Teaching My Baby to Read (Or Not)
The first experience I had teaching my baby to read was about 8 years ago. I met a woman who was teaching babies to read and then I came across Glenn Doman's book How to Teach Your Baby to Read. I was so excited to get started and after creating a bunch of flash cards, I discovered that my two children, ages 10 months old and 2 years old, had no interest in even looking at the flash cards. This was a challenge and I found out that if I created books using words and pictures, the children were very interested.
Part of my problem was that I devoted a lot of time to creating materials. I wish I could have gotten the materials ready made and saved myself all that preparation time. It would have been better to use that time to teach my girls. However, I showed them lots of materials and spoke to them about everything. My daughters did not learn to read as babies, but and this is a big but, I don't feel that I wasted my time in teaching her to read.
When my daughter was 4 years old I got her a phonics workbook. I spent a little bit of time teaching her the sounds of the letters. As a homeschooling mom of three other daughters, I didn't have a lot of time to teach the youngest. However, at 4 years old, pretty much on her own, she began reading beautifully. She didn't spend much time reading easy books. She jumped right in and started to read novels. I was amazed at her ability to learn to read on her own. I had spent a lot of time teaching my other children to read and here my youngest just picked it up with no struggle.
Today she is 8 years old and getting ready to begin 4th grade. Because of her ability to read well at an early age, she does not place limits on herself and what she can accomplish. It is my opinion that when you stimulate your child at an early age the time you invest is never wasted. Although some children don't learn to read as babies, you have created connections in their brains that will serve them well when they are ready.
I wish there were videos back then that taught babies to read. It would have made my job a lot easier and we may have been successful. My niece and nephew watch the Monki See Monki Doo Videos somewhat regularly and they are both reading words. Their parents don't use flash cards, they just play the video and the children are absorbing the language and its patterns and can read many words. It is so exciting to see little children possess such great ability and it is available for all children if parents create an environment rich in language at an early age.
Posted by Krista G. at 8/6/2009 10:06 AM 
Categories: My experiences
Tags: teaching my baby to read baby did not learn to read
Categories: My experiences
Tags: teaching my baby to read baby did not learn to read
Comments