During the DVD workshop, Dr. Titzer mentioned some thing about doing oral tongue and face exercises to help your baby learn how to use his mouth and learn to talk. We have been doing this for quite some time without knowing. We often buzz our lips, and make rude noises, and when TJ imitates us we always encouraged it.
He went into detail about how to do the exercises without demonstrating actually. It started with getting in front of the mirror and doing different motions with the tongue. Then, to carefully place your tongue and lips, showing the baby how the mouth is places when making certain sounds. Also, to encourage the baby to repeat random babbles when they come up with a new one, especially the harder ones like 'L' and 'th.' I wished I had more details about these exercises. How useful and enlightening! I was unaware that there was anything you could do to help your baby learn to talk aside from talking to them.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Your Baby Can Read Workshop Video
So I sat and watched the hour-plus long workshop on the Your Baby Can Read program. I tell you, they should have this workshop aired instead of the infomercial. Seriously. Here's a review of the workshop.
He started out with a bit of a lecture about how babies can learn to read, and giving his basic comments about why they should and why his program works. He went sort of briefly into the reception that his program gets overseas. He particularly pointed to China and Singapore as being particularly enthusiastic about educating babies. During one portion, he showed a series of videos showing babies, including his oldest daughter, reading. There was a lot of ooey gooey baby cuteness during that part. There was a question and answer where parents, all mothers actually, asked questions about the program ranging from how to restart the program after taking a break, to how to get an active child to watch the video. There should have been some fathers in the group, but I guess he wasn't trying to be PC or anything.
The highlight of the talk was when his daughter got up to speak about the program. She looked and sounded like a typical 16 year old, nothing amazing about her public speaking ability, but it was apparent that she was extremely intelligent and most of all well read. Apparently, she can speed read, and eats classics for lunch. She seemed very accomplished, not uniquely so, but just like a normal smarty pants.
I highly recommend you pop this video in one night when you have insomnia. It will keep you motivated to follow through on the 7 month program.
TJ is doing well with the program, as I predicted he does not particularly want to sit and stare at the screen, he does a lot of running around, so we will have to put some effort into keeping him focused until he naturally gets the feel for it. Showing it to him when he is winding down for sleep after a bath in the evening seems to help keep him focused, but it is an ordeal to fall asleep afterwards. We will see. I will keep you posted on what we work out for him.
He started out with a bit of a lecture about how babies can learn to read, and giving his basic comments about why they should and why his program works. He went sort of briefly into the reception that his program gets overseas. He particularly pointed to China and Singapore as being particularly enthusiastic about educating babies. During one portion, he showed a series of videos showing babies, including his oldest daughter, reading. There was a lot of ooey gooey baby cuteness during that part. There was a question and answer where parents, all mothers actually, asked questions about the program ranging from how to restart the program after taking a break, to how to get an active child to watch the video. There should have been some fathers in the group, but I guess he wasn't trying to be PC or anything.
The highlight of the talk was when his daughter got up to speak about the program. She looked and sounded like a typical 16 year old, nothing amazing about her public speaking ability, but it was apparent that she was extremely intelligent and most of all well read. Apparently, she can speed read, and eats classics for lunch. She seemed very accomplished, not uniquely so, but just like a normal smarty pants.
I highly recommend you pop this video in one night when you have insomnia. It will keep you motivated to follow through on the 7 month program.
TJ is doing well with the program, as I predicted he does not particularly want to sit and stare at the screen, he does a lot of running around, so we will have to put some effort into keeping him focused until he naturally gets the feel for it. Showing it to him when he is winding down for sleep after a bath in the evening seems to help keep him focused, but it is an ordeal to fall asleep afterwards. We will see. I will keep you posted on what we work out for him.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Celebrities Pass Out "Your Baby Can Read" System Instead of Candy at Birthday Bashes
Nancy O'Dell, host of Access Hollywood, had a birthday bash for her 2 year old daughter Ashby. The Your Baby Can Read system was among the treats in the good bags!
