Your Baby Can Read Coupon Code!

There is a coupon code for anyone who is thinking about getting the Your Baby Can Read System! It is FREEBOOK, and you get an additional free book with the Deluxe TV offer (which is $14.95 I think). The free gift is a “My Bag and Me” interactive children’s book and a reusable Tyvek shopping bag! Click here to go to the website!

Kindergarten Reading Curriculum Fall Out

I'm sure these parents are not getting this fundamental aspect of giving your baby/toddler/preschooler the gift of education. If you decide to educate your child, it is a gift you give without asking for anything in return. These parents are not giving freely, they are asking for the child to prove "readiness" for kindergarten, and in that way they will not be successful in keeping love of learning and emotional health safeguarded. I feel bad for the kids, hopefully they will thrive despite the circumstances.

From the article, parents are:

-- Begging school directors to let their 1 1/2 -year-olds into programs for 2-year-olds because Danny and Olivia are so incredibly advanced.
How annoying!

-- Demanding to know why their 2-year-old isn't being given the alphabet to copy over and over and memorize.
I know I won't be requiring my child to write or copy anything at that age, but if parents know that the Jones' kids are doing this, they will demand!

-- Afraid that any services their child needs, such as speech therapy, will go on the youngster's "permanent record" and harm their chances of getting into a private school.
This makes me kind of sad...
-- Enrolling their 3-year-olds in so many activities that the kids are falling asleep on their preschool desks.
Let them sleep then, sometimes kids need extra naps. Nothing is going on at the preschool that's so important that a kid can't take an early nap. I'm sure he'll have his buddy give him a copy of the lecture notes! BTW, I did not know they had desks in preschool.

-- Buying toys for 2-year-olds that are labeled for older children.
Mine won't be getting a gameboy or two-wheeler any time soon... Babies just eat toys that aren't developmentally at their level anyways.

Dr. Titzer Spreads the Word!

Dr. Titzer was on an episode of "The Doctors" a few months back. I totally missed that, but I don't suspect the episode was too different from the infomercial. Here's a link to the synopsis! Enjoy!

My Baby Can Read TV!

I think my baby can read tv! Yesterday while watching the Your Baby Can Read review dvd TJ began to call out many of the words before the voice on the video said the word. I think I will begin playing it every once in a while with the sound low, to see if my baby can read tv!

Learning Phonics

Here are our resources for learning phonics. I think all of these resources are great for babies and toddlers.

Starfall
Go to www.starfall.com and play the games there, and sing the alphabet song and I'm sure your child will be learning phonics in no time at all.

Leapfrog Letter Factory
I've described this video below. It is an animated video that introduces basic phonics using a very very catchy tune and associations and makes learning phonics pretty entertaining.

Education Page
This is a super-resource I came across. Apparently, the creator of this page is very passionate about learning phonics and this seems to me to be his labor of love. Most of the texts he links to are pretty classic, going back to the early 1900s.

Teach Baby How To Read

We are really having a wonderful time reading these days. I am so amazed by my baby every day that I really hope every one of you who is interested will decide to teach baby how to read. Throughout the day, I will ask TJ to read one or two words. This morning before breakfast he read the words "moon" and "cup" and played for a while with the sliding word cards.

We are still doing half of the Review DVD once a day, most of the time in the evening before bed. We sometimes brush our teeth, do our hair and skin care, and get water and a snack during the video. This is really easy for us, and teaching a baby how to read really does not have to be a gruelling high stakes intense process, it flows naturally from how the baby's brain develops and they start getting better command of language. If you have even an inkling where you think this would be a good idea for your child, especially as a replacement for Dora or Yo Gabba Gabba, please teach baby how to read!

Educational Baby DVDs

I wanted to make a quick list and review of the educational baby dvds we have in our home library. Please note that all of our educational baby dvds are aimed at teaching our child a specific skill, namely perfect pitch, reading, and math.

Perfect Pitch DVD
Introducing Trebellina -- you can get this baby dvd from the Cristofori Baby Company website or from Amazon link on this blog. We do not know whether TJ has good pitch, it seems as though he does. In the next year or so of working with him I will be able to work out a way to test his pitch on the keyboard.

Baby Reading DVDs
Your Baby Can Read -- I recommend you purchase the entire set and commit to the program of 4-7 months. I'm afraid you will not get the great results we have gotten without all of the resources of the system available.

Leapfrog Letter Factory -- This is a very cheap educational baby DVD that is very entertaining and fun starting maybe around 12-15 months. This dvd teaches pretty explicit beginning phonics.

Baby Math DVDs
Tweedlewink -- I purchased this on a whim because I could not bring myself to commit to the baby math dot quantity sessions. I did not end up using this dvd and it was pretty expensive.

