Where Do I Start?

[queriquita]

PokerDad,
I've really enjoyed your enthusiasm and wanted to share some things that I didn't see you mention that have worked for us.  FYI: dd = 8 m/o & ds = 30 m/o

asl - i can't rave enough about signing time and learning asl.  i had complications with my first pregnancy and birth, so i was an emotional mess for a good 6-9 months after ds was born, however, i was able to recall a few things 1) fussy babies who are not sleepy, hungry, or need a change like stimulation, and 2) do what you can, stay relaxed, and enjoy.  fortunately, while i was preggo i taught myself the manual alphabet as well as a handful of meaningful signs and for the first 6-9 months that's about all i did.  i didn't get ybcr until he was 6 mo old, but those signs were our saving grace.  i didn't have energy, nor belief, nor knowledge, at that time, for flash cards. but i always had my hand with me.  so when ds was fussy, i'd sing that abc song and if sign to him.  after a few seconds, he'd calm down.  did i do this everytime he was fussy - no, but often enough, and amazingly it would work.  he was curious about what i was doing with my hands and understood that i was trying to communicate something to him in a peaceful and joyful way.  also, often while i was out with him, and even at home, i would do the alphabet with him.  when he was itty bitty, sometimes i would just get through a few letters before he lost interest, and that was ok.  as time progressed, the song has become his favorite.  of course, he has a pretty large jukebox in his head now, but the abc song is one of his favorites!

so! yes, he learned the letter names before their sounds, but he picked up their sounds when he was 1 thanks to several youtube videos, especially one that does the alphabet song, phonetically.  he never had a problem with it, nor did he have a problem understanding that the cow makes the moo sound, the dog goes woof, a cat says meow, and b is for 'buh', so on, and so on. like kauiheidi's daughter ( <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/CxmS1nQVsno&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/CxmS1nQVsno&rel=1</a> - awesome video!!), ds also loved the a for apple, a, a, a song.  as a matter of fact, you're more than welcome to browse our learning playlists (about 300 learning songs) that ds soaked up before he was 2 - many of which are signing songs too.

back to asl: i think it's a fantastic foundation!  unlike many who teach it and drop it once their kiddo starts talking, we kept it up.  when ds was about 2, he started trying to sign conversation with me, not just words and isolated sentences.  of course, i couldn't make it all out, , but he clearly knew what he was saying, and sometimes would tell me and then it would all make sense. but the point is this, he spontaneously was motivated to perfect his signs too.  that set him up for great dexterity, which is wonderful for writing!  he loves writing and drawing, btw, and a few months ago really started doing well with his shapes, numbers, and letters.  he can use large markers and crayons, but he can also use much smaller writing utensils, and i'm certain it's from the signing.

the other great thing about signing - i believed it helped with his spelling.  whereas we could sign dog, cat, bird, etc, when i went phonetic with him, then i started incorporating the manual spelling.  again, we use flashcards too, but often i don't have flashcards on me, but i have my hands ;-) so, i could sign d-o-g while i was enunciating 'duh' 'awe' 'guh', and do it quickly while saying 'dog' and it was similar to having a board with it written in front of us, but not needing the props.

highly recommend signing time.  you'd think 2 years later watching these shows nearly daily that he'd be over it - nope!  thankfully, there are over 30 videos, so he only loves it more! before we got the whole set, we used to get them from the library.  if our local branch didn't have them, they would bring them in from another library, sometimes in another city/state altogether.  they even told me that i could request they be purchased, which i did, but then we ended up getting them for christmas, so i didn't have to keep returning them.

ok, so much more written than needed for you to get the point - asl is beyond great, look into it too ;-)  there are other advantages of introducing it too, such as it being another language, it helping with piano, art, and more! oh, and i don't get any sort of compensation or discount or anything from signingtime, but believe me, i should look into it!  they even have a few of the shows in spanish, which was great too.  and just because they have baby signing time, don't think you shouldn't show the regular ones to your child.

oh, the other thing that i was going to share, but much more quickly, since it's late and i'm getting tired: ec.  again, i was pretty slow on this with both kids in the beginning, but ds was still using the bathroom on his own when he was one, which was FANTASTIC because not only is it better on the budget and the planet to use less diapers, but oh my do they have some grownup sized bm's as they get closer to 2! it's just so nice, especially now that we have the baby, to not have to deal with his diapers too, and just 'ok, let me know when you're ready for me to wipe'. . and like everything else, teaching them this EARLY is much easier than waiting until you've TAUGHT them to use a diaper. yes, using a diaper is not natural for them, but they are quick learners, as you know ;-)

[PokerDad]

Thank you a bunch for this!

