I am just curious as to what made you interested in teaching your baby to read?
I discovered this when my fourth child was 10 months old. I was very involved in teaching my children and knew how smart babies are because I had witnessed it four times. When I discovered that babies could actually learn to read I was certain it could be done. I think it is so amazing and so neat to see a baby read. I want to give my children a better education than I received, although mine wasn’t bad and this seems to fit perfectly with that plan.
I taught kindergarten in an underprivileged area for several years before becoming a mommy. After seeing so many children come to school completely unprepared, I knew I had to give my child more than this. So when my son was born, I began reading books to him. He just turned three and although he hasn’t mastered reading yet, he has learned all his letters, letter sounds, and knows several sight words. In addition, he is learning to blend sounds together to make words. I am very proud of his accomplishments. It is amazing what children can learn if a loving parent will only spend time with them.
For me, it’s about being able to personally give my son one of the best gifts ever - the gift of reading.
I think this skill is so important and wonderful that I want to have the great privilege of being the one to help him learn first - not a teacher, not anyone else but my husband and myself (with the help of Little Reader, Doman, flash cards, DVDs, books, PPT decks, etc. of course!!!)
And at this point I’m completely convinced that it’ll be easier to do this sooner rather than later. Birth to 5 is the best window.
Also, I’m completely convinced that there is nothing at all wrong with sight reading first, along with phonics, of course.
It makes so much sense to me that it would be easier for babies to identify word objects of things they know than abstract letters with abstract sounds.
Good question. We always planned to homeschool our boy, and once I learned it was possible to teach tiny children to read, I saw no good reason not to begin sooner rather than later. Basically, as I see it, if you have the time (and who can’t make the time for something so important…), why wouldn’t you? As a parent you have a responsibility to make sure your child is as well-educated as possible. If you leave him or her in the hands of public schools, that’s still your choice and you own the results. By the same token, if you can get your child reading sooner rather than later–and so be much better prepared for other educational tasks sooner–are you not simply doing a superlative job of caring for your child’s education? I think so.
I also find it plausible (though I haven’t seen really killer scientific evidence on this point) that children who learn skills and facts in the earliest years of life will be especially adept with those skills and facts later on. If that’s true, then by giving a child a very broad grounding in both reading and in many other branches of knowledge, you’re certainly advantaging the child in a way he would not be if you were to start learning such things at age 5 or 6. In other words, you’re making reading “second nature” in a way that walking and talking are second nature, and you’re making basic facts about the world as familiar and friendly as nursery rhymes and the McDonald’s logo are to most children.
I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and by the time i was 3 years old i knew how to read, my letters and sounds,do math (addition multiplication etc) and spell alot of three letter words. In my country, if you come to kindergarten without knowing all of the above you get made fun of. The teachers also look at you as a “dunce”
I wanted to give my child the same advantage. While looking for resources i stumbled across the fact that i could start even earlier. I might send him to trinidad for his first year of school so he has to be prepared.
tO MAKE easy kindergarten for her.
More than reading actually I always had the idea she to like books. Like my parents did with me.
To probe a point to other people who think babies are just little tiny “things” and they can’t do anything …the only need to have toys.
I have being hearing :
“Let them be”
“She knows sign language…poor baby ,now she won’t speak”
“you are teaching her both language…poor little thing…she must have a words salad in her head”
“Babies just need to be babies”
"You are potty training her…oh…too soon…let her pee on her diapers
“You are teaching her how to read…oh no…she is being overstimulated”…bla bla bla
Catalina is now 23 months , and she started reading at 14 months old, since then I have being hearing all this “advices” from family around.
I have to say very few people will understand our position, our believes,our thoughts and the education we want to give to MY daughter.
It is difficult sometimes but at the end I just think about my daughter’s future…I want she to be succesful on life for her own good.
My mother taught me to read when I was a baby, and I was reading books by the time I was two. I know how much I gained from learning to read early and am certainly going to do the same for my children. Now we also know about teaching math, music, memory, facts, etc. It is so much fun both for me and for my daughter discovering what she is interested in and fully capable of learning.
That is what don’t get with people. How can people that are educated not understand how much fun we are having with our children and how much fun they are having with us? Interaction is probably one of the most important things to have with your baby and you are having large doses of it and other people just don’t get it.
When I learned about babies reading and everything else that Doman teaches I thought the world needed to know because it is fantastic. Apparently the world doesn’t really care and parents like us will be the exceptions.n I just want to praise all of you who are educating your children and spending time with them. It is such a special and precious time and the bonds we are creating with our children will not be easily broken.
I think it is also has to do with respect. When you glimpse what tiny children are capable of you gain such a great respect for them. We don’t treat our children as though they were beneath us but as though they are our equals who will someday surpass us. I think that is how it is supposed to be. I believe we all have greatness inside of us and I want to tap into that in my children and have them live full and satisfying lives. I don’t want them to ever have to struggle or ever feel inadequate in society. I want them to be leaders and free thinkers, self-confident and kind. That is why I care so much about teaching my own children.
I once heard somewhere that the reason we cry when we see movies that are touching is because we all have greatness within us and most of us have never realized our full potential and that is what makes us cry. It is an interesting thought.