Brainy Baby 123 -- Get this educational baby dvd for math instead. It teaches counting explicitly as well as shows the baby quantities up to 20. It has good music, and we play a scene or so a few times a week.

Early Baby Reading

"Early baby reading" here is another video of us reading. He got a little focused on handling the cards, so this session was over quickly. Ah well, a little peak of real life with a baby! I would never get any good shots if I was going for "perfect," kwim? Early baby reading video is just another chance for me to show how well the system is working for us. Thanks for watching!

"If You're Happy"

Your Baby Can Read videos are not about all skill and drill. There are about 7 songs that are used throughout the video. TJ is pretty familiar with all the songs, and is pretty enthusiastic about doing the motions to "If You're Happy." The best thing about getting your baby familiar with this song is it gives him something to do during diaper changes!

Playing with sliding word cards!

Here we are playing with a few of the sliding word cards. TJ does not mind practicing every once in a while!

Baby Educational Toys?

I don't spend much time thinking about the toys my son plays with, although we do go to Toys R Us occasionally and see a slew of baby educational toys. He has a toy laptop, which has taught him, pretty much, how to slide the cartridges in and out! We choose pretty basic or "classic" toys, and he seems to enjoy them. I never thought much about toys as educational objects. Meaning, I have never tested him to see if a particular toy has helped teach him a concept. Maybe I should think about that. I assumed when he got a bit older he would get into Legos, puzzles, or games but as of right now, I don't really direct his toy play at all.

DVD Selection Video

Part 2

Book Selection Video

Email from Intellectual Baby

Some people are so closed minded to teaching babies to read. I just don't get it. When I learned this stuff I completely
embraced it because I already had children and saw what they were capable of learning. This was just a natural next step to take. How can people be so closed minded to teaching kids and giving them a strong start in life?

I just had to post this because I could sense the frustration in this email. She has dedicated part of her life to her children's advancement, and wants to see others do the same. I got into a flame war a while back on a forum that was totally unrelated to parenting, but a had a subforum for Parenthood. A poster asked about the Your Baby Can Read Program, and there was completely uniform dissent from every poster except me. People are closed-minded for several reasons. I will list them here.

1) The phonics vs. sight words debate. Many educators are against the use of sight words and are for the exclusive use of phonics for reading education. Because they are only familiar developmentally with 6 year olds, they apply this anti-sight reading stance to babies as well.
2) People do not want their children to be particularly advanced or smart, because they remember not liking their smart peers in school.
3) They worry about their children fitting in socially more than they worry about their literacy.
4) They do not believe that babies can really learn to read.
5) Alternatively, they believe if babies can learn to read it is a useless skill for a baby to have.
6) They believe "just reading" to your child is the only appropriate exposure of a child to the printed word.
7) There are very very annoying parents out there that show off their babies skills in a very condescending way to other parents, and there is nothing worse than being "that parent."
8) And finally, they believe that they learned to read at an early age from a parent who just read to them. Or know a story about some one who did.
9) Some one told them that all children read at a 3rd grade level in the 3rd grade and they don't use their common sense to determine whether that could possibly even be true.
10) They don't like to read much themselves.

I know it's been work for her to market her product, but the community of Americans who would want their child to know anything beyond the ABC song going to kindergarten is very small.

From Glenn Doman's Website

In order for a baby to read words, there are three requirements. The print must be large, clear, and repeated. The baby's immature visual pathways are not able to deal with small print. Indeed, it is the very process of showing the baby large words which physically grow and mature his brain's visual pathway.

I picked up this quote from Glenn Doman's website. I have come to accept this as pretty much the gospel truth. Please read and re-read this quote.

To break this down, there are 3 requirements. The print must be:

1) LARGE
2) CLEAR
3) REPEATED

The Your Baby Can Read System provides videos and products which meets these requirements well. However, in making this transition to reading mainstream children books, I have found that very very few books meet these three requirements, and further the ones that do meet these requirements seem to have done so on accident.

Great Interview with Janet Doman

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114247630

I am sorry for her that she got so flustered at the other interviewee. He threw up a bunch of red herring type accusations such as "Show me studies" and "You charge $5000" which made her defensive. I could not tell what type of study that he was suggesting. It seemed like he was suggesting that babies can't learn to read, but then later said that the true test is outcomes at age 15. Well, I can say for 100% certain without any study that every baby who reads will also read at age 15. They may or may not read better than some of their peers, but they absolutely not suffer the fate of many of their peers who never learn to read. The truth is, he cannot show a single study which will show that early reading is detrimental or makes no difference in the ultimate literacy level of a child. The population of babies who read will have a 100% literacy rate, while the population of babies who did not read will have an alarming amount of illiteracy and functional illiteracy. So, there's your "study." And the notion that babies can't learn at this point is laughable in the face of the proliferation video after video on youtube and elsewhere that reveals the truth pretty clearly. The entire country of Singapore is on the Your Baby Can Read bandwagon, I would love to see "studies" on these children. One thing is true, there is a dearth of legitimate study on how babies learn.

