Chinese Baby Einstein

Two Christmases ago, Mei and Andrew gave us the whole collection of Baby Einstein videos (pirated?) from Hong Kong. I'm ashamed to say that we haven't cracked them open until now, desperate for low-energy entertainment for Tobey while sick. We were pleasantly surprised. And then not.

We've been looking for DVD's in Chinese so that Tobey can hear real native speaking besides when grandparents visit. I got two duds from the library and wasn't sure whether to buy "The Mole Sisters" from the Yew Chung book fair. But I was pleasantly surprised that when you pick "Chinese" on the Baby Einstein videos, they speak in Chinese! Unfortunately, there isn't much speaking on the BE videos so the benefit for Chinese learning is still minimal.

We were unpleasantly surprised at the video content. All sorts of friends and friends' kids love the videos and I've seen them before a handful of times. But I suppose now that Tobey is older and can understand so much more, I find myself frustrated at how fast the images and scenes change. By the time I say, "Look, Tobey, a dolph--", the dolphin is gone and in comes a crab. Some "scenes" are a little longer but some I swear are less than 5 seconds each. Granted, Tobey is on the upper end of the age range for these videos, but still, I can't see how kids can get value from the fast pace. I can see why critics say some TV shows promote a short attention span. I even "previewed" a Sesame Street a while ago to see if it was something I wanted to TiVo for Tobey. I also found it to change scenes and topics so fast that I didn't think it was something I really cared Tobey to watch.

This week I started TiVoing Mr. Rogers. I haven't really watched a whole episode with Tobey yet because this week, TV was all about getting Tobey to stop asking for food and for Mommy to have 30 minutes of peace. But from what I did see, I need not fear short attention span from this show. The "Land of Make Believe" that I saw today had a person in a weird purple panda costume speaking monotone. It was bizarre and I couldn't catch the meaning or context while I bopped in and out of the kitchen making dinner. I hope it doesn't show up in Tobey's nightmares tonight. It just might in mine.

I'll probably still limit Tobey's exposure to shows that I think are beneficial. In 10 years I'll probably be previewing Power Ranger or SpongBob equivalents.