The other major issue I have with those baby genius dvds is that they flash their scenes and colours to keep a baby’s attention, which, to me, will only encourage an inability to focus for long periods of time.

Just as a general rule, I’d say stay away from any educational shows for babies and toddlers unless a human is right there in the room watching it and interacting with them.

As for Bab¥ €in$tein DVDs … more unethical marketing to gullible parents I fear.

When it came time for the actual baby sitting his mom told me, obviously, just to pop in the DVDs to keep him occupied. At first I thought it was really neat–it sure made my job easier–and I really liked the way the videos attempted to introduce complex subjects like science, music composition, and even art history. But as I attempted to interact with the boy I found that he wasn’t learning anything. We had watched Baby Galileo video at least three times through, and I tried to get him to talk to me about the sky or stars or anything. He couldn’t even say “clouds” with me. His language skills were limited due to his age, but he really wasn’t getting anything. He was just watching–staring at the screen as the little puppets moved around. The shows were formatted to do nothing but hold attention. Every few seconds there is a bright flash of color, a moving object, or a change of scene.

It seems like a really cool idea to introduce major figures like Galileo and Van Gogh and concepts like astronomy and fine art to your baby, but I think it would be much more effective just to talk to them about them, to actually engage with them instead of just plopping them in front of the TV and letting them be mesmerized by colorful graphics, all the while convincing yourself that you’re helping them learn. I plan to teach my baby about Van Gogh, but I’m going to do it by pulling out my beautiful art history survey text with the large colored plates and pointing to sunflowers.

At this point, I would LOVE to use my TV as a babysitter!!! But B will have none of it. He likes it just ok. He was not raised with TV, and he has never been a self-sufficient kid. He craves adult attention and interaction, and given a choice between the TV and a grownup, he will keep on interrupting the grownup. Especially if said grownup is on the phone. Also, if I happen to leave the door unlocked while I’m washing dishes or something, he will be in the front yard before I know it!

*ahem* Sorry for venting– the kids are out of school for Election Day in our county, and it has been a long day.

My thinking on those is that they may be better than no stimulation, but cannot begin to replace actual interaction with other humans, which is our primary means of teaching and learning new information.

Alas, I know what you mean about kids and the television. My own kids watch more television than I had preferred (although we do restrict it somewhat and will be restricting it more), and they have occasionally had some issues playing by themselves.