Last time I looked over Baby Babble’s first DVD, and how their entire approach is different from everyone else’s. However, for those who don’t remember or feel like reading back, here’s a little resume of what sets Baby Babble apart from the rest.

Instead of just teaching letters and words, they concentrate on teaching sounds first, after which the sounds are put together to form very simple words. Baby Babble was put together by speech therapists, who in some cases appear in the videos to articulate and sound the words out, during which a close-up shot of their mouth is displayed, showing kids how words are pronounced. Frankly though, I’ve already explained this in great detail in my first post, and I recommend you refer to it if you’d like to read an in-depth explanation of why their method works.

In any case, at the end of my last post I said that I would review the next two Baby Babble DVDs, and so here is the first one of them. Just to clarify the title a bit, each of the DVDs is dedicated to teaching all the basic words which contain certain sounds. For instance, Baby Babble 2 – First Words: P B M teaches children words which contain the sounds P, B and M. It’s as simple as that really.

Baby Babble 2 – First Words: P B M

Serving as a follow-up to the first video, this one is divided into four main sections.

• The first one focuses mostly on objects and words which contain the P, B and M sounds. The interesting part is that they are introduced not in a dry and lifeless fashion, but through toys in action, pretend play, music and more… they use ways which are going to attract the child’s attention seeing as how the video is much more interactive this way.

  Also, between the video clips of pretend playing and toys you are going to be presented with the afore-mentioned speech therapists who show exactly how to make the P, B and M sounds with their mouths.

• The second section of the DVD which looks into what you can do as a parent to have your child exercising their speech by themselves. There are some truly insightful tips given here, and if you stick to them, you are going to be amazed at how autonomous your child has become, at least in terms of learning.

  Also, needless to say, it will help your child develop a love for education, making his journey in school much easier.

• The third section of the video is dedicated to the speech therapists as they make use of sign language, in addition to which they carefully sound out certain objects and concepts which were presented to your children earlier.

  This is a good way to help them remember what they learn, reinforcing what they have been shown in the main section of the video.

• The last part of the video isn’t exactly part of the education process, but it could be if you want it to; it shows you all the toys they use in the main video so that you can purchase them for your child.

  Having the exact same equipment as those in the video in front of him or her will make it easier to relate to what he or she is learning.

Baby Babble and Speech Development

Before you make any kind of decision in regards to Baby Babble, I’d like to point something out: many of the parents who are using it have children with speech development problems… some of them are even autistic. The good news is that practically every single parent who has a child with one of the problems mentioned above is more than happy with the results the Baby Babble series gives.

For instance, a certain reviewer mentioned having a son with Autism and Apraxia. Needless to say, the parents had trouble with their son, especially from a learning standpoint, but the first thing they noticed is that it had a very calming effect on him. Second of all, after only a few days he started to articulate the letters P, B and M much clearly than he had been before.

Another parent told his or her story about having a boy who was diagnosed with speech impediments at around 2 years of age. When the parents got him the Baby Babble DVDs, he was pretty much hooked on them instantly, even asking for more. He took pleasure in making the noises along with the therapists, and since then, the parents claims their child’s language skills have gone a very long way; while he doesn’t speak too much, he does possess some impressive writing skills, not to mention that he is patient and learns things fast. All in all, the parents believe that Baby Babble taught their kids something beyond speech.

I don’t make a habit of posting customer reviews on my website, but in this case, I feel like they are really going to give you the true perspective as to what Baby Babble is capable of accomplishing for your children. Here are a few extracts from people who have tried this product with their children:

I just have to say that both of these videos are a hit with my boys. I have a nearly 5 year old son that has Autism and Apraxia. I got the first video when he was less than a year old. It used to be the only thing that calmed him down when he started to tantrum or melt down. I used to be amazed by the calming affect it had on him. Besides the fact that these videos are very addicting to young children, they are also great for helping with speech. My son is articulating his P, B, M words so much better now that he’s been watching the 2nd video…they really do learn from these.

Source: Amazon.com – Not Just for Babies…Great for Apraxia & Autism by Ballet Mom “Mom2Boys”

This is the best video for speech out there in the market.The two ladies did an excellent job in enhancing speech for the children. My 2 yr old is speech delayed and i can already see the improvement in her babbling and she picked up a few words and signs after watching the video over and over.
would highly recommend this product and look forward to more baby babble series.

