Right Brain [DVD] [1999] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Since she was 3 weeks old, my now 17-month old daughter has been watching the Baby Einstein series (we have Baby Mozart, Einstein, Doolittle, and Santa). These "video board books" have been the only ones that she will sit still and watch for more than a few minutes. Then, upon a recommendation contained in a negative review of the new Baby Newton (which I decided not to buy), I purchased Brainy Baby-Right Brain.

What a difference! This is a fantastic video and from the first moment, my daughter was glued to the TV. The concept of Brainy Baby is similar to Baby Einstein, and there are the familiar elements of puppets, toys, classical music, etc. However, unlike Baby Einstein, there are a lot of children with varying ethnicities, and not just the same images of Julie Clark's blond kids and their friends. There is a little narration every now and then to help teach vocabulary like "bear," clouds," red," "blue", etc. Finally, at about 45 minutes long, you get 20 more minutes of video for about the same price of Baby Einstein.

Although I am still a Baby Einstein fan (esp. Baby Santa), I gotta admit that the Brainy Baby series is terrific. If I had started out on Brainy Baby to begin with, I may not have bothered with Baby Einstein. I am looking forward to purchasing the rest of this series.

I come from a Montessori background and have very high standards regarding my child's education. I am discriminating about what I expose her to. The formative years are a crucial time in every child's development. As parents, we have choices about what we present to our children. Introduce your baby to shapes and geometric forms, and motion! Show them examples of colors and the mixture of blue and yellow turning green! Gaze into the clouds, and find forms with your infant! In this video you can do all this. See computer animations of a ball that changes color as it bounces. Watch your child squeal as a brightly colored windmill toy spins two wheels in two opposite directions at once. The video has a peek-a-boo bear, and has simple toys like a jack in the box, but also extraordinary spinning objects and shapes. As a toddler my daughter was enthralled with the brightly colored balls spinning around, apparently while on springs. Now that she is three years old, she enjoys the more cognitive lessons in the video (even though it is all review for her!). It is a good primer for colors. Also there is an introduction to shapes, rhyming, introduction to written words, and animals like fish, cat, and dog. We learn shapes like star, square, circle, and triangle. This tutoring comes in short segments and is presented within lots of captivating images. We learn animal shapes and common items like house, car, boat, teddy bear etc. A gentle voice introduces us to basic vocabulary, shapes, colors and asks fun questions about what we are seeing as well. We see paint colors mix to make secondary colors. The point is that there is so much education in this video, as well as interesting images. Some of the images are so interesting they seem to hypnotize. We see stacking cups that fit inside one another. We see a puzzle taken a part and put back together. We see the workings of gears, the way a ball spins, falls, rolls down ramps. There are lots of smiley faces! Be dazzled by droplets of water falling through a maze of pegs, and toys that perform a wide variety of all types of spinning and motion. These are all visual demonstrations of motion and physics. You will hear the names of colors as they are painted on paper and then see more paintings until one of them is transformed in to a real flower. See finger painting and many art projects in this video that you can do at home, when your little one is old enough. No longer do parents have to tolerate the use of mindless videos to "occupy" they young ones. This is not anything like what the competition has to offer! We now have the opportunity to actually EDUCATE our babies with a video. The child will LEARN something while watching this. I have seen no other product on the market that goes to such lengths to inform and educate babies as the Brainy Baby products do. If you care about CONTENT, then get this video! This is a revolutionary product that gives you the tools to begin educating your child at a young age.

Our family has both the Brainy Baby series and the baby einstein videos. Brainy Baby simply beats Baby Einstein hands down! Most reviews (and everyone that we talk to) give Brainy Baby a 5 star rating. There may be a few moms that disagree, but I seriously question their judgement! The Brainy Baby series is most certainly worth the investment. As a mom, here is what I would tell you: If you put a Baby Einstein video in the VCR, what does your child learn?... that's right... NOTHING! Just pretty pictures. If your child watches Brainy Baby, they actually LEARN their ABC's, 123's, Colors, etc. as well as being entertained with BEAUTIFUL images! (Not to mention that Brainy Baby is 50% longer than Einstein for the same price). Brainy Baby has not only taught our 17 month old daughter the ENTIRE alphabet, but it has been a lifesaver for my sanity too! I can't imagine any home without Brainy Baby.