I've come a little ways since I first posted. The best thing I've done is start by finding people on the forum that seem to know what they're talking about or have had some good successes and then read through all of their posts. I've done this for a handful of people and have found that it has given me a good impression of where people start and how they progress. In doing so, I've read a few things that I would have never read and have learned a few things I would have never learned.

For example, you mentioned EC. I had never heard of this! It wasn't until I was browsing through an old thread here where someone mentioned it. Now I have three EC books from the library and have really been researching it. I've also discussed it with the wife and she's sort of on board with the idea.... (she doesn't oppose it but probably won't go out of her way initially to implement it herself... but to me, this was a big step forward that she wouldn't oppose all my ideas, even if they sound strange at first). I suspect that shortly after starting, she will see the value and benefit of EC and will buy in a little more. I also shared your paragraph with her this morning and it's those types of comments that people either write in the thread or send to me via PM that helps convince my wife that I am not some lunatic, ha ha ha, and that I'm really seeking the wisdom of more experienced parents. I mean, seriously, this is not an EC board; for someone to mention it to me here means more than if I were on some diaper free message board.

My wife also liked your idea of ASL and told me this morning that she'd like to do it; I already had saved the ASL website to my favorites, but I think I'll check out the signingtime videos.

Thanks!

[Kerileanne99]

PokerDad-
I also discovered SigningTime when my daughter was tiny and our whole family fell in LOVE.  Cannot say enough wonderful things about them.  Our family have all learned enough ASL to communicate in sentences, without working at all!  In fact, when my daughter was a year old we actually had to seek out a babysitter from the university that could sign with her because A would try to communicate (with no whining or crying!) and would get very frustrated when people didn't understand!
A couple of additional bonuses that I hadn't realized when we started them:  they are all done in units, so not only did she learn communication words, she learned the seasons, her ABCs, days of the week, counting, and so many more I can't begin to list them!  The biggest bonus is that it fits in PERFECTLY with EL because the written word is displayed on the screen prior to demonstrating the sign, then again after...so even though your child will be doing something completely different, all concepts fit together perfectly...
Also, when we started another language, ASL acted as a bridge between English and ANY other language!

Huge was the day that I realized. My daughter could decipher homonyms and homophones because of sign language!  We were baking and when I explained that the white powder we were using was called 'flour,' she looked at me quizzically, and quickly signed 'flower.' immediate understanding and avoidance of confusion that might otherwise have taken a very long time to correct.  I told her no, not 'flower', but flour...I didn't know what the sign was, and she took off for her bedroom, dragging back her magnetic writing board...she wanted to SEE the difference!
This has happened so many times now I have stopped counting...sometimes she will even drag over my IPad to insist that I provide her with a sign if we don't know it!
A couple of things...I don't know where you live, but SigningTime is becoming so popular that some local PBS channels are opting to play it...ours does once per week, and we have DVR'd them even though we have also bought the DVDs...
They also have an app that has some basic words that my daughter likes to play with when we are waiting in line sometimes..
Bonus, if you sign up for their emailed newsletter, they often have great sales and additional clips like special holiday signs.  At Halloween, they taught candy, Happy Halloween, pumpkin, that sort of thing!
Anyway, I honestly think this is a can't miss because it has been such a learning experience in so many ways, and so much fun! My husband and I actually find ourselves communicating across a room full of people and in all kinds of situations!
Hope this helps!
Kerileanne99

[Maquenzie]

What EC books did you get?

[PokerDad]

Kerileanne99, Thank you! My library has a ton of these DVDs. I'm going to check out a few and watch with the mrs. to get a good idea of them.