Source: Amazon.com – Baby Babble 2 – First Words: P B M (DVD) by sagar

The Final Verdict

You probably already know what it is: Baby Babble 2 – First Words: P B M is definitely worth getting if you are trying to teach your baby, toddler or child how to speak. I especially recommend that you get it if your child is experiencing any kind of speech development difficulties seeing as how so many parents have had success with this DVD in such a situation, as you can tell by reading the reviews above.

All in all, Baby Babble’s new take on speech learning is really changing the landscape of early education techniques, and there is no way your toddler won’t benefit from them. Also, if this is the first you hear about Baby Babble, I’d suggest you have a look at the first Baby Babble DVD (or my Baby Babble review); after all, when climbing up a ladder you can’t start above the bottom.

Next time around I’m going to have a look at the next Baby Babble DVD (Baby Babble 3 – Next Words: T D N), so stick around to see what I have to say about it.

To place your order for this groundbreaking speech development program, simply head on over to the following link below, where you can get it at a 25% discount.
 

If you are reading this, then I’m going to assume that you have been taught how to read from a young age.

If you look back on the way you were taught, chances are that you’ll recall more lectures and boring exercises more than anything else. In the last few years though people have started to take a somewhat different approach to early education, preferring to use educational games rather than traditional exercises. This tendency isn’t without cause; many studies have demonstrated that humans, children especially, learn better through engaging activities, especially if they are presented in the form of a game.

While some games may focus more on the educational aspect of things, others prefer to concentrate more on the “fun” aspect; Zingo is a game that manages to walk the fine line between both, being equally engaging and educational for children.

How Zingo is Played

Before looking into the game itself, I would like to warn you that it does contain small parts which represent a choking hazard, meaning it shouldn’t be used by children of less than 3 years of age.

In any case, Zingo basically has 3 elements: boards, tiles and the zinger. Each player (the game can have up to 8 people playing) gets his or her own board consisting of 9 tiles. At every round, a player presses the zinger, a plastic box, which then spits out two “mystery” tiles.

The goal of the game is to match the mystery tiles to your board, and to claim a tile a player simply has to call it orally. The player who fills his or her board the fastest wins the game.There is a total of 72 different picture tiles and 8 boards.

The boards actually have two sides: yellow for children who don’t really know how to read yet, and the red side is for the older ones who have already developed some skills. Each tile has a duplicate, giving everyone two chances to get what they need. Needless to say, there are many possible board-and-tile combinations to go through, ensuring that every game stays fresh and new.

What’s So Great About Zingo

So what’s there to write home about here? Well, for starters Zingo is capable of keeping children distracted better than any television set… and I’m not joking.

Kids love to move fast, be loud and compete with each other, and that’s precisely what the game offers them; they are up against each other to see who can finish their board the fastest and they need to use their voice to claim the tiles.

In turn, this means that their brain is constantly at work, trying to match the mystery tiles to what they see on their boards… which actually brings us to the next point: how Zingo fares from an educational perspective.

What Zingo Teaches Children

So what does this game teach them exactly? Well, for starters it teaches them to matching as they need to find the tiles corresponding to the ones on the board. It teaches them words recognition as each tile is a labeled image of something simple. Seeing as how they need to remember what is located where on their boards, Zingo also helps children to improve their memory as well as their concentration.

Last, but definitely not least, Zingo is a social game which makes children interact with one another, teaching them the ropes of social interaction (such as patience, respect and sportsmanship), something they are definitely going to benefit from in the future.

As you can guess, this game wasn’t only designed for readers… as a matter of fact, it was designed as a tool parents could use to help their children start learning about reading. Mainly, it is going to help them learn how some basic words are spelt, and it will even improve their vocabulary repertoire.
 

What the People Have to Say About Zingo

So what do those who have tried Zingo have to say about it? Well, as is usual for me in these situations, I like to go on Amazon and see what the people who have reviewed the product have to say.

