Brighter Minds: A Product Review

A few months ago, a representative from Brighter Minds Media sent me two of their learning products to play with and review. And what with having a new baby and starting a new school year, I haven't yet written what we thought about the free things we got in the mail, and I'd be a real bum if I didn't, right? So here we go:

Making Letters - Love this little board book. Henry loves to "read" it and trace the shapes (which are cut out on each page) with his fingers. Calvin started his first word recognition going through this book. The geometric shapes and simple illustrations that coordinate with them are well-done and sparked conversations away from the book as the boys look at things in the world around us. Even three months later, Henry wants to look through it almost every day. I'd give it two thumbs up for being so appealing to the three-year-old set.

Alphabet Train - I loved the packaging and the concept of this set of flashcards, but felt it was probably better suited for a preschool setting where a teacher could provide focused guidance for properly learning from it. My boys wanted to pull all the letter circles off the cards and didn't really care about matching them with their appropriate letter space. And since the puzzle pieces were all identical circles, it didn't really teach them when they tried to put a letter in the wrong place. The circles weren't as durable as I'd like, either, and they were hard to contain. Having said all that from a parent's point of view, I do have to say that Calvin and Henry wanted to get out the cards and line them up all the time, and they liked the idea of the train and the bright colored pictures. And this is a great toy for sitting down and interacting with your kids, although it is also one that they'd prefer to play with on their own, and not in the way it was intended. Overall, I'd give it one thumb up and one thumb down.

Brighter Minds has some other great products and would definitely be worth a look for educational products for your kids. Thanks for letting us "test-drive" a couple!