Hi,
This is my first post 
Our little boy is coming up to 3 weeks old now.
I’d like to get an idea of when people on the forum started to introduce learning materials to their little ones?
Did anyone start at such a young age?
If so, what did you do?
And, at what age did people start to introduce the Brill Babies programs to their children?
Thanks for the replies!
Congrats! My little girl is the same age! When my first was born I started dot cards and words at three weeks. This time around I am going to wait until she is at least two months. They can’t see very well at this age and I feel like there are more important things.
This time around I am doing the physical program with her (a modest version of it). We have a crawling track. I was Shocked how she went down that thing at just a couple of days old. I was not expecting that so young! We are also doing elimination communication part time. Which just basically consists of me placing her on the potty every time I change her diaper. I wasn’t really planning on doing this but it has been so easy that why not? She actually does seem to know what to do and I always feel glad that what ever is in the potty is not going to be in her diaper five minutes later!
I am also trying to keep things well lit in the house to help her vision. I talk to her when she is quiet alert. I tell her nursery rhymes, sing and sometimes practice vowel sounds with her to see if she’ll repeat anything and I try to repeat whatever sounds she makes which at this point is not much This is part of the sound play in William Fowler’s language program.
Other than that I am trying to practice good habits to hopefully help her future sleep! I try to sometimes put her down while she is still awake to see if she’ll fall asleep on her own. She actually does. Ian never did but maybe it didnt occur to me to try. This time I know sleep is going to be important to both of us! For sleep II recommend the book The No Cry Sleep Solution.
Good luck! Can’t wait to hear updates about your little one!
Hi mybabyian! Thanks very much for such a comprehensive reply!
Remarkable that your little one was using a crawling track at such an age? Can I ask whether you bought one (if so, where?) or made your own?
Pardon my ignorance - I’m starting on this journey only now - but what are dot cards?
Fascinating that you’re placing her on the potty…how long do you leave her on it?
Thanks!
oh sorry, dot cards are for teaching quantity and math from Doman’s book How to Teach Your Baby Math. LittleMath is based off that program. My son loved the cards as a little baby but lost interest as it seems many babies do. I already have the cards so I’ll probably use them again mainly for visual stimulation. I am not convinced that it is worth more than that. maybe it is, but It didn’t seem to do much for us. In any case it can’t hurt if she enjoys it.
I made the crawling track. You can buy one on the gentle revolution website but it is something like $400. I knew hubby would never go for that. The one I made could have turned out better but I am hoping to only use it a few months! I think it has already helped her alot. She can lift her head pretty high and hold it steady for a while like that. The doctor commented at her two week visit that she was already trying to crawl. She wasn’t actually getting anywhere but she was pushing her feet like she does on the track.
As for the potty, babies naturally go when you take off their diaper as they instinctively don’t want to go on themselves. So it does’t take long to put them on the potty. If they are going to go they will do it pretty quickly. she’ll start to get mad if I hold her there too long. When she goes I celebrate with her and say “Poopy!!!” or " Pee Pee!" so that she learns to associatle the word with going. I hope that helps!
Oh there are brief instructions for the track in how to teach your baby to be physically superb and i think slso in How Smart is Your Baby.
I would work on sleep and routine training, maybe a little elimination communication (EC) if that is something you have interest in, physical development and talking to the baby. I would probably wait until 3 or 4 months to begin academics.
I say focus on the physical, bonding and establishing routines. Take baby outdoors, talk to baby, let baby sit, lie and crawl in various environments as much as is reasonable.
Oh yeah! Do you plan on introducing multiple languages to the baby? I think that now is the time to begin prepping yourself to do so and gently start if you are monolingual.
Thanks very much mybabyian & mom2bee - those are really helpful replies!
Any specific advice on routine training and sleep training?
We were planning on introducing a second language - it sounds like you’ve both done that. What prepping did you do?
Thanks!
If you have settled on what language you’d like to introduce, now is the time to begin prepping you and the baby. What language are you interested in teaching baby?
There are countless resources for Spanish, French, and several for Italian and German. There are dozens for Arabic, but they are expensive and tend to have a religious or cultural slant to them. Chinese resources are plentiful but costly, and you have got to know where to look.
At this point, I would recommend prepping your self. Learning a lot of simple vocabulary in the target language and some simple phrases that you can use with the baby if you don’t speak the language. Its hard to recommend resources if I don’t know what you want to teach.
Hi mom2bee, thanks for the post.
I speak Russian and so will introduce that. My partner doesn’t speak it, but would like to try and communicate with our little one in that language.
Vice versa, she speaks Spanish, and I don’t.
We live in a bilingual nation - Canada - so we’d both like to introduce French as well.
Any specific suggestions for resources in Russian, Spanish, French?
Thanks!
wow! you are so lucky! You can easily teach him four languages. We are just doing English and Spanish and our son is competent in both languages. English is my native language and Spanish is my husbands but we both speak both. I have done most of the teaching of both languages to my son as my husband isn’t around as much and doesn’t talk a lot.
newborns are learning the sounds of languages more than anything so I mostly speak to her in English and let my husband’s family speak to her in Spanish at this point. She won’t learn the sounds of Spanish from me because I am not a native speaker. but you don’t really need any resources. If you speak to them they learn! Its like magic! :biggrin:
In a month or so I will introduce simple books like a my first words book. You can easily translate them into whatever language you wish as you read. This is great for vocabulary development. You can read other books as well. If you use LittleReader you can download files in different languages. The most important thing though is just talking and interacting with your baby. This is the most effective way to teach languages.
It’s great that your son has two languages!
Thanks for letting me know about “My First Words” - it looks like a great book to use for teaching.