Why does Baby Sign Language get a "pass?"
My question is why does teaching hearing babies sign language get a "pass" from the powers that be. He admitted at the end there that babies can learn visual and auditory language cues, I think he stumbled a bit because he realized he was repeating the exact thing that Janet said earlier in the interview, basically that babies are primed for language acquisition through all pathways, including visual. Mothers who teach their babies sign language are universally applauded, but parents who teach their babies to read are frowned upon unless they can somehow claim that it happened through some organic non-deliberate unplanned process which occurred while they were "just reading" to their babies.

Eye Popping Blog

Ordinarily, I would not post about coming across an interesting blog, but I have to share this one with all of you because I probably spent over 2 hours scouring the posts yesterday.

http://www.whyboysfail.com/

As the mother of a son, this blog gives the sociological and statistical backing to my observations of older boys and men around me. I am glad to know that I am right to worry, and that I am right to take action as well. Additionally, in my previous post I detailed the hurdle I have encountered simply finding appropriate books for my child. Part of it is because he is a baby, but in previewing what is available for him in the future, the pickings are rather slim in this category. I actually hope he matures past this level quickly so he can get to the "good stuff" earlier and can keep an enjoyment for reading intact.

Book Selection

So, for the past few weeks I have been somewhat on a mission to find books that my child could use as a beginning reader. It has been much more difficult than I anticipated. I have run into 5 problems consistently and have ended up having to compromise and focus on just getting past this first "emerging reader" stage.

1) The print is too small. Furthermore, often the print is extremely small compared to the size of the picture, drawing the child's eyes towards the picture. Sometimes the print is printed in a bizarre font or printed over the picture.

2) The storyline is inappropriate.

3) The book doesn't show any diversity in the characters. To put it bluntly, I would like to see images of different shades of children playing together.

4) The books seem to focus quite a bit on animals, which I know is interesting and exciting to most children. However, I would like to see some readers with human heroes, particularly human boy heroes. I do not agree with the excessive personification of animals in children's books. It is perfectly fine occasionally but it's a dominant theme in most books and this annoys me quite a bit.

5) The books have no rhythm, rhyme, or "cadence" that would draw a child in. This is why we enjoy golden books and Dr. Suess, but most of these books are way above his head at this point. I hope to have him reading these books by age 2 though.

So far, I have found one line of books that may work alright, the Bobbsey Twins Pre-Level series. It doesn't have problem 1,2, or 4, but problem 3 and 5 are still there. The print is oversized and there are few words on the page, the story, if you could call it that, is very very simple. The pictures are understated, and it is pretty easy for me to get my child to focus his attention on the words. I do not know if the words are large or bold enough though, I am hoping he will grow into it at some point.

Also, one of the board books I received from Kindermusik curriculum has large bold print. It is called "Hickory Dickory Tickle and Bounce" and it is based on the nursery rhyme. Purchasing books off of Amazon, often you cannot look inside to examine the print type, so I have been going to several bookstores to look, and I have found that find large or bold print is actually hard.

TJ has not been too interested in reading books with me lately, he always seems to be busy with his toys. He occupied himself for about an hour last night climbing in and out of the rocker, going to play the ABC song on one of his toys, and returning to the rocker. He can actually follow along with the ABC song now, of course some of it is babble but I would say he "knows" the song after playing it around 30 times last night. He was in a silly mood, spending most of his time crawling and burying his face in the carpet, and being creative with his toys. He pretended his shape sorter bucket was a bowl of food, the the shape blocks were food, and he had an "Mmm-mmm" good meal too.

Oh, and that brings me to an update on his eating habits. After a few bouts with major stomach problems, the doctor has recommended a nutrition plan. We have been following it strictly, excluding junk food (white flour, sugar, and dairy), from his diet and I promise you he is a new person. He sleeps better, eats larger meals, is never constipated, and just has a better attitude about food in general. He often goes over to his high chair and tries to get in because he wants a snack, and he will gobble up almost whatever I put in front of him. If he refuses it, it only takes me about one guess to present him with something acceptable to him. I am glad that our doctor gave us better nutrition guidelines to follow, as I have only found a lot of contradictory information about what toddlers need, and it's fairly obvious to me at this point that his needs were not being met by our previous diet.

Baby Einstein DVD Refund!

