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Ms Rachel

@msrachel

· YouTube

Ms Rachel is songs, nursery rhymes and first words, from a bright room full of toys.

Ms Rachel sits in a room full of toys and talks straight to the camera, the way you would talk to a child on the rug in front of you, with Herbie the puppet alongside her. A session is mostly songs and nursery rhymes with talk in between, and some sessions cut out to filmed animals and trucks. She says a word slowly, waits, and says the word again.

Analyzed by KidSight

WHAT IT MEANS AT EACH AGE

0–2

Good fit

Age two is where Ms Rachel fits. She talks slowly and clearly, says a word, waits, and says the word again. The movements are small, a wave or a clap, all of them doable sitting down.

3–5

Good fit

Ms Rachel still fits at age four, though the letters, colors and counting songs sit at the easy end for a four-year-old. The sessions that keep landing have something real in them: the farm animals, the diggers, a song with actions to copy.

6–8

Too old

Ms Rachel says early words, slowly, with a gap after each one, and a seven-year-old already has every one of those words. Nothing in Ms Rachel will trouble a seven-year-old. There is just not much in Ms Rachel for them, apart from the animals and the diggers.

9–10

Too old

Slow talk and nursery rhymes leave a nine-year-old with nothing to do. Nothing in Ms Rachel would trouble a nine-year-old either. Ms Rachel is finished well before age nine.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Farm animals

Trucks and diggers

Music

WHAT IT TEACHES

New words

Counting

Colors

WHAT TO KNOW

Steady and easygoing

SUMMARY

Ms Rachel talks to a child as if the child were right there, says the word, waits, and says the word again. Going that slowly is what makes Ms Rachel land at age two, and the same slowness is what has Ms Rachel finished by age six.