"The Jumpitz performed several songs from their new DVD Celebrate Animals and sang a special rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ just for Ashby.
Ashby’s friends and family left the party toting SkipHop Doggy Zoo Packs filled with Thinkbaby sippy cups, items from Fisher Price, Lego, the “Your Baby Can Read” system, Plum Organics, Crayola, Motts and more."
"The Jumpitz performed several songs from their new DVD Celebrate Animals and sang a special rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ just for Ashby.
Ashby’s friends and family left the party toting SkipHop Doggy Zoo Packs filled with Thinkbaby sippy cups, items from Fisher Price, Lego, the “Your Baby Can Read” system, Plum Organics, Crayola, Motts and more."
Why not just read to him?
This is a pretty simple question. In his book "How to Teach a Baby to Read" Glenn Doman, the pioneer of the flashcard method for teaching children to read, states the very simple answer. Most children with normal eyesight do not have the ability to clearly see small print. The great majority of children's books have print that is just too small for a baby. Lots of people believe that reading to a child is a legitimate method of teaching the child to read. I don't believe many children age 4 or under have ever been taught to read by being read to. At some point, children have to be exposed to print large enough for them to see if they are to read at such a young age. Hence, the effectiveness of the DVDs where the print shown is large, clear, and unambiguous.
Why the Cheesy "As Seen On TV" Infomercial?
I'm not sure why the marketers of the Your Baby Can Read system have pursued such a, well, cheesy approach. Initially, upon seeing parts of the infomercial, I believed his claims that babies could be taught to read, but assumed that his system was a scam. Why? Because, all As Seen On TV products are just assumed to be some sort of rip off with overstated claims. Well, the airwaves have been saturated with the message about the program, and as long as more and more parents are successful completing the 7 month program and continue to pursue teaching their babies how to read, the more other parents will hop on board to keep up with the Jones' or even out of genuine desire to teach their children. I guess getting the message out to whoever they could was more important than maintaining a more "official" type of image.
Now we just have to get the word out about the Ped Egg! I will not have to spend money on a pedicure unless I want to for the rest of the summer!
Now we just have to get the word out about the Ped Egg! I will not have to spend money on a pedicure unless I want to for the rest of the summer!
The Cons
It seems to me that the pros of teaching a baby to read are fairly obvious. At the very least, if a baby learns to read early he can occupy his time with the activities of his choosing later in childhood, age 5-6 when most other kids are spending their time learning to read. At best, the brain is molded and shaped in preparation for higher level of thinking earlier.
I have read a few books, essays, and on line articles on the subject of the negatives of teaching a baby to read. There seems to be at least two major trains of thought. One takes the view that the child has more important developmental tasks to accomplish first before reading can or should happen. Some are more blunt, and say that you are taking a child's childhood away by introducing academics at such an early age. The second train of thought is that learning to read early is detrimental to reading later.
I am not well-versed enough in childhood development to deconstruct these arguments, I am just a Mom. However, I can say that the first reasoning, that babies should only pursue non-academic play, is purely a matter of opinion. It is a parenting choice that a parent makes once they learn that babies can learn to read (not everyone knows this), and they choose not to pursue teaching their babies. I think this is a perfectly fine parenting choice. My parents did not know babies could learn to read, did not teach us as babies, and my siblings and I all are excellent readers with post-graduate education. I have found that teaching my baby to read, so far, has not taken up much time and since he is engaged in play for the rest of the entire day, I don't think he is missing out on much at all. Viewing the videos takes up about 40 minutes, and I feel that he has fun "singing" the songs, and pointing to his nose.
The second point, that reading early makes children poor readers later is just counter-intuitive. The claim is that whole word reading causes dyslexia, or exacerbates the issue with dyslexic children. Or, the claim is that whole word reading is not really reading at all, but rather it is memorization or training.
