Brainy Baby - Spanish

Rating:
Summary: No better way to intoduce the spanish language to kids.
Review: I have taken many years of Spanish...had a million teachers with differing backgrounds and dialects.(i.e. Castillian, S.American, Mexican).. I loved this video! I thought it was very thorough...almost like a first year Spanish class.
I agree that there are a few words that are not too commonly used..but, there are different dialects throughout the world, and the words the video teaches.. gets the idea across..no matter which Spanish speaking nation is listening.
I think..as a VERY busy..somewhat bi-lingual mother of 2..that the video is an excellent way to teach your kiddos spanish words and phrases.
Another thing I liked about the video was that it is very much like a classroom exercise..it taught, gave examples, asked questions..sang a song using words learned..then it reviewed everything taught.
The video is definately for older toddlers...my 3 yr. old will watch it (on occasion)..my 17 mo old will watch it...(sort of)..yet, she has no clue what is going on and doesn't really care. But..my husband watched it and learned beginning Spanish..:)
I really think..if you have a school age kid..get it..a child over 31/2.. get it..a younger child..get it...and play it while they are doing something else...you may learn something too!


Rating:
Summary: school teacher and mom of 3
Review: All I can say is what a GREAT introduction to the Spanish langauge! My kids loved it so much that I think we're going to try French next!! The voice is warm and very pleasant to listen to and our kids have watched it so many times that they talk right along with her. I am discovering that you can't go wrong with any Brainy Baby product!

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: At first I didn't think she was learning a lot from this video, but we watched it often. Now she will often tell me a color in Spanish as well as English, and uses other vocabulary from the video! She was learning all along! This video is a great way to introduce a small child to the Spanish language. It is fun to watch and the learning happens naturally. It even helped me to learn too. I like that there is a segment that covers manners, such as saying please and thank you. This is a great way to encourage a child to have a broader understanding of language, and I feel it is a great foundation for lifelong learning of a foreign language. I think there are many benefits to learning foreign language early and I like that this video focuses on the interests of a small child for that reason. She can learn from this video and learn more than even *I* know about Spanish, but we can learn together.

Rating:
Summary: Bilingual Baby revisited
Review: Brainy Baby is a high quality video for children to learn some Spanish words and phrases, however, it varies very little from Bilingual Baby (Spanish) with it's pictures, words, and music. I was disappointed to spend $ with shipping to receive a video so similar to one I already own and love. It has perhaps 15 words different than Bilingual Baby. If you don't have Bilingual Baby, Brainy Baby is wonderful. If you're looking for the best, I would reccommend Bilingual Baby for it's slightly slower speech patterns and the helpful translated script found on the fold out jacket cover. Both are produced and sold by Small Fry, yet there is no indication on the Brainy Baby video information that it is almost the same video as Bilingual Baby. When I put Brainy Baby in to play for my 3 year old son, he said,"Mom, we already have this movie."

Rating:
Summary: I was dissapointed.
Review: First, I should say that I am originally from Spain, and my wife is from Central America. Our native language is Spanish, which we are proud to cultivate. Now, let's get on with the review.

We bought this DVD for my 20 month year old hoping to expose him to some Spanish via the TV. Both my wife and I speak to him in Spanish.

First, I would like to address the content of the DVD.

As a previous reviewer said, the DVD uses a NON-native speaker. The first lesson starts by showing a plastic soccer ball. The proper word in Spanish word for a ball is "pelota". "Bola" is generally used for hard balls, like a bowling or a billiard's ball. Next, the video shows a box of crayolas. The announcer goes on to say "Crayones". What!!?? Sorry, but that is not a real word. I guess "pinturas", "lapices de colores", "colores", "ceras" was too hard to come up with? Next, orange is translated as "anaranjado". The proper translation is "naranja". "Anaranjado" means "like orange". I could go on an on...

Let's now atalk about the format of the DVD.

Sorry, but it is not entertaining enough for a kid. It basically bombards him/her with words & images. There are no sketches or stories of any kind. It is very likely that your kid will soon turn away from the set and go on to more interesting things. I suggest you play one chapter at a time to avoid overloading the kid. My oldest son is now 22 moths old and this DVD is too basic for him. I hope that gives you an indication of the level of the content.

To conclude, I would like to point out that this DVD was probably done with very little money and it shows. For the money, this DVD should have better content, better presentation, and include a color picture book.

