In My Home (Spanish)

I looked at a lot of products and was hoping that this one would work. It doesn't. First of all, English is presented in writing - if a child is old enough to read, they would be bored with this. Also, Spanish words are not presented with a one word description, but with a phrase that is at lightening speed. It is difficult to hear what is said and definitely you cannot repeat it. I am very disappointed with this purchase. Next time I will go to an actual store so that I can view the lessons before purchase

One of the best dvd's

Excelent purchase

Nice simple starter DVD for my 4 year old grandson

I am writing a review comparing three language programs for very young children: Dino Lingo, Whistlefritz, and Little Pim. I rented an episode from each of these programs from amazon to see which one was the best fit for me.Dino Lingo was my least favorite (three stars), however, watching it regularly will still help toddlers and very young children pick up new words. The production value of this one was the lowest; the dvds are animation, but the animation is pretty low end and a bit corny. Shots with people in them aren’t very clear either, however, kids aren’t going to care about that. The program comes with six dvds that are about a half hour each. The cartoons are very spazzy, fast paced, and odd. I would recommend this set for little ones that watch more cartoons or television in general. Not being judgmental here, but kids that are already exposed to other faster paced cartoons that are all over the place (like a ton of kids’ shows are) will pay attention to this better. I personally feel this set is best for kids aged two to four, or maybe five. Younger is probably best, because an older child is going to get sick of six half hour long dvds like this pretty dang quick.Little Pim came in second place (four stars), but this is the intro to French that I am choosing for my just turned three year old daughter. Little Pim is a mix of cartoons, and segments with real people. It isn’t as annoying as Dino Lingo, and the pace is slower. The cartoon segments aren’t as bizarre either. If your little one is already exposed to more screen time, and cartoons at a faster pace, you may want to go with Dino Lingo.Production quality for Little Pim is decent, and huge steps up from Dino Lingo, but don’t expect gorgeous and elaborate animation as it is still fairly plain. Little Pim comes with six dvds (same as Dino Lingo) that are about half an hour each. They are cute and engaging enough for the two to four (maybe five?) year old age bracket. Again, I can’t really picture six or seven year olds having any interest in watching these dvds, but I could be wrong. Rent episodes off amazon before spending the one hundred dollars on the whole collection to find out.Little Pim is not related to the Pimsleur Language programs at all. This is a cunning (and maybe kinda sleazy) marketing trick. Pimsleur is a well established language learning tool, and I feel these were trying to use that to advantage. Overall, I’d give the Little Pim three and a half stars.Whistlefritz (only comes in Spanish and French, we are starting with French) is by far the best of the three. It flows like a kids’ show with songs, and the episodes are centered on a woman with an animated mouse for a side kick teaching to a group of kids. Looks nice, although I bet all parents will be sick of the songs before the first month is out, but this is the price we pay.The Whistlefritz collection comes with four dvds with about a half hour of program on each one. It also comes with two cds that have all the songs on them, in case you’d like to listen on an endless loop in the car for the rest of your life. Whistlefritz is ten dollars cheaper than Dino Lingo and Little Pim, but you end up with two less episodes to watch. I personally would take two more episodes over the music cds.I feel Whistlefritz would be suitable for slightly older children too, and not just toddlers, because the songs and style are slightly more engaging. Seems like five and six year olds might still watch it.Also, don’t expect your children to become fully fluent in French (or whatever language you choose) from watching these videos alone. You will have to keep going with the language. It is disappointing to me that none of these programs have additional levels geared towards elementary aged children. I guess we have to jump right into Pimsleur (which is not connected to Little Pim in any way) or Rosetta Stone.My three year old liked all three episodes I rented, so I have decided to start by purchasing Little Pim. We don’t do a lot of screen time in our house, so I imagine maybe three days a week I will have her watch a half hour episode. I also plan on following up that half hour with an episode of Puffin Rock or Mouk with the language set to French (thank you, Netflix!). There are many other cartoons on Netflix that can be played in other languages, so take advantage of screen time by using it as a language learning tool.I intend to purchase the Whistlefritz program in the future, maybe six to twelve months down the road depending on whether or not my interest in having my daughter learn a second language early on wanes or not. (My three year old also tinkers around with me peeping over my shoulder as I use Duolingo in French and also the 6,000 Words in French apps- I probably do these about half an hour a day. She doesn’t always pay attention, but I’m sure it’s good hearing the language spoken anyway.)All in all, I’d love to see a more comprehensive program created for teaching young children a second language. The programs currently available are a nice intro, but not sufficient as a stand alone.Hope this helps!