Hi everyone,
I’m a single mum and it’s not easy to try to give my 10-month-old baby a proper early education. I have only evening hours for her and I’m trying to teach her both maths and reading. Basically to save time, I created powerpoints with a word in a slide and the next slide an image to illustrate it, for example images of people in our family. She seems to enjoy being held by me in front of the computer, but she gets distracted a lot, she looks at the computer and then she looks away. And it’s impossible to know how much she remembered, so that I could move to the new words. Another thing is that due to the shortage of time, we, at our best, have only two lessons in reading or two lessons in maths for each night. I feel like I’m not getting anywhere. Please, I need help. Thanks so much!
As a busy parent, I wasn’t able to keep up with creating materials so Little Reader was a life saver to me. With LR, you can download the program to use on your childcare provider’s computer so they can do a session in the morning and then you can do another session in the evening. (check out the two week free trial if it’s something you want to look into, I highly recommend it. We never would have stuck with a reading program if I had to keep making lessons.) Also, if you have a commute, you can consider printing out some LR categories weekly (or in your case, power point slides) and then putting them in the BrillKids flap binders in the car. Put a new set in the car once a week and then every time you put baby in or out of the car, show the words and pictures.
The key is to make sure you create a routine, whatever you do, regardless of the method. And trust that your baby is learning. 
Consider creating some words that match her favorite toys and small handheld objects and you can practice matching them. The goal is to not test too much, if at all, but if you must know you can do matching games and “pick the card that says cat” while holding up a couple of cards. Keep in mind some babies hate to be tested and it’s very discouraging for them. Also, babies this age have 360 degree learning, but you can even turn out the lights and put away the distractions before your lessons. Some parents like myself like to show lessons when the kids are having snacks or during breakfast or lunch. Best of luck & let us know how it goes!
I feel for you, being in your shoes
Definitely LR is great and saves a lot of time!
There’s a lot you can do. If I had to do it again, I would read a lot more and talk talk talk! Count, sing, get her to listen to music etc… You’ll find a lot of ideas on the forum.
For on developing oral abilities and phonological awareness. Then they have the skills to more quickly and easily make sense of print when you have time to teach this. Focus on helping the child modify brain networks so that they make sense of speech sounds- the basis of our written code.
Lots of phonological awareness info here http://www.facebook.com/readaustralia
Thanks for everyone’s advice! It’s true that there’s too much distraction in our house at night, I’ll try to create a move helpful environment for her. Baby’s favorite room is the family room, where there’s the big TV which is on in the evening, as she likes having people around her. By the time my mum’s favorite TV program is over, baby is already fast asleep. I will need to get her in a different room for her lessons.
I’m thinking of buying LR at some point also, but it’s a bit too expensive for me right now. I also tried creating some flash cards as TeachingMyToddlers recommended, but even that is tough to keep my baby interested for long. All she cares about is trying to get hold of the cards from my hands (instead of paying attention to what is written on them) and then putting them into her mouth. I also tried writing the words on a whiteboard, but that doesn’t work either. She just insists on having the pen and again putting it into her mouth. It really amazes me why other babies have such an interest in words, and my baby doesn’t
Why not put the lessons on the big screen TV? connect up a regular computer or a laptop, depending on your set up. Doing it as a family before the TV shows for the night. Try a two week trial of LR doing it this way and see how it goes.
When my kids were at the eating crayon stage, I gave them something else to put in their mouth instead. You could give your daughter something to hold. A blanket, ball, something simple and not too distracting.
Also in the very beginning it’s common for kids to not be too interested in words. They seem to be more interested the more words they see. I suppose at the beginning they can make little sence of them so they look away, as their brains start to make the connections they understand, become curious and focus for longer. Stick with it just in very short spurts with lots of enthusiasm. Even one word is more than most kids get to see! build up gradually.
I started both my girls with YBCR (Your Baby Can Read) at about 10, 11 months. You need to use the accompanying flashcards and follow the instructions that come with the program. You can find the program used online or use a coupon and buy it in stores to save money (the price has come down considerably since I first bought it). They watched the DVDs in a high chair at mealtimes, also in the car. They were both reading words at 17, 18 months.
Now I have the Little Reader Deluxe. I have limited time to teach my 2 y.o., since I am always taking my 4 y.o. to places and teaching more advanced concepts. It’s the perfect program to continue my 2 y.o.'s lessons. It takes very little time to show, introduces phonics, and the accompanying books are great. They helped my 2 y.o. start reading sentences (she was reluctant to do so with the books we already owned). I have my 4 y.o. watch it as well (even though she is reading chapter books at approx the 3rd grade level). Both girls enjoy it and are learning new words from it. Definitely an investment worth making.
Also kept in mind the reading milestones from Dr. Titzer’s blog (when it had been up): after 50 words, your baby has learned the ability to learn new words, after 200 words, your baby is able to intuit phonics.
Hope this helps!
This was very true with my daughter! The LR 25 deluxe kit books didn’t exist yet and I had to come up with all kinds of creative ways to transition her from flashcards to sentences and books. With my son, the LR books made the transition SEAMLESS and truly made all of the difference in the world. In my totally biased opinion lol they are both very bright and I don’t think a difference in ability was the reason for the hurdle with my daughter and the ease with my son, I think the approach and the books really were key. I cannot recommend them highly enough!! And for the record, we owned the YBCR books and they pale in comparison IMO.
Thanks, everyone! Your words gave me new courage I’m keeping at it, even though I have no idea if my baby learns anything at all. I’m also diversifying my methods. I just booked a few hundred ready-made flash cards (the kind with words on one side and images on the other side) to combine this with my powerpoints. The ready-made cards are very expensive for my pocket, but I really don’t have time to make them myself. The cards I could make without too much fuss are the ones with words only (no images), and maybe that does not interest baby enough.
Forgot to add these websites for teaching your child to read: www.starfall.com and DadDude’s www.readingbear.org and Fleschcards. They are invaluable and also free.
This is great! Thanks a lot, Eschlem!
I don’t have time to read all the other responses so I hope I’m not repeating a lot.
If you fast flash the words (preferrably with pictures), it takes very little time.
http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/2011/05/fast-flashing-method.html
The faster you flash the cards the better you will hold her attention too.