Happy New Year

I hope that everyone had a nice new year. We did. My husbands family came up to visit and we all went out and had a great time. Well, I just relized that I haven't done a Your Baby Can Read update. About a month ago we started the next set of YBCR cards, book and DVD. Due to the holiday we kinda slacked off a little but now we are back in the full swing of things. The kids seem to like it and they're learning the new words. My only problem withYBCR is that the DVD's dont seem to keep the kiddos intersted very long. After about a week or so the kids dont care for  the movie. I still do the word cards and books with them, but not all of the words are on the cards. I  wonder if anyone out there has any suggestions?

Update on update

So this evening while searching the net, I came a across some disturbing posts on other web sites. They were completely bashing the whole Your Baby Can Read series. They were saying that it only teaches the "whole word" approach to reading not understanding that that's what sight reading is. Its words that we have remembered. I don't really see the harm in that. I believe that when my daughter goes to kindergarten that she will also learn phonics. That's the sounding out of words and the letters that make the sounds in the words. And really, does it matter how your child learns to read, if the end result is that your child knows how to read?

Your Baby can read update

Well after almost 2 1/2 weeks of the starter DVD we have moved on to DVD #1. The kids know nearly all of the words in the starter one with the exception of maybe 2-3 words. They just wouldn't sit and watch it any more. I figured it must be because they've grown tired of it and need more stimulation. Ta Da ! I was right as soon as I put the new one on they all sat still and watched. You could almost hear the synapses firing off in their little heads. It's amazing, but yet it makes me wonder, if something so simple as showing babies and toddlers words followed by a picture can teach them to read, why isn't this something that is encouraged more in daycare centers ? Maybe its those doubting parents that only believe that the kids aren't really reading but simply remembering what the word looks like, or the ones who think that there's no way that a 6 month old knows what an elephant is. Now stop and think about this, us as adults aren't really reading half of the words we know. There's tons of sight words that we know because we've remembered, sense we were children, what the word looks like. Hello that's why they're called sight words and what is so bad about my toddler learner sight words when she's two. Just think how much more she'll learn when she's 5 and in kindergarten. This is a subject that I'd love to elaborate more on but the pumpkin is nagging at my side wanting to go to sleep. YES she lets me know when she's ready for bed.

Your Baby Can Read?

So a few weeks back the pumpkin and I went to visit my grandmother in Louisville KY. While we were there my grandma was excited about this thing that she saw on TV. She was sure that the pumpkin would benefit greatly by this program and she decided to purchase it. This box arrived about a week ago. At first I was a bit sceptical. How could these DVD's teach babies to read? Well, what the heck we'll give it ago, and if anything the parents of the children I watch will like it too. Now I am completely sold on the "Your Baby Can Read" DVD's. Its been a little over a week and the pumpkin and her buddies have already started to recognize about 5 of the 21 key words in the starter DVD. The "reading movie" (that's what the kids call it) has replaced our morning circle time. I'm very excited about this.