Baby Einstein  

I haven't tried Baby Einstein but i disagree with you about teaching kids about letters, numbers, shapes & colours from an early age.
My daughter watches TV & it has taught her many things, the first thing she learnt was BYE = waving, she also learnt to clap, bounce, spin around & is currently dancing with characters on the TV as i type this :), so it really cant be all that ineffective since she HAS learnt things:)
I have another friend who thinks you shouldn't let kids watch TV or anything until they're 6 or 7 & that would just make you a hypocrit - you're allowed to watch but they're not so i don't think there's any harm in allowing children to watch TV or movies :)
I think you should do whatever you think is right since you're the parent, not everyone is going to agree with your methods but you just do whatever you want & you should also not tell others their way is wrong just because it is different to the way you do things.
If my child can learn to count by watching Play School, then i am going to allow her to watch it. It doesn't affect her otherwise, she still likes books & will sit with me while we read & we still play together :)

i haven't tried the baby einstein but my son like to watch little einstein. so far there a lot of positive things that he explore since it is an interactive program. he learn a lot of new words and new things. well, for me it very good program since english is our second language. i also bought the disney magic english program for my son. for me, we as a parent, we have the right to decide what is the best for our children.

I've never used them. I believe that a child's personality is infinitely more important. It's important to be smart ~ but the arts are as important as academic intelligence. And moral are often ignored in raising kids.

Good question!

We have a set of Baby Einstein movies, but my son never really liked them. He does like to watch TV sometimes, but he likes it to be a little more involving than the Baby Einstein DVD's are. He's 18 months old, and believe it or not, his favorite TV show is Between the Lions.

As far as the negative impacts on children, I think that really just depends on how often you let your child watch TV, and whether or not you interact with them. I don't think that my son is experiencing negative impacts from watching TV and videos. IT definitely hasn't hurt his vocabulary at all. He talks in complete sentences and has for several months already.

I don't think there is necessarily any specific age when kids are ready to learn things like letters, shapes, numbers and colors, either. Some kids are ready early, and some aren't. My son can count to 8, knows basic shapes (circle, square, triangle, star) and knows a few colors as well (red, blue, green, and yellow). I didn't push him to learn these things, but he was ready to learn, so I taught him. He's learned most of these things from regular play. He learned his shapes from a shape sorter. I just told him what they were every time he put them in the slots, and he learned what they are. Now he can pick out the shapes in other things, too. As for colors, we learned those when we were picking up toys, I would ask for a car, and if he brought me a green one, I would point out that it was green by saying "Thank you for the green car!" He learned his numbers because he has a favorite toy that counts to ten. The only problem I can see with kids learning these skills from a video is that it MIGHT mean that the parents aren't being as involved as they should.

I believe in doing things in moderation. Most parents and I am also guilty of this, hook the child on TV once they get up in the morning so that they can finish all the household chores. Finishing the household chores would take around 4 hours. Especially when the child is an only child. That's where the harm comes in. The child is enhanced intellectually but have difficulty in social communications.

If I need to do things for a couple of hours then I let my kids watch TV or Movie with others kids their age and older for social communication.

As a working mom it's really difficult not to let the kids get hooked on TV, but at least watching it with other kids will not only enhanced their intelligence, but also their social communication.

I love Baby Einstein!! I agree with you that tv before age 2 isn't good. I also don't think that you need to teach letters and colors at such an early age.

Baby Einstein doesn't do that. Their videos are age appropriate, and say what ages that they are for right on the box. For babies, they have Baby Mozart and Baby Bach. The videos consist of normal/educational toys in motion set to classical music. They show the toys because this is what babies are used to in their world. The toys and each segment of the video move slowly, because fast movements and quick video clips are one thing experts are worried about--it does hurt the brain to be exposed to constant fast motion. Classical music is AWESOME for kids (and everyone else too!). There is a study done that listening to Mozart actually helps you learn better and retain what you have learned. It's also very calming, and used in classrooms all over the world.

For older toddlers and kids, the videos show things like animals, art, foreign language, etc.

I have almost all the videos. When my son was a baby, watching Baby Bach was the only thing that made him stop crying!! Of course, you can't use tv as a babysitter, and excessive amounts are certainly bad, but that said, I highly recommend this particular video series. In fact, I usually buy it for new parents at their baby shower!

My son is 22 months old and has been watching Baby Einstein videos for almost a year now. He also watches a few preshooler shows on TV, The Backyardigans, Little Einsteins and The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. From these videos, TV shows and myself teaching him he knows basic shapes, numbers and counting 1-10, some letter recognition, can sing his ABC's, knows his colors, has a vast word vocabulary of everyday objects, can recognize animals, imitate animal sounds and recognize animal habitats (desert, jungle, etc.). We started with books and he sucked up the information so I moved on to videos so I can do some of my housework while he watches. I belive that the repetition is good for him, it's a good learning tool. Also, kids learn and retain more knowledge throughout the first three years than the rest of thier life. My son loves to find out new things, especially about animals. I think that TV and videos can be a good learning tool for any child as long as it is used in moderation; don't make the TV a babysitter - limit the amount of television your children watch at any age. When the TV is not being used my son has time to just be himself, use his imagination to play, we also read books, draw and color, do flash cards, sing songs and dance to music. As for the videos being ineffective at teaching, I didn't even realize my son could count until my father-in-law was counting with him one day. It surprised him and me, I didn't teach my son this, I wasn't teaching him numbers at that time, he picked it up from a TV show he watched.

We had a few Baby Einstein items (a couple of videos, several CDs and some books) when the kids were little. I didn't agree with all the claims about "making kids smarter" at the time, however, now that my kids are older, it's cool to see how interested they are in the classical composers, artists and poets introduced in the series.

Who would have thought a 5 year old and an 8 year old would be pleading with me to take them to the art gallery to see the impressionist Exhibit

We still listen to the CDs, and my kids can now identify the composers and the pieces, and both are looking forward to learning to play them as their piano skills improve.

So, although I was careful not to overuse videos when they were little, I wound up being glad that they'd been exposed to this series.