Maquenzie, The three they had at the library were Diaper Free (Bauer, have not looked at yet), The Diaper Free Baby (read about half of it, seemed very repetitive), Infant Potty Training (about half way through, seems very in-depth and perhaps a bit overwhelming so I slowed down a lot to digest everything). I can give a much better review of them once I've gone through them all... and especially when I actually start implementing.

[Kerileanne99]

PokerDad-
To get the best idea, try 'Leah's Farm', 'Zoo Train', or 'Everyday Signs'...this is a good welcome, as most kids love animals, and the songs are some of the catchiest...
One caveat:  there are a set of four called Baby Signing Time, geared for a slightly younger audience.  Very cute, and the most useful signs for babies and toddlers.  You may want to start with them, but the only issue I had with them was that as they have babies and toddlers making the signs, they are not as good at them...this may not matter, as the host Rachel always show the sign correctly, and the allure of babies made my daughter pay attention more...
 When children begin to use spoken language, their words are more approximations than accurate pronunciations.  They same goes with ASL-their first signs are often 'approximations', and I worried that of she was watching babies make these signs, she wouldn't learn to do them correctly...the whole copy of a copy analogy...This actually turned out not to be an issue at all, as the carer is taught that if you see your child trying to sign something, however close, you acknowledge it by saying "I see you are signing X, Good Communication!", then make the proper sign back to them...
Anyway, just a tip that it took me awhile to figure out!

[queriquita]

PokerDad, i'm so glad i helped in some way!  i have no doubt that your child is truly blessed and gifted to have such wonderful parents.  to everything that kerileanne posted - yes, yes & yes!  we do multiple languages with joey and now kaelie too and asl has helped bridge the gap, and yes, also within the same language 'bat' vs 'bat', etc.  re:the videos, the first one we saw was the one with the colors and the fruits and veggies (i think #6) - absolutely loved it, and it was so cute to see him asking for specific fruits!  i agree about the animal ones too, but the colors and food one is another great one to start because it's one of the first things that my kids learned ... introducing 'more' and the food you're serving while eating adds quite a bit of incentive to learn ;-)
as for ec'ing and all of el, really, learn all you can, then don't stress and do what you can.  again: don't stress it.  enjoy this time!  it's an amazing journey!  the fact that you're getting the basics/theory down now will make it much easier for you to incorporate when you're each ready. with joey, i was famous for saying, 'when he's 20' as in, 'when he's 20 he'll be reading, writing, talking, swimming, riding, running, walking, going to the bathroom alone, not on my breast and not in my bed - maybe someone else's but not mine!' encourage them at their pace by exposing them to as much as their willing to take in and then enjoy getting to know them! :-)
and since i have you're attention, i would be remiss if i didn't encourage exclusively breastfeeding for 6 months. if you can't, you can't, and that's ok - formula fed children aren't miserable! but there's something quite special about it if you can make it happen. they've even recently (within the last year) come out with research demonstrating the difference not just between exclusively breastfed and exclusively formulafed children, but also between those who were exclusively breastfed during the first 6 months vs those who were breastfed, just not exclusively, and it was amazing to see the effects in health, especially respiratory (big deal for budding swimmers, yeah? ;-) )   again, if it's not for you guys, it's not for you guys, but if you're uncertain, then do look into it.  go to a local la leche league meeting and learn about it. 
most people think that babies instinctively know what to do, and that's not always the case.  they too are learning, especially if they had a complicated and/or medicated/drugged birth.  i was so relieved that i went to my local meetings while i was pregnant because there is so much information that you're told and so much that you go through to convince you that you're doing it wrong and that it's not working, which turns out to be sadly false! because i went, i was so much better prepared.  i realized when i wasn't doing it right and was able to ask for help to correct.  i realized when changes in my child's behavior were due to natural growth spurts and not because my supply wasn't enough, and so much more.  the first few months are especially confusing as there's so much to figure out and they were great at helping prepare for all the natural changes!
i know people who have used donated milk, people who have donated milk, people who have pumped to go back to work, people who haven't pumped but exclusively fed, etc - whatever works for you, works for you, but again, it's free, and the properties in it are fantastic for brain development and the immune system.  a quick google search and this site (http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/fats.html) claims: "Myelin, the protective sheath that covers communicating neurons, is composed of 30% protein and 70% fat. One of the most common fatty acids in myelin is oleic acid, which is also the most abundant fatty acid in human milk and in our diet." if you read about a third of the way down, you'll find out more reasons why it's so important to the developing brain.
and that reminds me - since the mrs is preggo, encourage her to take an omega3/dha supplement, especially in the third trimester.  while it's ok/good to add to kiddo's diet after born, it's much more important to add during pregnancy, especially in the third trimester.  bottom line, it helps with a ton of things, including vision, which is necessary for reading early ;-)  read here: http://www.gnldcontent.com/omega3/us/pdf/Omega-3-and-pregancy-scientific-review.pdf. 
ok, that's enough for now - it's so much nicer talking to receptive parties! can't wait to hear about all the great things your little peanut will accomplish!

