Rating: Summary: Great entertainment for the little ones Review: My son was in a trance watching this movie as an infant. It is so peaceful and well done. The music and nursery rhymes are great, and in different languages too. I lent it to my new neice, and she loves it as well. I went on to buy my son, now almost 2 every baby einstein movie out there, he loves them all and picks the one he wants to watch now. Couldn't imagine what it would be like without them to enjoy from time to time.
Rating: Summary: Waste of money Review: I bought this video after the series was recommended to me by some friends. My baby has seen it several times from 4 months of age to 12 months of age, and he was completely disinterested in it. Even CNN will catch his attention for a few moments but this video was EXTREMELY boring and doesn't make any sense. He is never going to take a remote interest in this DVD and wish I could get my money back.
Rating: Summary: Overload Review: I love Baby Einstein products, but I was very disappointed with this one & glad I was able to take it out of the library before buying it! We are a bilingual family with some knowledge of a number of other languages. Even tho' our son is only 5 months old - he cried through this entire volume. The pictures do not match the translations which can be very confusing for a child trying to actually catch on to a language. If this is just to hear other languages being spoken - I'd rather take a bus. The pictures aren't even the usual "eye catching" visuals & when counting is being done, it's not even in sync with the picture. We were really looking forward to this item as a learning tool, but will be looking for other audio/visual methods. Unfortunately, there is not much out there. Overall, this was a good concept, but got "lost in the translation"
Rating: Summary: don't be afraid if you only speak one language... Review: Just to clarify on this multilingual issue...It does not matter if the parents do not understand the languages spoken on these tapes. I study early childhood development & granted, I do not have my research infront of me, but it is important if you ever want your child to learn another language, for your child to hear the different parts of speach in other languages. After a certain age, a child can not distinguish the different sounds in different languages...that is why if you, as an adult, hear another language you might feel as though you can't tell where one word ends and the next begins. So, stay open minded, please.
Rating: Summary: Get any other Baby Einstein DVD unless you are bi/trilingual Review: We bought this DVD because our 18 mos. twins love the "flash cards" on Baby Bach and on Baby Doolittle. Unfortunately, the language lab flash cards on this DVD are the same flash cards found on Baby Bach. Likewise, some of the images in this DVD are duplicates of other Baby Einstein DVDs. This raises the question: What the heck am I paying for when I'm getting duplicated material? Likewise, the DVD IS boring. I'm sure it is more engaging to families raising multi-lingual children. We are not one of them and we really hated this video. We do have about eight of the other Baby Einstein videos and we love them all. This one, we took back.
Rating: Summary: Not what we expected Review: After all the review about baby einstein, we first bought our daughter baby bach and baby beethoven CDs, which our daughter seems to enjoy. So we finally decided to try the DVD series and this was our first choice. What a bad decision we made. We were all ready to watch and enjoy the "Theatre" with our 4 1/2 month old. We saw a pop-up teddy and heard someone say Hello, then we saw some fish swimming in a tank, which our daughter loves, and then we saw a black and white shape and heard someones voice speaking in another language. We tried to go back to find where we could select to hear the DVD in the English language but we could not find that option. I knew that this DVD was supposed to include foreign languages but I didn't know that out of nowhere the video would jump from one language to another without any warning. I thought our copy of this DVD was broken. After trying to watch the entire DVD without any interruptions, I finally figured out that our copy of the DVD was not broken. The creator designed to have the different languages "jump around" all over the place. I also figured out that the different languages were dictating alphabets, numbers and nursery rhymes (not in that order). It is great to teach babies and children different languages BUT HOW DO WE PARENTS (THAT ARE NOT MULTILINGUAL) KNOW WHICH LANGUAGE IS BEING SPOKEN OR WHAT IS BEING SAID. It would be great to flash the language that is being spoken and what is being said. Or even, allow the parents to choose which language they would like to play the DVD in. Unfortuntely, our first baby einstein DVD experience was not that great or what we expected. Hopefully our next baby einstein purchase will not be the same, or it may be our last.
Rating: Summary: really really boring. Review: I bought this DVD last year, because my son loved baby mozart and baby shakespeare. But, he didn't even look at it for two seconds. Now, he's 23 months old and still doesn't like it. It has boring contents and pictures in foreign languages. I'm not sure whether my son might like it 2 years later..
Rating: Summary: Its a DVD not an audio CD Review: My complaints are mostly wrapped around the "concert Hall" index. There are 24 songs on the DVD in a variety of languages. It is great except there are no visuals associated with the songs. The same with the alphabet and counting section. there is merely a voice reciting the alphabet and numbers in 7 different languages. You would think that the letters and numbers would flash on the screen in different colors or something. Needless to say, my little one doesn't pay any attention to the video. She is one who "watches" TV all the time, so we bought this to make her TV viewing more developmentally appropriate and educational. The home theater section is just like others have commented, a stream of sing-song like speaking. there are visuals associated that sometimes don't match up. It is tough to follow because the languages are all mixed up in order and there are no cues to tell you what language it is. The only section that I like on this video is the language lab index (a very short segment of the DVD). There are vocabulary words stated with pictures that flash on the screen. there are separate lessons for the seven languages (this time you choose the language). This is more developmentally appropriate, but be aware, they also sell Baby Einstein cards to go with the video. Had I known, I would have just bought the cards and did the same thing myself. Regarding the navigation of the DVD, it is awful. There is a caveat in the parents guide that states it varies by DVD player. However, the menus are compartmentalized, so there is no way to get back to a "main menu" without stopping the DVD and starting again. Strange. I am not giving up on the Baby Einstein videos. I have heard great things about the Bach, Mozart, and Neptune. I will definitely read the reviews first and possibly rent from the library next time.
Rating: Summary: Babies don't learn language from television Review: It is a well recorded fact that babies learn language through the interaction with other people. They will not learn phonics by watching a video. The only educational part of the video is the language lab, where you the parent can see the words, hear the pronounciation and then repeat them to your child. During the "theatre" part of the video, wonderful poems are spoken in many different languages. Great, but your baby won't learn those phonics from the TV. If the poems were included in the jacket of the VHS or DVD so that parents can read them to their children, this would be MUCH more educational! Additionally, when counting is presented in different languages, there is no visual representation of numbers. There should be blocks or something on the screen to show what is being done. Same as when the alphabet is being spoken in many languages, it would be beneficial to see which letter is being presented. Lastly, during the language lab, what I find difficult to understand is why in certain languages words are presented in the correct spelling of that language, but in Russian and Japanese phonetics are presented. If you want to make a truly educational experience for the child, you also need to educate the parent. So include the correct spelling in all languages with the phonetics underneth. I feel that this video is not well thought out from an educational standpoint. If you just want to pop in a video to keep your child entertained when you make dinner, then why not throw in Sesame Street.
Rating: Summary: Our baby has loved this video from 5 weeks old! Review: If it weren't for these dvd's, my husband and I would never get to have dinner together. From the time she was 5 weeks old, our little girl has been hypnotized by this series, including this one. She is now 6 months old, and has seen it 100 times, but still never makes a peep during the entire video! She smiles as soon as she sees the little bug log appear on the TV. My husband and I also enjoy listening to all the foreign languages, and trying to recognize them.
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