Here is a great opportunity for us parents to exchange some old Baby Einstein DVDs for books!

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i5d92320f49c835bcfc83429900635f32

We never were really big on playing Baby Einstein DVDs but we have several of them. Exchange them now and get books!

My Very First Video Series is Here!

I have finally created my very first video series. The purpose of this video was to introduce the Your Baby Can Read system, show the actual materials we use in my home. I hope you enjoy this, there will be more to come!

Sorry, I had to take down the videos, I realize I made a comment to parents and it came out totally wrong, I meant to say something totally different. I will be re-filming that today!

Progress Report

As you could imagine, my little TJ is quite the chatter box these days. He has advanced to reading the bulk of the words presented in the Your Baby Can Read system. His pronunciation is still very baby like so words such as elephant and hippopotamus are still out of his reach, but he recognizes the words and makes an attempt. Hippopotamus is more like "popoma."

Right now, we are watching only half of the Review DVD every night. We are watching either Trebellina or Leap Frog Letter Factory in the morning. If you have not heard of this DVD, you must get it. I can accept it if you are not sold on Your Baby Can Read. It's not for everyone, I get that. But Leap Frog Letter Factory is absolutely required. I got it for $5.99 at Costco, so there is no excuse...

Yes, My Baby Can Read!

I haven't posted in quite a bit, but I just want to update that TJ is just blossoming with the Your Baby Can Read Program. We still watch the videos 2 times a day, and we are on Volume 3 of the set. We only watch Volume 3 in the evening though, we review the other videos in the morning.

And, yes, my baby can read! I am confident to say that he can clearly and consistently read the word "ball." He reads it from one of the sliding word cards, and he can recognize the word if I write in in my handwriting as well. I knew it would eventually happen, but I was just floored when I opened one of the flap picture books and he shouted out the word ball before I said anything or showed him the picture. It's quite cute and he's obviously pleased with himself. And he recognizes other words as well, such as no, baby, duck, and dog. However, he is not consistent with other words as he is with "ball" and I have to coach him quite a bit, whereas he will find the word card for ball and read it himself without being asked.

TJ likes to sing the songs on the videos quite a bit, which gets him a bit of an audience in public. It is fairly obvious when he sings Old MacDonald and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (although sometimes people think it's the Alphabet song because it's the same tune). He's recently taken to "Row Row Row your boat" as well, going around singing "rowrowrow!!!"

In other news, he's still a horribly picky eater, he has his first dentist appointment today, and he's has started skipping his nap and staying up until 11pm.

Coming Around to Liking Flashcards!

As my readers know, I have been actively trying to interest TJ in flashcards but they just never seemed to be his thing. The more I would pull them out, the more he would throw them across the room, stash them under the couch, or otherwise show his disinterest. Well this morning, I believe he showed me that he is coming around to the flashcards, and will entertain playing with them on his own terms. He got the sliding word card with "nose" on one side and "hi" on the other, I believe from under the kitchen table, and handed it to me and began pointing at the words. I told him what the word said, and he flipped it over and over again until he had his fill. When he was done, he said "No!" and put the card on the seat of his high chair. I would like to be the one to take the lead on the flashcards, like the videos we mostly see of parents, but I am comfortable letting TJ figure out what is fun about them in his own time. I think I will just stack several flashcards within his reach and let him flip through them as he likes, and if he brings me flashcards I will help him practice the words.

A "Your Baby Can Read" Life!

TJ's Dad has been watching the videos with TJ lately in the evening. They invariably put TJ's Dad to sleep within 20 minutes, so take note for those of you who have insomnia!

He's quite the comedian, and has started getting involved by sprinkling Your Baby Can Read style descriptions when TJ asks "Wuss dat?" He says the word once, then the 2nd time with emphasis, uses the word in a sentence, then asks TJ a question about the word. It has gotten to be increasingly silly and hilarious for me, as TJ's Dad will use a slang meaning or idiom of the word to make a sentence, or follow up with a borderline nonsense question. He also refers to Aleka, Johnella, Hayden, and the other kids as if they are kids we actually know.

Profile of Justine Simmons, Your Baby Can Read Enthusiast

Here is an interview with Justine Simmons, a celebrity Mom who teaches her baby with the Your Baby Can Read program. Check out the first comment to the interview, where she describes how Miley has thrived with the program.

"KSA: Any baby products you want to tell other moms about?
JS: I would love every mom to know about the Your Baby Can Read program (http://www.yourbabycan.com/ ) based on the research of Dr. Robert C. Titzer, Ph.D. My daughter Miley is 16 months old and reading words! As young mothers we don’t always know all that is out there to help our children thrive, so all our kids do is want to dance or other things that don’t necessarily help them get ahead in the world. When Miley goes into her room she wants books not toys. If every mom could get this for their kids and give them that strong foundation for reading and learning, our kids will be out of this world."

