Baby Einstein (Baby Webster Flash Cards)

Member Name: Mels

Product:	Baby Webster Flash Cards
Date:	17/11/00 (1275 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helps your child to learn new words, sounds, and recognition

Disadvantages: none

If you are a parent you will know that there is nothing more rewarding than when your child says their first word. It is such a big milestone, and one of the key signs that your baby is now becoming a toddler with his/her own personality. My daughter’s first word apart from Mamma or Dadda was ball. It was so clear and she would point at her ball. Apart from her first steps, her first proper word meant so much to me. She now says around 30 words, some very clear, some in her own little language that only me and my husband understand!

She has been interested in books from an early age, and loves to look at big bright pictures. She often brings one of her chunky books to me, and we sit and point to certain animals and shapes in the book.

My husband recently brought home some flash cards called “Baby Einstein”. These cards are supposed to enhance vocabulary, acquisition, concept development and word recognition. I had seen flash cards being used on the television in experiments with young children, including newborn babies, and was amazed at how effective these cards were, and how quickly the children learned new words.

The flash cards have big pictures on them of everyday objects, animals and shapes. Underneath the picture is the name of the object/animal in big bold print. On the reverse side of the card are teaching tips. These are examples of things that you can say, ask or do as you show the flash cards. Depending on the age of the child and level of development, you can choose to use all of the tips, or only a few.

For instance one of the cards has the picture of a pig on it. On the reverse side it says: -

1. Look at the pink pig!
What animal do you see?

2. A pig says “oink, oink!”
What does a pig say?

3. Pigs like to roll in the mud
What do pigs like to do?

Underneath the teaching tips is a language lesson and it tells you how to prono
unce the word pig (which in this example is simple to do!)

The word pig is then translated in the following languages, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, and Russian. It also tells you how to pronounce the word in each language.

I get the impression that the flash cards are from America, as the pronunciation on some of the cards is nothing like how the English would pronounce a word. For example “dog” is pronounced “DAWG”. “Clock” is pronounced “KLAHK”. I just adapted these to how I would pronounce the word.

I have been using the flash cards for a couple of weeks and I have found them to be very effective. My daughter is only 15 months old, and therefore is only at the stage that she can recognise a few of the objects, and doesn’t yet understand about colour and sounds. However, children learn from example and by playing, and if I show the cards to her often, I am sure she will begin to understand. For instance she knows what a cat looks like and will point to the relevant card with the cat on.

The flash cards can be used in conjunction with the following videos - Baby Einstein, Baby Mozart and Baby Bach. I haven’t got any of these videos, but I know that Sainsbury’s sell the Baby Einstein video and I think that I may purchase it in the future to use alongside with the flash cards.

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