Can I just say what a great site this is…I stumbled across it while looking for ideas and inspiration for teaching my baby son. I’m a high school teacher here in the UK and am used to working with hormonal teenagers but teaching the younger ones seems much harder!
My wife is a Child Psychologist and she would certainly agree that most of the criticisms you’ve addressed on your site are nonsense. My problem is knowing what to teach my boy. I’d love him to have another language, for example. I can speak Portuguese but I’m unsure of how I should deliver this and so on.
I think this site focuses on reading and maths…but I’d like a wider range of activities to expose my son to in a structured way. Being a teacher myself means I get a fair amount of time off during the year and I’d like to make the most of that. I was thinking of things like nature walks and pointing out different animals/plants…painting and drawing…etc etc. Obviously, good parents will do that sort of stuff all the time (and we do, when it’s not sub zero outside!) but I almost feel that I need the security of a set curriculum…sounds crazy saying that for a 5 month old!!!
Anyway, keep up the excellent work and I look forward to my membership here.
Hello and welcome to the forum
You may notice while searching the forum that parents, including me, are mostly being inspired by Glenn Doman - he has several books which could help you decide when and how to start with languages, encyclopedy knowledge, math,music… you can see many videos on youtube
Hello and Welcome! As you develop your own early learning philosophy, you will find that teachable moments are around every corner! We’re glad you joined us!
Typically, parents start with one subject and then build on it. What would you like to start with? For teaching a second language, many people do “one parent, one language,” you can google more info on that. You can introduce reading in Portuguese at the same time that you are introducing reading in English, your baby will not get confused. If you’re interested to go beyond a second language, try to source a babysitter that is multilingual, it kills two birds with one stone. You get a date night and baby learns–win/win! You can also look for local playgroups of parents that are native to other areas.
For Portuguese, I haven’t heard of a whole lot of resources (at least not on this forum) to teach it beyond the community files in LR, so I’m pretty sure Little Reader will be your best bet. You can check the Little Reader Library above for Portuguese downloads and make your own as well using the software. The possibilities are limitless! Imagine one year from today, your child will most likely be reading in 2+ languages and possibly even decoding novel words phonetically…how cool is that?!
For hands on things, you can create your own curriculum but it also sounds like Montessori learning would be right up your alley. I believe that programs like Little Reader introduce information so effectively and efficiently, it only makes sense to take advantage of that. However, you can still balance visual flashcard/screen learning with plenty of concrete, discovery type of activities, capitalizing on the best of both words. Google “Montessori Baby Blog” or “Montessori Baby Activities” or check out this link, it’ll keep you busy for a while. http://www.onlinedegreeprograms.com/blog/2010/50-must-read-montessori-blogs/
