Your Baby Can Read update #4

So little J started the final DVD of this program yesterday. This one he is supposed to view for one month. At that time I am supposed to show them all to him randomly to keep reviewing the material.

I don't recall if I've mentioned in prior blogs, but we are also working on learning Spanish & Dr. Titzer (the guy who created this program) does state that both languages will take longer if they are learning more than one language at once.

So he still watches the DVDs & we review the flashcards. He really enjoys doing the flashcards. But the books still don't work for us. I must say I feel they dropped the ball, so to speak, when it comes to these books. Little J wants to grab them & see them & touch them & I can't allow that because he's going to rip the pages accidentally. In my opinion they should have made them board books (ie hard untearable pages). I don't think I am the only parent having this issue, though probably not ALL parents are having this issue. That's one improvement they certainly need to make in my opinion.

Once this month is finished I am supposed to start going over as many books as I can with little J. I will definitely have to stick with board books for now though. It's also hard because he doesn't like to sit still. From day one my little boy has been a MAJOR WIGGLEWORM. When I was reading "bringing up boys" I couldn't stop laughing because Dr. Dobson says that boys cannot sit still & have a hard time focusing & while I know that's not the case with ALL boys it certainly is the case with little J.

One thing I notice with little J that I wonder if other children his age do: when he sees a box or package or something (anything) that has writing on it he will touch the words with his fingers & really take a good look at them. Sometimes he will point to a word & then look up at me, almost as if he wants me to tell him how to say that word. And so I do.

As for language learning in general I do have a few thoughts myself that I think are pertinent. I, personally, am a visual learner & so is hubby, so there's a good chance little J will be also I suppose. I think this form of learning (YBCR) is THE BEST for a visual learner. I have always been really good with language overall. I have learned a lot of Spanish (though I struggle to have a conversation in Spanish I do understand much of the language, grammar, etc), some German, some French, & a little Italian. These are all latin & germanic languages, which English is a combination of both.

One thing that stands out in my memory of language learning that I think shows how beneficial YBCR just might be: in my senior year of high school I took French. For the first few weeks the teacher wouldn't give us our textbooks. We were not allowed to look at any written French. She would stand before the class & say words in French & tell us what they meant. She would tell us to write the words down however we thought they would look, so that we could remember how to pronounce them. After those first couple of weeks she then handed out our textbooks & stopped speaking them to the class as she had been doing & I was so confused. I couldn't connect how the words looked with how to pronounce them at all. I still struggle with French pronunciation because of this. I could read & write more French than I could actually speak. And so I think even for someone just learning language (like a baby) being able to see words & connect them with the pronunciation of them is very beneficial & will prove to be very helpful in my opinion. At least to a visual learner that is.

I also have an ability with language where I can just glance at a word & know if it is correct or not. I am really good at things like hangman, wheel of fortune, etc because of this. I'm not really sure how I developed this ability. Maybe from learning to read at such a young age, maybe just from reading so much (I am SUCH a book worm), not really sure. The really odd thing is that I also have this ability with Spanish words. I can look at a word & am able to tell you if it's Spanglish or Spanish. I can even do this without being able to tell you WHY.

That's all the reading updates I have for now.......I'm sure I'll have more coming.......