Unfortunately for those of you that are looking for a decent Spanish DVD to teach your kids, there isn't much out there. This is the winner by default, and hence my 2 star rating.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Teaching Video for Native and Non-Native Speakers
Review: Frankly, I am surprised anyone would describe this video as disappointing. I had a home day care and cared for two children whose native language was Spanish and they LOVED watching this video. All the other children did as well, but especially those who already knew the language. The video shows colorful toys and counts them and talks about the colors of the items. The vocabulary words are repeated, as I would expect on any language video. Surely you cannot teach by only saying the words once? There are scenes of happy children playing; most of the examples involve children. Sometimes we see adults holding or cuddling the children. I personally find that children pick up on my own attitude towards the material, in other words, I show excitement and treat the material as interesting and they do too. I do not use the video as a babysitter, but as an educational tool. I sit with the children and say the words out loud and they follow my lead. I make every attempt to show the video at a time when the children are 'fresh' and ready to learn, not late in the day when they are tired. I have also showed the video to friends who are Spanish speaking to explain what I was doing in my day care to teach Spanish to the children. They were very impressed with the video. I found the lessons very structured, the vocabulary very appropriate for young preschool children, and the pace was just right for the children in my day care. My daughter is three and we are moving on to learning more vocabulary words than the basics she learned in this video, but this laid the foundation for her. We still use the video from time to time as review, even now that I no longer have a day care, so that she doesn't lose what she has already learned. A pamphlet that came with the video suggests you shorten the viewing time if the child's attention span is short, which sometimes happens. Occasionally we might do a few minutes of Spanish video and then play and then do a few more minutes later. Usually I show the video when she has just woken up or is clearly ready to focus. Learning a foreign language can be demanding, I don't try to over do it, but I also don't neglect the importance of presenting lessons in a way that my child can enjoy and also in being persistent. I love the use of toys, foods, common household objects, and cute things like snowmen and giggling babies. I like the way the video gives vocabularies and then builds on it, so that we hear sentences made up of words we already learned. And then we hear questions that are also easy to understand. There isn't a word of English in it, just Spanish and images to give a context and meaning to the word. None of the Spanish-speaking people that I know found any fault with any pronunciations, or any other aspect of the video. I found it to be excellent, and my daughter is the proof of it. I am so grateful that I was able to introduce her to another language at such a young age when it is much easier for them to learn!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent beginning primer for Spanish
Review: I am a billingual Spanish (Cuban)/English speaker. It is very important to me that I teach my son Spanish. I bought this video to reinforce my teachings. I am very pleased with all that it covers. It reviews the numbers 1-10, colors, common nouns, some parts of the body, Mommy, Daddy, common verbs, hello, goodbye, yes, no, and how to say please and I love you. It does some reviews with questions and answers for things like, "How many books are there? There is one book.", or "What color is the snowman? The snowman is white." (obviously in Spanish). The words for all of these are displayed in Spanish on the screen in large print and in English in small print. There is a lot of repetion to reinforce the lessons. They missed some obvious things, like how to say thanks you and some parts of the body (like arms), but I guess you can't get everything in. They also use a couple of words that are different from my dialect, but there are so many dialects, I can't see how they can avoid it. They also sing Mary had a Little Lamb in Spanish (no words are shown onscreen while doing this, which would have been nice). But, overall, a very good dvd and worth purchasing.

Rating:
Summary: A Disapointment
Review: I bought this DVD for my 18 month old child particularly because I am a native speaker of Spanish and I want my child to learn my language. This DVD is intended for children who are not learning Spanish as a native language, and that may be the reason why my child found it boring and walked away after two minutes the four times I tried to show him the DVD. The DVD is basically a repetition of vocabulary words time after time after time, I do not see how any child woud get interested in watching it.
The speaker has a close to native fluency and pronunciation in Spanish but she IS NOT a native speaker. The part of the DVD where a story is read has the text in Spanish written at the bottom of the pictures and the text is missing several accent marks and all question and exclamation marks at the beginning of questions an exclamations. I know the intended viewers of this DVD are 2 to 5 year olds who in most cases do not know how to read yet but that does not justify having errors like those.
In other words, I would not recommend this video to anyone with children who are learning Spanish as a native language and I do not think it is worthwhile the buy for those with children who are learning any other language at home.

Rating:
Summary: About Spanish words
Review: I bought this video for my two year old. Although it does teach a lot of spanish words it is not entertaining enough to keep her attention,she tends to wonder of and do something else, it is lacking color and imagination, the music is not that great either. I suggest you try "Rayitos Del Saber - Las Formas", they only have this one video so far but it is very lively, it has great puppets segments and the music is great. It'll keep your child entertained while it teaches him/her Spanish.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Children's Spanish DVD
Review: I found this DVD when my daughter was 15-months old and wish I'd found it sooner. As a native Spanish speaker, I think this DVD is quite complete and covers all the essentials in just 45-mins. I certainly wish there were a 2nd volume to follow. I liked this DVD more than my BumbleBee vocabulary videos (although those are good too).