August 25, 2009
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Pictures and Videos Galore
To make up for my verbose entry from last week, I promise this one will be mostly pictures (and one video).
A while back, Shelly told me about Preschool Prepco videos: Meet the Letters, Meet the Shapes, Meet the Colors and Meet the Numbers. The videos have received rave reviews from everyone, it seems -- Entertainment Weekly, Parents magazine, and various and sundry pediatricians and child development experts. Although I don't believe in preparing for preschool (gotta leave the teachers something to do, right?
), I did need a break from Curious George, Thomas the Tank Engine, Kai-Lan or Mickey Mouse. So, I ordered the DVD four-pack from Amazon a few weeks ago. The videos are awesome! They feature the letters, shapes, numbers and colors (depending on the DVD) as cute little characters in context-appropriate scenes, repeating their names over and over. Johnny likened it to Pokemon, but educational. So imagine the number 8 as a figure skater, skating a figure 8, while saying "eight" ad nauseum. What I also like is that for letters and colors, they show different variations on a theme. So they show "A" and also "a," as well as a sans serif lowercase "a." For colors, they'll show navy blue, sky blue, pastel blue. After only a few days of watching these videos, Jack knows almost all of the letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Guys, we've been telling him about these concepts for months, playing with his letter magnets and pointing out colors and shapes in everyday life. These videos trumped all our efforts! Or maybe they were just the final push he needed. Anyway, it's so cool to see that a whole new world has opened up to Jack. He sees letters and shapes everywhere now. The other day, we were driving around, and I realized that Jack was spelling out "staples" because we were passing by a Staples store. How neat! To demonstrate this newfound skill, I took this video today. It's funny because Jack thinks I'm saying "smell" when I ask him to "spell," so he'll sniff before spelling each word.
OK, now here are those pictures I promised.
We keep trying to capture Derek's adorable smile and missing the moment!
These are his "thinking" pics (and the one on the right shows how long he is!)
Derek's making fun of me already (pic on left)
Jack doesn't want to miss out on the action
It's not fair -- I deal with the newborn in my arms and the toddler tugging at my skirt day and day out, while Johnny gets to share milkshakes with Jack!
That's all! Thanks for looking.
Comments (13)
Sooo cute! I love Jack's smelling/spelling and these are the first pictures that are really starting to capture Derek's personality.
They're so delicious!
Holy cow, Beverly! That's awesome how he's spelling! WOW!! I'm really impressed. Great pictures, too!
Ooh thanks so much for the Preschool Prep website link! I'm probably going to get something for C when we move. So far, we've been surviving on Winnie the Pooh flashcards (as well as the fun stuff his speech therapist brings over, too).
Those "thinking" pics are my favorite. Love the pics!!!
i love how jack was "smelling" before he spelled the words. too cute! he'll get a kick out of it when he looks back on it when he's older.
you weren't kidding when you said derek is LONG! wow! i love the pic of derek wearing red lying on his tummy...very adorable and almost as if he knows it in that picture! hehe
he can spell! Ok, adding the dvd set to my registery! yay! too cute. More videos! I can't get enough of the little guy. Can't wait till D gets bigger and they can play together.
LOL! I love your family!
Cute video! I'm so impressed with Jack's pronunciation!
I will definetly have to check out those videos! The ones I used for my boys' alphabet learning was the Brainy Baby series. They have ABC and 123 videos, I don't know if they have other ones, i haven't checked it out. When Tristan was 12 months old, he picked up all the numbers and letters in 2 days of repeated watching. We have a video stashed away somewhere of him reading all the letters. A child psychologist gave him a test 2 months later and was impressed with what he knew at such a young age. Tristan started reading books shortly afterwards. Kids nowadays pick up things really quickly, who said tv is bad for you?
We tried the same thing on Tyson but it took him several months to get it. Tyson just started on the colors, he knows red and blue, but we haven't started him on shapes yet.
I'm going to try to get my hands on the color/shape videos, we're done with the numbers and letters. I also think bringing them to daycare earlier helps them learn when they interact with teachers. I know you were planning to send Jack soon, we're looking to sending Tyson next spring.
Really cute picts of Derek, I can see some Jack expressions in some of the shots... and I definetly know what you mean now when you say he's slim and tall. You have a basketball player there!
I love Derek's crazy baby hair!!
Oh wow - that's really impressive how Jack has picked up his letters! Alex has really resisted them so far, so I'm very tempted to try these DVDs now!
Derek definetely looks like mommy! i love his thinking pictures!
That is so cute bev, to see jack spelling and knowing what the things are. Can I also recommend, your baby can read. I purchase that and its more like showing the words, repeating and showing what its link to, but its amazing b/c adrian has pic up rather quickly. But this preschool prep thing looks amazing too and might get that as well.
Derek is adorable as well as Jack, there are a few picture there that resembles Jack when we was that age. Awww the memories.
Your doing a great job both u and johnny.
keep in touch, Jas.
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