The first claim I cannot really comment on other than I have not seen any citations to any proof, or even any anecdotal claims. The second claim is combination silliness and denial at its finest. The proponents of this claim is that using phonics, BKA "sounding out words" for the rest of us, is reading and memorizing the shape and look of a word is not reading.
I don't want to rant because that is not the purpose of this blog, but I used to tutor some very young early readers several years ago. There was one infinitely cute little Cambodian girl whose parents did not speak English who would need a couple of hours of help with her homework nearly every day. She could sound words out. It was laborious, frustrating, and once she cried. She would struggle to get through a passage, sounding out every word, then have absolutely no idea what she just read. The comprehension just was not there. After this process, I would read the passage to her, then sometimes have her read it aloud or to herself again. Even if I read the comprehension questions to her, she would still often have very low comprehension and I would point to the answer in the passage for her to read once again. If she had at least some words memorized by sight, perhaps she would have reached fluency earlier, but at least at the time I was tutoring her she was so far from that I was pretty worried for her. I am not against the phonics approach, but saying that phonics is reading and sight memorization is not reading seems to me to be agenda oriented and not taking into account the realities and results of each type of approach.
I have read a few books, essays, and on line articles on the subject of the negatives of teaching a baby to read. There seems to be at least two major trains of thought. One takes the view that the child has more important developmental tasks to accomplish first before reading can or should happen. Some are more blunt, and say that you are taking a child's childhood away by introducing academics at such an early age. The second train of thought is that learning to read early is detrimental to reading later.
I am not well-versed enough in childhood development to deconstruct these arguments, I am just a Mom. However, I can say that the first reasoning, that babies should only pursue non-academic play, is purely a matter of opinion. It is a parenting choice that a parent makes once they learn that babies can learn to read (not everyone knows this), and they choose not to pursue teaching their babies. I think this is a perfectly fine parenting choice. My parents did not know babies could learn to read, did not teach us as babies, and my siblings and I all are excellent readers with post-graduate education. I have found that teaching my baby to read, so far, has not taken up much time and since he is engaged in play for the rest of the entire day, I don't think he is missing out on much at all. Viewing the videos takes up about 40 minutes, and I feel that he has fun "singing" the songs, and pointing to his nose.
The second point, that reading early makes children poor readers later is just counter-intuitive. The claim is that whole word reading causes dyslexia, or exacerbates the issue with dyslexic children. Or, the claim is that whole word reading is not really reading at all, but rather it is memorization or training.
The first claim I cannot really comment on other than I have not seen any citations to any proof, or even any anecdotal claims. The second claim is combination silliness and denial at its finest. The proponents of this claim is that using phonics, BKA "sounding out words" for the rest of us, is reading and memorizing the shape and look of a word is not reading.
I don't want to rant because that is not the purpose of this blog, but I used to tutor some very young early readers several years ago. There was one infinitely cute little Cambodian girl whose parents did not speak English who would need a couple of hours of help with her homework nearly every day. She could sound words out. It was laborious, frustrating, and once she cried. She would struggle to get through a passage, sounding out every word, then have absolutely no idea what she just read. The comprehension just was not there. After this process, I would read the passage to her, then sometimes have her read it aloud or to herself again. Even if I read the comprehension questions to her, she would still often have very low comprehension and I would point to the answer in the passage for her to read once again. If she had at least some words memorized by sight, perhaps she would have reached fluency earlier, but at least at the time I was tutoring her she was so far from that I was pretty worried for her. I am not against the phonics approach, but saying that phonics is reading and sight memorization is not reading seems to me to be agenda oriented and not taking into account the realities and results of each type of approach.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Win a Free Your Baby Can Read Kit
The Opinionated Parent, a wonderful website, is giving away a Your Baby Can Read Deluxe Kit. Just comment and leave your email address! The deadline is June 22, so don't miss out!