Whole Words v. Phonics

My personal views about reading instruction tend to mirror the position spelled out in this article.

Basically, neither mode of instruction is the holy grail. Both ways of teaching should be made available to all children, and while they are sorting out a way to view and think about print on a page according to their own learning style, it should be made fun, engaging, and relevant.

Many try to superimpose the argument against whole language instruction in a classroom setting with children age 5 and up and apply it to children 4 and younger who are receiving whole language instruction in their home environments. I think it is a big mistake to conflate the two.

Good Interview with Dr. Titzer!

Here is a good interview with Dr. Titzer!

It answers quite a few of the questions about the program!

Enjoy!

The Debate

I enjoy some of these lively debates I stumble across sometimes.

I've had many online discussions about this program as well. There seems to be 3 camps, and many people cross over or straddle a line within these three groups.

1) People who believe that the program works for its intended purpose, whether they would like to do this program with their children or not.

2) People who do not believe that the program works, meaning children cannot learn to read by using this program and that other methods should be used.

3) People who do not believe that children this age should learn to read at all, and whether the program works is irrelevant.

Further, there are 2 groups that cut across all of these groups: people who have have seen and used the materials, and people who have not. Seeing and using the materials convinced me to make the purchase. We actually did not do the trial, we paid for the full package because I already knew that the package was well worth the money.

I understand the point of view of group 3, although I do not agree. The most nonsense seems to come from group number 2 as they seem to cross over into group number 1 and 3 often, and their response tends to be emotional on some level. Something about this program disturbs their world view, views about themselves, and children. Parents should not bring their personal emotional baggage about their upbringing to the table when making decisions about their children's education.

The Books!

Each DVD volume comes with a corresponding book that you are supposed to be reading to your child. Each page has the word in large print on a flap. You can lift the flap to reveal the picture and text. It really is a smart design to the book. Children really prefer to look at the pictures, and when given a choice of words and pictures on the same page will spend more time looking at the picture. The flap allows you to show the word, and the child can take the word in before getting to the picture.
TJ is finally coming around to actually appreciating books. TJ's Dad and I read him a Golden Book or Dr. Suess every day. So I pulled out the Starter DVD book today, we thumbed through it and looked at the pictures and reviewed some of the words. He was happy to look and turn the pages, but let me hold the book, which is a pretty big change. I think I prefer the books to the flash cards for now.

Teething Tots

TJ's getting his back molars. So I've been managing fever, stomach upset, and general grouchiness and missing out on sleep as well. He totally skipped the incisor teeth though. He's been such a late teether and in such an unusual order. I think he will enjoy being able to chew more crunchy foods though. He's always preferred "real food."

E-I-E-I-OOOOOO!!!!

Volume 2 was a delight for us. Like I said before, it introduces a lot of new words at a faster pace. There's less explanation and repetition. TJ enjoyed trying to new words out (tig=pig!). He's always loved the song "Old MacDonald" and went around saying nothing but "E-I-E-I-O!" for about a week a month or so ago. And revisiting the Itsy Bitsy Spider was fun. He can do all of the motions except the finger part, which he does try to do but with only one hand. It's too cute for words. He watched nearly the whole thing with interest, and I tried to reinforce the body part words, like chin, fingers, foot, and leg. Oh, and the best of all, bellybutton.

The body part words and action words are the good part of the program. I will be purchasing a video called Kid 20/20 which introduces the 220 Dolch sight words that early readers need to transition to fluency. We will also be doing Leapfrog Letter Factory, which is supposed to be the gold standard introduction to phonics along with Starfall.com. We are still working on Dr. Titzer's first milestone. I figure when TJ's talking catches up, and he is becoming more verbally communicative every day, it will be much easier to get an accurate assessment of whether my baby can read.

Advancing to Volume 2 of Your Baby Can Read DVDs

I think TJ is officially done with Volume 1 DVD, we will move on to the Volume 2 DVD. It has been pretty hard to direct his interest to anything but the songs and the poems in Volume 1. He has a bit of a fever (teething and stuff) this morning, so he's asleep and hasn't gotten to watch yet today, I'll try to squeeze in one viewing this afternoon before Daddy gets home!

As for reading words, he's got "No" down, others we are still working on :-)

Dr. Titzer's Philosophy for Teaching A Baby to Read

I came across this article on www.brillbaby.com. I thought it was pretty complete and wanted to share it.

