The basic premise is that your baby's brain is developing fast in the first few months and years, so why not seize the day and just teach them how to read. The "program" or "regiment" can begin as early as 3 months and consists of 2 sessions of a 45 minute video a day and then reading the books with your child everyday.
I was apprehensive about this at first because I read somewhere not to let your kid watch TV till they are 2... (any thoughts about this parents?) but I thought I would give it a try anyhow. I started with the book which Fiona seemed to enjoy it... mostly because I make funny noises when I show her the pictures. Then I tried the videos and wondered who can get a BABY to sit down quietly in front of a video of flashing words and pictures for 45 minutes? Especially once she was crawling she had absolutely no patience for this.
I did get kind of excited because it seemed like she was starting to recognize the pictures in the books... but NOT the words, she would just look at me like... ok I want the PICTURE MOM! Then I realized that for "first words" they try teaching are pretty tricky... like, Elephant, Blanket, umbrella and bucket. I remember the first book I learned how to read (when I was like 5 or 6) was Hop On Pop by Dr. Suess and pretty much every word in that book is three letters or less.
The program quickly turned from Your Baby Can Read, to Your Baby Can Tear Pages Out of Books.
It seemed that every time I turned around the books were missing more pages. And sometimes in the middle of reading she would violently reach forward and wolverine a page out.
I have seriously taped almost all the pages back into this book twice... and then I just gave up.My mom was a little miffed... I guess this program cost a chunk of change. So most of the books (except the ones made with durable cardboard) are hiding from her.
Maybe we'll teach her to read when she's 2... so she can impress her friends, and then I can stop reading to her and just throw her a book at night... because seriously, how is a baby going to survive in this world if they can't read?!?!?!?
Kidding.... I think I will just let Fiona stick to what she enjoys and is good at right now...
2 comments:
I always wondered about that infomercial?!?! She is so stinkin' cute, I love this picture of her in the bowl. Also Congrats on the pregnancy!
Oh my gosh! How many times and on how many stations does this infomercial play? I'll tell you, all of them at 3am, becaue that's when I'd see it when James was a newborn and I'd be up with him.
I don't belive in it at all.
The real thing is this. James liked, up until about 2 months ago, chew on the spines of books. So all the little board books and such that were purchased for him looked like they'd been attacked by an angry brigade of mice. Ya, they got put away and kept away.
As for TV, I let James watch TV, probably too much. I have things to do during the day...it gets us thru.
When it comes down to it, kids are gonna do what they're gonna do no matter how much Baby Einstein or Super Readers you give them. Why stress it?
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