At the time this is being written, Zingo has received 290 reviews and garnered an average rating of 4.8 stars out of 5. Only 2 people have given it one star, with one of them complaining that the game isn’t really suitable for eight year-olds, but that’s Amazon’s fault seeing as how their description doesn’t exactly match the one on the box. Another person complained of receiving the game in Russian, which made it difficult to play… but that can be chalked up as a shipping error.

In other words, pretty much everyone is ecstatic with Zingo, having nothing bad to say about it.To purchase this game (or learn more about it), you can go to the one of the following links below.

Early education is not something which should be taken lightly… after all, how your child is going be when he or she grows up will largely depend on this critical period which serves to form the base for all future decision-making.

While the approach to early education has largely remained unchanged for the past few decades, it seems that some progress has been made as of late as various researchers have concluded that children learn much better when they are doing so through games. As a matter of fact, chances are that most of your school memories consist of fun moments rather than boring lectures.

Of course, it goes without saying that coming up with an educational toy is much more than a simple challenge. Apart from having to create a balance between playing and education, the maker also needs to make sure that the toy itself serves to teach useful concepts which are going to help the child later in life.

Needless to say, a large number of companies have tried to come up with such a toy and have miserably failed, with some of them even going out of business.

However, there is a company by the name of MindWare which has already been making waves in this industry for quite some time now as they have released a large number of highly-acclaimed educational toys, including the Pattern Play building blocks.

An Overview of What Pattern Play Is

Just like many of MindWare’s toys, Pattern Play is a building block set which consists of 40 high-quality pieces. In addition to the blocks themselves there are also 40 pattern design cards in order to provide children with some kind of a challenge.

In addition to that, a 10.5” square tray and a muslin storage bag are also included. The blocks themselves are coated in very vibrant colors including red, blue, orange, yellow, green, light green, purple, baby blue, dark purple and pink. It is recommended for children of ages 3 and up.

As you can probably imagine, the purpose of the MindWare Pattern Play is to have children use the building blocks in order to create various patterns according to their own ideas and imagination, or create shapes which match those on the design cards.

The concept behind the whole thing is pretty simple, but what exactly does it help to develop in a child, and does it actually work?

How the Pattern Play Helps Children to Develop

As is claimed by MindWare themselves, the blocks are designed to in order to introduce the children to basic and essential mathematic concepts such as sorting, matching, fractions, congruence and symmetry.

The idea is that for children, figuring out which piece goes where and in what direction is not only going to be educational, but it will also be a perceived as a fun and challenging game. The cards which are used to challenge children even further are sorted according to their difficulty range and they can prove to be useful for children of different ages.

In addition to teaching the children some basic mathematic concepts, the MindWare Pattern Play also contributes to expanding their capacity to think creatively as the children are also encouraged to stray from the challenging design cards in order to work on some creations of their own.

Regardless of whether the children will be trying to complete challenging designs or making their own, they are going to be learning something, not to mention that they will be having fun at the same time.

Does the Pattern Play Work?

Well, first of all it needs to be taken into consideration that this toy was meant for three year-colds, which means that they still need to be taught the most basic academic concepts there are. By following the instructions on a challenge card the child’s brain becomes stimulated as they are actively trying to find the necessary blocks by differentiating them from the other ones, an excellent method to teach visual discrimination, sorting, matching, and congruence.

If the children are a bit older, then these same blocks can be used to introduce them to what fractions are and how they work, effectively giving them an academic head-start. Also, it should be noted that the intricacy of the patterns create by the children can also be used as a very accurate indicator of their level of development, which is a very practical way of keeping track of their progress.

As far as the public opinion on the matter goes, one simply needs to take a look at the MindWare Pattern Play’s Amazon ratings. Out of the 26 reviews, 19 give 5 stars, 2 give 4 stars, 4 give 3 stars, and only 1 gave 2 stars.

The general opinion is that it is a great tool which one can use to teach various mathematical, geometric and spatial concepts to children while keeping it fun.

There were only a couple of complaints, with the main one being that the frame doesn’t allow the pieces to fit in too well, not to mention that some people felt that 40 design cards wasn’t really enough. Apart from that though, the people who tried it seem quite happy of the results.

We have looked around a bit and found that the best deal on the MindWare Pattern Play is available at Amazon as they are selling it at a 22% discount for only $23.42. If you would like to purchase it simply follow the link below