Baby Einstein are they worth it?

[Taddy]

I have 5 Baby Einstein DVDs on layby at the moment and was just wondering are they worth it. I only chose the ones that I thought would be best for my son. Shapes, colours, animals, first words and numbers. There were pleanty more but I didn't worry about them. Is $15.92 too dear for them?

[Pixie]

I have a friend who has a 2 and 1/2 year old and she said they are so worth it, he loves them watches them for hours, apparently would rather watch that then normal TV.

[Taddy]

Thanks for that my son is almost 17mths so hopefully its money well spent.

[Jamily]

Just a tip - try and get them off ebay....we got a set of 17 of them for about $50.00. They work fine.

:)

[kiwibird27]

Think your paying 4 a brand - lots of similar dvds out there for heaps cheaper - theres a good one called Baby Blinks!!!!! I assume it was $15.95 each??????? Otherwise its a good buy

[CrazyBeautiful]

Like Clairet said, you can pick the whole set up cheaply on Ebay, they are region 1 DVD's though, so you'll need a multi-region DVD player. I've had no problems with them at all.

[Kamaikia]

I don't want to offend anyone in any way but here goes
I was reading a parenting article the other day on parents who are trying to raise geniuses not kids. It was from a well know phycologist - who said that a child will benefit more from simple play with parents than all of these educational toys and videos around. I can't recall it word for word but it basically said that by sitting a child in front of these educational dvds for hours we are creating an anti social behaviour, a laziness that could affect them in life as they get older. They don't learn human emotion from dvds, how to deal with different situations.
There view was that by reading books, painting, wrestling, sitting in the sadpit with them - anything like this will do more for them. They will develop the skills needed later in life. It when on and on and really motivated me to spend more time being a kid with my kid. Shapes, colours animals etc can be learnt in most backyards.

Look I'm not trying the have a go at anyone who buys these dvds - my son watches the wiggles occasionally - maybe once every week or two. I just hope you don't all go wasting heaps of money on movies that you could rely on too much. I've seen it happen so many times. Parents buy movies for their children to enjoy but they just turn into babysitters. I know of one 2 year old that watches at least 3 dvds a day - seems a bit crazy too me.

[annb]

agree with other posters...dont pay $20 each for them they are not worth that much...buy them off ebay..if you go onto us ebay or canadian ebay i got a set of 10 for $40 including postage...taht is all they are worth in my opinion they are good for watching for 20mins when you want to get the dinner ready!!!

[mamabear]

I was given a DVD I think its called Baby2 that is more for the parents than the baby. It encourages different ways of interacting with baby. I have to say I haven;t used it much.

I'm sure that you will get some benefit from them.:)

[Elfin]

Kamiaka I agree with your post and the term is hothousing and yes you are right there are such enormous benefits educationally by just letting children play. Like sorting teaches the fundamentals of mathematics, play doh develops fine motor skills for writing. A DVD will never develop these skills.

However, I think if children are going to watch tv and we do in our house although I limit it, they may as well be learning something from it. I view the tv as another learning medium and at least the Baby Einstein will teach them some of the repetitive rote learning skills which I see no harm in. Will they give your child a competive advantage at school maybe initially but the research I have seen states that other children will catch up pretty quickly. So there is no long term advantage from hothousing.

I don't think we can turn any child into a genius, they are either born that way or not but we can encourage and support them to be the best they can be. Sorry to be so :ecomcity: :ecomcity: but I am kind of passionate about this topic.

So on balance I would say go for the Baby Einstein as they are a good quality product but just ensure you don't rely on them only as the primary learning tool, use books, craft, outings, nursery rhymes etc.