Baby Einstein Discovery Kits: A New Way for Babies to Discover the World {Giveaway}

As a new parent I find myself always taking leaps of faith when trying something different with my baby girl. When I was asked if I would be interested in receiving a baby product and to possibly write a review about it I was definitely thrilled. When the packaged arrived I was excited to see it was a Baby Einstein product:  Wild Animal Safari Discovery Kit, which includes a DVD, CD and Discovery cards. I had heard about them before I had a baby, but didn’t really know what others thought about the product. I guess you can say the media did a great job developing a positive reputation and getting the general public to know about Baby Einstein as a brand.

I scanned through the parents guide, opened up the DVD case, stuck it in my computer, and propped my baby in front of the screen to see what would happen. She seemed amused and a little smirk appeared as figures were floating on the screen. I started pointing at some of the objects and naming them in Spanish, “Vez el leon?/See the lion?” I felt a little silly and thought to myself, “It just feels wrong showing my 6-month-old a video?” So, they sat on my bookshelf for a few weeks as I would occasionally think about if I could try using them again. I looked through the mini books and Discovery cards (again) that illustrated the objects such as animals in the Wild Animal Safari DVD. I decided to try it again, but this time I would use the animal safari DVD during a play date with my baby and her two cousins. One of them is six weeks older than her and the other recently turned three. The three-year-old LOVES animals. In fact, he’s slightly obsessed with elephants. So, I took a leap of faith, and tried using the videos again.

My eldest sobrino was super excited when I showed him the cover of the DVD and even more anxious to watch it when I showed him the flashcards. He looked at the cards I gave him as I was getting the DVD ready. He sat himself down on a little pillow while the two babies watched as well. Part of the parents guide explains how the videos, the flashcards, and the books offer parents another opportunity to expose their children to new vocabulary. What I liked about the Discovery Kit was that we were able to entertain the oldest cousin and reinforce words he already knew, while the babies heard, cousin Rafa, Tia and Mama repeat the name of the objects, too. I could see their little eyes moving from the TV, to older cousin/brother, to Mama/Tia. They were all listening and engaged.

I hope you enjoy a glimpse of our bilingual life and our experience with the Baby Einstein Discovery Kit. My advice to any parent considering using this product is to do two things: 1) go to the Baby Einstein’s website and read their parents guide section for ideas, and 2) try using the video in various contexts (e.g., on a play date, with other books that also show safari animals, with older children to serve as language models). Lastly, be willing to take a leap of faith to new opportunities with your baby because you never know the possibilities of the various contexts you can create to learn something new, in addition to another way to interact with your little one.

THE GIVEAWAY!

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner:  Erin E.

Baby Einstein Discovery Kits are an innovative new interactive experience to help parents introduce babies to beautiful music, nature and animals for which the company’s products are known.  The Discovery Kits in the new collection each feature a DVD, a music CD and a picture book or Discovery Cards.

We have one Discovery Kit from each one of the three levels (Experience, Explore, Encourage Expression) to give away to ONE lucky winner. To enter, please check out all the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits and tell us which one from each level you would choose if you won.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to receive blog updates and subscriber-only content via email and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber. Make sure to leave the comment using the same email you subscribed with.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post and @SpanglishBaby. Copy the link to the tweet in an additional comment on the giveaway’s post.

3.  Like SpanglishBaby on Facebook and join a thriving community of parents.

This giveaway ends Sunday, February 27 at midnight EST and you must have a valid US address to enter.

Disclosure: We received a sample to review the product.  All opinions are our own.

Check out the Giveaway Rules.