Good Night, Trebellina
For a few months now, we have been watching a wonderful DVD called Trebellina which introduces a baby to music, notes, pitch, and rhythm. It has done wonders for TJs sense of pitch. There is a wonderful segment which introduces a number of percussion instruments. I have to say, my favorite is the cowbell, but TJ seems to be partial to the tambourine over the others.
Save your money on Kindermusik class if you don't want to be bothered. We enjoyed Kindermusik because TJ is just really a social butterfly and being around babies and kids is his favorite thing, but it was not worth the money. We get the same affect going to the indoor park at the mall. I was also tired of the other parents only wanting to talk to me about TJ's hair. The only thing I took from the class was the "Toys Away" song, which after my singing it every day for about a month, TJ began to say "Thank you." Kindermusik is a social hour, and if you can't find a nice play group or just want to talk to other parents and see other babies, Kindermusik is a good option. Moms, especially stay at home moms, just need to get out of the house and talk to other adults some time, so I don't want to discourage Kindermusik or Music Together or Baby Maestro. But if your goal is for your baby to eventually start music education, this is not specific preparation for that at all.
Spend only $20 or so on this video, and your baby will actually be on his way to developing a fine-tuned musical ear, a singing voice, perfect pitch, a sense of rhythm and fluency in reading music. He will dance, clap, hear classical music, and be exposed to the keyboard and musical staff, the Treble clef (hence the name of the animated music teacher). This is actually the goal of music education, not knowing a few nice tunes or banging on random instruments with no instruction on how to create something other than noise.
Like I said in the previous post, we will continue to try to squeeze this video in a couple of times a week to make room for Your Baby Can Read. The DVD allows you to play only the animated music lessons, or only the live movie clips as you wish. The run time on the entire DVD is 32 minutes I believe, so if you play only certain parts you can get your music lesson in in less than 15 minutes.
I will post more on Trebellina and my baby's music education later.
Save your money on Kindermusik class if you don't want to be bothered. We enjoyed Kindermusik because TJ is just really a social butterfly and being around babies and kids is his favorite thing, but it was not worth the money. We get the same affect going to the indoor park at the mall. I was also tired of the other parents only wanting to talk to me about TJ's hair. The only thing I took from the class was the "Toys Away" song, which after my singing it every day for about a month, TJ began to say "Thank you." Kindermusik is a social hour, and if you can't find a nice play group or just want to talk to other parents and see other babies, Kindermusik is a good option. Moms, especially stay at home moms, just need to get out of the house and talk to other adults some time, so I don't want to discourage Kindermusik or Music Together or Baby Maestro. But if your goal is for your baby to eventually start music education, this is not specific preparation for that at all.
Spend only $20 or so on this video, and your baby will actually be on his way to developing a fine-tuned musical ear, a singing voice, perfect pitch, a sense of rhythm and fluency in reading music. He will dance, clap, hear classical music, and be exposed to the keyboard and musical staff, the Treble clef (hence the name of the animated music teacher). This is actually the goal of music education, not knowing a few nice tunes or banging on random instruments with no instruction on how to create something other than noise.
Like I said in the previous post, we will continue to try to squeeze this video in a couple of times a week to make room for Your Baby Can Read. The DVD allows you to play only the animated music lessons, or only the live movie clips as you wish. The run time on the entire DVD is 32 minutes I believe, so if you play only certain parts you can get your music lesson in in less than 15 minutes.
I will post more on Trebellina and my baby's music education later.
