Hi Trisha!
Since your baby is just a newborn, (4 months and below) I would suggest starting with Infant stimulation cards. These infant stimulation cards are simple cards in high-contrast colors (black and white and red) which are proven to stimulate very young children visually. We have a few free downloadable infant stimulation card files at our Free downloads section:
http://www.brillkids.com/free-download/index.phpInstructions on how to use your Infant Stimulation Cards: - Put your cards on a pile, in the reverse order which you want to show the cards to your baby.
- With your baby near you, show the cards one by one. Use about 10-15 seconds to present one side of a card.
- After showing one side, present the corresponding pattern on the back of the card.
- Allow your child to study the patterns and adjust her eyes to the images.
You may repeat this exercise as often as you want, but of course, do take breaks and allow your child to take breaks, too! And make sure to stop the exercise when your baby seems disinterested or is preoccupied with something else - just take it up again when your baby appears more perceptive to the cards.
Listening to soothing and classical music will also help with auditory stimulation.
Meanwhile, personally encourage you to have a read through of one of our websites: BrillBaby (
http://www.brillbaby.com/)
In BrillBaby, we discuss everything you need to know about teaching your child, how to start, what to remember, and even a review of several different products to help you teach. Although we at BrillKids also develop our own products for kids 5 months and onwards, we would never pressure anyone into just buying them without knowing what they do, so please read through BrillBaby first so you can decide which teaching method and style is best for you and your baby.
To learn specifically about teaching young children to read, please go here:
http://www.brillbaby.com/teaching-baby/reading/introduction-to-teaching-baby-to-read.phpTo learn specifically about teaching young children math, please go here:
http://www.brillbaby.com/teaching-baby/math/introduction-to-teaching-baby-math.phpYou'll learn about the two methods you can use to teach - the flash card method (which takes advantage of right brain learning capabilities of children) and the multisensory method (incredibly fun and very stimulating for baby). We've built all of our BrillKids learning systems to be able to use both methods, so you have more flexibility in your lessons.
If you found which method works best for you, and you'd like an easier way of teaching, then I would totally love to invite you to try Little Reader, Little Math and Little Musician. (Don't install the programs before you intend to use them though! There's currently no way of extending trials, so it's really best to only install when you intend to start using them.)
And of course - my biggest recommendation - is to ask questions on anything here in the forum.
We have LOADS of families who have the blessing of caring for children with special needs here, and we would be more than happy to share experiences and ideas with you.
Digg
