BellaOnline Forums Family Early Childhood Baby Einstein

So I was wondering how other felt about this product?
I have read reviews at Flicks for Kids for several of the videos. It even broke it down by how the baby might benefit from the video depending on their age in months.

There seem to be alot of videos with different topics and the reviews seem pretty positive.. Any real life experiences that agree?

Hi Raleigh

I have 3 year old twin nephews and they are addicted to Baby Einstean videos and cd's. I have watched with them and I think the attraction is that they are simple and don't require long periods of attention for the kids to learn something. In my opinion, they are one of those "Why didn't I think of that" kind of things.

I read that these videos may not actually be as beneficial as we think... kids' brains really can't handle the constantly changing stimuli provided by television at a young age, and should wait to watch tv until at least age 5. This is just what I've heard lately.

I have a bunch of them and only show the Animal ones.

They're videos - I don't think there is anything beneficial about them - from an educational perspective.

Check out the book <i>Einstein Never Used Flashcards</i>. It's a very interesting book that explains some of these studies in depth and shows how media/marketing has used parts of studies to say what they want.

I have a bunch of them and only show the Animal ones.

They're videos - I don't think there is anything beneficial about them - from an educational perspective.

Check out the book Einstein Never Used Flashcards. It's a very interesting book that explains some of these studies in depth and shows how media/marketing has used parts of studies to say what they want.

I think you can find studies/books/information to support whatever it is you want to believe. I happen to agree with the authors of the above book.

For my part, I think Baby Einstein is mostly trash. We have several of them because we had a friend who worked for disney who sent them when I was pregnant with my first. I certainly would never think that they are providing any actual educational value for a child. But TV is somewhat inevitable unless you just don't have one at all, and in my book it's a big step higher than sticking them in front of it and turning on cartoons or commercial TV. There are times when you just need them to sit still, and I think BE is just fine. I don't like that they have the play over and over option though.

To be honest though, if you are buying DVDs for that purpose, I'd much more highly recommend Signing Time -- even for older kids -- my 5 1/2 year old is learning a second language through them. And if your PBS station shows them, you can tivo or record them for free! I'll write a signing article soon as well, but in the meantime, here's the one I wrote in the breastfeeding site -- it applies for more than just breastfeeding mamas! Signing with your breastfed baby

I'll do an article soon on kids and TV with some of my thoughts on that topic as well. Too many things to write about!

Nicki