While there are certainly days that I wish my older daughter had a mute button, it doesn’t stop me from encouraging my younger one to “use her words”. I’ll gladly take a chatty kid over one who expresses herself solely via tantrums, and it seems I’m not alone. Parents are universally thrilled when their children’s vocabularies start expanding, and we’re glad to help our kids make progress.

Phonics 4 Babies “Baby’s First Words” DVD is a back-to-basics approach in terms of sound, letter, and number recognition. The video’s “creator and star is Mallory Lewis, daughter of legendary Shari Lewis, who won countless awards for her work with puppets, the most famous of which was LambChop.” One blogger fondly recalled: “You can’t deny the cuteness of that sheep, and the late Ms. Lewis was such a likable personality.” She was excited to see Mallory’s work, but said, “Honestly, I was a bit scared at first thinking she’d never be able to fill her mom’s shoes, but I was pleasantly surprised that she is just as talented and interesting.” Another mother agreed: “Mallory Lewis has a genuinely enthusiastic personality that kids love - she has both my boys talking back to her! They also love letters and pay close attention as she sounds out the alphabet.”

What did the kids think? That depended on their ages and the states of their vocabularies. One mother humbly commented: “…I promise that I don’t care if she’s a genius. I mean, she appears to be one, but I’m not forcing it on her. She’s clearly smarter than most eight-year-olds, but it’s all natural.” But then she went on to say that her daughter “…seemed genuinely excited about the puppets and songs, even though I felt the material was a little bit advanced for her. (I would recommend it for ages 1 and up.)” Another mother, whose son is also not quite a year old, agreed that the songs were a hit: “They’re easy to learn, so if you’re sitting on the floor watching it with your kid (as you probably should be *ahem*), you can sing along and encourage them to participate.”

But the older and/or more verbally advanced children weren’t quite the target audience. One boy “…enjoyed the music and singing in the video and liked watching the puppets, [but] he just wasn’t engaged by the word games and word sounds.” His mother commented: “Ms. Lewis was engaging; the puppets were endearing; and I think the DVD is well done…Words and sounds are clearly articulated and repeated. There is no doubt in my mind that if [my son] were a bit younger, he would have gotten something out of the video.”

One blogger observed that “Lewis does not leave appropriate pauses in between her questions and the answer.” She made the excellent point that “this video is aimed at teaching words to children without vocabularies. If you go too fast, they’ll lose interest or get frustrated and tune out.” However, she suggested that “…this video might give you some ideas that you can employ long after you’ve turned off the television for the day. (For example, putting three things together in a group and asking your child to point out the object that you’re calling for and then name it as his vocabulary grows.” Likewise, another mother commented on the practical knowledge in the video, such as “words like please and thank you are taught…anything they watch that reinforces manners and teaches the basics is a plus for me.” In short, Phonics 4 Babies is “great for teaching basic sounds and words.”

More blogger reviews are coming up!

Thurs 10/11 - Growing A Life
Fri 10/12 - Mama Drama Stephanie
Mon 10/15 - Girl Con Queso
Tues 10/16 - Get In the Car
Wed 10/17 - An Island Review
Thurs 10/18 - Round-up review on PBN