So overwhelmed and confused!

Early Learning Early Learning General Discussions
1

My baby is due in November, so I am pretty much at the prime time to start learning about this and even start some prenatal stuff! Yay! But, there is so much out there in terms of products and I am very confused at what to use and where to begin!! :confused: I read through the BrillBaby site and really liked it, but I canā€™t use LR or LM because Iā€™m on a mac. I looked at the products that Doman sells directly. I just found Wink-Right Brain and Iā€™m checking that out, looks good so far. Iā€™ve heard of Sichida. Then of course thereā€™s all these programs and products that seem to be based off of those. So much to choose from! I canā€™t possibly buy everything and try it all. Someone help guide me! At this point I am leaning towards Wink and Doman. But I want to do this right and not get suckered into something that looks good but isnā€™t really so good, KWIM? I would almost consider paying someone whoā€™s very experienced in this to privately explain it all to me and help tailor a custom program so I knew exactly what to use, how to use it, and when. Please help me out! I already am so in love with my baby and will do anything to make her life wonderful.

Sorry for my novel, and thank you for any help!! (Also I hope I posted this in the right place? Now I feel a little silly :unsure: )

2

Hi Arminta,
It is wonderful that you are educating yourself before the baby arrive. This website has a lot of information about different approachs of early education. I am not an expert on early education but I can tell you what I am doing. Because, I started after my daughter was 1 year old and she was a very active baby I found that the easiest for us was to use YBCR dvds and LR. You are going to be able to start early so it is going to be easier for you to use Domanā€™s methods with real flash cards if you get interested in his method.
In case that you decide to get LR, MAC has a program called Bootcamp that helps you to install Windows in your computer. I have a Mac too and I wanted to get LR so I had to get Windows XP first.

3

Hi arminta7!

What a blessing to have all these months to get ready for your baby not only with the regular stuff, but with his/her early education. I found about these programs when my baby was 3 and a half months old. Today she is turning 8 months old (time flies). Anyways, I have read and bought a lot of the products and if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, the first programs I would get will be Domanā€™s reading and math kits. I did get the math kit and we still using it and love it. I regretted not getting the reading one. It is great because is ready, you can follow a program, you know the information is accurate and when your baby is young you are not exposing him/her to the tv. Iā€™ll print a lot of infant stimulation cards and I would definetly check into a crawling track. We have one that we are going to use with our next baby. Once your baby is older I would do YBCR. Besides these, a lot of music and play time. Iā€™m not sure which books you have read, I would recommend ā€œHow smart is your babyā€ and ā€œHow to multiply your babyā€™s intelligenceā€ both from Glenn Doman.

Youā€™ll do great! Just follow your instictā€¦ :wink:

Hope this helps a little bit :slight_smile:

4

Hi Arminta7,

You are so smart to gather information and look over your options ahead of time. What a lucky daughter you have!

I started reading picture books to my son as soon as he was able to sit in my lap and look at a book. Next I started him on Your Baby Can Read and supplement it with Little Reader. Also I have a Netflix account which I have used to rent various Baby BumbleBee and Brainy Baby DVDā€™s. I like this much better than purchasing as I can preview a DVD a bit to see if it is what I am looking for at the time. Also you get to just send it back when he has learned the material or is bored with it.

If you donā€™t want to invest money you might also check out what your local library has to offer as far as Doman books

My son is now 27 months old and one of his favorite things is reading time ā€“ he demands it first thing every morning.

I think the most important thing is that whatever program you choose makes sense to you and that your baby has fun and looks forward to learning.

5

Thank you for your replies!! I am finding that just reading as much as possible on these forums and searching the net is really giving me a much better idea of what is out there. At least so fat I think Iā€™ve figured out my basic plan for what to do until sheā€™s bornā€¦

  • Read Connecting With Your Unborn Baby (and do all the exercises)
  • Play lots of classical music with focuses on different solo instruments
  • Tummy tapping to begin giving her a head start on mathematical quantities (still have to figure out exactly how this is doneā€¦)
  • Playing lots of multicultural music
  • Playing various languages, songs and spoken, to give her a head start on the sounds so they are familiar
  • Pitch forks to get a head start on perfect pitch through vibration (so excited about this one!!)
  • Tweedlewinks intro course (for me)
  • I sing and play violin and piano, so Iā€™m going to continue to do that a lot
  • Belly massage, pushing back when she kicks me, reading to her, meditation, visualization, focusing on staying happy and relaxed, etc.

I think that covers it? Next step is figuring out a newborn program! Iā€™m loving this! If anyone has anymore ideas Iā€™d love to hear them and thanks for the input Iā€™ve received already! :slight_smile:

6

It sounds like youā€™re doing great, and youā€™re so lucky that you have a head start. This forum wasnā€™t started until my son was 6 months old. You have the advantage of reading what everyone else is doing with their children.

7

Oh BTW, I was able to get a friend to send me a copy of Windows so Iā€™ll be able to use LR, LM and LittleMusician (when it comes out). OMG, Iā€™m so excited!!!

And thanks for the Netflix tip. I hadnā€™t thought of that. I have an account and thatā€™s a great idea!

8

Make sure you check out the Leapfrog DVDs when your child gets older. They are wonderful, and Netflix has them.

9

I would say that you should prioritize the subjects you are going to teach the child. Also, some subjects are better to teach at different developmental stages, so I would make a quick list of what you consider important, maybe 3-4 subjects, and concentrate on the most important one first. You really donā€™t want to overwhelm yourself because babies can learn a lot but those first 3-4 years you will have plenty of time to teach. For my next child, I will be doing a 6 month curriculum for each subject, staggered, so I will only have to teach 2 subjects at a time, but will get around to teaching 4-5 subjects before pre-K.

