What got you interested in early learning / teaching your baby?

Early Learning Early Learning General Discussions
1

With so many people I meet either unaware or uninterested in early learning for their little ones, I’d be interested to hear how you got into this field, and what got you interested in the first place.

For us, it started soon after my wife got pregnant. She had heard of the concept of prenatal stimulation, so I started researching about it and bought books from Amazon, and the rest followed on from all that reading. I was amazed at the opportunities we had from such a young age to help the brain develop and to make such a big difference to my child, and so I devoured whatever books on the subject that I could lay my hands on.

What about you? What got you interested or into this in the first place?

2

I always want be busy with my kid. Always playing with her and make her enjoy everything. But sometimes she doesn’t enjoy the games and activities. So I started browsing internet for activities. Then I found that teaching her makes interesting and enjoying.

But I don’t know what to teach and how to teach. Then I got a book (Doman’s, how smart is your baby, how to teach your baby to read and how to teach your baby to math) from a friend. This is really effective and enjoying activity

3

With my 5 yo I never knew it was possible to teach infants so much. Last year, when my dd Kay was born with down syndrome, I started researching ways to stimulate her. The more I looked into it, the more suprised I was to learn how much babies can be taught. Now both of my kids are enjoying learning with me, & dd with Down Syndrome is doing great!

4

I started reading into some stuff while I was pregnant. I was taking a human growth and development course in college, and I learned many wonderful things there too. I’m not sure what got me started on researching prenatal stimulation on the internet, but I would have to think it was something about classical music. I believe I was ready to start playing it before Gabriel could even hear! lol (he really loves music now too, and he loves drumming on everything) I came across the old brillbaby site which gave me some good ideas and started my journey into more research.

The site and forum have really opened my eyes to many wonderful methods of teaching babies. I have learned many things (from all the wonderful members on the forum) that I did not know before, and I hope that I have helped people with the stuff I do know. :slight_smile:

5

I became interested in prenatal stimulation while pregnant. It was for me a way to communicate with the baby I had inside my womb. I got some good articles and ideas browsing on the internet and I practised them (classical music on my tummy, light on my tummy, singing for him, talking to him…).
After birth, I went on looking for ways to stimulate my baby on the internet, because I wanted him to stay ahead, I wanted him to get to the most he was able to. At first, I got some tips for massages and exercises, classical music, children stories and nursery songs , and I tried to talk to him as much as I could as I read it was very important to stimulate him. It took me still several months to get into Little Reader and understand what stimulation actually is, and for me it has been like a miracle because thanks to the forum and this program I have gotten my eyes open to what babies really are able to do. Above all, the members and their discussions and their advice to my doubts have been of great help to me. Before I came across with Little Reader I didn’t know anything about Doman , Schidia, Titzer, etc and their methods, now I don’t feel I’m an expert on the subject but have a background to be able to teach my baby more things than I was doing until now. And for this I’m really grateful.

6

I wish would have known more about early learning when my son was younger. When he was tiny, I wanted to give him the best I could, and I played lots of classical music for him and read to him a lot from the time he was born, but that was all that I ever heard of of ways to stimulate him. When he was about six months old I started doing sign language with him and he learned many signs. When he was 1 1/2 I started teaching him some colors and alphabet letters but wasn’t very serious about it because I had been led to believe that he was too young so you had to go super slow in introducing those types of concepts.

When he was almost 2 1/2 I was looking into starting a home daycare as a way to earn money, and looked up all the books at our local library under the keyword “preschool”. How to Teach Your Baby to Be Physically Superb, How to Teach Your Baby Math, and How to Teach Your Baby to Read were some of the selections, although when I got them I thought they were just catchy titles.

To say the least they changed my life. When I first brought the books home I actually made fun of them because I thought it was stupid (“What? Babies can’t actually read!”) but out of pure curiosity I read them and have never looked back!