[Kerileanne99]

PokerDad-
One other thing that might help you as you will be the primary caregiver.  My husband was quite keen on some of my ideas, but not so much on others...he was fully on board for things like ASL, YBCR (although he scoffed!), but absolutely did not want to stress my child out or overwhelm her.  We are chemists/biologists and have studied quite a bit about the physical trauma to the body due to increased presence of the stress hormone Cortisol, just as an example...
So we made a pact.  I picked those programs (that I had stumbled upon without the benefit of this site) that I felt were most important.  I chose ASL for communication, and YBCR because it was all I knew, and then planned on doing as much teaching as possible on my own using what I think of as scientific ideas....I will explain in a minute...we then agreed that after a few months or so, if she (and us) seemed to be really enjoying it, I could add others...the point is, whilst he was skeptical, I KNEW it would work and that I could and would do anything/everything in my power to teach her to love it too! For me, it was a no-brainer, no problem deal...six months later he was completely enamored and began to research other options himself!

Maybe this plan would be helpful to you as well!

As by what I mean about 'scientific principles'...I attempt to analyze what I am teaching, and minimize the variables (among other things.). Sounds common sense, but it began when I thought about how children learn colors. My baby was about 2 mo old, and we were at a library story hour...I was just observing, but after one particularly hectic involving a multicolored parachute, projectile objects, and a band-aid or three, I realized that many of the five year old kids could not reliably identify all of their colors! Some yes, some identified everything as blue, random, motley collection...
It got me thinking: babies and toddlers are learning vocabulary at the same time they are learning colors. Since you don't always know what words they know for a fact, or whether they recognize a variation, most parents rely on repetition and quantity of descriptions. "look, there is a RED fire engine!" or "do you see the BLUE sky today?". Several things wrong with this: these objects tend to only require that the majority of the object be a color before we classify it as such, because we already know what color it is.  Also, because they are just learning the noun portion of the statement, I think that it probably sounds like redfireengine to them.
Anyway, to test this, I waited until my daughter identified all different types of balls.  She could sign 'ball' at 8 months, so I knew she was ready... (or hoped!)
I made flash cards, enormous ones on construction paper.  I then sat her in her ball pit, full of a mix of uniformly shaped, uniformly sized, balls.  (each was a single color, of course!) I held up the first card and said, "this is Purple.  And signed it, as well. Then I started rummaging about 'burying' her in only the purple balls, discarding the rest in comical fashion, shouting gleefully, "and more purple, and more purple, and more purple, until we were both giggling hysterically... (if you have never heard a baby giggle hysterically, it is incredibly infectious and joyful!!)
So anyway, I did this two times that day with the color purple, and each day after we chose another color, repeating the until all colors had been covered...
My kiddo knew all of her colors and could identify tHem every time, at 9 mo.  After the first week, I would spread all the color cards in front of her, with a separate pile of a representative ball, and would ask her to choose what color to do first.  She would grab a card, then crawl over to the corresponding ball...

So, even if you start with a minimum of programs, there are a million things you can be doing with your kid along common sense lines, using principles you are gleaning from your research!  And I promise that when your wife sees the joy that your child expresses as they learn something new, she will be waving a big red EL banner on the BrillKids bandwagon
We look forward to seeing postings of her own! (although telling her "I told you so! Will probably not garner the best response to further marital bliss!)
Good luck, and we can't wait until the newest, tiniest card shark arrives in the BrillKids community!

