Review by Maria Lopez, Nanny, Miami, FL
I remember when Be The Best Nanny Newsletter posted an article about research that Educational DVDs like Baby Einstein DVDs are not educational for babies, and that children under age two should not have any screen time at all. I remember parents who purchased Baby Einstein DVDs, mistakenly believing the videos would make their babies smarter, were refunded their money.
That being said, I've been very skeptical of any program that claims to teach infants to read since then. But, I have been using BrillKids at my current job and really like the product. BrillKids is a company that has worked hard to develop a system for teaching reading skills very early. Their products are more expensive than what you find elsewhere but after seeing their first semester of English reading for myself, I understand why.
BrillKids is actually computer software, not a DVD. You have the option of buying just the software, or you can buy a deluxe reader kit that also contains flash cards, storybooks, and other helpful resources. The sheer volume of material you receive really does blow the competition out of the water. I have just been reviewing the software alone, and what really impresses me is that a semester has roughly six-months of lessons of five-days each week. Each lesson is different! I love that they switch up their presentation so that children are not simply memorizing.
Another thing I love about BrillKids early reader software is that the nanny or a parent needs to be involved. With this system, an adult is needed to click through the lesson, and you go at the speed you desire, so you can stop and have conversations about the words you are learning, you can manually use the arrows to point to the different letters in the words, and you can help make the experience much more fun. BrillKids allows nannies and parents to be part of the learning in a way that I just couldn’t with the other system.
BrillKids does offer the software download for $150 for a semester. Also, don’t miss the BrillKids offer of a free trial which offers nine-days of content to check out on your computer, and you can keep it for 14-days while you decide if you want to make the investment.
