Much to our bloggers’ surprise, Barney’s new full-length DVD “Animal ABC’s” was unlike what folks might typically expect from Barney. I know we all love to hate the poor purple dino, even though kids still love him (oh yes they do), but with this new dvd, our first set of bloggers were raving. Even my kids loved it and actually learned a lot — thanks to real animals (not cartoons). I’ve been working with my soon-to-be preschooler daughter on her letters, and this was a great way for her to get them.

Our second group of bloggers had similar things to say.

- One thing I really appreciate about Barney videos is their multi-cultural grouping of kids. They almost always have a cultural melting-pot of kids and I love this!

- After we watched, Kaitlyn ran and got an Alphabet block out of her room, held it up to me and said “this block has the letter, um, what letter?” “V”, I said. “V is for Vulture”. “Vaw-ter”, she said before running off.

- It was able to hold her attention and she wanted to watch it over and over again. Eventually, she started recognizing and reciting the animal name before Barney did. Now that was pretty cool!

One blogger even relied on Barney during a 16 hour moving trip! Cara watched Animal ABCs for three hours; the DVD would end and I would press play. She was happy [and most importantly quiet] for the entire time and the interstate seemed to fly by.So, yet again, Barney has yet again saved my proverbial ass.

Even though we give Barney a tough time, he definitely has a way of teaching our kids some great skills. Check out Animal ABCs and his other slew of DVDs here.