[Mela Bala]

Hi PokerDad and Family,

Congratulations

I wish I had started my research on early learning like you are doing now.  It was not until the accountant at my Father's company asked me if I was planning on teaching my son to read while he was a baby that I threw out my preconceived notions about early learning.  Through my extensive search through reviews I found that most parents favored Monki See Monki Do over Your Baby Can Read. 

Monki See Monki Do is the sun in our world of early learning that began when Cayden was 5 months old.  Krista G includes a instructional dvd with great ideas and then lists other companies including their websites which directed me to BrillKids. Since he was not interested in watching the dvds and I wanted more than flashcards and the presentations I was making.  He now loves the Monki See Monki Do dvds and at the first sign he showed he could recognize a word and communicate its meaning I bought the YBCR program which he loves. 
The Your Baby Can Discover free gift included has taught him to recognize polygons, rhombus, quadrilaterals, etc. 

Through the LM program my son can identify numbers 1-100. Have not tested him on any equations.
I recently learned that he has been speaking a few words in Mandarin which I give credit to the Little Chinese program.
I have but have not used Little Pim for Spanish and Mandarin.
He has been learning Spanish with Boca Beth.  Hindi with my parents.

I was advised by Dr. Jones of the Jones Geniuses Accelerated Education not to start teaching foreign languages until my son started talking in English fluently to avoid a speech delay.  There are many conflicting views about this and since I read that the speech delay does not become significant until you try teaching 7 or more languages. I continued with Hindi, Spanish and Mandarin.  When my son first started talking he said words like puppy, apple and hippo perfectly but he was not adding words too often so I cut back on foreign language for now and he is progressing rapidly.
He has learned phonics through ipad apps like Magic ABC (free), preschool prep dvds, leapfrog phonics fridge magnets and constant repitition on my part.  He is starting to speak the alphabet letters now but has shown he can identify them.  He sounds out words with me and loves hearing his little voice say the same thing I am saying.  He now calls his father PhilllllliPP.

My son has been fascinated with words ever since he saw Readeez which has also taught him sight words.  I have to read everything in all books, front cover, table of contents, pages, their page number, back cover, the upc code numbers, the words on the spine of the book...
When we walk past any sign at the store if I do not stop to read while pointing under the words he gets upset.  I get so many stares but who cares right?
As long as my baby is happy I do not care what people say or think. 

I read in a book Active Baby Healthy Mind that practicing music nourishes the same part of the brain we use for math.  We are waiting for the keyboard to come in to begin the Soft Mozart program. 

He watches Tweedlewink and we will start Wink when he is ready.
He loves putting puzzles and tangoes together.
We are waiting for the Visualize World Geography program to be delivered.
We read to him ALOT.  MathStart series, A Math Adventure series, Basher Books, my old college textbooks, etc.
He loves finger painting, scribbling and trying to trace.

Since he was a couple weeks old I have had him with me in our indoor jacquzzi and he can now float, and propel himself across the tub. 

I have also made the transition to eating a macrobiotic diet which promotes an overall balance in the body.  Which has helped me look better than I did preMom and I plan on having my son continue this eating lifestyle with me because my mind and body feel great and work better. He also has loved eating avocado (brain food) since he was 6 months old. I also do hope your wife is planning on nursing.  The bonding experience is amazing and as your baby grows it is amazing to see how their interactions with you develop.  At present my son now puts one of his feet in my hand to massage and a book in my other hand to read to him while he turns the pages.

There are many early programs we have purchased but have not used and I will let you know in the future what works for us.
Everyday I still feel like that I am brand new to Early Learning and by the end of each day I am confident I am on the right track because my son has discovered a way to communicate to me something I did not know he knew.