According to Titzer’s own infant research, the optimum time for learning to read is the same as the optimum time for learning spoken languages and sign language. He writes, “Studies from all areas of language... show that it’s easier to learn the patterns of language early in childhood compared to later in childhood.” While some may view reading as a task too complex for young children, Titzer says, “It’s likely the brain will develop more efficiently for reading when the child learns to read early in childhood compared to later in childhood.”

Titzer notes that according to a 2002 study by Yale University, “Activating children’s neural circuitry for reading early on is key.” How early on? According to Titzer, “The window for learning language begins to close by age four.” This implies that children who learn to read after the age of four may not develop the ideal neural circuitry for reading. The age at which reading instruction begins may govern not just a child’s reading ability, but their attitude to reading as well. Says Titzer, “Children who are taught to read earlier prefer to read more than children who are taught at age five or later.”

Some critics maintain that there are only short-lived advantages to be gained from early reading. Yet, the Your Baby Can Read website cites several studies that suggest long-term benefits. “Early readers stay ahead of children who are taught later in life,” writes Titzer, and “Some research indicates that the gap between early readers and later readers actually increases over time. This is sometimes known as the Matthews Effect, where rich learners get richer and poor learners get poorer.”

Some critics believe learning to read early harms children emotionally, but according to Titzer, “Children who enter school with reading skills have higher self-esteem than children who cannot read when they enter school.” For him, the importance of learning to read early in life can hardly be overstated. “Reading is the most important skill a child learns,” he notes. “Reading increases learning skills, and it helps children succeed both in school and later in life.” The academic achievements of Titzer’s daughters – straight A students who have each skipped at least one grade in school – stand testament to this. Aleka even began her second year of university at the age of 16.

Mini Marvel

I forgot about my weekly program post where I was SUPPOSED to be posting a video of a "mini-marvel" every week. Here is a wonderful post that includes a video of an older child using the Your Baby Can Read flashcards. As you can see, the flashcards themselves are very high quality with real photographs and are perfect for getting the child to actually focus and look at the word first before they get to see the pictures.

Your Baby Can Read -- A Glowing Review from a Top Parenting Blogger

Bellyitch has a review of the Your Baby Can Read Program. She has two children, 18 months and 4 years and they are picking up sight words from the Your Baby Can Read DVDs and flashcards.

Another Post Celebrating the Small Things!

Not to get all braggy, but the sweetums was watching Your Baby Can Read Volume 1 DVD yesterday, and he has learned something new.

The song "If You're Happy" goes:
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands (clap! clap!)

TJ has learned to not clap until the clapping happens in the song. I noticed this yesterday. Tonight, he clapped only twice, to the rhythm and timing of the song. This must have been his source of frustration previously with this particular song. I wrote in a previous post how we had returned to the Starter DVD because he would have a full tantrum whenever this song was played on the DVD before. He thoroughly enjoys it now. I have the makings of a little perfectionist!

Implementing Strategy

So, Dr. Titzer's blog gives many more practical insights into the use of the system. Yes, he probably wrote this somewhere in the Parent Guide, but I guess I am in need of a refresher.

"It is helpful to repeat a subset of the words more frequently than the other words. In the DVDs we repeat the words “clap,” “wave,” “mouth,” and “nose” more than we repeat other words. Please repeat these four words more than other words when your child has just started our program. Use our books, sliding word cards, and our other word cards. Also, show the child these words in other contexts on paper, whiteboards, signs, etc

Eventually your child will remember how the words look in addition to understanding what the words mean. The first word is probably the most difficult word to learn, so repeat a few words many times in the initial months."

So, as I've said in previous posts, I have tried a few flashcard games with TJ. They were mostly random words that I thought he liked, I would show him 2 or more cards and ask him to bring me the card that said a particular word. This apparently may not be the best way to do this. I am going to take the 4 words he's suggested here and review them several times a day with TJ. He knows each of these words, the meaning, and can point to the body parts, clap, and wave. I say several times, but I should probably set the number of times, so I will say once in the morning and once at night. Let's give this routine a week or two, and see if as Dr. Titzer says TJ begins to recognize these 4 words on sight. If he does, I promise my blog readers I will make a video!

The Real Coupon Code

I found a coupon code that works for the Your Baby Can Read system. If you are interested in buying items other than the deluxe kit with the trial, you can go to www.yourbabycan.com and put in coupon code AFF-08 and receive a 10% discount. We of course have the deluxe kit, it is by far the best deal, but I could imagine needing some replacement items if I have a second child. I will probably, after a while, be trying out some of the Spanish language DVDs as well. I am still on the fence about whether to introduce Latin or Spanish. Spanish is so practical, when we take TJ to the park there are lots of other little ones speaking Spanish. Latin is so important to understand the roots of other languages. I still have plenty of time, I want to start with a 2nd language after we get our phonics program off the ground.

