Educational

Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics [Blu-ray]

Did you know that your HDTV may have a greater potential than what you are seeing now? Did you know that manufacturers adjust their sets to get you attention when you buy the set? Usually that setting won t get you the best picture once you have the new set at home.With this easy-to-use program you have the opportunity to re-adjust the set allowing it to provide a much better looking picture. In both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics provides simple setup instructions for new HDTV s. The program also provides additional background information on the HD system itself. It will give you an idea of the quality level you should expect from the HD programs current available to consumers. Also included in this program are commentaries by world renowned cinematographer Allen Daviau known for his work in E.T The Color Purple Empire of the Sun and Van Helsing among others as well as commentary by Joe Kane which will help you learn to identify quality High Definition video.The program is set up so you can pick and choose the subjects you'd like to see. Genre: MISCELLANEOUS/SPECIAL INTEREST UPC: 647715600424 Manufacturer No: 647715600424

Leap Frog - Letter Factory

Tad, Leap, and Lily hop from the pages of the amazingly popular Leap Pad learning toys onto the television screen in this attention grabbing phonics program. Tad's disappointment at being unable to help his family with an important presentation at the letter factory quickly turns to excitement when he meets Professor Quigley and joins each of the letters of the alphabet in their own fun-filled classroom devoted to learning their unique sound. Tad practices karate kicks with the k's, digs the vibes with the cool cat d's drumming on the bongos, and snores peacefully with the z's while learning to recognize each letter and the sound it makes. A catchy, fun song serves as a summation of each letter's "class" and entices even the most reluctant of toddlers (and their parents) to sing each letter's sound. An interactive game follows the program and gives children a chance to practice their newfound skills of recognizing letters and their sounds. Consumers expect great educational products from LeapFrog and this DVD won't disappoint. (Ages 2 to 5) --Tami Horiuchi

Teaches letters, phonics and listening skills. A wild adventure to the Letter Factory with popular LeapFrog characters Leap, Lily and Tad. Led by wacky Professor Quigley, Tad joins Js jumping on trampolines and Ks practicing karate kicks as new letters learn their sounds. Fun songs will have kids singing letter sounds in no time.

DVD Features:
Other:Learning games
Theatrical Trailer

The Happiest Baby on the Block - The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer (DVD)

Do you learn better by watching rather than reading? Here is a chance to see how to transport your baby from screaming into serenity...in minutes. Watch as, step-by-step, Dr. Karp teaches new parent how to switch on their baby's powerful calming reflex. English and Spanish In "The Happiest Baby" Dr. Karp reveals a treasure sought by new parents for centuries... the "calming reflex" (the automatic "off-switch? for any baby?s crying). No wonder thousands of Los Angeles parents, from working moms to superstars like Madonna and Michelle Pfeiffer have turned to Dr. Karp to learn his secrets for making babies happy. Elisabeth Bing author and co-founder of Lamaze International "The Happiest Baby on the Block is fun, fascinating and convincing. I highly recommend it to all new parents." (Running time - 38 minutes.) The DVD also contains 3 bonus chapters: 1) Dr. Karp answers 25 questions from parents about calming babies and helping them sleep. 2) A Spanish dubbed audio track of the entire 38 minute teaching video. 3) Three tracks of calming white-noise sound that is an extraordinary mix of womb sounds and a newly designed pulsation that babies love (even though it sounds a little odd to the ears of an adult) Each track can be played individually, played in sequence or repeated for hours to gently guide your baby into a deep level of relaxation. This video is designed in NTSC not PAL or SECAM. It is meant for use in most countries in the Western Hemisphere as well as Japan, South Korea, Greenland, Guam, Samoa, and the Philippines.

Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory

Building words is an exciting and empowering experience for young children (and frogs) who have mastered individual letters and their sounds. When young Tad wants to nominate his Dad for a "Best Dad" contest he asks his brother Leap and sister Lily for some help filling out the application. The three young frogs go see Professor Quigley at their Father's Talking Word Factory for a little instruction and get to watch the "Sticky-ick-o-rama" and the "Word Whammer" machines at work. Tad quickly discovers that vowels act as the glue that sticks letters together and then learns to combine individual letter sounds to make three-letter words, use common ending sounds to create rhyming words, and blend letter sounds to make even longer rhyming words. Phonemic awareness, vocabulary building, and rhyming are entertaining and fun thanks to familiar Leap Pad characters, colorful animation, and short songs. An interactive word game challenges young viewers to fill in the missing first letter in a variety of three-letter words. This program is a great next step for graduates of Leap Frog: Talking Letters Factory and children ages 3 to 6. Tami Horiuchi

Sesame Street - Elmo's Potty Time

Always educational and entertaining the loveable puppets of SESAME STREET help preschoolers learn how to use the potty in this fun-filled musical episode. Favorite characters like Elmo Baby Bear and Grover steer kids toward healthy bathroom habits in an imaginative program of songs games and skits designed to ease children's potty-time anxieties and fears.System Requirements:Running Time 45 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: NR UPC: 828768411599 Manufacturer No: 82876841159

Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory 2 - Code Word Caper

When Mr. Websley is accidentally silenced by the Silent E Machine, Leap, Lily, and Tad must journey through the Complex Word Complex to build the code words needed to return his voice. Guided only by the "Absent Professor Device," the kids learn how to build the complex words needed to solve the code and save the day. Humorous songs add to the fun and help teach the rules for advanced word building.