First Viewing of Your Baby Can Read DVDs
So, I decided to get started with the program right away. After a bath, I turned the lights down in the living room, and snuggled with TJ on the couch with a blanket. There is a 2 minute introduction where Dr. Titzer explains a bit about the program, and the then the show starts. There should be an option to skip the introduction, but there isn't, so I guess we will have to fast forward every time. The DVD includes lots of words for body parts, animals, and other useful reading words. The production looks a little homemade, but I think that helps for the video to not be so overstimulating as some other shows your kids may watch. TJ did participate in the video by clapping, touching his nose, opening his mouth, and doing eensy weensy spider. He wasn't crazy about the arms up and arms down thing, when I tried to show him he got kind of irritated, so I will let that one go until he shows that's something he wants to do. He didn't actually say any of the words on the video except baby and toes, but he tried some of the words out (duh for dog) and I'm sure he is taking them in. We got through about 20 minutes of the video before he said 'uncle.' He was tired and it was bedtime. We are excited about the program, his usual morning video is going to be shelved for the time being. I don't want him to forget all of the things he learned from that video though, so I will try to squeeze it in once or twice a week. I will give more details about that video in a later post.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Your Baby Can Read Parent's Guide
I read over the introductory "Parent's Guide" that came with the system. It was mainly a little bit of history on how Dr. Robert Titzer conceived of the program, how he used the program on his daughters, and citations to several studies to prove that teaching reading to babies is beneficial. Oh, and I use the word "baby" loosely. When I say baby I mean newborn up the preschooler. They are all babies to me until then, if I need to make a distinction I will say infant, newborn, toddler, preschooler etc. My little one is officially a toddler at 15 months.
He also gave information about how to best use the DVDs, and how to use the entire system which included flashcards, books, pictures, etc. He also addressed the AAP stance on TV viewing, which I brought up in a previous post. He basically said that the AAP has no data to back up their stance on all TV viewing being uniformly detrimental to the child. Additionally, there are not many pediatricians who were also stay-at-home Moms (or Dads, or daycare providers) at any point. So it is unlikely that they are aware of how parents must create an environment that accomodates all of their children's needs (not just the ones that are under age 2) and neither are they aware of high quality educational programs that can actually instruct a child well as long as there is parental reinforcement.
With this said, he recommends that TV time is at least reduced by the Your Baby Can Read program. This is understandable, as the babies only have so many waking hours anyway, and adding an hour of TV time might cut into other important activities.
I enjoyed the guide, it was realistic and in line with what I believe about teaching reading to babies. If you can't bring yourself to read it, put it in your bathroom or bring it with you when you know you will have a wait, like the DMV or doctor's office. It seems to me to be required reading before starting the program, but a skim will do until later if you are just not one to read the manual.
He also gave information about how to best use the DVDs, and how to use the entire system which included flashcards, books, pictures, etc. He also addressed the AAP stance on TV viewing, which I brought up in a previous post. He basically said that the AAP has no data to back up their stance on all TV viewing being uniformly detrimental to the child. Additionally, there are not many pediatricians who were also stay-at-home Moms (or Dads, or daycare providers) at any point. So it is unlikely that they are aware of how parents must create an environment that accomodates all of their children's needs (not just the ones that are under age 2) and neither are they aware of high quality educational programs that can actually instruct a child well as long as there is parental reinforcement.
With this said, he recommends that TV time is at least reduced by the Your Baby Can Read program. This is understandable, as the babies only have so many waking hours anyway, and adding an hour of TV time might cut into other important activities.
I enjoyed the guide, it was realistic and in line with what I believe about teaching reading to babies. If you can't bring yourself to read it, put it in your bathroom or bring it with you when you know you will have a wait, like the DMV or doctor's office. It seems to me to be required reading before starting the program, but a skim will do until later if you are just not one to read the manual.
Package Received
I'm so excited. The materials look like they are good quality and there is a parenting guide that I will go ahead and try to read, and I'm going to get the materials laid out so my baby can get started with his first viewing tonight!
Should the World Know?
Some thing strikes me as incredibly wrong with this picture. I'm not sure that any two year old, no matter how amazingly bright, should have his IQ score tested to begin with, much less have the results published. If I knew my child's IQ through testing, I'm not even sure I would share the results with him. Seems like unnecessary pressure to live up to a number. I'm trying hard to not sound like one of those salty people who go off anytime some one gets the label "gifted." That's not what I'm doing here. I am questioning whether the IQ and status of an individual should be public information if it is not their choice to reveal that information.
