Your Baby Can Read(thoughts?)

I used to read to my son all the time.  He had tons of books right from the beginning.  We watched a lot of Sesame Street together.  I took him to the library and would let him pick out kid's books.  We'd go over words and pictures.  We'd go around the house or outside and relate the words and pictures he learned to "real life".  I know he was reading simple books before he started kindergarten.   He also used to love Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble - and he's an excellent speller!  I think he got a healthy combination of visual and auditory learning. 

It's okay to want one's children to be successful, but at what price?  It can go either way - great success, love of learning or being stressed out by the expectation to perform well (then the child resents the parent for pushing).  In this day and age, it's tough to just let kids be kids, though I think sometimes parents try to make up for what they missed out on or failed at, and I'm not sure that's the right thing to do either.

I started LOLing when I saw this thread. I saw an ad on TV a while ago and e-mailed DH the link. I am totally getting this for my child whenever and if ever I have one.

My feeling is, what can it hurt? And if it can help, then by all means do it!

ETA: I don't think of it as showing off, so much as building my child's abilities. And if there is anything I can do to contribute to their intellectual growth, then I will do it. If someone makes their 9 month old read to a crowd, they have some issues of their own they need to deal with. That's like pageant parents to me.

This in one of the ads I have seen late at night when I am feeding the baby.  I have also considered it.  Not b/c I want to push my child beyond her comfort, or to show her off, more b/c if I am going to have her watch television, I would prefer it to be educational rather than just mindless cartoons or something.  I am really interested in the Signing Times videos myself but have thought about this when I saw it on one night.  I personally would be more likely to get mine the Signing Times videos b/c I don't know sign language and it is something we can both learn.  I do however know how to read and already read to her everyday.  I often ask myself at what point would I be going too far with all of it though.

my sister is 7 years younger than me, so i was a single child for wuite a while. my mom spent tons of time teaching me all kinds of things. i could write my name and basic words when i was 3. by the time i got to first grade, i could read and write and do basic addition... i didnt hurt me. but i also dont remember my mother pushing me. i pretty much always got straight As.

my sister on the other hand spent her pre-school years learning 2 new languages, and in the process forgetting her german entirely. (it's a long story, and my parents' divorce plays a big role in it) by the time she went to first grade, she had just been relearning german for a short while. it was really hard on her!! she never really did well in school, even though i am still convinced, she is pretty smart...

does our pre-school history play a role in all this? yeah, but i also think a lot of it just comes down to the individual child. my sister is just wired differently and was always a rebel, where i would follow rules and LOVE doing my homework...

what i am trying to say is, i think it is a great idea, as long as it is made to be fun. THAT is really the most imprortant part, to teach your kid that learning can be fun, and not this hard, pressure loaded painful experience...

i say go for it...

huskymom

I have read something somewhere about early reading evening out with the other kids by Grade 3 though so maybe its ok? 

 There is a truly huge range of normal when it comes to childhood development.  And most "experts" will tell you that yes, by around age eight (third grade for most kids) the playing field levels out considerably.  Right or wrong, that's why many school systems don't begin to seriously monitor children for learning disabilities until then.

Both of my boys were very early and excellent readers.  They could both read the newspaper (fluently) before they started kindergarten.  I never pushed them, didn't really read to them all that much (usually just a few bed time stories each night).  They learned mostly by watching educational TV (PBS and Nickelodean) and on computer games that they thought were pure fun.  So they learned w/o actively being "taught", which is the way I think just about all learning should occur prior to formal schooling (which, BTW, I believe we start way too early in this country).

Keep in mind that when you actively spend time teaching one skill to your child, another family is likely spending time teaching another skill, or the child is learning skills by engaging in free play or play dates.  So your child may be an early reader while another child is more advanced physically or socially.  Neither is better than the other, they're all skills that we all need to develop eventually.  My boys were very advanced readers, but they were probably a little below average in fine and gross motor skills when they started kindergarten.  It all evens out.  Usually by third grade.

That's my long-winded way of saying whatever you do, just keep it fun.

My youngest DS was a very early reader.  He was about 2 to 2-1/2 when I realized he was actually sounding out the words.  He did this totally on his own.  We read to him but never actually tried to teach him to read. I just figured he was into letters and the sounds they made the way other kids are into animals or machines and the sounds they make.  There was a lot of pressure (which I ignored) to put him a 5 day a week preschool, then a private kindergarten and on the fast track to the Harvard medical school. In kindergarten, his teacher really expected more out of him as far as maturity and/or behavior than she did the other kids because he could read and I thought that was a bit unfair.  People would stop us in the grocery store while he was reading labels and boxes out loud and demand to know how I taught him to do that and they usually didn't believe me when I told them I didn't. He did grow up to be bright, but by the time he was in 3rd. or 4th. grade you really couldn't tell the difference between the extremely early readers and the ones who learned in school.  It all leveled out.

Joyce

IMO reading is not just about teaching a child to read words.  It helps children develop self-esteem, increased communication with parents and other family members. It teaches children new concepts such as colors, shapes, numbers, and alphabet, in a fun, age appropriate way. Never mind building listening skills, vocabulary, and memory and language skills. It helps children develop imagination and creativity.  The learn information about the world around them.  Many children develop individual interests in special subjects like dinosaurs, cats, or cars.

My son is ADHD and dyslexic or so we believe.  There is no test for dyslexia and Cody’s Neural-developmental doctor is watching his progress with switching letters.  For Cody dyslexia make for much frustration especially since he need to really concentrate being dyslexic and having ADHD makes focus hard.  However, he is a wonderful speller and he compensates very well.   

