Baby Einstein - Numbers Nursery

My daughter who is now 15 months old started watching "Numbers Nursey" at 12 months old. By the time she was 13 months old, she was counting from 1 to 5 and recognizing the numbers. This DVD is her absolute favorite and she can hardly contain her laughter and excitement when the little Baby Einstein Caterpillar makes its first appearance.

Although BE videos are a wonderful concept, they aren't a staple needed in teaching your child! We have several BE videos at home for my 2 year old Daughter and I keep it running on her TV in her room when she is in there playing. She is not a TV watcher and will only focus her attention on it when something catches her eye. I have been doing this since she was about 2 months old. My Daughter could count to 11 by time she was 20 months old, knows at least 5 primary colors, and can recite the entire alphabet since she was about 18 months. She also has a vocabulary much larger than that of some Pre-Schoolers and is very articulate. However, I do not think that BE videos had much of anything to do with this. What does matter and will help your child in learning is YOU and/or a Caregiver taking time out to TEACH your child the old-fashioned way!

While I hate to admit it, my 8 month old is hooked on Baby Einstein. His favorites are Baby McDonald, Numbers Nursery, Baby VanGogh and Baby Shakespeare--i.e., all the classical puppet format types. Also really loves Babies First Moves, though that is more of the real-kid-doing-fun-stuff format. I've researched the BE series thoroughly, and highly recommend these. While I am not crazy enough to think the videos will make my little one smarter, I do like that I know what he's seeing, I get a few minutes to shower, cook, etc, and most importantly, he loves it!

The name "Baby Einstein" wants to make parents think it's okay for babies to watch this program, but look at these facts:

- In a study among babies ages 8-16 months, every hour spent watching programs daily such as 'BABY EINSTEIN' or 'BRAINY BABY' translated into 6-8 fewer words in their vocabularies as compared with other children their age
- the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television at all to children under two years of age.
- for every hour of television a baby watches daily, their chances of acquiring an attention deficit disorder increases by 10%
- brain wave activity is slower when watching television than when sleeping in babies.

In summary, three hours every day of watching programs like this day can result in 30% greater chance of ADD and 18-24 fewer vocabulary words!!

"Signing Time" (Two Little Hands Productions) DVDs is an alternative option for OCCASIONAL video viewing because at least communicating in sign language is proven to:

- reduce frustration and tantrums
- accelerate language development
- promote parent-child bonding

Last thing for new moms - carrying newborn babies (in arms or next to body) an extra 3 hours a day resulted in 40% less crying. So carrying baby in a carrier or sling can help calm fussy babies!

Of all the Baby Einstein movies we have, this one keeps both my baby and my toddler engaged. They love the puppets, and I love that the numbers are spoken aloud. My toddler will repeat the numbers as they are spoken. This is an improvement some of the earlier movies that had no words spoken aloud in them. Also on our favorites list - Baby McDonald & Baby Noah, and my toddler loves Neighborhood Animals and My First Signs.