many of them. This one, however, features educational content that gives it a special edge over the competition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Entertaining, October 15, 2002

By	"teacherandmom" (LaGrange, IL USA) - See all my reviews

As a mother of four children and primary school teacher, I was very pleased to watch this video with my children. The scenes are simple in design -- great for my kids who are easily over stimulated by too much noise and movement. The music is soothing yet enticing and certainly enjoyed by both parents and children. The peek-a-boo scenes bring squeals of delight and the scenes with balls, trains, teddy bears, and bubbles bring my toddler right up to the TV screen to join in the play. This video is not high energy with lots of action that we typically see. That makes it refreshing for the parents and siblings who will undoubtedly hear and see it over and over.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Start Smarter, June 3, 2003

By	Patricia Headley (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This is the second video that our son really enjoyed after Baby Mozart. He sat and watched the whole thing and seemed really into it. I like that there are words here as well as music. I also had a problem with the video itself and the company replaced it with no problem. I would recommend this to anyone. Thank you

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music That I Could Actually Take, October 23, 2002

By	Nathan Roberts (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

I found this video in a gift shop outside of Atlanta and this is one of the only children's videos I have ever watched and listened to that I could actually tolerate. Most of the baby and children's videos have annoying voices from the puppets or characters, like that purple Barney guy. I can't even stay in the same room when he is on. But this video uses classical music that more or less fades into the background and the sound effects are pretty cool and not overwhelming. It has a nice woman's voice, and cute kid laughter. Dads, if you are trying to find something that won't drive you crazy and right out of the room, try this one.

In addition, our 15-month-old boy is starting to say some of the words on the video. When I say "starting to say" let me clarify and say he says the first syllable. He loves this duck that quacks during the video and every time the music starts for the duck he runs up to the screen points at the duck, looks back at me, and starts to say "duh, duh". I think that is pretty amazing as we have only had the video for three weeks.