A Milestone? Or Breakthrough? Maybe?

We went out of town this weekend for a good old-fashioned family reunion. We weren't going far, but decided to stay in a hotel for 2 nights, and we did not worry about TJ seeing the videos. When we returned home, I did play the Starter video for him before bedtime. What happened next had me grinning from ear to ear. TJ attempted to repeat nearly every word in the starter video, including gorilla and elephant. He was so enthusiastic, I think he honestly needed that 2 day break! I think it gave him a chance to clear his mind, concentrate on other things, and I really think he is preparing for the so-called "word explosion" that happens when young babies like him begin to learn several new words every day.

Dr. Titzer's Milestones For Learning to Read

Milestones of Learning to Read as a Baby/Toddler

• Learning that the shape of the word is the most important factor
• Baby recognizes her/his first words
• Parent notices the baby understands a written word
• Learning to read the first 50 words
• Learning to read around 200 words
• Learning to read two- and three-word phrases
• Learning to read phonetically
• Learning to read sentences from left-to-right
• Reading a book from cover-to-cover
• Learning to read quickly
• Reading a book the child has never seen from cover-to-cover

Dr. Titzer posted these milestones on his blog, where he emphasizes that the child must first learn that the shape of the word is the most important factor (rather than the color, texture, font, etc.) I have no idea if TJ has reached this milestone, and can't really see how one would test for such a thing, but I am glad to have this guide of how things could possibly unfold in terms of learning to read while using this system.

Animal Kingdom

I have watched all of the DVDs and the emphasis on animals is a bit much. The vocabulary lists include a lot of zoo animals, pets, and farm animals. I guess he chose these because the images hold the children's attention better, but TJ does not respond to any of these words, and I am worried it actually makes it more boring for him. Even if it doesn't for him, it makes it more boring for me! I would think dog, cat, and maybe horse or bird would have been more than enough! I may try to contact the Your Baby Can Read! people to try and find out how they decided on the word lists.

What does Your Baby Can Read Really Teach?

Honestly, this program has taught my child many things. I am a first time Mom, and having never grown up and been around young kids it is hard to know what development and skills you should be working on with your child. Add this to the fact that it is very hard to get honest answer on the internet. People with advanced children are more eager to answer questions about development than people with normal or sluggish developers, so if you post a question the answer will be skewed a bit. Also, people claim that their children accomplished advanced skills at ridiculously young ages, such as a talking 2 week old, or a running 6 month old, that I often have to dismiss more answers as wholly dishonest than I would like to. My rule of thumb is that if there is no video, and I can't find an equivalent demonstration of advanced skills on youtube, then I pretty much totally throw away the claim.

Keep in mind that I still watch the videos and interact with him, I don't leave him to watch on his own even though Dr. Titzer says it is not required.

I think it has been a more than adequate introduction to print. Now, when TJ sees words, he sometimes points to them with his index finger and pretends to read. He did this the other day with the box of Huggies that I had sitting on the coffee table. He also points to the words on the screen as if he recognizes them as words.

He has learned all of his body parts. This is a nice little bonus. If I ask him "Where are your toes?" he will grab them, and will do the same for all the body parts introduced in the video and other ones that he knows.

He has learned several action verbs, such as "stomp" and "kick" and will act the verbs out during the video, or sometimes if I ask when the video is not on.

He has learned the tune to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and can sing it (not the words, just the tune), can approximate the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider, can do the motions to If You're Happy, and grabs his head during Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.

He's learned much more, but I think you can get the idea here. It is more of a language development system, that teaches about all language skills and not just reading.

Progress Update

We are still trucking along with the Your Baby Can Read!. It's become a pretty integral part of our daily routine. I put the video on each morning we get up, and TJ watches portions of it, but also runs around to get re-acquainted with his toys, get some breakfast, and explore. Each evening I put the video on after he's taken his bath, darken the room, and he watches the video snuggled on my lap. I think he gets the most out of the evening viewing, he participates and watches the entire video without really looking away very often.

It's difficult to tell if he's learned to read any new words. He is not crazy about the flash cards. I place two or three flash cards in front of him and ask him to identify a word. Often, he picks the right card, but some times he just gathers the cards and hands them back to me, picks the wrong one, or takes the cards to another room. After this routine started, I did not use the flashcards anymore. I am pretty confident he is learning, but is not ready to be "tested" with the flashcards. So I will let him just take in the information for another couple of weeks before trying again.

