How to teach your baby to read- Glenn Doman

I know Glenn Doman's flashcards method have received much flak. But it has its believers too- and im one of them. I've seen the results in my niece, nephew & my own son, it's impossible not to believe in it.

I started flashing word cards to Sonshine when he was 5 months old. By 10 months, he was able to recognise words although he couldn't speak nor point. How's that possible? Against GD's advice, i 'tested' him by holding up 2 word cards. As i call out one of the word, i watched his eyes shift to the correct card. 10 out of 10 times i did so, he got it right. But it sounded quite absurd, so i chose to tell people he could read by 1 plus (which is more believable). When he was on fours, i would lay out 2 picture cards and held up a word card describing one of the picture card. He would then crawl to the respective picture card and hand it to me.

Yes, i also read to him alot at the same time. But the words on the books were too small for him to read (although i believe he picked up more words during our read alouds when he was older & his vision, sharper).

I recommend:

1) The parent read the above book first. Alot of parents jump the band wagon without researching the why & the how. Hence, most give up mid way or claim it doesn't work. The book inspired me alot and probably that spurred me to finish the course.

2) Though GD claim it is suitable from birth, i think it is best to do it at 6 months onwards. For the very simple reason that the babies would not recognise the words although it would give them good visual stimulation.

3) Not suited for 2 years and above. Again, although GD says it works on older child, i disagree (but he did mention it would be challenging for older kids). 2 years old and older kids tend to be more distracted, it'd be difficult to expect them to sit there for even 1 minute to watch you flash word cards to them. You would need a more interesting and inviting method altogether.

4) If you are flashing to kids less than 1.5 years old, i suggest you buy the original GD flashcards and not the commercial, cheaper ones. The correct cards should have very huge fonts for visibility, the copied versions usually use smaller fonts.

And to reiterate some of the tips GD mentioned in the book

1) Always flash when the parent AND child are in a positive mood.
2) Always stop when the child is still interested, ie. stop before he gets bored.
3) Show the cards quickly, the speed should be even faster for older kids (due to their shorter attention span).
4) Never test your child, trust that he/she has absorb what you've showed. (WHOOPS!)

Lastly, if you cannot afford the time, do not fret. It doesn't mean if you don't start your kid on flashcard at 6 months, he/she is doom. Nonsense! Just find 5-10 minutes each day to just read aloud to your kid, he'll learn to read in no time. Read, read and read is the key not flashcards (it should treated as a complement to reading).

BEEP!

I happen to grab this CD-ROM while in the library recently. I didn't know what it was actually! After letting the boy play today, i was glad i borrowed it. It's got cute and attractive graphics. More importantly, it has simple games that promotes creative thinking.

All in all there are 6 games, all fairly simple.

This is how i do it...

Taking care of 2 kids on my own is insane. If there's any mother who is thinking of doing the same, i'll tell them 'dont be kay kiang (ambitious)!'. Get help, or get rid of the older kid (send to childcare)!

That said, it is not impossible. With alittle planning and foresight, one can get by the day with chores complete and even catch an afternoon nap (and blogging, tee hee hee)! But it is definitely not for everyone!

So it's the holidays and it seems to be tougher to manage since sonshine boy is home all day. BUt surprisingly, it isnt that bad. I can't believe we're almost done with the holidays- how did i even get by?

Let the boy play Noddy Fun. Good thing is he is quite independent. I don't have to play with him

Noddy fun consist of many different books with varying themes from Maths to Colors etc. So, it's enough to go around to entertain the boy

And play logico! The boy is getting a hang of this. He is able to figure out the question (its all in mandarin even i have difficulty reading them!) without any explanation from me. It's another educational game he can play independently!

And here is our favourite! I bought this CD-ROM for him to play on the puter. The good thing was he has been trained to use the mouse pad and mouse and can play without much help. The other great thing (for me) is he's able to understand the instructions and can pretty much play on his own.

These are my secret weapons to entertain the boy while im busy nursing the girl! And let's not forget the television of course!

IQ Genius

I was checking out another right brain game that my sister gave me when the busybody just had to check out what i was doing. I was trying to see if the game was appropiate for him. I concluded that it was abit tough for him and intended to put it away until his older.

He insisted on doing it with me and so i obliged. But i was also concern that he might loose interest in it once he discover that it was too difficult for him.

The aim of the game is to fit the various shaped bocks into a given picture. It's abit like tangrams but more challenging.

Call me a tard but i found it difficult even for me! It was quite mind boggling. Surprisingly, sonshine boy was very interested in it. Despite not being able to solve the puzzles immediately, he wasn't frustrated. Instead he wanted to keep trying- i was the one who suggested we change (ha!). He eventually solved the above puzzle all by himself and in a few seconds! He did it while i was still fumbling with the blocks (what a blonde moment). We were both beaming with pride!

And here's the game if you are interested. I think its quite affordable.

Logico again...

We've been doing Logico every now and then.

It's getting quite interesting & N is getting the hang of it. As i said before, its not so straight forward to answer the questions. Here's what we're suppose to do:

1. Identify the question we want to answer i.e choose the color code.

2. Here, in each question, there are 3 buckets of varying numbers of pencils. The child is to pick the bucket that has the most number of pencils.

3. Once he has identified that, he needs to determine the shape representing that bucket.

4. He now has to pick the corresponding colored knob from the horizontal axis and move it up to the vertical axis.

5. He shifts the colored knob to the correct shape identified in step 3.

The Logico comes in several booklets for different subjects & levels. We've dabbled in shapes/colors, counting (N's favourite of course) and now logical thinking.

The gist of the questions are generally easy however, it adds in a couple more steps before the child can get to the answer. I like that it challenges the child to think.

RIght Brain training...

This is one of the many educational toys my sister passed me. It's another right brain training exercise. It comes withs several boards of similar looking pictures, in this case, clowns. On closer look, there are one or two difference between each picture.

The aim  of the game is to match the loose pieces to the correct clown. I think its quite challenging for a young child, especially since the details are really subtle. Yet, its really a good way to sharpen the child's ability to visually discriminate the difference in color, shapes etc.