Hi Tara welcome along

Little Reader is the best! I wish I had known about it when my child was 3 months old.
I'm also a fan of YBCR, I started my daughter on it when she was 3 months old and went right through all DVDs and books until about 11 months old. Then I started to look for something to move onto as she was showing signs of knowing most of the words. The next step up (YCCD) seemed too advanced, this is when I found Little Reader and I haven't looked back since.
YBCR is good that its easy to use and at the early baby age I think I would still use it with future babies but I would also start showing Littler Reader maybe around the 6 month mark.
I love that you can make LR personal and I think this is one of the keys to helping your child stay interested.

I'm also a big fan of Baby Sign Language, this cost nothing and is really useful and interesting for later on when you child begins to read before they can talk and you will be able to understand what they are signing to you.
I started signing at 6 months with my first child and she began to sign back at 9 months and then she was 13 months old when she read and signed her first written word back to me.

I also have read "How Smart is your baby" and I tried to apply a lot of what they suggest but it was quite hard to fit it all into your day, I guess I just didn't want to be that organised, so I just took the more relaxed approach and did my best to do bits of whatever I could whenever I could.

The thing is there is no right or wrong way, just start and see how it feels. Only do as much as you want to do and keep it fun and follow your child lead.

Enjoy!
I cant wait to hear how things go for you

Recognizing Patterns of the Written Language Part 3

Dear Facebook Fans,

If your child has achieved the second milestone, there is a chance that the third milestone may have been learned, but not necessarily noticed. You may need to behave like an infant researcher to test whether or not your baby or child has learned any initial patterns of the written language. First, I will describe why this milestone is important, then I will detail how you can check to see if your child has already learned more than what you may have realized.

When learning the spoken language, many researchers used to believe that babies learned individual words first, then the general patterns of the language later. However, it is now clear that infants learn some patterns of the spoken language in the first year of life simultaneously with learning their first words. In other words, the baby is learning some syntax and grammar at the same time as learning initial individual words. Some scientists report that infants are better language learners than adults. This may be because of their abilities to learn patterns of languages. For example, infants who are learning English and another language can learn these patterns in English just as well as babies who are only learning English. The number of new synapses related to language development appears to peak around 11 months of age and that could help explain why infants may learn patterns naturally whereas adults may need to learn the patterns through rules and explanations (as well as a lot of effort).

Many researchers have pointed out how difficult it is to learn a spoken language simply by listening. One of the many difficulties in learning a language is figuring out where words begin and end since people typically don’t space their words out while speaking. Instead, one word often flows into the next in natural speech. Listen to an unfamiliar second language and imagine that you don’t even know there are individual words and imagine that you don’t know anything about grammar. You can see how complicated learning the spoken language could be for infants without this information. The babies who are learning written and spoken language are obviously getting extra sensory information which should help them figure out where words begin and end, for instance. It could also help them distinguish words that sound very similar because they would have visual information that other babies don’t have. In studies of babies who consistently used YBCR for at least 7 months, their receptive language, expressive language, overall language, and overall cognitive scores were significantly higher than a control group matched for socio-economic factors. The extra sensory information YBCR babies had by being allowed to see the language while hearing it might have made it easier for them to learn language skills in general. I say this for many reasons and I will give two of them here. First, there is so much evidence that learning through more than one sensory system helps infants learn more. Second, there are studies showing that learning one aspect of language often helps other aspects of language. The previous statement about babies learning language skills at a higher when they see and hear language simultaneously is a hypothesis that is supported, but not yet proved, with science. (Please see the posts on Nov. 5th for more information on the YBCR studies.)