I had always wanted to teach Hunter but thought he was too young to learn. I eagerly looked forward to the day he would be “old enough” to start homeschooling, and was so excited when I found out that there’s no such thing as too young to learn. Exploring geography, history, art, math, and science with my son has been the greatest adventure and privilege of my life!

It’s funny because before reading these books, I was one of those people who was against early learning in general. I was homeschooled through high school so I was in that whole culture of homeschooling for a long time, and most homeschoolers are against early learning because of authors like Raymond Moore and David Elkind. Moore wrote books like “Better Late than Early” and Elkind wrote “The Hurried Child” and “Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk” It’s really sad because, the greater context of these books is against sending tiny kids off to rigorous institutions at young ages, which is a totally separate issue than a parent lovingly teaching a child at home in an interest-based, gentle way.

It’s really sad that these myths abound, and I’m so thankful that I was shown the truth about little kids so that I didn’t lose my son’s first years. Hopefully that while more critics are presented the truth in a logical way, they will convert to the wisdom of early learning, as many have and many continue to do every day. Unfortunately, we can’t win them all and as Winston Churchill once stated, “Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.”

7

I got interested when I was pregnant with my boy. Had read up some information about early learning. That’s when I started reading story books to my unborn child. And I was surprised with the researches conducted on early learning on very young children that I didn’t know existed. It was was great to discover this website and I will make full use of this opportunity to my very young one.

8

My mother taught us (her four children) at an early age. She had more time with my older sister and much less time when twins (my borther and I) arrived and then my younger brother. This meant that I knew toddlers could read and I wasn’t surprised to find babies reading when I searched on the internet.

When I was pregnant with my own daughter I joined some internet sites and learnt about various prenatal stimulation, though I didn’t specifically follow anything - just chatted to my unborn child and sang her songs. I did know about Doman and had heard of his books previously (can’t really remember how as this was not the method my mother used)

Since my daughter was born I have been looking up things to do with her, games to play and so on - anything to keep me and her stimulated. Although I knew about babies reading I did not start my daughter when she was a few months old, I am not really sure why - it took a post on another board asking about Little Reader before I looked into it properly (she was 10 months old at the time I think) and though I showed her Little Reader at that age it took me a while to get into the programme. I only really started teaching her and using the programme and flashcards when she was a year old.

At the moment I see early education as fairly natural - yes it takes some effort to teach a baby to read (and even more effort to teach a school age child) and the more I want to teach the more effort it will take (eg encyclopaedic knowledge) For now I am interested in passing on as much information as I know without doing too much research and so am concentrating on just using all the opportunities I have in a day to teach her things (so she’s still learning how the washing machine works and what the bread cutter at the supermarket does) but I am also concentrating on the reading as my father told me he realised what a huge world it opens to children when my sister then aged 3 was found reading the museum labels to herself.

9

I myself like reading and I know how wonderful the world of books is…probably that’s what made me feel that my kid also should enjoy this.While surfing on the net once I came across the concept of early learning and I found a way to open the door of world of books for my little one.As a baby I always used to read to her and she has developed a liking for the books…For her reading is something interesting and she’s always ready for…We also make it a point to take her to library regularly.

10

I came to know abt early teaching when i was pregnant.In India i went for a classes which teach same as Glenn Doman method.I got fascinated by that and i started teaching my child since i was pregnant.I use to show flash card since my son was in my womb.I use to flash card in front of my tummy and i use to talk a lot with my kid.And that’s how my story begins…

Sapna

11

Hi all

thats for sure that 'early learning and teaching" have great
effect on child.Well I surfed internet and read some articles on prenatal learning and teaching.I used to hear religious songs/mantras
,rhymes and believe me my child love to go to temple, he loves music.He is quite religious infact.

He listens poem for long time.Realy one should think about this aspect also.

Regards
Preeti

12

Our son was born premature and we were told that he’d have so many problems in life (poor vision, ADD, academically behind, so on and so forth).

No mother wants to hear such a grim forecast for her child, so we looked into helping a child and found Glenn Doman. After we read all of the books and listened to all of the lectures, we absolutely knew this was the right program for our family.

