I was HIGHLY SKEPTICAL of this DVD. First, educational DVDs tend to be boring. Second, I don’t buy in to the concept of educating children extra-early, as if being ahead of their peers at age 3 will buy them a lifetime of being superior human beings. Third, the Leap Frog frogs are such irritating goody-goodies: the frog parents NEVER STOP SMILING, and if the frog children aren’t busy furthering the frog parents’ careers, they’re passive-aggressively voicing self-pitying sentiments about how they guess nobody wants them around (YOU GOT THAT RIGHT).

To sum up: my hopes as I put it into the DVD player for the first time were NOT HIGH. And in many ways I was absolutely right. The plot is absurd: two of the frog children have about half an hour to put together a presentation that will make or break their dad’s career; meanwhile, the third frog child is rewarded for a silly sulk and gets to go from room to room in a training factory where anthropomorphic letters learn to make their own sounds. Each and every letter is put into the same song model: to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell,” they sing “The E says EH! The E says EH! Every letter makes a sound; the E says EH!” You’ll be in the shower and find yourself singing, “The S says SSSS!” and you will WONDER WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOUR LIFE.

BUT! As lame as I found the plot and characters, the kids were RIVETED. I have 2-year-old twins, and after they watched the DVD a couple of times, they started saying letter sounds. They’d see an M on a sign, and they’d say, “M! Mmmmm!” Soon we could say to them, “What letter says wuh wuh?” and they’d chorus “W!” So if you DO want to educate kids early, this DVD will help you do it. And, my first-grader was learning to read at the time, and the video actually HELPED HIM LEARN. Things he’d been struggling with BECAME CLEARER. I can actually mark it as a turning point in his learn-to-read process. Even my third-grader watched the DVD with interest.

And so I recommend it to you. I really do. But it pains me to do so. —Swistle

Link: Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD on Amazon.com
Ballpark price: $10