My little boy turned 6 today. I can’t help but reflect back on the the beginning of our journey 6 years ago. I knew before he was born that I was going to teach him to read. I had attempted to teach my previous child. I spent more time making materials than presenting them and now that I had all the materials, I knew we were going to really focus on teaching my little boy to read. I was ready. I knew that we had to start at around 3 months of age. That was the soonest we could begin the program. I had a closet full of flash cards, some homemade and some purchased from The Institutes For the Achievement of Human Potential. I had about 50 books that I had made to teach my baby to read. I was ready.
I began doing some research online before he was 3 months old. I came across the Your Baby Can Read website. I loved the idea of videos that would teach my baby to read. I had used videos for my past four children and I saw how quickly they would learn their ABC’s and 123’s. I quickly purchased the set of 5 DVDs and anxiously awaited their arrival. I felt a certain comfort knowing that if I was too busy to get in the lessons I needed I could rely on the Your Baby Can Read DVDs to fill in.
We began watching them when my son was 2 1/2 months old. I held him on my lap and pointed to each body part as they were presented. Each morning I faithfully played the videos for him. They are marketed for children up to age 5, but my 3 year old wouldn’t give them the time of day. The baby enjoyed them because he had not seen much else on TV, so they served their purpose. After a few weeks of playing the videos I began to show him flash cards and books after diaper changes. Most days we had done our whole days worth of sessions before noon. He loved it and so did I. When he was around 5 months old I noticed that he was truly an intellectual. He would just sit and consume a set of 40 flash cards, eagerly waiting to see the next word. I would typically show him 20 to 40 word cards 2-3 times a day as well as watching the Your Baby Can Read videos.
I noticed the format for Your Baby Can Read was such a basic and simple format. I began making my own video to review the words we gad already gone through. He watched it once a week or so. It was just a quick review of words we already learned done in the same manner as Your Baby Can Read. I even made him a Spanish reading video as well. I am not a big TV lover. I rarely watch television myself and have lived for years in the past without cable. However, I love to use the television as a tutor for my little ones during their first few years of life. I have a busy schedule as a homeschooling mom and now a business owner and I need the 30 minute break a great educational DVD can offer me. The baby is happy and I can accomplish whatever I need during that period of time. I have weighed it out in the past, should I listen to the baby cry because I have to take a shower or make a meal or should I play an educational DVD? Hmmm. That is not a hard choice for me.
I never tested my son. I showed him words everywhere and on everything. I read to him like crazy and we centered our play time around learning to read. We built word towers out of blocks. I wrote words for him in the sand. I write him notes on the dry erase board and then read them to him. When he was 12 months old he read his first word from a sentence card I was showing him. It said, “Joshua can put his arms up.” I held the card up and watched as his eyes scanned the card from left to right. He got to the last word and said, “Up.”
I was elated, ecstatic and jumping up and down. You see, I told everyone I could that I was teaching him to read. I thought the whole world should know that this was possible for all babies. People would ask me how I knew he was learning. I said, “I don’t yet.” Now I knew that he was getting it. Right around 12 months old he began reading words out loud. His speech and oral reading developed around the same time. I had shown him mostly single words and some couplets up to this point. Because I never tested him as a baby when he did begin to read orally he would read anything I asked him to.
One day he brought me a sentence book that I had made. I didn’t think we were really ready for sentences yet, but to my surprise his reading really took off. He learned lots of words just from reading our sentence books. I pointed to each word as I said it and he loved them. By 18 months old he was reading sentences on his own and by 2 years old he was reading Little Bear books.
We didn’t do something every day. There were days, weeks and months where I didn’t teach him anything. I had another baby and then I started my own company to make products that teach babies to read. Reflecting back on my little boy I have to say that he is not a genius. He is a very smart and deep little boy. Sometimes his thoughts amaze me. I have to say that teaching him to read did not make him into a genius, but it did make him into a better version of himself. All I truly want for any my children is for them to be the best they can be. Learning to read early has allowed him to amuse himself by reading books as he learned about animals and explorers. He loves to hear a good story but he really enjoys learning history and science. He gets along with kids his own age and is not at all odd. We homeschool him and this year he will be starting the 3rd grade. Kindergarten was unnecessary because of all he learned in his early years.
Although I didn’t do much of a math program with him, he picks up math very easily. I think learning to read has helped him in many areas of his life. Looking back over those first 2 years of his life I have no regrets. I bonded so much with my little guy because I was always talking to him and showing him things. Teaching my son to read was such a special period in my life. If he had not learned to read I still would have done nothing differently. I just wish that all parents can enjoy their child as much as I enjoyed mine. I wish all parents could has as much fun with their baby as I had with mine. It may be a bit more special to me because he was and is my only boy, among 5 sisters.
My journey into teaching my baby to read has taken me places that I never expected to go. I now have my own company, Intellectual Baby, that creates DVDs and flash cards to teach babies to read. Teaching your baby to read does not have to be hard. If you have the right materials you can pretty much sit back and enjoy the journey. I only wish all parents could experience this as well.
