A question for parents of small children

[Miss Shelf]

Last night I saw a segment on the news about videos that supposedly teach children to read, count, etc. They showed a mom popping a video in (she had a ton of videos on DVDs in a large drawer under the TV) and watching fondly from another room as her kids sat mesmerized. This disturbed me-I have memories of my mom using homemade flash cards, and she made a clock out of a paper plate to help teach me to tell time. I don't think any video can replace one-on-one time with a parent.

The question I want to ask is-do you use such videos with your children? and why?

 

[abecedarian]

Having taught several of my kids to read, I can honestly say that for us, videos or even records, were a waste of time and money. My mil gave us a tape she thought would thrill my socks off-it was Fran.. from Kukla, Fran, and Ollie..teaching basic phonics using her sock puppets. Must have been a special release from tv archives..but it was so stupid! We made more money than I want to admit when our oldest girls were in 1st grade for a super-duper phonics program on records, with extra games and junk to scatter around the house. The basic set had merit, but the manual was useless and so our benefit was limited, but we ALL learned that "A says aye or Ah, B says Buh.."
There are many reading programs available for under $50 or 60 that are much more useful and teacher friendly. I've been using Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt and it was about 40. It has a script for the teacher, and the reading material right with the lesson. The kids have copy work, and then the teacher reads them a library book. Simple, but effective. I've also used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons..its in the $20-25 range by now, but my first copy was $16.
All this is to say, I highly doubt the "plug in a tape and leave" method of reading instruction works very well. A better solution is to sit next to the child so you know if they're paying attention, and focus on a book or materials in front of the two of you. Young children's attention span isn't very long, so the lessons don't need to be long-they'd better not be if you want the child to learn to love reading!
And as for teaching a kid to count-why would a video be needed for such an everyday task? That's what legos, blocks, m&m's and cookies are for. oh, and don't forget all those cars passing on the road..count trucks or blue cars or..Use the money that would have gone for the video and buy candy to count...

 

[Isabell]

I wouldn't even waste my time and money. My kids really don't watch much TV anyway and to get them to sit in front of it, forget about it.

They rather color, do arts and crafts, paint, sculpt with dough, read, run around outside, rain or shine, summer or winter.

 

[spiralsky]

Learning videos

Actually i cant say that i have actually Bought any of these items however my daughter had learned spanish at 3 her vocabulary is not huge but she kows how to count in spanish and say a few others words she is 3 . I think so programs are good for them however they need the words on the papers in between two hard backs
Claire

 

[mom2kngr]

Ok I would not use this either to teach mine. My 3 year old has watched Dora the Explorer enough that he can count to 5 in Spanish. Which these days I think is a good thing. I don't like my kids watching a bunch of cartoons all day but my son gets his time to watch tv in the morning and play while I have to do my entries for the farm which some days is 1-3 hours depending on day.

 

[scooter13]

The question I want to ask is-do you use such videos with your children? and why?

No. And I won't when it comes to that time. My son is only three weeks old but already I have been looking into BOOKS that will do the same thing as those videos. And I will be sitting in a chair with my son and read them with him. (Obviously I will be reading them to him at first.)

Like others have said though, this doesn't mean I won't let him watch TV.

 

[blueboatdriver]

I think TV and video can be used as a supplement. My seven year old has always been interested in books from an early age as I've tried to read to him as much as possible; we've worked our way through all the Cronicles of Narnia and are now on Roald Dahl one of which he has read aloud to me. Since reading these books he has been interested obviously in any films or TV programmes to do with them. We do sometimes catch our three year old all alone at the computer shouting Spanish phrases at the Dora the Explorer programs which we receive once a month. I think all of this technology can help but should be used in conjunction with plenty of the real thing; reading tons of books, you can't beat it.
Oh yeah, I think Sesame Street was pretty good for counting especially.

 

[SFG75]

Last night I saw a segment on the news about videos that supposedly teach children to read, count, etc. They showed a mom popping a video in (she had a ton of videos on DVDs in a large drawer under the TV) and watching fondly from another room as her kids sat mesmerized. This disturbed me-I have memories of my mom using homemade flash cards, and she made a clock out of a paper plate to help teach me to tell time. I don't think any video can replace one-on-one time with a parent.

The question I want to ask is-do you use such videos with your children? and why?

I've heard of Sesame Street having some progress according to studies, the rest?, no evidence. In our house, our kids have learned a few new worlds from the teletubbies. I would give that show credit for more babbling, but it's probably due to natural curiosity than anything else.

 

[curiouswonder]

The question I want to ask is-do you use such videos with your children? and why?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
In our tech-savvy family, we taught our older kids to read the old fashioned way - we read to them until they started helping us with the words. After my oldest son learned to read, he read to the younger kids and that led to my oldest daughter learning to read earlier than he did because she wanted to keep up with him. At this rate, the 16 month old should be reading in another week or two.
I can't dispute that there is some value in the videos, I have no idea one way or the other. I do know that we don't need one more area of the life of children that parents can forfeit to the television to line the pockets of yet another company promising incredible opportunities for our kids if we as parents will just stay out of the way and let the "experts" take care of them.
[/rant] (sorry about that)

 

[giddieon]

I love my buttons and lights and so does my daughter I have to say... with that said... Reading and reading her own books and taking care of them and her reading to us and us to her will never be replaced buy a computer game or videos...

 

[Billy]

I have never used any videos to teach either of my kids to read or count or anything else. I didn't attempt to teach them to read before they went to school. I figure they will spend from 5-17 at school reading and writing, so let them play while they are litle and at home. Of course I taught them to count, but that is so easy to do, so I don't understand why anyone would want a video to do it. I've also heard that Sesame Street is pretty good value, but with my kids I fouond that neither of them ever actually sat still long enough to watch a whole program of any kind.

At the same time I don't say that videos are totally useless. When kids are older they can be used as teaching aids, but not as teachers.

 

[WoodenCoyote]

The twins had a bunch of Baby Einstein tapes. They were a waste of money, I can tell you that much. They had one where a narrator just read off the alphabets of different languages, while a top or pinwheel spun in the background. They didn't put anything in context or even tell you what language it was. Hell, even I couldn't learn anything from that.