Baby Einstein DVD

It had been a while since my last post. Somehow, tonight feel like to write again... That's due to a conversation I had with my children today. We were listening to Pastor Rick Warren's sermon. He mentioned about Baby Einstein DVD. While my son remembers very well, my daughter cannot remember at all. She even asked me what the Baby Einstein DVD is.


Is Baby Einstein DVD effective?  See this link. As expected, it is reported that from a 2010 study found no evidence that children ages 1 to 2 learned words highlighted in a Baby Einstein DVD. Research has shown that regularly reading to young children boosts language ability for both babies and toddlers. This is not unexpected.

Showing children how to read not only teach reading per se, the activity also improve bonding with the toddler.  There is no doubt, reading to the toddlers would be more effective. However, I do not believe that showing the Baby Einstein DVD has zero impact.  According to what I understand from Glenn Doman's research, the more exposure we give, the better it is for the brain development.



My son remembers because he watched more DVD than his sisters. When he was young, we stayed in the US, and we borrowed many baby Einstein DVDs from the library. Practically he operates the video player on his own. Unfortunately, when my daughter was between one to three, the local library where we stayed do not have that many DVDs.

From my observations, I do not think that my son had the edge over my daughter due to the Baby Einstein DVDs.  There is a limit as to what we can do. I do not doubt that when we were exhausted, it's better to have the Baby Einstein DVDs to entertain the kids.

Flash Card (2)... The Alternative Way

If flash card is not your cup of tea, perhaps you can try the following CD or DVD from Dr. Titzer. My wife received the VCDs from a close friend. She bought the disc in Singapore. I notice that the VCD or DVD are very popular in Singapore and available in major department store, book shops, and even toy shops. Certainly, you can buy from the following website. For those in US, below is a link to Amazon. I suspect that the product sold in US is different from those sold in Singapore and Australia because the US version is specially made for US following US's pronunciation and spelling. I think it's safer to buy from the region where you are from. I am not sure about this and it's best to check before you make your purchase. (P/S: I read that Dr Titzer is from California. )

I am not sure whether the DVD is same as what I bought but the author, the title, and contents look exactly the same.

From the experience of many people, including myself, the problem with this DVD/VCD is that children tend to watch TV and not interested in flash cards. So, you would probably have to choose either the DVD or flash cards. Perhaps start with flash cards first if you are not sure. I would say the product from Dr Titzer is quite good, it shows the words, the correct pronunciations and talks about many facts about the words. This is exactly what Dr Glenn Doman recommended from what I read. Except that it's not few second per session. Both my kids love the VCDs from Dr. Titzer

I have to admit that I do not have the discipline to flash the cards 3 times a day, 5 seconds per session. Many of the cards are lying there in the store room untouched. I confess that I did not make full use of the cards that I bought. I used the cards with my son, but gave up after 1 year, and I did not really use it on my daughter. One main reason is that my daughter dislike English flash cards. She likes Chinese flash cards. She can read many words now. I did not really flash but instead teaching her to read at the age of two. I think this has to do with a lot of praises and encouragement.




The following are video clips showing my daughter enjoying reading words. One taken in 2009 and another one taken recently. I would think she enjoys reading those cards, right?


2009 Video Clip - 2 years old


Please note that in 2011 clip, I am playing "Pile Up" game with her. The "Pile Up" game is what I learned from the Hooked on Phonic material. If she knows the word, she can keep it, else I will keep the card. Also, at the end of the clip, I was teaching her new words. Shameful to say, I stopped quite a while in 2010... :-( If I continued to have the discipline, she would know much more words today.

2011 Video Clip - 4 years old

In Penang, I saw a "tuition center" (located in Island Glades) teaching those flash cards. In my opinion, this is very wrong. Having read the book, I know that the concept of "tuition classes" using flash cards is wrong to begin with. The idea is to flash, 3 times a day, less than one second per card. How on earth one uses these flash cards for 1 hour per week and charged parents for money? Dr Glenn Doman said that one should flash the cards 3 times and each sessions should be at least 2 hours apart. If you are considering them, check out the point I mentioned above with them. Even using VCDs might be better.

Lastly, please allow me to share few common mistakes in using flash cards from my experience and from my reading from the book.

(1) Flash cards are to be flashed. So, please do not put beside baby cot for baby to stare at.

(2) If you start at young age, please do not have expectation. If parents have high expectation it will kill the interest to learn.

(3) Must have strong determination and discipline to do every day...

(4) Pay attention to the size of wordings, color and pictures. Should be 2-3 inches with red color.... if you purchase from "wet market" or low cost item... then make sure the size is suitable for your child.

Children Educational DVD and Books (1)... Thomas, Little Einstein, Words Word & Bob the builder

While playing mini-luk with my kids, I realized that my children knows how to match hammer to a nail.. they know a saw can be used to cut the tree. I know they have not seen those items. They told me they learned those from DVD! Undeniably, those DVD are really educative!

My son's favorite DVD are Little Einstein and Thomas. And most of his goodies has Thomas on it. Personally I like Little Einstein, so he has some books with Little Einstein. Buying books, toys with the character that children like will motivate them to learn, to read and they will spend more time with those toys. So, choose what they like.

Here are some examples in case you really do not know what is out there for you.
(Note: My intent is not really to promote for Amazon, but I figure out that using their associate program like this, the product will get updated)



Thomas is about trains working together to carry out some task given by their boss. this cultivate team works. Somehow boys like train. That's why Thomas is very popular.



My vote is for Little Einstein. I know nothing about music but I saw the DVD display songs and even pictures of Mozart etc.. The story is about a group of friends going on mission to find something. As the character "visit" around the word, kids familiar with this show will have good knowledge about music and geography.

Do not forget about Words World.. This is funded by the US government if I am not mistaken. All the character in this shows is build using letters. And it shows the spelling of each of the character. Look carefully at the picture below. Can you see the dog's body has the letter "d-o-g"? And the stage is build from the words "S-t-a-g-e"?


Lastly, checkout Bob-The-Builder. I believe this is where my kids learn how to use a saw, a hammer etc even at very young age. Bob is a carpenter? who always fixed things for neighborhood. The story is also about team work and to help people.