Gathering comments on products for Early Education (English Phonics and Math)?

Question

Dear everybody,

We are currently sell early educational DVD/CD sets for learning phonics and math in U.S. We are very interested in how Canadian educators and parents think about our products. Please let us here your voice.

Visit youtube.com (www.youtube.com/user/letsstartsmart)

Thank you very much for your help!

TLC for kids

http://www.letsstartsmart.com/

Answer 1

First one I looked at was ABCDE song.  I immediately became disenchanted with the fact that:

1) You're using large letters in the beginning, when most of what we use and apply is in lower case.  Your swtiching between upper and lower case is simply a cause for confusion.

2)  You're teaching the letter names primarily.  This is one of the greatest annoyances of most educational systems.

3)  Your sound for "a" does not match the actual sound.  It sounded to me closer to an "o" sound.

4)  Your sound for "b," "c," and "d" are ALL incorrect.  "B" does NOT say "buh," "C" does NOT say "cuh," and "D" does NOT say "duh."

5)  You confused it again when you said the letter name THEN the sound.  The idea of education is isolation.  Isolate the sound and teach it.

6)  You then went on to confuse it more.  You said, "Now we know how to read."  Then you showed "ABCDE" and said the names of the letters.  That's not how we read.  We do not say the names of the letters, we say the sounds they make.

Deciding to give you another chance, I looked at another video.  I looked at Long Vowel #15.  It had to do with "all"  (Ball, Tall, Stall).  I am more confused over the name of the video, as I thought it was going to be about Long Vowel Sounds.  Maybe you can clarify this for me and I will understand the point?

Moving on to another one, and hoping to find something worthwhile, I clicked on Short Vowel #14 AG sound.  Once again, mixed up the individual sound for "G", but that has already been pointed out.  

B doesn't say "Buh."  B says "b."  What is a buh-ag?

When you combine "buh" and "ag," you don't get "bag."  You get "buh-ag."  What in the world is a buh-ag?

According to what you are putting forth, you should REALLY say "bag" spells "buh-a-guh."

I had to stop after the "r says ruh" part.  I couldn't listen any more.

Aside from this, it seems to give no time for practice, manipulation of materials of any kind, nor ability for the child to really work on these concepts and grasp them.

It also seems to focus on reading before spelling.  It's clear that we know spelling comes first.

Better than Barney?  Possibly.  Worth buying?  Not a chance.  Give your children a real education.  If you're going to use television time to educate, I strongly discourage you to use these products.  I think it's critical that parents teach their children properly.  Spend time with them.  Help them with these things.  Making it enjoyable is important, but in doing so, we need to make sure it is accurate.  I only watched 2 1/2 videos.  I could not watch any more.  As someone that has helped students read, these videos made me cringe.

Hope I helped!

Matt