Your Baby Can Read!
When I found the Your Baby Can Read! program, I was really excited about it and could hardly keep my excitement to myself, but I promised I wouldn't start raving about this program until I had actually used it for awhile and had seen results. Well, folks, that time has come so I can wait no longer...You might think I'm being an overachiever or idealistic mom to get my 2-year-old a program which promises to teach 3 month to 5 year children how to read. I probably would have thought that, too, until I checked this program out. Kathrynne started learning sign language when she was around 6 months old (Thanks to the Baby Signing Times DVDs!) and this really seemed to jump start her vocabulary and language comprehension. In the past six months, she's began learning her alphabet and recognizing letters. She has a real interest in reading, so when I saw the Your Baby Can Read! program, I couldn't help but look into it further.
Being so impressed with what I saw, I ended up getting the complete set for her a few months ago. Since then, she's started watching the Starter DVD a few times per week (we never quite made the two times a day thing they recommended in the program). She loved it and it really kept her attention. I wasn't sure if she was really picking up on much from it, but I knew that it couldn't be hurting in any way.
About two weeks ago, things started clicking in her brain. I turned it on one day and she read the first word, "hi." I was really excited but wasn't sure if she actually recognized the word itself, or just remembered that it was the first word on the DVD. But every time since then that we have written out the word or showed it to her somewhere, she has recognized it and sight-read it.
That was the beginning and she has quickly picked up speed from there. She's now sight-reading many different words: Mommy, Daddy, Kathrynne, clap, dog, mouth, baby, elephant, arms up (they throw in a few phrases and two word pairs here and there), among others. Now, mind you, she is just sight-reading them right now, not sounding them out, but I've been very impressed at how quickly she is starting to pick words up once she has understood the concept of thar certain letters put together make a certain word. And she's excited about it, too! The other night I couldn't get her to stop reading so that she could go to bed. She just sat there for the longest time reviewing her word cards over and over. She's also constantly pointing out letters and words and trying to read them, often getting them right.
We still have a long way to go before she is really reading, but at the rate she is going, I'm wondering how long that might be? She just only started the second DVD of five, so it will be interesting to see. We're just pretty excited at how much ground she's already covered in such a short amount of time!
What I appreciate most about these DVDs is that they are purely educational. As you know, I'm not one to sit my child in front of a black box to be entertained as I feel this really zaps creativity. But these DVDs are very simple - a word is shown and repeated twice and then it is shown in context. Such as, they might show the word "clap" and then they will show a baby clapping. They do a good job of engaging your youngster by encouraging them to repeat the word back, clap their hands, and so forth. The DVDs are also short - around 20 minutes long. We use them for a treat at our home since Kathrynne doesn't watch any TV and we only do a very few select educational videos for short amounts of time each week.
By the way, the man who created the program, Dr. Robert Titzer, started with his first child, Aleka in 1991. This simple interactive video was designed to help his daughter recognize the written word at the same time she was learning the spoken word. By nine months of age, Aleka was recognizing over 30 words (and there is some video footage of this on the DVDs and it is quite amazing!). By her first birthday, she could read over 100 words, and at 18 months, Aleka was reading first-grade phonics readers! By her fourth birthday, she was reading at an 11th-grade level phonetically!
Now while I don't expect Kathrynne to be anything like Aleka, I have been thrilled with how much she has already learned and happy that she can do it in such a way that it is exciting for her and very simple for me. And that works for me!
Here's a link with more information about the program for anyone who might be interested. By the way, my friend Erica wrote a great review of the product here which explains it more and addresses the question of whether this is high pressured academics for babies or not. Her review was what initially interested me in this product.
posted by Crystal Paine at 11:02 AM
24 Comments:
I read your post about YBCR, and I just wanted to share with you and your readers that if they know an Usborne Books At Home representative in their area, they can earn this product for FREE by hosting a book party in their home. Or, they can have an e-show (through a consultants website) to earn free books.
Go to: ubah.com/FindConsultant.aspx OR go to ubah.com and click at the very top right corner "find a consultant" and on the next page fill out the zip code to find someone in your area.
I wanted to share an inexpensive way to get this and other educational products for free.
Hope this helps someone!
When I was very small, 2 1/2 to 3 years old, my Parents taught me to read using flash cards. The cards ad a word on one side and a picture on the other. I still remember the card for "play" green letters on a white card and a boy and girl playing with a ball on the other side. I learned many many words by sight alone and couls read entire children's books when I began Kindergarten. Learning to read was like magic to me, it opened worlds for me to explore.
