Here is a question that it is important to know the answer to.  Can babies learn to read?  If you ask the supposed experts, none of which are experts in infant and toddler reading, because none exist, they will tell you no.  Now if you ask parents, who have been teaching their babies to read for many decades, they will tell you yes.  The question is, who is right, the experts that have never experienced a young child learning to read or the parents who know their babies can read?  I would go with the parents.  In answer to this question, I am posting the responses of two different mothers and their experiences.  These do not include my own experiences teaching my babies to read or the experiences of the many other parents I have come to know since I began this journey over 10 years ago.  If you have taught your baby to read, please share your story here.


Here is Marion's story.
Almost 30 years ago I used a similar product for my first child when she was about 2&1/2 years old because I recognized that she was very bright and interested in learning. One of the main approaches of the program I used was that this should be a fun experience, nothing forced nor punitive with which I definitely agreed.  The concept, as I understood it, was that if children could learn to recognize words as in store signs that were of interest to them (McDonalds, Toys R Us), then why not other everyday words.  My daughter loved seeing "the words" that I had handwritten on 8x 4 cards and selected because of their interest to her.  She would regularly ask me, "Mommy, show me the cards!" but we did that only a couple of times a day and always in a casual, enjoyable way.

I am not an educator, in fact I was unable to complete college, but I recognized that if this program were to truly help my daughter learn to read, that she would need to learn phonics as well.  So I independently added phonics to the sight-reading approach by making cards showing the different blended sounds that certain combinations of letters make.  It's usually good to read & follow instructions which I did.  However, I also used my own intellect to supplement the reading program with phonics so as to obtain a broader, more effective result.     By age 4, my daughter was able to read just about anything, and she also comprehended the content (to the extent that her limited age would allow).  Plus, she LOVED it!!!  

Upon entering kindergarten at a Catholic School, my daughter was chosen to read a Bible passage from the Pulpit on the Altar at Mass during her class's first week of school, and she read it beautifully.  She did well in school, and received her university under grad degree in only 3 years; was immediately hired for an extremely intense and high-paying position that requires worldwide travel and has also paid for her Masters Degree which she earned while working/traveling 60+ hours/week.  She is main author and/or partner in many published research articles.  At age 30 she will soon earn a Doctorate in a specialized field of Psychology.  My daughter was recently married, homeowner, is an avid reader and even squeezes in time to belong to a local book club. I know that my daughter was blessed with intelligence but I also believe that her educational advancement was definitely expedited by her ability to read at a very early age.  It also gave her un-ending wonderful enjoyment in the countless books she's read from early childhood to today.


This is Jujubee's Mom's Story.
My daughter started Your Baby Can Read when she was 3 months. We did the program 5-7 times a week, following the suggested schedule and utilizing the flashcards and my own personal power point presentations. Juju absolutely loves to read, and be read to. She is now 11 months old and is blowing me away with her vocabulary. She can repeat almost any 1-2 syllable word you ask her to, and calls out objects by name when she sees them. She asks for "apple juice" and asks for the lights to be "on" or "off". When we're at the grocery store people are blown away by her speaking at such a young age. We never have to force her to do lessons cause she asks for her "books" and " cards" on her own. She knows the names of all our close family members and even our friends. One day I wrote Colt's name on paper and she read it never having seeing it written before. I followed with the other kids names in the nursery at daycare and she got those too!  She isn't even one yet and is leaps beyond her peers. The one thing that seems most important to me when teaching is when she loses interest we stop right away until she's ready.... And giving long pauses after I show her cards with new words. She'll say it four or five times changing her pronunciation each time till it sounds right to her. Ok... I'm done bragging, but if you're considering teaching your baby to read, do it!!! Follow the steps and make it fun, the results will show themselves.

Do you want to know how to start teaching your baby to read?  Visit www.monkisee.com and check out the entertaining videos, flash cards and books that help babies learn to read.