Rock N Learn: Phonics

Product Reviews

(4 stars) - Helpful
My son has problems hearing sounds and putting them together so this is a boost. I love this company and know I can trust their products. I even send the DVD to school so the whole class can use it.

(3 stars) - Visually chaotic but surprisingly effective
My 3 year old begs to watch a "movie" every day, so when I give in, I try to choose something instructional. He knows his letters and their sounds, and is starting to put words together, so this was at the right level for him.

The good: The video is almost non-stop phonics lessons without much filler. This means that in two 30-40 minute sessions, they cover vowels, consonants, special consonants with more than one sound, vowel blends, digraphs, silent e, consonant blends, digraphs, and common phonics "rule-breakers". It is actually an astounding amount of material.

My child has seen limited videos that weren't educational, so his entertainment standards aren't high, but the video keeps his attention enough that he asks for it and wants to play one particular segment over and over because it has a scene transition that mimics breaking glass, and the narrator says, "Oops!" which is highly comic, in his opinion. Granted, he watches the video while jumping off and on the couch, and literally sometimes standing on his head, but after a week, he startled his father by singing, "A-E-I-O-U and sometimes Y, sometimes Y." Obviously something is trickling in.

He can also apply some of it to sounding out words already. He knew tonight that "ur/ir/or/er" could make the same sound, and we used it to sound out "tractor," "bird," and "flower." This is after only 1 week, mind you, and this lesson comes late in the video, far past the "oops" lesson that he has watched repeatedly.

The Leapfrog Letter Factory IS very helpful and educational, but it had him firmly convinced that vowels only made short sounds, and there was no mention of any letter making more than one sound (I know they get there in Code Word Caper, but he was very mistrustful of that video as heretical). He wouldn't believe me that letters could make different sounds, but he'll believe a video over a parent any day.

The bad: Visually, this production is a graphic design nightmare. The words are set against a primary kaleidoscope, and there are these computer-generated characters with abnormally wide-opened eyes that make them look hyperthyroid on No-Doz. The storybook characters on another video by Rock-n-Learn have those same weird eyes, and my son won't even let me get the video out of the package. (They're scary, Mommy.) Fortunately, the comp-gen people aren't on-screen most of the time, although their annoying little voices are heard "off-stage" frequently. Of course, their little jokes are meant to appeal to the preschool crowd, and I think they succeed there.

The actors remind me of a line in an Edith Wharton story, Roman Fever, "that rare accident, an extremely pretty girl who somehow made youth and prettiness seem as safe as their absence." They're not quite as adept at lip syncing and mimicking guitar playing as one would like, and the dancing reminds me of my first middle school dance, but I'm sure it's better than hiring Janet Jackson as the song/dance consultant.

Most of the video focuses on the words (as they should) and an inset of the actor's mouth, which is useful for pronunciation, but unfortunately, the color balance is off (compared to the full frame people scenes, which look fine), so that the skin looks sallow and the teeth yellow. It's just a little weird when the mouth dominates the screen.

All of this is to say, it's rather a painful video to watch with your child if you're visually sensitive. If your kids are used to watching more sophisticated entertainment, they may very well not find it meets their standards. There is no engaging story line, no endearing characters, no songs worthy of immortalization in Hal Leonard sheet music.

The bottom line is that it was made to educate, not to win an Academy Award, and it does work, at least with my relatively entertainment-naive preschooler.

(5 stars) - EXCELLENT LEARNING DVD!!!!
I cannot rave more about this DVD!!!! I think they did the best they could with incorporating music with phonics. I swear, my 6 year old who is in first grade had a dramatic improvement in reading and spelling after watching this video. At the beginning of the school year, she was averaging 3 out of 8 on her spelling and on her first report card, the teacher said she needed more assistance with reading. I turned on this video a couple of times during the week for a few weeks for her to watch and each time I started it at a different chapter. There has been a dramatic improvement in her reading and spelling. Now she has gotten an 8/8 on her spelling. She started coming home with stickers each day from school that she said she got for doing a good job in reading. She said that this phonics video taught her how to read!!! Just a few weeks ago, we were barely getting through Dora phonics series and now she is reading books to me that she got from the library which are at a second grade level. Awesome video!!!!
I think all Kindergarten and First grade teachers should use this video to supplement there teaching. Students relate to this much better than a teacher standing up trying to teach it.

(5 stars) - Another great hit with the Rock N Learn series
As a Kindergarten teacher, these DVDs really help my students learn the basics in a fun way. I put them on while they are eating their snacks and they are always engaged in the sights and sounds of these clever DVDs. I've bought them all!

(1 stars) - Boring and Generic
I can not believe people gave this video 5 stars. This series put my [kids] to sleep. This very poorly done, generic series is awful. The music is bad. This makes reading seem very boring. Please don't buy this for your children. Nothing beats Leap Frog Letter Factory and Word Factory videos. Stick to those.

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