Good for you for encourageing Kathrynne so early! Reading is so important and wonderful.
Crystal, I have never heard of "Your baby can read" but got very excited about your testimony regarding it!
As we are praying about and planning more home schooling ideas for our pre schooler this fall, I may get this DVD for her 16 month baby sister? It could be something special for the 3 of us to watch together, possibly.
Thank you for the info!
AmyG - thanks for sharing! That was encouraging to me - I feel as if, just as happened with sign language, this is opening up a whole new world for Kathrynne.
I think one thing which has really encouraged her to be interested in reading is that we've made a point to read to her a lot ever since she was a newborn. My mom did this with us and I know that it had a real impact on me. I'm so thankful for the hundreds of books she read to us growing up and hope to do the same for my children.
so are kids basically just memorizing the words...not actually reading them? can this hinder them when it comes time to sound things out or do the dvds eventually introduce all of that? just curious.....
At first they introduce the words by sight and sound - then they quickly progress into teaching them how to actually *read* the words once they catch on to what words are all about. Having taught quite a bit of phonics and reading to a number of children, I've been very impressed with this approach for younger children.
Oh and I failed to say they also encourage the parent to supplement with lots of reading to the children and reviewing the flashcards. They encourage you to also practice reading in everyday life sorts of ways, too - something that I'm a big fan of (i.e. the more children can pick up from everyday life, the better).
Thanks for mentioning this Crystal! I know that some moms may worry that it is somehow unhealthy to use this program, so I wanted to mention a write up I did about it at the Baby Boutique Blog. People can read that here:
http://thebabyboutiqueatwombswindow.com/blog/product-reviews/your-baby-can-read-is-this-high-pressured-academics-for-babies/
Also, for those of you that know me through Supermom's Health and Wellness, I offer this product there as well. (I own both the Baby Boutique and Supermom's)
http://www.supermomshealthandwellness.com/index.php/action/item/id/74/prevaction/category/previd/18/prevstart/0/
~Erica
Hello! I have a couple of questions about this program...Do they also encourage the child to 'say' the words as they read them? I have a 4 yr old daughter who cannot talk beyond a 9 mo. vocabulary (mama, dad etc), and I was wondering if these might be helpful with her speech at the same time as helping her to read. I am not worried about her reading young, but am seeing that it may be tougher to teach her to read (eg. she can't sound out the words so that I can know that she's "got" it). Her comprehension is fine and up to date...but I am starting to try and find things that would be helpful to her speech and in turn exercise her brain to overcome these difficulties and maybe give us head start on her schooling. We are learning some sign language too, and going to speech therapy too.... Oh, and can you recommend the cheapest place (other than the book party) to buy these?
Thank you!
Anonymous: I'd highly encourage you to look into sign language. For some reason, that really helped Kathrynne learn to talk. And now she can both sign and talk. We have quite a few deaf friends, so it has been really helpful for her to learn to be able to interact with them as well.
Yes, the DVDs really encourage children to interact and say the word. They try to have children use as many of their senses as possible - saying it, seeing it, doing it whenever possible - such as touching their toes when it is the word "toes."
To Erica Johns: the link you left for your write-up doesn't work. I would like to read it. Could you please post an accurate link? Thanks.
If you cut and paste the link from erica's comment into your address window, it should go straight to it. :)
There have been some comments from people who have disagreed with my recommending a DVD for learning. I've opted not to publish these because I really do not want to debate the issue here and now. If you feel like you shouldn't have your child watching a DVD for any reason at any time at all during their childhood, that is completely okay - do what works for you and what you feel is best.
We've chosen to use a few very carefully selected educational DVDs on occasion for short amounts of time to help supplement our children's learning. However, please know that I am in no way encouraging parents to set their children in front of the TV for long periods of time and to use the TV or DVDs instead of one-on-one time with your child. If you read here for very long, you'll know I'm all about investing in your children and spending quality and quantity time with them. :)
Hi,
For some reason the first link didn't want to work. Let's try it smaller and see if that gets you there:
http://tinyurl.com/2bkepz
This seems to me to be something that folks could have strong opinions about. Its like a lot of other things, if it works for you, fine. If not, move on without guilt, AND without condemnation for others who choose differently. I am teaching my 2 year old and mentally handicapped 6 year old to read at the same time. I will likely be purchasing this product as I've been keeping my eyes open for something like this.
Pretty much the only videoes we have are the Moody Science Classics. I was wondering if anyone is aware of a similiar product for younger children?