My hypothesis – along with similar hypotheses of other scientists – is that infants are capable of learning the written language naturally in a way that is very similar to how babies learn the spoken language. If this is true, one would expect that infants would begin to figure out some patterns of the written language at the same time they are still learning individual words since this happens with spoken language. My daughters demonstrated they had learned some of these written language patterns by 12 months of age. I have tested many other babies at various ages and sometimes they show signs of having learned the patterns and sometimes they don’t. I believe it depends on many factors: the age at which the child began consistently seeing and hearing written language, how many words the child knows, which words the child knows, which words the child has seen and heard, the overall number of words seen and heard, what types of tests are used, the child’s mood at the moment of the test, the individual child, and many others. I intentionally included a wide variety of words in the YBCR program that made the initial learning sufficiently complex to make it possible for the babies to acquire these patterns. If, for example, the child only sees and hears three letter words in a consonant/vowel/consonant pattern such as ‘cat’, ‘red’, and ‘tap’, it would be nearly impossible to learn more complicated written language patterns.

I learned serendipitously that my older daughter was figuring out more than the individual words that I was teaching her when I accidentally held a word upside-down and she turned her head upside down to look at it. You may have had a similar experience already. If so, this is evidence that your baby/child has learned some general pattern of how words generally look. Please tell your stories here.

I developed tests to check if my younger daughter had learned these types of patterns.

Here are two ways of checking:

Test 1:

When you do this first test, it would be better if you show your child at least two or three words that are in the normal, upright orientations first, then show a word that is upside-down. Select a word that clearly looks unusual for an English word when it’s upside-down (for example, ‘bellybutton’, ‘kicking’, or ‘gorilla’). Many letters in English look like letters even when they are upside-down, so please don’t choose a word where the letters have vertical symmetry or where it still looks like a string of letters from our alphabet. Please don’t give your baby/child verbal or nonverbal cues that the word is upside-down. Just hold up the word like you would normally and observe your child’s response, then please write a few sentences and let us know what happened.

Test 2:

Hold up two “words” in front of your baby/child (for example, “ot” and “jumper”).
Please tell your child “First, look at both words. One of these words says ‘jumper’ and one word says ‘ot’.”
Next, say “Which word says ‘jumper’?” OR “Which word do you think says ‘jumper’?”
“Which word says ‘ot’?” OR “Which word do you think says ‘ot’?”
Babies may answer by looking, pointing, or reaching for a word, so try to keep the words an equal distance from your child.

Now, hold up two more “words” in front of your baby/child (for example, “newspaper” and “zat”). Please tell your child “First, look at both words.”
“Which word looks like it says ‘newspaper’?” OR “Which word do you think says ‘newspaper’?”
“Which word looks like it says ‘zat’? OR “Which word do you think says ‘zat’?”

Please do not do the first test frequently. It will be far better for your baby or child if most of your time is spent showing and saying words in an upright position. If your child shows no signs of having learned written patterns on the above tests, you may want to teach your child another 20 words, or so, before checking again.

It would be great if you could make a short video of your “test” the very first time you do it, then post the video here. It would also be helpful if you would state the number of written words your baby/child consistently reads and your child’s age.

It can be a very exciting time when you notice that your child has learned a pattern of the written language that you did not even attempt to specifically teach. This would help show that the babies have not only memorized the words, but they have started learning the patterns of the written language. It also would provide additional evidence that babies or toddlers can learn the written language in a way that is similar to how they learn the spoken language.

I am looking forward to hearing your comments about these patterns or watching your videos. Thanks so much for your interest in this extremely important topic.

Dr. Bob Titzer




Learning to Read Two- and Three-Word Phrases (Part 4 in a Series)

Dear Facebook Fans,

When babies learn to talk, they say their first individual words on average around 12 months of age. It generally takes another six months before the baby can say two or three words together. When young babies learn the written language, a similar pattern should be expected in that it is likely that babies will take many months after reading their first words before they are reading many two- or three-word phrases.

Even when young children can read many individual words, they are often overwhelmed when reading a large number of words in a sentence. It is helpful to provide a transition from reading individual words to reading long sentences and eventually books by having interim steps along the way, such as reading two- and three-word phrases. Initially, it is easier when you combine words with which the child is familiar for these phrases.

In the DVDs we have two-word couplets included in the first DVD so that your child will learn this concept and learn to read words from left-to-right. We include “arms up” and “arms down” as well as the word “arm.” We also include “look up” and “look down.” This should help their learning be more generalizable and help them learn to read new multiple-word phrases.

