Meet the Letters DVD

I love the idea of my children learning early, but I am too lazy to sit next to a child and teach him everything he needs to know. I would never force a child to watch an educational video that he hated, but if they like it- why not? This video works wonders! My youngest (we bought it when he was 18 months) learned his letters after watching it about five times. He was thrilled- he started recognizing and naming all the letters he saw on signs, etc. (Trips to the grocery store became even more painful! Lots of letters!) Even now, a year later, he asks to watch it on occasion- even though we have moved on to Meet the Sight Words and Leap Frog Letter/ Words Factory. After reading the reviews of Meet the Letters, I was skeptical. My boys have always liked TV- but they like action packed cartoons. I was pleasantly surprised with the reception of this video. The movie is very repetitive, but my youngest was able to focus on it quite well. My older boys (4 and 6 at time of purchase) found it boring after the first two viewings. They initially entertained themselves with deciphering what the cartoon had to do with each letter (we have never figured out the letter "O"), but after that goal was (almost) completed this video was met with groans. Now it is reserved for when big brothers are at school! It is not too annoying for the adults to listen to, because it is so monotonous that it is easily tuned out. Great for captive audience in the car while doing errands!

We got this for our son before he was a year old. We put it on for short periods of time at home and he seemed to show an interest. When he was able to sit forward facing in his car seat is when the benefits started to show. I have to drive my two older children to school and back every day since they go to a Catholic school. We have a DVD player in our van and I started putting this on for my son since he was a captive audience. There isn't much else for a child of one to do while sitting in the car for 20 minutes at a time. I was surprised at how interested he was in it. He really enjoyed watching it, though the older kids found it painful. We played this for a while, but he was a late talker (so were my others) and he didn't want to show me the letters I asked in his book so I wasn't sure if it was making a difference. Jump ahead to now. My son is 21 months old. He knows all of his letters. Instead of his beginning speech being words, it was letters. I think this made it easier for him because now he learns a new word every day, I think by putting the basic letter sounds he could say together helped immensely. The other benefit I forsee is reading. He is like a child who just learned how to read. When they first get the grasp of reading, they can't help but read everything before their eyes. My son is constantly saying the letters he sees. He loves to watch shows like Jeopardy because he runs to the TV, points to the letters, and says them with excitement in his voice, like he realizes they are a part of something bigger and not just something from a kids' show! Now my son brings me his Magna Doodle and puts my hand on his to help him draw the letters. This did not happen with my older children who are both very good and avid readers. I believe that all children could benefit from this, even if they only take away a familiarity with the sound and shape of the letters. I wish they had this for my older children. I would recomend this for any child who doesn't know their whole alphabet yet. I hope you get results as amazing as we were fortunate to!

This could be one of the best investments I have ever made. My son is not even two yet, he is just now starting to talk. I got this for him for Christmas and now not even a month later he can recognize almost all his upper and lowercase letters. This product really lives up to it's claims, and I still can't believe it. He LOVES the video too! He gets this giant smile on his face when he yells out the letters, and he does this cute little dance to the song. When I first watched it I thought it was a bit boring and could not see it holding his interest, but he really loves it. They break the video up so youcan watch it in three different sections, you canstart at A, I, or R in the alphabet. I watch it with him because I think me next to him encouraging him helps to keep him focused. IF you watch it in sections, they are each about ten minutes long,so it doesn't take much time at all. I would suggest making it an every day ritual. It also has a part for tricky letters that are often mixed up such as d and b, and when they really start to know the letters youcan use the videos flash card feature. I wish I had this video with my older daughter. I really do, it would have given them such ahead start. His birthday is next month and I am excited about getting started on the other videos inthe series.

After reading these great reviews I decided to purchase this DVD. And, I think I need to warn other parents, like myself, who have already introduce more "exciting" television material to our children. My son is already a PRO at watching educational programming. He's just 18 months and knows/recognizes all his (capital letters), phonics, shapes, colors, and numbers to 10. This video was MUCH TOO SLOW for him. I purchased it because I wanted him to get more familiar with lower case alphabets... but, he just isn't very interested in this format. On the other hand, he LOVES Leap Frog's Letter Factory (and the corresponding magnetic refrigerator toy they sell)! Leap Frog's is similar in concept, but goes well-BEYOND just showing a letter and naming it over and over and over, and turning it into a cartoon... Which is really all this video does. This video simply starts with a lowercase "a" in black/white typeset and say "ay, ay, ay" as the letter "a" flashes around the screen. Then the letter turns into a cartoon, and the "ay, ay, ay" continues while the animation moves a little. Then it moves on to a capital "A", and does the exact same thing. This goes on for all 26 letters and ends with the ABC song. With Leap Frog, there are phonics, a variety of original tunes, cute characters, and an entertaining plot. This "Meet the Letters" DVD just doesn't compare. Although, if your child has had little experience with television, this might be a good start.

