The 2-volume "The Word Machine" DVDs is one of the best investments I have ever made for my children's education.  For under S$40, my children (3 yo and 9 yo) had hours of fun in the car while learning phonics at the same time without even knowing they were doing so.  Of course, my 9 yo already knows phonics, but it didn't stop him getting glued to every episode.

The Signing time series teaches young children and babies the American Sign Language (ASL).  While sign language was traditionally used by people with speech and hearing disability, there is a growing community who use it for children who have difficulty communicating verbally. This includes children with autism, babies and toddlers who could not speak and even children with more serious disability.  Some even claim that teaching signing to babies will lead to earlier reading and boost IQ. 

Even without these intrinsic benefits, this DVD series is easily one of the best production of children's educational DVDs for young children.

Kids these days are born digital and mobile.  We see them hunched over electronic games everywhere from bus-stops to shopping centres.  While we parents are generally wary of gaming consoles, treating them mostly as mere toys, the Nintendo DS is rapidly evolving into the next generation platform for educational software.