The Alphabet Train

Rating:
Summary: Great educational DVD, poor sound quality
Review: Great educational, "NON cartoon" dvd for kids. Well done with kids voices, clear pictures, and words spelled on screen. Enough action to keep my kid's attention. My only complaint is that the sound quality is OK, but not great (sounds like it was not done in a studio).

Rating:
Summary: Great educational DVD, poor sound quality
Review: Great educational, "NON cartoon" dvd for kids. Well done with kids voices, clear pictures, and words spelled on screen. Enough action to keep my kid's attention. My only complaint is that the sound quality is OK, but not great (sounds like it was not done in a studio).

Rating:
Summary: Great educational value with real train footage
Review: My son just turned two and this is now his favorite video/dvd. It is approximately one hour of real train footage. The narrator and captions follow the alphabet to explain many aspects of train travel and general information about trains. The video is neither annoying (a relief after too many Thomas the Tank Engine videos) nor exciting. Yet, my son is riveted by the footage. He also shouts out the alphabet letters with the narrator.

I highly recommend this video to anyone with kids 18 months to 5 years. Especially if your children like the actual footage rather than animation. Also check out the Real Wheels series and Straight Up (and Imax movie on helicopters).

Rating:
Summary: I WISH ALL KIDS VIDEOS WERE LIKE THIS ONE
Review: This is an amazing video, perfect for approx. ages 2-4. It goes through all kinds of train vocabulary following the alphabet, and explaining each word in very simple language (my 2 year old can learn and understand new "big words"). It provides plenty of repetition of words, encouraging kids to practice them outloud. The video footage is great too for kids who like trains (real trains, not toys). My son is constantly requesting this video, and he can watch it far longer than any other videos we have because it is so engaging. Superb.

As an aside, I don't recommend Thomas train videos. They have nice footage, but the stories are aweful - all about trains getting into trouble and being mean to each other, resulting in punishment (as opposed to modelling good behavior and manners).