I totally agree with you Krista.
It is such a great bless to be able to guide my daughter and spent time togheter , teaching her,playing with her, interacting with her…it is wonderful.
I try not to explain to other people what we are capable to do with Catalina but my husband is so proud that he keeps telling his family and friends…and there is when I get this comments, which I don’t really care for them.
I just think I am lucky to know what babies,toddler and kids in general are able to accomplish.
I have a WONDERFUL group of mom friends with beautiful boys all 1 year old like my boy, but I asked one of the moms a while ago (after I found Doman’s book on Amazon but didn’t buy it yet) what she thought about teaching to read via flashcards using sight, and she immediately said NO, only phonics…so I never raised the issue with her again.
I told my husband to just not mention anything about our reading practice yet to anyone…it’s nobody’s business, really. It’s how we choose to bond with our child.
As long as you’re not putting any pressure on the baby and you’re both having fun then it’s fine.
With our first daughter we found that she LOVED to read and my wife did focus on the Doman flash cards. Sometimes she’d get fed up and want to play with her toys instead (my daughter not my wife) so we’d just let her…
every child is different and there’s no rush to get them reading by 18-24 months, but if they do, then surely it’s a bonus
We started with a song 1 + 1=2 and so on up to 12…they i remember using quantities like peas or seeds and the teach will put and equation on the board and let us work it out using the peas or seeds that we had. the multiplication was a song. we had to know the 2 times table…and we had to know up to the 12 times table by 3 grade!!!
I love to teach with music because it is fun and easy to remember things you sing. I was singing an addition song 1+1=2 to my older children one day and for the sake of it asked my 20 month old at the end of the day by singing and leaving out the answers. She knew all the answers and I never even directed it to her. While my older children would do their math and forget their equations such as 8+8 I would give them a hard time, telling them they must know the answer. I would call the baby over and ask her what is 8+8 and she would without fail say 16. The problem I have is finding music for math that I want to listen to again and again. Anyone have any math songs that are really good? I know a song that teaches the states and capitals of the US that is great and one for the books of the Bible, but I would love to know of others you like.
I am a single mom of 5. I have (2) 16 year old boys, 12 year old girl, 9 year old boy, and a 19month old boy. I stayed at home will my 4 oldest. Now 8 years later, I am working full time, and have my baby in child care during the day. I am not so much set on him learning to read right now, but he seems to have a very limited vocabulary for his age. Now given it has been a very long time since I had a little one, but it seems that he sould be saying more. I have been showing him the slide show flash cards every night when we get home, and just trying to get him to repeat the words. I do hope this will encourage him to want to read more, because my 16 year olds really have no interest in reading any more than they have too.
Do you have any suggestions? What is an average word count a 19 month old should have?
It is hard to classify what is normal or average for that age. I had a nephew who was saying single words at 2 at his birthday. He is 15 today and not delayed at all but in honors classes in school.
My second child was extremely chatty. When my 3rd was 17 months old I was watching video of my 2nd at the same age and I began to worry because she wasn’t talking nearly as much as my 2nd was. They come around in their own time.
It is great that you are showing him the slideshows. It is beneficial for teaching him to read and to expand his vocabulary. The best thing you can do is talk to him about everything, read to him and sing to him.
It would be great of your older children would read to him and engage him when you are unable to. I a sure you have a foar share of work at the end of the day since you work full time. When my baby was small I had my older children each be responsible for doing a certain activity with the baby whether showing them a book or a set of flash cards or something like that. It is great that you have so mnay helpers.
I’m not sure what babies are supposed to be saying at 19 months…
In my opinion what matters is communication. My daughter (17 and a half month) does not say much- at least that’s what I thought, but we can communicate without any problem.
I speak to my daughter in French only.
If i ask her a yes/no question, she will answer NON (really good pronounciation) but for yes, she says DA (which has nothing to do with OUI) However she knows how to say OUI (she screams this word when she’s happy) but for some reason, she does not want to use it, no matter how many time I might repeat “You mean… OUI?” “Da!” “Oui?” “Da!”
For dog, she does not say CHIEN but Go (the mandarin word). It took me a while to realise it but when she was walking with a Chinese friend, the lady confirmed she was saying Go whenever she saw a dog…
She says Tea (in English) and will stick to this. Well that’s good enough for me, as long as no one gets frustrated with communication.
I also believe she would be saying a lot more words in English if she listened to it more. Most everyday word in English (more, car, dog, milk, mum, dad, clap, jump, run etc) are 1 syllable words thus (in my opinion) easier to pronounce that 2 or 3 syllable French words…
That’s great that she is using different languages. I am only fluent in English, but I have been teaching sign language on the side. He can sign about as many words as he can say. My girlfriend is a speech therapist, and today she evaluated him. He is actually above where he should be according to “state guide lines”… lol :rolleyes: I’m not sure if that is reassuring or not, but I feel so much better.
There is a Baby Einstein video called baby’s first signs, that is wonderful. My son knows everyone one of them and uses them everyday along with his words!
Have you try Signing Time, I will say it is better , I also have Baby Einstein video first sign…after I tried Signing Time it was a huge difference…it is funner and teach you lots of songs and more vocabulary.
