Sukey’s Circle – Review

My family and I were able to review a DVD from PlayMove&Sing called Sukey’s Circle with Sukey Malloy.  It is a music and movement based program/show.  From the website www.playmovesing.com, I learned that Sukey Malloy is a former professional modern dancer and is certified with the IAIM in guided infant touch, and received developmental movement training with Dr. Garland O’Quinn, Jr. of Developmental Gymnastics Int’l.

Sukey is the friendly, soft spoken but engaging teacher, singer, storyteller, dancer and only living character in the two episodes we watched which were “Where Does the River Go” and “Swinging Like a Monkey” and “Pat the Ball” and “Twinkle Twinkle.”   Each episode had two portions and the total time of an episode was about 10-15 minutes.  All the music was original and repetitive so children can catch on easily.  Both of my kids watched the DVD.  Camryn is 22 months and Mitchell is four years old.

Camryn was really into it.  She picked up some of the songs very quickly and started to sing a little which was so cute because she’s just starting to do that.

She was really doing the movements too and had a smile on her face the whole time.

Something I liked about Sukey’s Circle was that even though each episode began and ended in the same way which is great because kids know what to expect, the content in between was in different formats, exposing the children to different ways to learn about things.

For example, Sukey used a felt board to illustrate the song in “Where Does the River Go,” then was dancing and swinging with a stuffed monkey in “Swinging Like a Monkey.”  Then in the next episode “Pat the Ball” she was playing with balls of different sizes and colors along with music that went with it.

I also liked how short the episodes were because  they were not too long to lose my kids’ interest and it changed in the middle of the episode to keep them interested also.  The music was lovely. And there was nothing loud or obnoxious in the episodes so I didn’t have to worry about the kids picking up things I don’t want them too.

I would recommend this DVD for the toddler group or even babies if the parents do the movements with them.  I can’t say my preschooler was really into it but that could have been Mitchell or the fact that he was sick that made him not enjoy it as much as Camryn.  Also, as the parent, I can’t say I really loved watching it like I do some of the kids’ shows and movies, but I did enjoy watching Camryn moving and dancing to Sukey’s Circle and really enjoying it.

This product was provided for review. No compensation was received. The opinions are mine and that of my family.