[LDSMom]

Kerileanne99 - we did the same thing with the colored balls. It worked like a charm! I read somewhere that either purple or pink was a really hard color for kids to discern, but purple was the first color my child knew because of the color ball game.  To learn colors we also did fun things like get out 4 empty bowls, and I'd pull out a pile or bag of objects consisting of a blue pen, blue marble, blue dish, a red toy, a yellow bird, etc. Then we would sort the colors into different bowls. You can do the same things for textures, soft, hard, rough, or materials like plastic, metal, glass.  To teach fractions we would play with his pretend or real food and explain as I cut it that it was being cut in half, and he would get one half and I would get one half. Or Dad would get 3/4ths of the pizza and he would get 1/4 and if we put it all back it would equal 1 whole pizza. I must also HIGHLY recommend Your Child/Baby Can Discover. We just love this set and my son learned so many shapes and patterns, numbers, etc from this. He also learned a great deal of math skills from the MathTacular DVD, although it's probably for older kids. We got it at age 3 and loved it. I would also do things like write a word on a paper like Grandma, and then he'd have to search through a pile of letters from our Upwards or scrabble game and match it to the word I wrote out.  We sometimes had these plastic letters in a box of uncooked rice or macaroni noodles for him to search through and "find" before he got to match it to the word. I also put labels on a baby doll we had like arm, leg, face - and we would use stickers as "band-aids" that had the body parts written on them, and he would get to stick them to the matching label on the doll. This taught him matching the word and body parts. There are sooo many fun things you can do with everyday objects to teach, and yes it can be really fun!!

Now my son is 4 and we're working on learning more advanced phonic rules, wanting to learn the abacus, and working on his second language, and partically starting a 3rd language.

As far as where do you start - First of all a few pre-early learning tips for mom and dad that worked well for us: The first is Dunstan Baby Language - Learning to recognize the meaning behind your baby's cries. HUUUGE HELP, and getting the little on on a good schedule.

Parent Directed Feeding worked really well for us for our first child - feeding baby as soon as they wake up vs. using milk to lull them to sleep. This way they are wide awake when they eat, you can get all the bubbles out, and have time to play before it's time to go back to sleep again. They also don't learn that the only way to sleep is if they are drinking a bottle. We would put our son in bed while he was still awake, so that he would learn to fall asleep on his own. We started this at 3 months old and never had a problem with "crying it out" he would just lay and talk to himself for a minute and then fall right asleep. We've never had bedtime issues, and he sleeps amazingly well to this day (he's 4)

What DVD's I plan on on using if I have a second child:

3-10 months:
YBCR in English and Spanish (rotating days)
Baby Signing Time
Baby Einstein: Baby's first Sounds (Don't like the rest of them, but we really loved this one!)

Then:
LR English
Little Pim Spanish
Your Baby Can Discover
Sparkabilities Baby (love their little iphone app too!)

Then:
Your Child Can Read
Your child Can Discover
Sparkabilities Toddler

Free stuff to supplement:
Youtube videos like ABC's, Readeez, Peter Weatherall
starfall.com
readingbear

Other stuff:
Piano/music play at home
Gym time
Possibly EC - not sure I have the energy for this one, but I may try it.   

[PokerDad]

 

This thread is like the gift that keeps on giving!

Thanks a bunch; and if anyone thinks of something or wants to add, please... feel free, I still have 5 months before baby is born 

I just reserved a copy of Dunstan Baby Language at the library; I never would have thought of this, so definitely appreciated +karma.
Thanks again!

[LDSMom]

Well, I'm so happy to be able to give advice and to have someone listen!! You feel sometimes as though you sit on a mountain of valuable knowledge with no one to share it with, because no one cares to listen.

The Dunstan Baby Language was such a blessing to me - I originally heard about it on Oprah before I had my son and I was so intrigued.  You will find after you know the sounds to listen for, that you can pick out babies cries from everyone else's child. It may be hard for you not to go up to someone and say - your baby is tired, hungry, uncomfortable, etc. because you will have tuned your ear enough to have a general idea on why they are crying. I find it amazing.  When my son was a baby he started doing the "heh" cry which means discomfort. I started going through the check list, no scratchy tags, not to hot or cold, clothing not too tight, so I finally stripped him down and began looking over his whole body. What did I find? One of my long pieces of hair had wrapped tightly around his little toe (I have no idea how!). It actually took me some time to get it off, and once I did he was a happy little baby again. Knowing that he was uncomfotable helped me cross off tired, hungry, gassy, etc. from the list of things to check.

I'm excited for you to experience your first baby. Just remember that you can plan and plan but things can be very different when baby arrives. What works for one child/parent may not work for another. Don't worry about being perfect and just enjoy the experience, and do the best you can! I think you will be an amazing dad (I wish my hubby was half as involved in this stuff as you are! ).

