I received a copy of So Smart Sights and Sounds DVD and was anxious to check it out with my son. The DVD is produced by so smart! productions. Their work has won 30 national awards for educational products.

The DVD was designed for babies ages 3 months to 36 months, and is divided into 6 sections which allow you to tailor your viewing to your baby?s age and interest. It’s an interactive learning experience between parents and children. That means that the producers expect that the parent is sitting with the child while they are watching and pointing out the various shapes, colors and patterns that appear on the screen.

The DVD sections contain various line drawings which have been animated. The pace of the video is calm, and slow. The background music, all classical pieces, was my favorite part of the video to be truthful. My son enjoyed swaying back and forth and clapping his hands to the music too. The drawings begin with simple shapes like lines and circles, and then progress to more complex drawings such as people and fish. Some of the drawings are animated and move throughout the screen.

The DVD can also be used with a computer to print out story cards to further enhance the interactive learning experience. Sadly, the DVD on our computer is not working, and so I wasn?t able to use this option to explore what the story cards were all about.

I decided to test drive the DVD with my 13 month old son starting a few days ago. He is a very visually oriented child, and so I was excited to see how he might react. I personally found these videos to be very straining on my eyes. The contrasting colors, computer generated images, and the animation just really gave me a quick case of eye fatigue. I did make comments during the viewing session(Look at the rectangle?that color is red?can you sway to the music?) to try to keep my son interested. Despite my commentary and interaction with him, my son was marginally interested in the DVD. The music definitely interested him more than the images that appeared on the screen.

Overall, this is an excellent product which is well produced. Perhaps as my son becomes older, he will enjoy watching this DVD more. Right now, he?d rather sway to the background music while playing with his baby toys.