I also believe in travel and education.  We have been to Washington DC many time, all the museums etc.  Cody knows from experience the social studies that go with these places, the geography etc.  He recently had a section on Niagara Falls and new so much just from visiting and learning the stories around Niagara.   Vacations in our house are not just fun, we find places where the experience can enhance his studies and knowledge.

boneyjean

I often ask myself at what point would I be going too far with all of it though.

When she appears bored or frustrated with it

 My parents were way ahead of their time and helped me to become an early reader.  It helped me at school, in life, and in business, and I've never regretted it.  They did not push me, but they made it fun and interesting to learn.  Sadly, the town where I grew up is thinking of closing the library where we used to go - in my mind I can still smell the place and remember the section where the horse books were kept...

Same here, Anne.  It's sad.  It was on the news last night that now that people are turning more to the libraries instead of buying books, the libraries can't afford to stay open.

Joyce

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Same here, Anne.  It's sad.  It was on the news last night that now that people are turning more to the libraries instead of buying books, the libraries can't afford to stay open.

Joyce

 As a teacher, I really don't think there's much stock in this stuff. I couldn't browse the site, as it kept freezing my browser. However, I didn't notice any buttons linking to research or studies about this program. I only saw a button for testimonials, and that's not research. Maybe this does something for some kids, but on the larger part, I think it's not that wonderful. It appears to teach a whole lot of sight words, from what I can tell browsing the book a bit on amazon. So, for k-2, while everyone is learning sight words, maybe a kid who has done this is ahead, because he's already learned the sight words. However, it is impossible to memorize every single word you may ever come across. In order to sound out, you need phonics to some degree. Speaking of English, where we borrow lots from other languages, it also becomes helpful to have the phonics of other languages, at least a bit. In order to know this, it seems in my case to be an interaction of etymology and phonics. If I see a word I don't know how to read, I can often figure it out based groups of letters. I know that certain combos usually belong to certain languages, and what sounds would occur in those languages. I did learn some of this in language classes in high school, I had figured a lot of this out on my own. I'd love to know also if this is how spelling bee champs can spell a large number of words. I imagine it would be much more difficult to memorize entire dictionaries than it would be to memorize phonics of different languages.

I worked at a daycare/preschool for a while. On a purely anecdotal basis, the kids whose parents were into this stuff, were not the really advanced ones. Those were the kids who could do what one might call parlor tricks, or useless knowledge. Sure, one of the kids could name all sorts of animals, but I don't know where being able to name a picture of a grasshopper was useful to the kid. The best reader we had, a kid who was four and read about as well as the second graders, as far as I was aware, his parents didn't push him at all. They just included him in whatever they were reading/doing. If they read the paper at breakfast, they read it out loud. HIs mom did crossword puzzles, and he did it with her, to the extent that he could. I remember this kid bringing in his mom's crossword puzzle book for show and tell one day. We sat later that afternoon and did puzzles while other kids watched a movie. I never asked him, he asked me to do it. He was purely excited to show me the book.  That's what it should be, the kid wants to do it, not because the parent wants to have some little genius.

spiritdogs

 My parents were way ahead of their time and helped me to become an early reader.  It helped me at school, in life, and in business, and I've never regretted it.  They did not push me, but they made it fun and interesting to learn.

Thinking a little bit more about it, I think that's a large part of how I learned to read well. Nobody pushed me, and honestly, I don't remember reading a book every night, or anything like that. I do remember however, that reading (and math) were made necessary for doing what I wanted to do. I remember cooking and baking a lot with my mom and grandparents as a kid. They didn't read the recipes to my sister and I, so if we wanted things to turn out right, we had to read it. If I wanted to make something, and I needed ingredients, I would need to read the signs to figure out where that was. Just the same, we played a lot of games, I remember a lot of monopoly in particular, and I still like to be the banker. If I wanted to do it, I had to count money, read the cards, read the directions. If I thought someone wasn't playing correctly, I had to find it in the directions. I also did a lot of craft kits, and just the same, I had to read those directions. I have always been a pretty good reader (from looking at old report cards and stuff). Nobody explicitly told me to go sit and read, or did any special practice sessions with me. It was just a necessary part of life. It was also as I can tell, a necessary part of gaining access to lots of reinforcers. Not the, people doing some corny cheering or clapping for me, or someone giving me a cookie, but the being able to make something, or play something, or bake cookies to share with my family and friends.

we just read to ours from babyhood on. I wouldn't personally buy anything but more books...

There are kids who can read anything you put in front of them because they know what the letter sounds are and memorize a certain pattern that forms words etc...then there are kids like Lily that read well at their average level, nothing spectacular...but more importantly COMPREHEND the meaning of the words in context to the story and to themselves.

I can see my son will have difficulty with that because he is a memorizer...a rote learner. My daughter is more fluid...remembering formulas, letter combos, letter rules (i before e....drop the y and add ies) is HARD for her...but give her a paragraph and she will read what she knows, guess the words she doesn't and tell you exactly what the author was trying to say...and even get the deeper feeling behind a story.

Kids are different. I can see a program helping kids know what letters linked together means...but that actually means very little once you are in school and needing to know WHY something is happening in a story or sentence or the feelings a character might have...things like suspense, climax, foreshadowing...you really need comprehension with those. So I dunno...to me that seems more innate than learned.

My son is just now "getting" the sounds at the front of a word and end of a word...consonant sounds, but he is a young K'er. But they all sight read by K's end...and Lily was up to chapter books in the beginning of 1st...things are very different now...in so many ways. It was considered exceptional when I read the McGuffey's in K as a child..now? I'd be only average. LOL.