Write down some two- and three-word phrases as you are playing with your child. Many babies and toddlers enjoy playing matching games with words and objects. If you have cups that are red, blue, and yellow, you could write down: “red,” “blue,” “yellow,” and “cup” along with “red cup,” “blue cup,” and “yellow cup.” First, review the words a few times by saying the words as you point to them. For the color words, have many objects that are those colors. More specifically, say “red” as you point under the word from left-to-right, then quickly point out and talk about the red objects. Do the same for blue” and “yellow.” Next, play matching games where you ask your baby to place the words “red cup,” “blue cup,” and “yellow cup” by the respective cups. Do this with many different words and the corresponding objects.

Babies who watch our DVDs will see the words “wave” and “hand” making “wave your hand” a good choice for a three-word phrase. You could also use “clap your hands,” “kick your feet,” “touch your nose,” “tap one foot,” “touch one arm,” “wave two hands,” and other combinations of mostly familiar words. Have fun and act out each phrase. Encourage your baby to do the same.

When you are reading books that have many words on the same page, please realize that this is likely too many words for new readers. With these books, read the books for the love or joy of reading instead of using the book to help teach reading.

Find books that have only two or three words per page for babies who can read some words. (I think it is easier for the child to learn the first words when they are isolated.) Initially, point just below each individual word as you are reading them more slowly than usual. Once your child can read at least 50 words, slide your finger under the words as you say them more naturally. Next, teach your baby to point to the words while you are reading to your child. You can also take turns reading the words with your baby to help your child transition from reading individual words to short phrases.

Learning one area of language often helps the learning of other areas of language. Preschoolers will not likely take as long between reading their first words to reading short phrases because they can already talk. In the preschoolers’ cases knowing how to talk in phrases and sentences should help the child put words together more easily when reading. On the other hand, babies who are reading two- or three-word phrases may be able to say the words together earlier than if they did not have the written words to assist them.

Next week, I will be going to work at a baby show in London with one of my daughters. I generally meet many babies who can read on each day at these baby shows. I likely will do informal, fun tests with babies and toddlers to see if they have learned patterns of the written language. I hope you will continue to comment about how your baby responded to last week’s tests or how long it took your child to go from one milestone to the next. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Dr. Bob Titzer

She is  21 months old and is already playing around with where letters sit in words.  I'm not teaching her spelling, she is just playing and making words by herself.
 
I first noticed her try and spell her own name first. She was playing with the fridge magnets while I was busy doing the dishes, I happen to look down and notice she is being very careful about what letter she chooses and where they go. I look again and realise that she is trying to spell "Chloe" She had the Capital letters out and had "C" at the start then used the "I" on its side to look like a "H" then the "L" then the letter "Q" (o was missing that day) and then "G"
So really she spelt "CHLQG" so I guess you could say she isn't spelling (but is trying and this is only the start) I asked her what it said and she said "Chloe" with one clap of her hands to acknowledge she done well. I then helped her spell it correctly and we moved onto something else. Meanwhile I was like "did that really happen?"

Then maybe a week later she did the same sort of thing but with her dad this time. She was playing with the letters again and with a lot of concentration she began to lay the letter out in a line "P" "U" "G" Her Dad asked her what she was spelling and she looked up to him and signed "pig" Dad said you need to replace the u for an i, so off she went and found the letter i and came back to do it again. This time she placed the "g" first then the "i" then the "p". Dad didn't say anything and just watched her thinking about it for a few seconds before all by herself she picked up the "g" and the "p" and swapped them around. She then said in a very clear proud voice "pig" I think dad was in just as much shock as I was.

Today it happened again, she was playing with her alphabet puzzle and lined up some letters "stni" She looked at them and turned the n upside down into a "u" and placed it between the "t" and the "i" She then did the sign for Tui (our pet dog) and picked up the "s" and put it away on the shelf.

Ahhh how is she doing this? What should I do from here? She has done this three time now that I have noticed, I cant ignore it or brush it off any longer. She seems to do this when we least expect it. Has anyone else had their kid start spelling after learning to read from sight words? What did you do next? I guess just keep letting them have a chance to play with letters and keep seeing word might be enough for short term. I guess I really just didnt think I would have to start thinking about spelling before she was even two. kids are amazing!