[TeachingMyToddlers]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/h6_IEB-AOQ4&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/h6_IEB-AOQ4&rel=1</a> Enjoy!

[mybabyian]

Congratulations PokerDad.  Did you say if you know what you are having yet?  It is such an exciting time.  You kind of remind me how I was in that I knew I wanted to teach my baby to read over ten years before I had one.  I also bought and read many books on early learning years before we even tried to get pregnant.  I am sure my husband thought I was nuts, but he knew better not to say it.

You have a lot of good advice here and I am not sure that I can add much.  I will just tell you my experience and maybe there is something you will find useful.  If anything I guess what I have learned is to take things as they come and relax a little. 

I felt like I was dropping the ball as it took me about three weeks to start him on his reading and math program.  I laugh now at how ambitious I was.  There really is a lot of adjustment when you are a fist time parent.  But, when I did start my son was in love with the flash cards.  He really lit up when he saw me coming with them.  Then he totally lost interest.  I was devastated because I couldn’t teach him if he wasn’t interested.  I felt like I was missing the window of opportunity.  But, I think the worst thing a parent can do is to kill the love for learning.  So we stopped until I could think what else to do.

I think the mistake I made was that I was showing him the cards too slow.  It didn’t at all seem slow until I saw other videos of how fast parents show their flash cards.  Here is an example: http://youtu.be/Y6xH3Kg6r60?t=32s 
If I had seen that video things probably would have been different.  Now (15 months) he does LR and LM and he likes them both.  He asks for more about half of the time when it is over.  It’s way easier for me too.  It was so much work to prepare the cards.  The only thing I know about YBCR is that I borrowed one of the first versions of it from the library and my son was less interested in that than anything.  Hopefully the videos are better now.  They obviously work for many people.  It is true though that LR has many, many more words and you can add words or even stories to make it infinitely expandable. 

If there is one book that you are going to read I would highly recommend the “The Read Aloud Handbook.”  I am sure it is in your library.  Regardless of how or when a child learns to read the best readers are the ones who read the most, and the children who read the most are the ones who love to read.  I am teaching my baby to read now because now is when he is learning language and therefore it is easiest time for him to learn.  But even more important to me is that he learns to love books.  From their website: “Human beings will voluntarily do over and over that which brings them pleasure.  Every time we read to a child, we’re sending a “pleasure” message to the child’s brain. You could even call it a commercial, conditioning the child to associate books and print with pleasure.”  My son and I read a lot together, but I had to find books he liked.  I thought for sure he would love Dr. Suess books.  I even read “Green Eggs and Ham” to him when I was pregnant.  He could care less.  Once again I had to look for what did interest him.  Of course this will be different for different kids.  I guess my point is to just be open and to take cues from your baby.  I am satisfied because he does love books, but I had to search to find the right ones for him.

My second favorite is “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children.”  I guess you really don’t have to read it as it can be summed up pretty easily: Talk, talk, talk to your baby.  I personally enjoyed reading it because it gave me such a sense of how cumulative everything you say to your baby is, and what an impact this makes over the years. 

Finally, sleep.  I was so interested in early learning for my baby that I didn’t think to read up on all the normal things people worry about.  I just sort of thought that eventually he would start sleeping through the night.  Nope.  Sleep is so important for his (and my) well being too.  Like an athlete needs recovery between work outs, your baby’s brain needs recovery too.  Plus, it is hard to do anything when you are sleep deprived.  What has worked for us was the “No Cry Sleep Solution”.  I know many people are advocates of crying it out and that’s fine for them.  I just thought if there exists another way why would I put my baby or myself through that?  I was skeptical that the book would work but I have to say that my baby now sleeps through the night.   Yippee!    I just wish I didn’t wait until he was over a year old to read it!
 
Anyway, good luck!  I look forward to hearing about your journey!

[nee1]

If there is one book that you are going to read I would highly recommend the “The Read Aloud Handbook.” 

My second favorite is “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children.

I agree.

1.    Excerpts of 'Read Aloud Handbook' are on http://www.trelease-on-reading.com.

2.  A summary of `Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children' as published in American Educator is at: http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/spring2003/TheEarlyCatastrophe.pdf.

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