My son at 3 weeks imitated the word “more” when i had said “i love you more” to him and it’s caught on tape and is very clear. After that i started teaching him to say mama (i talk to him a lot) and from the 4th week up until now at 6 weeks he has associated me with mama and very often say maam but when i play with him and encourage it he says it more clearly.
He is only 6 weeks old and he yells, talks and imitates. I am planning on Getting started with brillbaby’s learning systems. I don’t know if I should wait or not. Has anyone used brill baby on a baby so young and how is it coming along?
Hi Sobeez and Seastar
Wow that is truly amazing I am so excited for you! I did not learn about little reader until Cayden was about 7 months old. Have you started showing the Infant stimulation cards?
I just looked at my little reader box and it says for 4 months and above. The age on the MonkiSee MonkiDo box is 3 months and above.
Hopefully some other parents will chime in here and let you know when they started. If I had the chance to do it all over again I would start at 3 months and I would attempt to have my baby become verbal in the meantime like you two have done. I am so excited to hear about you little ones progress please keep us updated.
What an exciting journey you are beginning! In the first few months, your baby’s visual pathway is still developing. Their vision is not sharp and perfect yet. You can show them words in the form of flash cards, on the screen and so forth, but they need to be large. At this point, you will not be doing rapid flashing, as they are still practicing their focusing. You can find ideas on how to speed the process up in the How Smart is Your Baby book.
If i were starting out all over again, I would spend this time reading, reading and doing more reading to my baby. It is the perfect time to develop a lasting routine. Once the baby is about 2-3 months, you can begin introducing written language to them.
Thanks everyone. I guess i shouldn’t delay then. I’m already regretting on not having done some stuff during my pregnancy. I haven’t showed my LO any cards yet…I should get on that.
@seastar- my baby rolls over too it’s very exciting to see them act this way when theyre so young. Never knew theyd be able to talk so young. Keep me updated.
@melabala and krista g - I’m definitely going to start teaching via brillbaby and post results. Thanks for the advice.
So exciting! Gives me baby fever all over again :biggrin:
I had yet to find BrillKids when Alex was an infant, but I started YBCR with her at 8 weeks… I have to admit I felt utterly ridiculous as NO ONE I knew would have even considered it!
The thing is, she LOVED it! We played it on a huge TV, and it was playtime! I held her, cuddled her, clapped her hands…(just like all parents who successfully teach their toddlers to read, although I didn’t know it then!)
By three months when I put in the DVD and the babies and song would play, she would grin, coo, babble happily. Sooo cute!
One thing… Because we started so early, it was long months before I learned she could read. But from then on, there was no stopping her. At 9 months I was putting ten objects on the long edge of the coffee table, showing her a word, and she would cruise back and forth picking up the corresponding object to chew!
I think LR could be even more effective at starting early, so go for it!
oh how very exciting!
so my 2 cents? Well if I was lucky enough to know everything I know now when I had a newborn… ( oh could you imagine! lol ) anyway… I would use the infant stimulation cards for a couple of weeks. I would have them in sight of baby ALOT of the day. Attached to the cot, used in 10 second flash sessions, in the car, taped to the floor…
I do think mums are pretty good at knowing when their babies can see things clearly enough to start on the big words. All three of my kids could have started before 2 months. ( we spent a lot of time outside on the swings and looking through the leaves of trees) But I do know some babies that wouldnt have been able to focus at that age. SO as soon as you think baby can see get started, flash them slowly a few at a time, or until baby isnt looking anymore. Definately use the big screen TV. It doesnt matter if they dont see every word. You have plenty of time and can always repeat the entire curiculum if you need to! I also think the pictues are important.
Personally I would use the first 2 months developing their ears. I think music, rhyme and story telling are the best ways to go about that. If you baby hears the letter sounds clearly you will have a great start, also hearing music can calm baby and lead to perfect pitch development. Yes I would start little musician as early as week 2! (week one is purely for recovery and obsorbing baby :biggrin: )
Also I think showing the math dots is probably more beneficial for an early start than words. I say this knowing just how time sensitive subitizing is and ow quickly older kids bore of the dots. So if you want to teach the dots start with them. They will do wonders for babies vision!
Oh how these stories are so inspiring. Babies are just amazing!!! I so want another one.
Get your little man started he will love it. LR and LM and LMs are all wonderful and all you have to do is press play. One less thing you need to do in your day.
Well, after reading this thread, I decided to give it a go and tentatively showed LR, LM & LMus to celebrate R’s 7 week birthday…and he watched most of it! I couldn’t believe it. He smiled so much when I was singing Do-Mi-So along with LMus, very cute. He was exhausted afterwards and has been asleep since (approx 3 hours).
I have printed out the word cards and plan on flashing those everytime I change his nappy. Maybe I should do the same with the dot cards. I must confess that, although I printed the infant stimulation cards ages ago, I have yet to show them to him - ooops! I’m also thinking about starting YBCR…maybe I can get his 2 year old sister to watch them too as we never did them consistently.
The activities I have focused on so far are:
tummy time,
reading to him - especially rhyming books,
listening to books on tape in the car,
saying nursery rhymes,
signing (mainly milk & potty for now),
talking to him & working on vowel sound ‘conversations’ - he loves when I talk to him & he really seems like he is trying to speak,
massage,
naming body parts,
grasp reflex - pulling him up to sitting
my husband has successfully EC’d him twice but I have not really focused on it so far
Please let me know if you have any ideas/tips!
Looking forward to hearing what others are doing with their newborns. I’ll be following your updates with interest Sobezz!
Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement & ideas
Just to update: we spent the afternoon looking at infant stimulation cards & he LOVED it, smiling & laughing the entire time. I used them for visual tracking also & he followed every card perfectly.
So, given that success, i printed the first three categories from LR with the word in red on an A4 sheet, & the picture on another sheet. He looked at each card with intense interest, smiling while looking at them, serious expression when I took away the card! I think he would have looked at them all night if I let him. Interestingly, he was much more interested In the word cards than those same words on LR.
Seastar, you wore him out! He slept for three hours! Now all you have to do is time your sessions right lol
Great job. I completely undervalued infant stimulation cards also. It wasn’t until I saw just how much they love them I was converted. A baby wouldn’t stare at something that long if it wasn’t interesting and developing their eyesight.
If he likes the printed word cards better, then yes, print the dot cards too. but I would still use both the printed and the screen ones purely because eventually you want him to prefer the digital version to save your self a fortune in ink!
I second that, MandaB, on the infant stimulation cards. I made a board of them and my baby would sit and look at them for about 5-10 minutes as a newborn. They must be doing something! I was looking through some of my EL products yesterday. I sometimes think I should get rid of stuff, but I just can’t seem to part with it. My youngest is 5 and I don’t think we are having any more, unless God has a greater plan, and my oldest is 16. I figure in the next 10 years or sooner I may have grandchildren to share all this great stuff with. lol There is nothing like a baby and when you know what they are capable it is even more exciting. Many days I wish I had another one since they are such a joy to teach and interact with. Enjoy those babies!! They grow up so fast…