Thanks Mela Bela for your advice (via facebook) about choose a word to spell each week, I will try and do that.

In New Zealand we have a early childhood and family education centres called Playcentre. I take my 21 month old child to it once or twice a week. Its different to preschool because its run by the parents.

Its all about empowering adults and children to work, play, learn and grow together. It values parents as the first and best educators of their children.

Playcentre offers a fantastic environment for children to learn through play in a mixed age environment with great adult to child ratios that enrich children’s learning. Playcentre provide half day learning sessions for children aged birth to school entry age, and parenting support and courses for their parents.
At Playcentre children choose from a wide variety of well resourced learning areas, work at their own pace, and are supported by trained parent-volunteers. There is usually one paid adult there each day that helps guide the parents with extending their children.

I think it might be quite a unique idea and really only found in New Zealand and Japan. Because of Playcentre I don't feel I need to take my child to Preschool any time soon. 

I like your idea of making a "roadmap" for early learning babies and toddlers but the problem your going to come across is that there is no right way or wrong way to go and every parent on here is taking a slightly different path to each other.
I think its a good idea to make your own roadmap/plan for your own child and be flexible enough along the road to adjust and go in a different direction when your child shows certain interests. 

Our path so far started like this
3m Your Baby Can Read
5m Started using Baby Sign Language
11m Little Reader
1yr  Math dots, Physical development
1.5yr Little Music
18-21m Start doing more Phonics, Science, spelling, maths on top of everything else
 
My roadmap/plan from here is to
Bring in Rightstart maths in a few months time
Introduce more of a Montessori structure to learning

[The First Milestone: Learning to Recognize the First Written Word]

I found this on the Your Baby Can Read Facebook page and think others on here will find these two post by Robert Titzer interesting.

http://www.facebook.com/YourBabyCanRead


Reading Milestones When Using Our Multi-Sensory Approach

Learning to Recognize the First Written Word
Learning to Read the First 50 Words
Recognizing Patterns of the Written Language
Reading Two- and Three-Word Phrases
Learning to Read around 200 Words
Learning Phonics
Reading Sentences
Reading a Book from Cover to Cover
Fast Reading
Independent Reading



The First Milestone: Learning to Recognize the First Written Word

The first word is probably the most difficult to learn whether it is receptive language (understanding), spoken language (talking), or written language (reading). The main idea is to allow your baby to learn the language with the eyes and the ears, instead of only with the ears.

In order to understand spoken language, we try to make the first words easier to differentiate by repeating them hundreds of times, and by slightly over-enunciating the words, since so many words in English sound very similar. The baby will go from using only the sound of the word to eventually being a higher level learner who uses contextual information in a sentence (including syntax and semantic cues) to determine which word was spoken. Some babies develop similar skills while learning the written language. Initially, they may use only the appearance of the written word. However, it is possible for the babies to learn patterns of the written language and to develop other strategies to determine the meanings of the words.

When initially teaching babies spoken words, we generally don’t start with words that sound alike. If we apply the same approach to learning the written language, then we want to make the first words easier to learn by repeating them hundreds of times and by selecting initial written words that are not too similar.

In order to teach your child the first word, I recommend consistently allowing your baby to see the language while hearing the language instead of only hearing the language. Just like it takes a newborn many months of hearing words before learning to understand them, it should take most young infants many months of seeing and hearing words before learning to recognize them. Older babies and preschoolers can often learn their first written words much more quickly.

I recommend starting with a fairly large number of words – at least 20 – so the child can also learn a general pattern of what English words look like while learning the first written word. One key is that the words should be seen with different frequencies. In the first YBCR DVD, some of the words are repeated much more frequently than other words in order to try to help the child learn the first word. These frequently repeated words -- for example: clap, wave, and mouth -- are also shown on our word cards and in books to increase the probably that the child will learn these high frequency words.

In the next post, I will provide numerous ways of helping your babies, toddlers, or preschoolers learn more written words while trying to reach the milestone of reading 50 words. In subsequent posts, I will go over each of the milestones mentioned above.