Rachel: We like the Moody Science videos, too. Another good video series from them is the Mr. Fix-It series. They are Bible stories, but very true to the Bible, no animation, and only some well-done pictures. I believe those are also from Moody Science. Kathrynne likes those, too, though she only sees them at Grandma's house or when Grandma or Auntie Gretchen come to stay and bring them for her. :)
Pretty much the only other videos we do are the videos my mom and sisters made for Kathrynne which are just them playing instruments, reading stories, and teaching her her letters, numbers, finger plays, etc. She loves those as well!
Thanks for the review Crystal! We have the whole series of "Signing Time" and we LOVE them. My 3 yr old calls them her "school". I just ordered "Your Baby Can Read" from an Amazon seller. I paid $50.01 with shipping, for a new set. You can also get it directly from Amazon for $71.99 with free shipping. Hope that helps someone, who is looking for a deal! :)
Crystal I really appreciated your entry about this program! My mother actually sells Usborne books http://www.theusbornebooknook.com/
and she let me watch the video about the program. I was really interested in it but didn't know anyone who had tried it. I love Valerie's comment about getting it free by doing a party through Usborne...My youngest is 2. Is it to late to start it with her? Thanks so much for your post and your site. It is an inspiration to myself and many!!
Earthmama: We started Kathrynne at two and it seemed to not hinder her in anyway. They say you can start it as late as 4 or 5.
My mom did something with me as a infant that was similar to this. I really began reading when I was 5, but maybe it helped me? i don't know, I was reading that same year at a 5th grade level and quickly advanced from there.
on the down side, I read so much that by the time I was in third grade, I had run out of the books that were my age level and was reading adult level books. Some would say that was good, while I am not sure as I am not a fan of children being made into little adult before their time.
It sounds like something though i would love to do with my almost three year old.
We have always been proponents of teaching/training our children early (Proverbs 22:6 seems to just mean train them up from the beginning)
And what are the statistics of how this works overall, I mean in most of the users of this program? I know with our two older girls both of them read early at 3 and 4 years of age (we used an inexpensive program, around $20.00, called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons), but it has been totally different for our third daughter - she learned to read at 5, but does not possess the love of reading nor the desire to read as the older two have, even though that has been slowly changing the last two years. Our older two read well above their reading levels and have from the beginning.
We are trying something different from our third with our next two, who happen to be boys.
Guess, I am just skeptical. We have taught our children a few signs as infants, as well and have noticed that most of them have had very good vocabulary at early ages, but then you have to take into consideration what we are reading to them, how we talk to them etc. Those all have an affect on how a child learns. You can probably see those things in your own family life.
Not knocking the program if it works for you, just warning that every child is going to be different and what works for one may not work for another. And we do not always have to spend so much money on curriculum as we think.
Reading aloud lots and lots and lots to our children is one of the best starts we can give to our children in the world of reading. (I know you have stated this, but I am stating it again because it is worth repeating.)
Blessings,
Theresa
mom to six with another on the way
Pogren - since I don't have your email address, I'm leaving this note for you here in response to your comment -
I know some disagree or are offended by the fact that I delete comments at my discretion. I often pray and ask my husband before deleting comments because sometimes it is hard to know which to let stand, which to respond to, and which to delete. Having a blog - especially one which is read by thousands of people - is a great responsibility and one I don't take lightly.
I used to publish almost all the comments I received but then I found that it took an enormous amount of time to moderate discussions, explain myself to those who disagreed - time I didn't have and it was at the expense of my family. I have since made blogging only a very small part of my life, and as such, have opted to delete comments at my discretion which I feel distract from the message of the post or which would cause a debate that I either do not have time to moderate or do not want happening on my blog.
There are thousands of people who read my blog from hundreds of different viewpoints. While I believe that healthy discussions are a great thing, they can easily become unhealthy when we are devoting too much time and energy to them at the expense of other more important priorities. I want to encourage and build up women, encourage people to think Biblically and to hold everything up to the light of Scripture, and to occasionally have some good give-and-take. But my blog is not a debate forum. There are plenty of other places for that to take place.
God bless you and thanks for your understanding!
Thanks for the review. My mother taught my elder sister to read when she was 2 and then my sister taught my twin brother and I some of it when we were 4 and she was 6. She used a method very similar to the one in these dvds (although tv had only just come out in this country then so it was all done with flash cards) The reason I am keen to do this with my own child (shes only 2 months old now, so I am just looking at various options now with no idea to start yet)is that I believe the programme uses phonics as well as look-and-say techniques. Has your daughter progressed further now and what did you think of the phonics taught on the dvds?
I have been planning on buying this, but wanted more feedback!!! Thanks...did you buy everything? +sam
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