See more stories of baby and preschool "geniuses" here. It seems ritual at this point to go to the press with a story of youngest baby with the highest IQ and admission to Mensa.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6198015.ece
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-463539/Two-year-old-Matilda-youngest-girl-Mensa.html
See more stories of baby and preschool "geniuses" here. It seems ritual at this point to go to the press with a story of youngest baby with the highest IQ and admission to Mensa.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6198015.ece
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-463539/Two-year-old-Matilda-youngest-girl-Mensa.html
Monday, June 15, 2009
No package today
We won't be getting the Your Baby Can Read package today, the delivery guy didn't have my apartment number! It will definitely be here tomorrow, so I will give more of my thoughts then.
I have looked around for reviews of the product and the biggest complaint that I have heard is that the children did not want to watch the DVDs or they were bored with it. This is ok. See my post below about babies who do not want to be read to! It does not mean you stop reading to them (or showing them the DVD). It takes time to cultivate interest in the activity. I show my baby one other DVD almost every day, and it took a week or two before he would sit and watch about half of it. He still gets up and walks away from it at times, other times he is really into it. I am not blaming the parents, there are probably genuinely many kids that do not want to watch any TV, or specifically these DVDs, but I could not imagine that you could make a determination after one showing. We will be completing the full 7 month program unless it for some reason causes TJ some undue stress or otherwise makes him unhappy.
I have looked around for reviews of the product and the biggest complaint that I have heard is that the children did not want to watch the DVDs or they were bored with it. This is ok. See my post below about babies who do not want to be read to! It does not mean you stop reading to them (or showing them the DVD). It takes time to cultivate interest in the activity. I show my baby one other DVD almost every day, and it took a week or two before he would sit and watch about half of it. He still gets up and walks away from it at times, other times he is really into it. I am not blaming the parents, there are probably genuinely many kids that do not want to watch any TV, or specifically these DVDs, but I could not imagine that you could make a determination after one showing. We will be completing the full 7 month program unless it for some reason causes TJ some undue stress or otherwise makes him unhappy.
Mini Marvel Monday
I will be trying to highlight some young babies who are doing amazing things at a young age on this blog. I came across this video last week and I was tickled pink.
It should be here today!
Our Your Baby Can Read program should be here today! I will be going through the package and making a cursory review of my first impression of the materials. Stay tuned!
It's getting HOT in here
I mentioned in my previous post, a little bit about the movie Parenthood. This movie really has been my only exposure to flashcarding, AKA "hot-housing" of young children before I had my baby. Rick Moranis' character Nathan had become obsessed with making a genius of his 3-year-old daughter Patty, and his obsession caused him to neglect his marriage and had just begun to damage Patty socially and emotionally as well. In particular, I remember the scene where he is flashing the symbols from the periodic table. This highlighted his obsession, because no matter how you look at it, it most certainly is not very useful information for a 3 year old to know the exact symbol that represents the elements and she had it down cold. It seemed like the most un-fun activity, a waste of time, and all for show and bragging rights.
I don't know any hot-house parents personally, but I have heard about them, and I'm sure I've been in contact with some on-line. Maybe I am making a distinction between myself and others when there is no real difference, but my purpose in educating my baby is NOT to create a genius. My purpose is to enhance his life, instill purpose and confidence, and begin to cultivate an intelligent young man. I do not care what his IQ test scores will be if he ever has a test done, whether he gets identified as gifted in school, and most of all I do not care whether others believe he is smart or a genius. I have to admit, I do care if my educating him early ultimately has an effect on his standardized test scores because frankly, in this country, this represents access to scarce education resources. And I do also care if his early education makes him a more intelligent adult who has a wider array of choices when it comes time to choose a career.
Sidebar: I am going to be looking up the origin of "hot-house." That is a really interesting term and I wonder where it comes from!
