The Baby Einstein Company is a unique, innovative company. With several videos, a great deal of CD’s, books, and toys, this company is an all-around educational phenomenon! My daughter has all of the Baby Einstein DVD’s, and she loves “Baby Wordsworth: First Words — Around the House.” This video features many household words that might be some of your child’s first. The bonus is that the words are taught to your child in sign language. Academy Award Winning actress Marlee Matlin introduces the sign language for the word as a picture of the object is shown next to her. At the end of each segment, a child is shown performing the signs. Works by Bach, Bizet and Schubert are featured as background music to this video.
“Baby Wordsworth” groups the words by five rooms in the house — living room, kitchen, bedroom, playroom, and yard. Words like chair, table, refrigerator, lamp, and puzzle are taught. Some of them may be a little more difficult at first, but the recommended age for this video is over one year. My daughter loves watching the featured mascot (a yellow cat) romp from room to room and play with and observe the different objects mentioned. Not only can your child learn sign language from this video, but due to multiple language tracks, your child can learn these words in Spanish and French as well.
There are several bonus features included on the “Baby Wordsworth” DVD which promote learning more about sign language. A bonus segment called “The Alphabet” introduced your child to the sign for each letter of the alphabet. “Expressions in Sign Language” is an interactive game that encourages your child to mimic the hand motions that are being taught for other words.
I hope that The Baby Einstein Company will come out with additional parts to “Baby Wordsworth.” I would love to see them expand children’s knowledge of sign language to other words that they will later learn.
In addition to the DVD or VHS, there are toys, books, and other educational supplements to this video available for purchase from The Baby Einstein Company. Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon, and other retailers also sell Baby Einstein products.