My 2 year old granddaughter loved the Colors video and started saying all the colors right away! I decided to try the Letters, but I was pretty sceptical, because I thought she may not grasp all that information yet at her age. To my surprise, she loved the video and wanted to watch it every day! The very first day of watching it, she repeated A and B. Every day, she repeated more and more letters, recognizing the letters from the previous day. Within two weeks, she was saying all the letters! Now, we are starting to teach her how to write her name...at 2! These videos are amazing!! I'll be buying the rest of them soon! 🙂

We love Meet The Letters. The presentaion is crisp and clear. My daughter watched Sesame Street's "Jungle Alphabet" for about 3 weeks, in which she learned the letters "m" and "u". While she loved watching it, I thought she needed a better learning tool. I was afraid she wouldn't like Meet The Letters, because it doesn't look as entertaining as "Alphabet Jungle" (shows how much me, an adult, knows). I'm happy to reporrt she loves this DVD, and like most others, learned the alphabet in about 2 weeks! When watching "Alphabet Jungle", she would just sit and watch. As mentioned before, she'd only call out letters "m" and "u". But, after watching "Meet The Letters", she would repeat the narrator. Before long, she'd call out the letters before it is called (you could tell the creators did a study, because there's a long, pregnated pause after the letter pops up on the screen, allowing the kids to call it first. Or she simply watched "Jojo's Circus" and "Dora The Explorer"). And, like the reviewer before me, now she's mad about calling all the letters she sees! It tickled me when we went to the park and she'd read the letters on the blocks. She'd read signs while we're traveling, etc (the other night she went "T...J...M...A...X...X.."). I have one very major gripe with this DVD, though. It's the really high pitched voices of some of the letter "characters". In those cases they sound pretty bad, eg" the letter "n". In those cases, I only let my daughter listens to the adult narrator. This brings me to the "ABC" song at the end. Boy, it sounds horribly unnatural. Everybody knows the cadence of the song. Well, it doesn't sound like it here. eg: The letter "Z" sounds like he's going to continue talking (his intonation goes up, like there's another letter coming up). They should've just used the kids natural voices and recorded the song fresh, instead of picking the voices from the program. In all, this is a very good DVD that I highly recommend.

The first impression I had was "How Annoying!" It really just repeats the names of the letters in the same boring voice (most of the time anyway) while changing the look of the letters. HOWEVER, it IS very helpful with learning letters. During the first viewing, my 22 month old immediately started repeating what they were saying. Frankly, I was surprised. I didn't think she could say all of the sounds. I don't always show the entire alphabet but the DVD gives you the option to start it at the beginning, middle, or end of the alphabet. (For shorter attention spans) Also, I discovered later, that if the sequential alphabet gets on your nerves too much.. .you can just put on the flashcard part. I find this much more tolerable. The voices are "fun" and they randomly pick the letters. If you're looking for good practice with the letters then I recommend it. UPDATE: My daughter watched this 10 times... at 22 months and has ever after known her alphabet upper and lower. She started reading at 2.5. Now, at 3.5 she reads 1st and 2nd grade material. I'm not saying it's because of this video... but it definitely put her on the path to learning.

I chose the series of Preschool Prep dvds after reading lots of reviews & knew a dvd that taught both the upper & lower case alphabet was the best way to go. I thought they would have trouble with the lower case, but they picked it up immediately. They were 2 yrs 4 months & 22 months when I purchased them last month. We've quickly moved on to sight words which they are picking up very quickly & are starting to point words out when they see them in other books. If I had any complaint, it would be that they give 2 & 3 different versions of letters A & G. Seems unnecessary, pick the commonly used version & that's it. And the spanish alphabet (yep, we're having them move on to spanish) has 2 "letters" that have apparently been taken out of the spanish alphabet. Otherwise....HIGHLY recommended. (PS...we had used babies can read & baby Einstein & weren't fond of either).

i am very excited to show this video to my eldest son, i am hoping he won't be as bored and he will catch on the letters as quickly as he got the numbers

excellent

Did not realize that this DVD does not cover phonics along side letter sounds at all,It is surely better for very young to start with greater emphasis on phonics,meet the phonics might be more useful in the series but why do they even bother with a DVD like this,it would not have taken much to repeat the phonics sound after the letter sound , DVDs like the Letters Factory do it well,but my gripe with the letters factory is it emphasis upper over lower case but this type of DVD does not fill the gap because it has an even greater weakness.