I don't know any hot-house parents personally, but I have heard about them, and I'm sure I've been in contact with some on-line. Maybe I am making a distinction between myself and others when there is no real difference, but my purpose in educating my baby is NOT to create a genius. My purpose is to enhance his life, instill purpose and confidence, and begin to cultivate an intelligent young man. I do not care what his IQ test scores will be if he ever has a test done, whether he gets identified as gifted in school, and most of all I do not care whether others believe he is smart or a genius. I have to admit, I do care if my educating him early ultimately has an effect on his standardized test scores because frankly, in this country, this represents access to scarce education resources. And I do also care if his early education makes him a more intelligent adult who has a wider array of choices when it comes time to choose a career.
Sidebar: I am going to be looking up the origin of "hot-house." That is a really interesting term and I wonder where it comes from!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Teaching A Baby
What types of things can you teach a baby? And how will you know if they actually learned them?
Here are the things that babies can learn:
1) Reading
2) Music
3) Math
4) Multiple Languages
5) Sign Language
6) Encyclopedic Knowledge
7) Physical skills
8) Many other skills
I had to think for awhile, after learning about everything that a baby could learn, about what I wanted my baby to learn and why. First, I considered all of the skills that would be necessary for him to be a successful student and second, I considered all of the skills that would enhance his life as a young baby and toddler. I came to the conclusion that reading, math, and music were the primary skills I would focus on, taking into account what I know about my baby's personality currently and what my personal beliefs are concerning what education should be. However, many could come to a different conclusion ultimately. I see how a bilingual mother of twins might prioritize multiple languages and physical skills over math for instance. Or how a busy working mother with older kids may choose to only teach reading. It really is an individual decision that parents have to make.
And that brings me to the second question I presented. How will you know your baby learned the things that you are trying to teach them? Well, if you are teaching a very young infant, you probably will not know. If you are teaching an other child, they will either demonstrate what they know spontaneously, if you ask, or not at all. There is absolutely no guarantee that they will show you that they have learned anything at all before they are ready. So this, embarking on educating a baby, is a labor of love and gift from parent to child that is given freely, and nothing is required or asked of the baby in return for the parents' time and effort. I know that that may be hard to swallow at first, but it is very necessary to understand this, lest you become those flashcard parents on the movie Parenthood, whose entire life became wrapped up in creating a genius instead of letting the child be a child.
Here are the things that babies can learn:
1) Reading
2) Music
3) Math
4) Multiple Languages
5) Sign Language
6) Encyclopedic Knowledge
7) Physical skills
8) Many other skills
I had to think for awhile, after learning about everything that a baby could learn, about what I wanted my baby to learn and why. First, I considered all of the skills that would be necessary for him to be a successful student and second, I considered all of the skills that would enhance his life as a young baby and toddler. I came to the conclusion that reading, math, and music were the primary skills I would focus on, taking into account what I know about my baby's personality currently and what my personal beliefs are concerning what education should be. However, many could come to a different conclusion ultimately. I see how a bilingual mother of twins might prioritize multiple languages and physical skills over math for instance. Or how a busy working mother with older kids may choose to only teach reading. It really is an individual decision that parents have to make.
And that brings me to the second question I presented. How will you know your baby learned the things that you are trying to teach them? Well, if you are teaching a very young infant, you probably will not know. If you are teaching an other child, they will either demonstrate what they know spontaneously, if you ask, or not at all. There is absolutely no guarantee that they will show you that they have learned anything at all before they are ready. So this, embarking on educating a baby, is a labor of love and gift from parent to child that is given freely, and nothing is required or asked of the baby in return for the parents' time and effort. I know that that may be hard to swallow at first, but it is very necessary to understand this, lest you become those flashcard parents on the movie Parenthood, whose entire life became wrapped up in creating a genius instead of letting the child be a child.
