metro mama

Monday, February 05, 2007

Product Review: athleticBaby Soccer!

Parent Bloggers NetworkWe don’t have cable and Cakes doesn’t watch TV, but there have been days when we’ve needed a little downtime and I’ve wished I had something worthwhile she could watch. So, when I was asked if I wanted to review athleticBaby Soccer! for The Parent Bloggers, I was happy to do so.

Kids of all ages, from tots to teens, play soccer, warm up, dance, train, and have a good time. Cakes was entertained. Eddie Coker’s original music is catchy and fun--Cakes was bobbing her head and swaying her butt. More importantly, the music didn’t annoy me like most children’s music does.

Criticisms? A couple of the segments are a little too kinetic. There could be a little more ethnic diversity.

Overall, I like it. It encourages activity (we played along with a couple of balls) unlike those awful videos (that shall remain nameless) of toys being manipulated by eerily disembodied limbs. It’s a great introduction to the sport of soccer.

The video emphasizes the joy of sport; there was no emphasis on winning (except, perhaps, one image of a child waving a trophy).

I also like the fact that the company’s founder and CEO, Karen Foster, is a mother of three who founded athleticBaby with the goal of promoting physical activity to children. Soccer! is the fifth instalment in the series which includes Walk, Run and Play, Golf, Basketball, and athelticBaby All-Star.

All in all, thumbs up. However, I won’t be buying a Hockey! version. I plan to encourage sports selectively: I can picture myself on a sunny summer afternoon, sitting by the soccer field on my folding chair with a cold one in my stainless steel coffee mug. I cannot picture myself sitting in a cold ice rink at five am on a Sunday morning.

Find out more about the athleticBaby series at www.athleticbaby.com.

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7 Comments:

Blogger motherbumper said...

Interesting idea: baby sports video. I like to hear that the music passes the adult test because I usually find that the hardest part to tolerate (when I've tried to watch one of those videos. Informative review Metro Mama.

7:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't get the songs from this video out of my head. Seriously. I walk around humming them, LOL.

8:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No AthleticBaby Caber Toss? A shame...

12:10 PM  
Blogger moplans said...

Sometimes a video is essential to mom's sanity.
I also hope that hockey will not be something my kids will be into for the same reasons as you.

2:10 PM  
Blogger crazymumma said...

These are new to me and my kids, tho they will watch anything are perhaps a bit old for them. We really enjoyed Richard Scarry (who is NOT Scary!)and Little Bear...I will have to lend you some of that for Cakes.

11:44 PM  
Blogger ms blue said...

Strawberry watched something similar when she was Cakes' age but it didn't hold her attention.

I recall the video we watched seemed to be really focused on the fact that sports were for boys. There was boys playing the sports and girls cheering.

11:51 AM  
Blogger Tania said...

Hey! Those "awful" videos" saved my sanity! They are all that kept Pumpkin from whining all day. Thanks for the tip on the athleticBaby videos though. I'm definitely ready to move on to something slightly more engaging.

11:06 PM  

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