Well, kids in their first three years will learn based on whatever they see around them. If they don't have a set of Baby Einstein blocks to distract them, they will try to figure out why the pile of the carpet is designed like it is, and why there's more dust on the back of the TV than on the piano, and why their face is upside down when they look into the concave part of a spoon but right side up when they look at the convex part.

I am all for well-designed stimulating toys because they are generally safer than having kids taste the dustballs they found under the couch, suck on the lead-based paint on mom's jewelry, or play with the electrical wires. However, I think it's important to make sure their toys provide opportunities for real investigation rather than just distractions. For example, I don't understand why toddler toys are almost always in bright primary colors. This distracts kids from the regular stuff around them, all of which is important to observe and experience. And I don't like toys that provide a short-term jolt of distraction, at the expense of a long-term in-depth investigation. Nor passive stuff that makes noises and movements that the child can't comprehend.

I think some of the Baby Einstein (and similar) toys do provide excellent learning opportunities, but parents need to find a balance between simple, distracting stuff and realistic, complex stuff.

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From the way in which I have seen and heard Baby Einstein employed I am sure that those kids whose parents expose them to it are going to be short on attention and not too bright. Its one thing to allow a kid to play without parental interruption, quite another to plop them in front of the boob tube (I have seen many men grow them after spending too much time in front of them - its a grow lamp for boobies) and let them dissolve into a puddle of goo in the solvent like qualities that the videos seem to possess. I prefer my kids to be solid and not thixotropic.

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Somehow I knew that having giggle-filled "family dances" to Beck, the Shins, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and the Gipsy Kings would be just as good as exposing my little girl to classical music!

Whew. :)

- Lea

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Actually I was always entertained by the "solvent-like qualities" of Baby Einstein. I had this twisted desire to see the focus groups they ran for the video. Did they test and test until they found the sequence most likely to zombify a 9-month-old? Anyway, my younger daughter never watched 'em, but I sure liked 'em when I was tired and pregnant and my older daughter wouldn't be left alone and I needed a shower. I thought that was their primary use; I don't know anyone who thinks they make babies smarter.

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