My Baby Can't Read
By this time I think it is pretty much common knowledge that young babies can learn to read. I started off wanting my baby to learn to read, and digging for resources on line and off, so that I could make this a part of my child's education. His father was pretty sternly against flashcards, and didn't want me to turn our baby into a weirdo or a side show act. I understood his point of view, but of course this did not change the fact that a) babies can learn to read and b) I wanted our baby to learn to read. I finally purchased Glenn Doman's books "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" and also "How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence." I also stumbled across a website www.brillkids.com. I read the books, and visited this website sporadically, but did not really make any moves to teach CJ to read until now. This is what changed.
My husband saw a baby, live and in person, reading! We went to my husband's cousin's house to visit, and I noticed how bright their 30 month old seemed lately and I commented on it. No, not commented, I gushed over it. So his mother spilled the beans. They had been using the Your Baby Can Read DVDs! She pulled out the entire system, showed us the starter DVD. She had a few flashcards on the counter, showed them to her son, and he read them "hi!" "elephant" "arms up!" It was somewhat surreal, but he was reading and it is so exciting to see an actual child, not on Good Morning America or Youtube, actually reading at this young age. So, we decided to purchase the system. It's been shipped, so we should be receiving it this week. We will start the program immediately, and I will document all milestones here on this blog! I will be posting Youtube videos, reviews, and our other experiences with this product on this blog for you to follow so that you can really decide whether this is something you want to do with your babies.
My husband saw a baby, live and in person, reading! We went to my husband's cousin's house to visit, and I noticed how bright their 30 month old seemed lately and I commented on it. No, not commented, I gushed over it. So his mother spilled the beans. They had been using the Your Baby Can Read DVDs! She pulled out the entire system, showed us the starter DVD. She had a few flashcards on the counter, showed them to her son, and he read them "hi!" "elephant" "arms up!" It was somewhat surreal, but he was reading and it is so exciting to see an actual child, not on Good Morning America or Youtube, actually reading at this young age. So, we decided to purchase the system. It's been shipped, so we should be receiving it this week. We will start the program immediately, and I will document all milestones here on this blog! I will be posting Youtube videos, reviews, and our other experiences with this product on this blog for you to follow so that you can really decide whether this is something you want to do with your babies.
Unplugged
I just made a post about my "plugged in" family and strangely enough we awoke this morning to find our power was off! We spent the day out shopping to keep cool (yeah, shopping, but we didn't actually purchase anything). We will have to restock the refrigerator in the morning. The only good thing about the situation was TJ got to play with a lot of kids in our complex this morning because we all brought our kids to the leasing office to keep cool.
We ran into a couple of interesting characters. I find many other kids to be pretty reserved, if not outright shy, compared to TJ. Whenever TJ sees other children, he runs to (or after) them. Well, he isn't much of a runner at 15 months, but he can do his walking thing pretty fast. Anyways, I sat and chatted with two fathers, one with an 18 month old who was 35 inches tall! I could not get over how grown up he looked in comparison to TJ, but it was fairly obvious they were pretty much in the same developmental stages. We spent time coaxing them to use the crayons to scribble, but to TJ they are still for eating so we stuck with the blocks for most of the morning, and played a little bit of telephone. We watched the laughing baby on Youtube several times as well. Well, I guess we weren't totally unplugged, but it was tough day without our usual comforts.
We ran into a couple of interesting characters. I find many other kids to be pretty reserved, if not outright shy, compared to TJ. Whenever TJ sees other children, he runs to (or after) them. Well, he isn't much of a runner at 15 months, but he can do his walking thing pretty fast. Anyways, I sat and chatted with two fathers, one with an 18 month old who was 35 inches tall! I could not get over how grown up he looked in comparison to TJ, but it was fairly obvious they were pretty much in the same developmental stages. We spent time coaxing them to use the crayons to scribble, but to TJ they are still for eating so we stuck with the blocks for most of the morning, and played a little bit of telephone. We watched the laughing baby on Youtube several times as well. Well, I guess we weren't totally unplugged, but it was tough day without our usual comforts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