Leap Frog - Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory

In this twist on a classic tale Tad Lily Casey and Dot act out "The Three Little Pigs". It all takes place in the Storybook Factory--where pictures words and imagination bring stories to life! For children ages 3-6.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY UPC: 012569718814

Reading is simply putting words together to discover a story. When Mr. Websley glimpses Tad and his friends rehearsing "The Three Little Pigs," he reminisces about favorite childhood stories and is struck with an idea for a new invention--a talking storybook. Frog and Quigley are called to construct a new factory and Tad and his friends begin to rehearse in earnest since they're slated to be the stars of the book. Problem is, Tad has been cast as the narrator, but he doesn't know how to read. Professor Quigley and Leap reassure Tad that he already knows everything he needs to know to be a successful reader: he learned his letters and the sounds they make in the Letter Factory and that sounds combine to make words in the Talking Words Factory. All that's left is to combine the words to make a story. Tad learns some new tricks like "chunking" words together to sound like talking and that punctuation markings like commas and periods help with inflection. In no time, Tad is reading fluently and it looks like the talking storybook will be ready right on schedule. Viewers age 4 to 6 will develop their reading and comprehension skills right along with Tad thanks to on-screen highlighted text. DVD extras include a read-along storybook of a somewhat untraditional version of "The Three Little Pigs" that can be played with or without a voice track and five sing-along songs. --Tami Horiuchi

National Geographic: Six Degrees Could Change the World

In the 2004 eco-thriller The Day After Tomorrow, director Roland Emmerich dramatized the potential consequences of accelerated global warming. By combining stock footage with computer-generated imagery, the National Geographic special Six Degrees Could Change the World serves as a sort of nonfiction counterpoint. As NASA climate scientist James Hansen cautions, even two degrees Celsius represents a tipping point (from which there is no return). Based on Mark Lynas's Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet and narrated by Alec Baldwin, the program roams from the bushfire-ravaged suburbs of Southern Australia to the drought-stricken farmlands of Nebraska to the rapidly melting glaciers of Greenland. In the process, aerospace engineers, marine biologists, and ordinary citizens share their experiences and predictions. In the end, it's the actual events--rather than the speculative scenarios--that prove most alarming, like the 30,000 deaths that resulted from 2003's European heat wave. While a skeptic might dismiss that tragedy as a statistical anomaly, every continent bears the scars of climate change, like the deforestation of the Amazon and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. In order to inject some levity, Six Degrees detours to look at a British grape grower who has actually benefited from his country's drier environment and the carbon footprint involved in the creation of that all-American favorite, the cheeseburger (suffice to say, it's considerable). While some of the special effects are hokey--Hansen sitting at a floating desk, for example--the preponderance of compelling data helps to compensate for such lapses. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Also of Interest

Six Degrees Could Change the World on Blu-ray

More DVDs About Global Warming and Climate Change

More National Geographic DVDs

Stills from Six Degrees Could Change the World (click for larger image)

In a special broadcast event, National Geographic explores the startling theory that Earths average temperature could rise six degrees Celsius by the year 2100. In this amazing and insightful documentary, National Geographic illustrates, one poignant degree at a time, the consequences of rising temperatures on Earth. Also, learn how existing technologies and remedies can help in the battle to dial back the global thermometer.

Baby Einstein - Baby Mozart - Music Festival

It's called "the Mozart Effect," the notion that exposing youngsters to the melodies of the maestro can improve verbal ability, spatial intelligence, creativity, and memory. It's a pretty big leap of faith to understand that effect unless you personally see a toddler react to the stimulation. The Baby Einstein folks have a series of tapes (Baby Einstein, Baby Bach) that add visual stimulation to the bouncy recordings (using vibraphone, Rhodes electric piano, and even a glockenspiel). The melodies are heard against colorful imagery of spinning tops, wave machines, soft baby toys, mobiles, and the like. Several parenting groups and magazines have heralded the tapes for children 1 to 36 months, but the Orwellian aspect of introducing babes in arms to the TV screen may cause many to just pick up the CD. --Doug Thomas

ASIN: B00007J88T DESCRIPTION: From the beach to the bath -- a musical voyage!
-- Introduces babies to the wonders of water
-- Exposes little ones to whales, dolphins, fish, ducks and more

Within a baby's first year of life, new experiences can transform what might otherwise seem to be ordinary events into exciting opportunities for imaginative play. Baby Neptune exposes little ones to the wonders of water in their world -- whether they're stomping in the rain, splashing in the bathtub, playing "catch me if you can" with the tide on the beach, or "meeting" the fascinating creatures that live in rivers, lakes and oceans. Overflowing with captivating undersea footage and live-action visuals of delightful puppet shows, toys, and happy children, this fun-filled exploration of "water, water everywhere" also features the Water Music of George Frideric Handel to accompany you and your little one on your own interactive voyage of discovery! END

DVD Features
-- Repeat play
-- Discovery cards
-- On-screen aquarium
-- Toy chest

Sesame Street - The Best of Elmo

The Sesame Street character has fun singing some catchy new songs (you and your toddler just might, too), explaining the difference between light and heavy, having a laugh over pictures and numbers, and sharing the screen with a good-natured Whoopi Goldberg and Julia Roberts. Of the various Elmo videos, this one really does have the choicest material and stands up to repeat viewings--a big plus with little ones. --Tom Keogh