Baby Human 2

GOOD THINGS: this miniseries about the research and development of the baby's mind and physical motor skills not only fascinated me beyond belief just in watching the babies grow and the amazing things they scientifically prove to understand far before they can communicate it, but it was also a very important tool in understanding how to support my own baby's growth and development. I couldn't believe the way the research broke down the "why"s of what babies do, instead of the same old materials telling us WHAT babies do. Not to mention, there were things that different babies did at different ages in this DVD that totally shocked and amazed me. i had no idea that babies knew as much as they do. because they can't assimilate the information into direct communication of what they know, we as adults might assume they're just cute cheeks and happy coos until a certain age. the way they process information about the world around them from birth and on is just simply amazing and i have already started to adapt some of the things i've seen the researchers do on this dvd into my own parenting practice.

REALLY ANNOYING THINGS:

1) SUPREME overuse of the term "Baby Human"... there's another reviewer on here that rated the series 1 star because they were offended at the series rating us down with other species of animals. when i first read that guy's review i couldn't WAIT to respond to him and tell him that his review was the biggest load of crap i'd ever heard. however, in a way, i can see where he arrived at that conclusion. first of all, they never call a "baby" simply a "baby". they always refer to it as a "Baby Human" so much to the point that when you hear it every 3 seconds (the baby human learns to walk, the baby human hears her mother's voice, the baby human rests in her crib) it does get distracting. it's used in extreme excess. if you were to watch a documentary (even a scientific one) about dogs, it would be annoying to constantly hear "the baby dog learns..." or "the puppy dog" or "the baby cat" or "the kitten cat learns to" over and over again. we get that "puppy" means "baby dog" and "kitten" means "baby cat" the same way we can understand that in a documentary on THE HUMAN SPECIES, "baby" is in reference to a baby human. also, they tend to refer to us as a species through the whole dvd constantly. yes, we are a species. i REALIZE that's a correct scientific term. however, it's usually used when it's not even being compared to another species, so it's just random, as random as it is to keep saying "baby human" when it's not at all in direct comparison to any other species. i don't mean to go on and on about this, but about the 85th time in an hour when you hear the phrase, it not only sticks out as unnecessary, but it literally distracts you to the point htat you're wondering why they keep saying it and have to rewind because you missed what they just said.

2) most of the research proven in this series was, in fact, mind-boggling and amazing. however, they often showed two different babies in one area of growth and development. for instance: "baby human mary is 4 months old as she watches as the ball is lowered into the glass. she makes no differentiating movements or reactions when the ball is then lowered into a cylindar that is clearly too narrow for the ball to go into. baby human kendra is 5 months old as she watches the same experiment. however, when the ball is lowered into the glass that it should not fit into, she is fascinated. her face displays her disbelief. so, the experiment proves that in the time difference of only one month, the baby human has started to grasp reality to the point that she knows when the reality around her is being defied or manipulated" the problem with this kind of comparison is that baby human "mary" might still not know this in 2 months from now whereas baby human "kendra" might have known this since her second month of life. if they are testing several hundreds of different babies, they should make that clear, because they don't clearly state that the research is based on an average or a large number of charted growth development. to the watcher, every few experiments you are wishing that they would show the growth in the SAME baby to prove their theories. why they continuously show a comparison of development from two very different baby humans at not only different ages but different surroundings, parents, leadership, environments, and most of all, natural learning speeds inherited geneologically, is beyond me. i found this very irritating.

overall, i am VERY glad that i bought this dvd miniseries and the previous BABY HUMAN 2, as they have successfully helped me learn more about my baby's development and learning.

After seeing and loving a few episodes on TV, I decided I'd buy the dvd and watch all of 'em. They're very interesting. It's done in a documentary-style fashion, but the experiments are so neat that you kinda forget about that. The DVD case itself is eco-friendly and so is the packaging, which is nice. There's only 4 episodes on the disc, but with each lasting an hour, I suppose that's about all they could manage to fit on one disc. I purchased The Baby Human as well, and I recommend both of them.

This video had 3 chapters that can be used in whole or in parts. The experiments were easy but demonstrated development milestones in infants and toddlers. I teach a child development class and this emphasized our classroom vocabulary. Even students who weren't taking my course were interested in watching the video.