We are still watching Volume 1. For a while, we had a minor problem with this video that turned into a MAJOR problem. There is a song "If you are happy" on the video that is played twice. TJ has known this song for a long time because I always sang that song to him during his diaper changes to keep him calm and he had something to do with his hands. Well, I always made up something for the second stanza, such as "If you're happy and you know it wiggle you toes," or "If you're happy and you know it shake your head." During the video, they sing "If you're happy and you know it stomp your feet" and I think this stressed TJ out quite a bit. He would always have a tantrum in the middle of the song, either I guess because he didn't like the way they were singing the song or he didn't know how to stomp his feet. It got so bad, I went and moved on to Volume 2. Volume 2 was a bit longer, quicker paced, and had many more words. If felt it was a bit too soon to move on, so I went back to the Starter DVD, then moved on the Volume 1 again. Maybe he just needed a break, because we have not had a problem with the song anymore!

He can say several words from the DVDs and many of these words he learned from the DVD. Bib, bubble, baby, cat, eating, no, yes (yeah), knees, and a few other things. It is quite fun to hear him talking more!

Edited Post About Coupon

I posted this coupon but it apparently doesn't work, I am hoping to scour the internet and find a working coupon. Thanks for your interest!

Teaching A Baby Math

I am going to broach on the subject of teaching my son math. Both myself and my husband are strong mathematicians, and it on a scale of 1-10 in importance, I would say that it is a 9 (very very important) that my son be confident in the area of mathematics in general and a 10 that he is very comfortable with arithmetic.

I have read about a few different methods of teaching babies and toddlers math. One method is the Glenn Doman method using quantity dot cards to introduce number and quantity, teach operations, and the ultimate goal of using this method is instant subitizing and calculations.

I will explain a little bit about subitizing. Apparently, young children can perceive a quantity without any outside reference. If you show them a card with 54 dots, they will know there are 54 dots on the card without counting. The problem is, most babies do not know how to name 54 dots, so Glenn Doman's method introduces a name to go with quantity. Adults can subitize as well, but I think my ability to subitize falls apart around 5. I can recognize bigger quantities without counting, but it is likely that I am breaking the amount into groups and adding. I am only aware of this because I've counted/rolled pennies before. If there is only 9 pennies in a stack, I can see 5 and 4, and not 5 and 5, so I will know there is not enough, but not instantly.

The problem with this method is it feels and seems overwhelming to implement. I have made up quantity dot cards up to about 30, and ventured to introduce the quantities to my baby. Most sessions ended in a bit a frustration on my baby's part and a feeling like we were wasting time we could be doing something fun on my part. Glenn Doman recommends to introduce quantity up to 100, and since this is not happening in our program, I am going to reduce this quantity to the very manageable, very realistic amount of 20. It is very cool to see a child subitize 87, and I don't doubt that it benefits the child in the long run to have that aspect of his brain muscle exercised, but it is better that we learn quantities up to 20 than nothing at all. I have been hesitant to begin to teach counting to my son without introducing the concept of quantity first, so if we get the quantities out of the way more quickly we can move on to the interesting stuff.

I would like to teach TJ the following, the earlier the better:
1) Quantities 1-20
2) Concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division using quantities 1-20
3) Numerals
3) Counting to 20 (and higher)
4) Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s
5) Even and odd numbers

I feel happy about my decision to sort of zero in on what I want for TJ's math education and to be able to focus on that and not let preconceived ideas about what a complete "program" would be make me lose sight of what I actually want my child to learn and what would lead to the level of confidence and comfort that I think he should have. The goal here is not to create a human calculator, the goal here is the educate TJ according to what I believe will be of use to him. I'm glad the Doman program gave me a start, but really, I personally believe that this sort of modification would make the program more accessible. Three cheers to me, for being willing to experiment! It's a total act of faith to follow some one else's program, but having faith in your own ideas about baby education is ok too! Having a firm grasp of arithmetic up to 20, I think, will make higher level mathematics, number theory, etc. more accessible.

TJ Learned a New Word After Just One Viewing of Volume One!

Guess what word that would be? "No!" I decided to put Volume 1 on because we are having a sick day, and he was hanging out on the couch, not really doing much. The news was over, so I would have ordinarily turned on Noggin, but there was nothing tolerable on so I decided it might be fun to get a sneak peak of the next Volume. He saw the word "No" once, and the word repeated later during the program. Before the narrator's voice said no, he shouted "No!" and began shaking his head. I gotta get this stuff on video!

2000 words per hour?

This article states that some "professional" parents speak 2000 or so words per hour to their child on average, and the number of words spoken to a child has an effect on achievement. To me, 2000 words per hour seems like it would be nearly constant chatter, but maybe it is true that many parents speak this much to their children. I have no idea how many words per hour I speak to my son, but I am not constantly talking to him. Maybe I will talk more when he makes more of an initiative to talk to me!

Mini Marvel Monday