Parents often don’t weigh the long-term annoyance potential of children’s DVDs.  Usually it’s the short-term peace and quiet that we’re after:  “Maybe if I show her these creepy little creatures with screens where their bellies should be, she’ll stop crying for more than 30 seconds at a time,” we think.  And the next thing we know, those creepy little creatures have taken over our houses and our minds.

Even the DVDs that are geared toward expanding our children’s minds (without causing us to lose ours) can grow tiresome.  It seems nearly impossible to find a DVD that kids enjoy and doesn’t grate on parents’ nerves - especially for those toddlers who apparently have no time for TV:  “My daughter does not watch television. Believe me on those days where I have a deadline to meet I’ve tried, always in vain, to get her to watch some sort of public television approved show. Nothing doing.”

So far, Baby IQ: The World Around Us has been a hit with both parents and children.  The parents were impressed by the music - ”From the first notes, I was smiling. A symphony, a real honest to goodness symphony (the London Symphony Orchestra no less) provides the soundtrack to this engaging video” - and by their children’s reactions to the DVD - one toddler “bounced to the lively introductory tunes as her mouth hung open in surprise and wonder” and another little boy “[narrates] the whole thing in a constant stream of commentary. That’s a rainbow. What’s in there? It’s a clown! Now it’s raining. That’s purple flowers! He is completely engaged and anticipating his favorite segments.”

One mother couldn’t say enough about the music: “I can’t emphasize this enough. So much of what is produced musically for children makes my ears bleed. To have a CD or DVD that I can stick in our stereo system and enjoy with WonderBaby is huge. HUGE. I played this DVD over and over again, in place of some of our usual classical music CDs - we enjoyed the music together and named the images as they came on screen and it was pleasant and relaxing and no-one had to punch themselves in the ears at the end of it.”  A DVD that is relaxing and enjoyable for both parents and children - Baby IQ has done it! 

While the DVD is geared toward the baby/toddler set, some of the older children liked it too:

“I decided to show it to all my kids (5 yrs, 3 1/2, 10 weeks) before bedtime on what had been a particularly stressful day…My kids were full of NOs and I was full of frustration. I knew that no one would fall asleep if they were this stressed out. Once again the opening notes swelled and my baby relaxed. My other children, who were at first busy pulling hair, started watching. By the end of the movie I was able to calmly put them through their bedtime routine. I would have never expected a ‘baby’ movie to work so well for older children too.”

With other kids, parental involvement helped spur interest in the DVD:

“After encouragement and explanation of each of the images the two year old became more intrigued and started to point out what each image was a picture of.”

But when a child insists on bringing a movie on vacation - “He likes it so much that we brought it on the airplane with us to Mexico, and then, in Mexico, watched it at least once per day for 5 days” - well, what more can you ask for?

There are more reviews of “Baby IQ: The World Around Us” coming up.  So come back and check them out, along with our final Round-Up review!

5/8 - Chicken and Cheese
5/9 - Flexible Parenting
5/10 - Mother Bumper
5/14 - Growing a Life
5/15 - Metro Mama
5/16 - Round-Up Review on PBN