It May Be Time to Trash the Baby Einsteins

When I became a new mom I was never sucked in by the “do this and your baby will be smarter” parenting philosophy. Sure, reading to your children is a must. That’s a given. But plunking babies in front of the tube to watch so-called smart videos and DVDs like “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” sized for infants always seemed ridiculous to me. And now new research concurs with my mama instincts.

Researchers from the University of Washington have found that for every hour a baby spends watching these DVDs and videos, they learned six to eight fewer vocabulary words than children who never watched the videos. And for babies between the ages of 8 and 16 months, they tend to score 10% lower in language skills assessments.

While there are a plethora of ways to make children intelligent, I suggest that you simply start and end with children’s books. That’s what I did and both of our daughters (who are also homeschooled) are way above where they should be intellectually and academically. Overall, parents shouldn’t rush anything. There will be plenty of time for your baby to learn about Mozart and trigonometry. Just let your baby be a baby.

What do you think? Is this research rubbish, or is there something to the smart videos for babies?

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Dianna Hobbs says : August 9, 2007 at 4:07 pm

Hi Jennifer,

I tend to agree with your perspective. Actually, it breaks my heart to see how many parents have relegated their child-rearing obligations to television shows.

As an African American homeschooling mom of four I find that children learn best through hands-on interaction and exploration of new things.They have such vivid imaginations don’t they?

I think children actually have a natural proclivity toward learning new things. They simply need to be stimulated in the appropriate environment.

It’s about time that we return to hitting the books, and educating our kids the good old-fashioned way.

Also, I was recently reading up on the firestorm you were caught in the middle of regarding breastfeeding and I say, what a pity. I breastfed all four of my children and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Okay, I suppose that’s enough ranting for one evening.

Great post!

Dianna Hobbs
http://www.diannahobbs.com
http://www.eewmagazine.com
Jennifer James says : August 9, 2007 at 5:04 pm

Hi Dianna,

Thank you so much for commenting! I’m so glad people are reading my blogs because at first I thought I was talking into space. So, thank you very much. It keeps me going.

By the way, I checked out your web site. Very nice!!