Educational Toddler Videos

[SuzySunshine]

Ladies (and gents),

I need some recommendations for educational videos for Adele. She will be 2 around Christmas and I'm looking for stuff that I can put in the DVD player when I need to nurse or cook or #2 is having a meltdown. Right now the only thing we let her watch is PBS type stuff so I'd like to find something that will actually help her learn her letters or numbers or other educational type skills.

If we've talked about this before point me in the right direction I searched but didn't find anything.

Thanks!

TenE likes Dora. Personally, I hate that football-headed wunderkind but she is totally engrossed for 25 minutes. Not that educational but she has learned to count in Spanish, tell me vamanos (sp?), and I think it helps with learning colors.

WordWorld?

[Auspicious]

What's the show where the creatures are made up of the letters of the word they are? Letter Factory? I can't remember. Anyway I like whatever it is. It's low-key and it really helped the kids I babysit sometimes to jumpstart their reading.

That would be Word World. (The first three minutes of which always gets recorded on the tail end of Sesame Street. Damn, now that theme song is stuck in my head!)

It is a magical place where words come alive.

[migirl]

Ohhhh, I actually really like Word World! I think it's so cute! My kids like that show.

[Deebs]

I would do the leap frog series (that includes "Letter Factory"). It has really helped my kids with beginning phonics, and they both love it.

[Auspicious]

Is World World available on DVD?

Sorry I didn't say anything about Cheri's original question! I don't know what's available on disc because we DVR things off PBS instead. Cora is a screaming groupie about Sesame Street, though, and it did teach her the letters and numbers. (Only capital letters, though! I never noticed that about SS until recently.)

[Michele]

Daegan (3yo) is really into Dora recently....he loves the PBS shows but not Sesame Street for some reason. He really likes Cyberchase which is so not for his age group.

For movies (as in longer than 30 minute show), we usually do the Disney ones...he's not really sensitive to parents dying, but I know that Fiddlegirl's DD CANNOT watch something that sad. They aren't directly educational, but I usually talk about the animals and characters with him and he learns that way...for example we talk about the different types of sea creatures in Nemo, and puppets and clocks and whales in Pinocchio. For letters and colors he mostly learned those from Super Why (PBS), Word World (PBS) and Signing Times (videos). He learned shapes on my iPhone (Toddler Teasers app).

[Pollyanna]

All of our kiddos have loved Little Bear, Franklin, Arthur, and Disney sing-a-long videos, and Barney. Not necessarily "educational" but thoroughly enjoyable.

[migirl]

Some of the Word Worlds are on DVD.

If you're looking for non-DVR-able things, I'd also suggest the "Meet the ..." series. There's "Meet the Letters," "Meet the Numbers," etc. We don't own them, but I've heard great things about them.

[DCJenn]

So Annie Lennox is out? (my kid is obsessed with Annie Lennox. I have no idea why)

Dude liked Elmo videos and of course Thomas the Tank Engine (flippin' marketing geniuses, those people). He also likes the Arthur videos when they're on PBS. and if you have satellite TV, Sprout is a good channel. My parents have it. It's all the PBS shows plus some.

Jenn

[GrayMatterWife]

Sam watched "Hannity & Colmes." BUt I really can't recommend that anymore, since Colmes left. The back-and-forth just isn't there, anymore.

Did I mention that I can't stand kiddie TV? My kids are going to HATE ME when they're teenagers...

And, DCJenn, it's all about the hair. Who isn't drawn to Annie Lenox, just to stare at her hair?

Rachel has "Old School Sesame Street" (pretty entertaining...they are episodes from before I was born!) and also "Learning about Letters" and "Learning about Numbers" from Sesame Street. She's also a fan of Veggie Tales and the Berenstain Bears (not strictly educational in the sense of letters and numbers, but they are very entertaining and have/teach wholesome morals). She also likes Boz the Bear. We have all of this stuff on DVD.

Does she like music? My DD absolutely loves this Dan Zanes in concert dvd:

http://danzanes.shop.musictoday.com/...x?cp=1227_6356

We got it for her when she was around 17 months and she still loves it at 3.