“POSTERING”: Since the day we brought our newborn baby boy home, I have been literally plastering the walls of our apartment with huge letters, numbers, words and putting small bold labels - with the words underlined - on just about everything in our apartment. I now plan to label everything in as many different languages as I can - possibly color coding them for clarity (black for English, blue for his Mother’s language - Estonian - and a specific color for each language I present - and possibly a tag like: (Geman) after each word…)
I have counted the “signs” in the past but I guess I have at least 1500 signs up on everything now. He particularly loves being “flown” around the apartment as I read each sign aloud to him (vestibular stimulation, fun and reading! But possibly better for the baby to be able to see you SAY the words with your mouth…). Still it is an excellent way to break up sessions where he is just sitting there. The words “high” and “low” are amongst his favorites - along with his all time favorites: signs of words on our fairly low, bathroom ceiling - that he can read and/or wonder about until his diaper is changed - then Daddy flies him way up high to read the words out loud to him (this is getting more and more dangerous as he gets bigger - so it is with great sadness that I have had to curtail these ceiling flights.)
I somewhat regret showing him the alphabet and numerals before showing him words and quantities - but I hadn’t read any of the Doman books yet. (I am now a very serious supporter of almost all Doman techniques - What is with the flashlights in newborns eyes and air horns for a newborns incredibly delicate hearing system? I am sure I am missing something. Why does no one advocate signs and posters? In addition to - and as a constant review for - rapid flash cards of course…I am hoping to read all of Shichida’s books and possibly get him into the Shichida school in Manhattan - but as far as I understand we would all have to learn Japanese!? )
I have received an amazing amount of criticism regarding my “signs” everywhere (“It might cause autism…”) - I was wondering if everyone would be kind enough to let me know what they think based on what they know? Thanks!
PREMATURE STANDING: Also I am still searching for more information about helping my 5 month old to stand: most sources recommend against it for various reasons - back problems, crawling avoidance (he isn’t crawling much at all yet) …but he absolutely loved it while I was abetting him. I have also received a great deal of criticism for doing the Gentle Revolution “How to Teach Your Baby To Be PHysically Superb” hand and fingers hanging sessions (where you try to strengthen their ability to hang from your fingers or a dowel). I was wondering what any knows about the latest science and research into these activities.
I plan to continue plastering our apartment with educational materials until he leaves us many years from now. I personally have always wanted foreign language labels on everything for my own edification - a lot of what I am doing is incredibly enjoyable and beneficial to my own continuing education: like the A3 (on up!) posters of fine art (and anatomy and geography) that I have been printing out and posting everywhere ( most printers will print multiple page “posters” - 4x4, 3x3, etc.) Does anyone have any thought on presenting material of a graphic or depressing or disturbing nature? Where shall we draw the line and at what ages? For instance: he is visibly disturbed by pictures of - say - crocodiles - and particularly of adult skeletons (even cartooned!..I made a poster of a cartoon version of a labeled, standing child’s skeleton which also seemed to bother him.) What about great art? Most of it is pathos and quite depressing - I have actually begun editing his experience: the happier the better - Mozart Eine Kleine Nacht music and Sonata in C - BUT NO Symphony No. 40 NO Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue - these pieces visibly depress and upset him…I think perhaps needlessly.
TEACHING MUSIC: (I endlessly repeat a few pieces over and over and over - until I can literally sing the entire piece to him as I attempt to play the rhythms on and with his body. NOTE: Anything in the backgroud - educational posters, music, etc. - will basically stay in the background unless you - personally - teach them it: caregiver to child (or the childs’ own hands literally on) is the best and only way to go really.
CENSORSHIP: Furthermore, I have now also become keen on presenting only “optimistic” views of everything: the vocabulary that I am presenting him with is highly skewed towards “positive” expression: “good”, “great”, “awesome”, “fantastic”, “cool”, “wow”, “Yeah!” and only an occasional " bad", “sad” (and then only from before I had become such an avid proponent of censoring - much to my own surprise!) Any thoughts?
I try to integrate rhyme and music and humor and - what I call - SPACIALIity (space, time, movement) - into EVERYTHING I present. (Mega Memory and Speed Reading - from Kevin Trudeau - have both dramatically changed my view of education - for all age levels. Perhaps I can write more on these topics later…)
In addition to all the music basics (pitch, rhythm, instrument names, etc.) I am attempting to teach him to actually play piano and guitar and percussion. Any thoughts? Any pitfalls or a very young baby? …other than the obvious prime directive: keep them as safe from harm as possible:
safe, healthy, happy!!!