10

Hi congrates ā€¦ but slow down ā€¦ pace yourself ā€¦ Its due only in nov ā€¦ its best to take care of your health and your pregnancy ā€¦ but i am sure you doing most of it ā€¦ if its not your first one ā€¦ like your diet, avoiding can food and veges with pesticides, or bottled water ā€¦ having regular walks or swim ā€¦ and also do do some pre natal stimulation ā€¦ stressing yourself out releases harmful chemicals for the fetus ā€¦ its best to just do some simple read up ā€¦

If your not working thereā€™ll be plenty of time to do the research and the preparations ā€¦ on the other hand if your working then you will have to work out a schedule ā€¦ in any case you canā€™t really do much straight away after birth ā€¦ still have to wait till the baby is 2-3 mths old before any infant stmulation that would be in 2010 jan or feb ā€¦

in any case by then newer modules would come out ā€¦ so no point buying it too early ā€¦ just out of curiosity where are you from?? as certain books couldnā€™t be got ā€¦ if your in asia and reads japanese or T.chinese try shichida ā€¦ it has fetus development things to do, eat, meditation etc ā€¦ which is time appropriate for you ā€¦ free time can be used to read up on birthing experiences etc ā€¦ i read the entire medical book on pregnancy to birthing ā€¦ and explain them to my wife and what is to be expected ā€¦ epidural, C section or whatever ā€¦ then comes recovery ā€¦ we applied the right knowledge and method and my wife went thru 7 hrs labour and was walking 10 hrs after birth ā€¦ first baby ā€¦ and she is one of those terribly afraid of pain ā€¦

anyway ā€¦ initially donā€™t watch too much dvds ā€¦ better to start at 10 mths onwards ā€¦ otherwise they canā€™t focus properly, and may not be interested in flash cards ā€¦ so its better to start with flash cards first ā€¦ depending on which method ou use SM or GD. GD does words first ā€¦ but to the baby words or pictures makes no difference they still see them as pictures ā€¦ also depending on number of language or subjects your going to teach ā€¦ how deep or detailed your going to go into, and if your good enough to teach all of them ā€¦ eg i donā€™t speak much japanese so i hire a native speaker ā€¦ or play japanese language cd ā€¦ the more you teach the slower the progress ā€¦ progress in terms of output that you can see ā€¦

and like kappa says ā€¦ it a long term continuous process ā€¦ find material, teach, rest, teach other material, find even more new material, reteach old with new material and so on ā€¦

its best if you read around and see what suits you ā€¦ and what is going to suit your child ā€¦ sometimes its not the material, sometimes its not GD or SM, sometimes its not how you teach, sometimes its not your child or you, ā€¦ sometimes its a combination of some or all of it ā€¦ and you have to improviseā€¦

get a certain set of materials, try it, and if the baby likes it buy more use more ā€¦ but they will slowly get bored with it ā€¦ and you will have to find newer better ways to send the message across ā€¦
first yr is a darling ā€¦ they donā€™t complain or run away much ā€¦ by the second yr ā€¦ your gonna have to find new tools ā€¦ to teach same materials ā€¦

11

"we applied the right knowledge and method and my wife went thru 7 hrs labour and was walking 10 hrs after birth ā€¦ first baby ā€¦ and she is one of those terribly afraid of pain ā€¦ "

We also used natural childbirth methods, and I carried my baby from pool where she was born to our birthing suite for some bonding and rest, had a birthday cake with midwives 3 hours later and went Home 5 hours after birth ( our neighbours did not even realise that we went to the Birth Center and already came back with the baby). So I would definetly suggest preparing for the birth, reading about it, and learning natural relaxation techniques, ā€“ it is worth every little bit of time you invest into it! :slight_smile:

12

ha-ha that was funny :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
dear arminta7, you do have a head start, but donā€™t stress, nobody can do everything at once, so -
pick a product/ method, establish it well and then add to it
and donā€™t spend so much time on-line that you have no time to implement anything :biggrin:

13

Iā€™d get lots of sleep while you can! :slight_smile: :wink:

14

Definetly!!! You will appreciate it so much later! :slight_smile:

15

Yeah, as everyone said, at this time it is better to get prepared for birth.

Well, I didnā€™t know about stimulating in uteroā€¦so didnā€™t do anyā€¦But what I did was:

  1. Kept watching a lamaze DVD several times (Laugh and Learn about Child Birth by Sheri Bayles).
  2. Watched online videos about breastfeeding positions (you may not have the time or energy to do this later, so its better to be prepared).

One other DVD which might come handy after birth is the Dustan Baby Language. It helps you figure out the meaning of the baby criesā€¦little difficult to believe, but true. With the help of the DVD, I was able to figure out the difference between the newborn cries and find out what was troubling the baby.

I wish I had known about stimulating the baby in uteroā€¦I think that was one thing I missedā€¦ :dry:

Happy pregnancy! :smiley:

16

Arminta7,

I didnā€™t start until my baby was 23 months old. I just didnā€™t know any better, and had no idea of a babyā€™s learning potential. I wish I had started earlier, so I applaud your efforts. Everyone has given you so much good advice. But the one thing I always lament is swim lessons. Doman has alot ideas about early physical development triggering brain development. In an ideal world, I would have completed swim lessons before 6 months old. But take warning, it is a hard to find baby swim lessons. Itā€™s a natural and relaxing way to stimulate brain development, and it will solidify left and right brain hemisphere coordination.

Good Luck, Lori

17

Swim lessons is one thing Iā€™ve got covered! My DH and I were both professional swimmers :slight_smile: Iā€™m very excited about taking her in the water!