We started our son on a GD program at 6 weeks old and now at 2 he’s absolutely amazing. He attends playschool once a week and the teachers are amazed at all he can do–he’s just such a wonderful child with such a big heart, too!

If we’re ever blessed with another child, we’ll most certainly do another GD program with him/her.

13

When I was in college in my psychology class I saw a video about IAHP and saw these tiny kids doing the most amazing things. I myself learned to read right when I turned 3 so I knew it was possible to teach young children these things. When I was pregnant with my son I tried to find the information that I recalled from college "all I could remember was something about “better babies” and “institute” and from there I got all of the “how to teach…” books and haven’t looked back since. People hear my son talk or point out words and noone believes he’s only 2.

14

I think the seeds were planted by two things. One is that I want the best for my child. Two is that I’ve read that you can do a lot to teach your child from very early on. I didn’t know that so much was possible!

What really got me interested in early learning was my daughter! She amazes me daily with her intelligence and ability, even if it’s the smallest thing. It’s normal and natural, but wow is it exciting to see her develop. I see how she watches me and mimics what I’m doing. I’ve witnessed her learn from the world around her. So why not provide her more opportunities and feed the hunger to learn that she has? I remember helping her to learn to grasp a colorful ring toy when she was a couple of months old- it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced in terms of learning! To see it click for her- to see her understand… wow.

And now… now I am motivated by the abundance of possibility that exists for her. By the many tools and fun things we can do together. She seems to enjoy discovery so much that it is a joy for me to be with her on her journey of learning!

15

I became interested on how to become a mother and how to take care of baby in his early age. They said that you we learned it until the baby’s come and starting to act.

16

My husband and I got interested in early education because we both really love to read.

We started reading to Sophia since i was 16 weeks pregnant and i was feeling a response from her around 6months pregnant. We read dr seuss books particularly Green Eggs and Ham. The morning she was born (via ceaserean) My husband was her first contact and he started reciting Green Eggs and Ham, and there was an instant response from her.

Sophia is a very alert baby even her gp has mentioned on several occasions how alert she is, and i believe that has alot to do with her natal reading.

I also became interested in early education due to the fact that my brother has a major learning difficulty, and I want to make sure that Sophia has the best start in life and to overcome any problems that she may have (if she has any) early in life. My mum also noticed my brother’s diffuculty while in infancy and she spent most of his childhood fighting with schools to get the help that he needed and going from paediatrition to paeditrition to get help. If only she new about the doman method or the YBCR,

I hope this helps
Kimba

17

Isn’t that just fascinating?? I think God designed babies to be so magnificent!! Children are geniuses!

18

Hey Everyone,

I was just wondering what it was that got you as parents or caregivers interested in teaching your kids (early learning). Mainly what i am really asking is what triggered the passion?

For me I stumbled across the YBCR website and saw all the video on little babies reading, which lead me to doing more research in the early learning area, I then came across baby sign language and then to this website, where it has become a passion. I also want to give my little girl as many opppurtunities as possible in life and to develop a love of learning, Even though I live in the 'Lucky Country" Australia, I want Sophia to feel she can become whatever she wants, and that she has been given the fabulous gift of a great education which is the one thing that can never be taken from you.

Kimba15

19

These are some of MY reasons…

  1. The younger the child is, the easier it is for them to learn.
  2. I want to do ‘something useful’ with them.
  3. They should become independent… if you teach them early, they’ll know from the beginning that they are responsible for themselves.
20

Hi Kimba,

I have 6 children and I have always loved to teach them everything. I never knew that babies could learn to read until I had my fourth. I stumbled across a copy of Glenn Doman’s book at a library sale. I knew babies could learn all kinds of thins, but when I read his book, it turned the lights on for me. I am happy to say that I did get to teach my fifth child to read as a baby. He is now 4 years old and can read almost anything. I am still working with my just 2 year old. I think there is nothing more fun in the whole wide world than teaching babies anything.