I look forward to sharing more information with you and hearing your stories about how your children are doing. Together, I hope we can help more families experience the joy of early literacy.

Dr. Bob Titzer




Dear Facebook Fans,

Learning to Read the First 50 Words

I first introduced the milestones for learning written language several years ago. I am hoping that these milestones will help more families experience the joys of early literacy. My intent with these posts is to help parents stay motivated throughout this experience and to offer suggestions to help babies, toddlers, and preschoolers achieve each milestone.

While the first written word is probably the single most difficult word to learn for babies, this milestone of learning to read 50 words may take the longest to achieve. With receptive language, it often takes babies around a year to acquire an understanding of 50 words. It generally takes even longer for the child to say 50 words. However, once a child can understand or say around 50 words, the child will likely learn new words at a much faster rate. This was once referred to as “fast mapping” indicating that the baby could acquire new words very quickly. There are newer theoretical explanations for why infants learn more words in less time, but the important point that I want to emphasize here is that your child may begin learning written words at a faster rate around this milestone. The next several milestones will likely happen in a matter of weeks or even days once your child consistently can read 50 words, so do what you can to help your baby learn these first written words.

Guidelines for Acquiring Early Literacy:

1) Make it multi-sensory. Allow your baby/child to see words at the same time as hearing the words.
2) Point to words from left-to-right as you say them.
3) Ideally, start as soon as your baby has visual tracking (or the ability to follow moving objects with the eyes). If your child is already older start at that age. Briefly, there is research showing that children who are taught to read at age 3 or 4 years, read better years later than children of the same IQ who are taught at age 5 or 6 years. Those taught at age 5 or 6 read better than children of the same IQ who are taught at age 7 or 8 (see studies by Durkin for more info.).
4) Start with large words for infants under 5 months of age and gradually reduce the size as the baby is a few months older. By 12 months of age, the size of the words is not very important as long as the words are big enough for you to see.
5) Isolate the words. While the size of the words isn’t so important for a 14-month-old, removing the “background noise” or distractions is very important. Initially, show one word at a time with minimal auditory or visual distractions in the background.
6) Use parentese when saying the words to infants. Parentese is using a higher pitched voice and slightly elongating the vowel sounds. Initially, over-enunciate to make sure that your baby can differentiate similar sounding words.
7) Use lowercase letters the vast majority of the time, but follow capitalization rules. In English, almost every book (except for many baby books) is printed in lowercase letters and follows capitalization rules. Since you want your child to read at fast speeds in the future under these conditions, the early practice should be mostly with lowercase letters.
Add the meanings of the words most of the time. For babies under 6 months of age, add meanings of the words almost every time by showing the objects, body parts, or actions that demonstrate the meanings immediately after showing and saying the words. Adding the meanings becomes less important over time. For children who understand the meanings of all of the words, you can still show the meanings some of the time. However, you can show and say more words in less time without adding the meanings, so this doesn’t need to be done every time.
9) Vary the fonts, colors, background colors, font size, materials the words are on, order of presentation of the words, time of day, locations where the words are shown, and even the person showing the words. For example, mostly use black on white words or other high contrast color combinations for young babies. Later, vary the color combinations and use numerous combinations with numerous fonts. Mostly use fonts that are frequently used in children’s literature.
10) Make the learning interactive. Ask your child to look at words, point to words say the words, move words, match words and corresponding objects, place objects next to the appropriate words, answer questions by doing actions, jump on words, run to words, find words, etc.
11) Have fun! If you are enjoying yourself, your baby or child is probably going to have more fun too.
12) Make it easy for you. Put stacks of words in different rooms of your home, in the car, in the stroller, and wherever it will make it more convenient for you. Keep a whiteboard or notebook nearby and write down words while you are playing with your baby. The notebook works great because you can review words that you have already printed. When you are tired, put in a YBCR DVD and interact with the video by saying every word as soon as it comes on the screen and by answering the questions in the videos. This will provide a good demonstration for your baby. If you are on the phone, on your laptop, or otherwise busy, put on a YBCR DVD and let your baby watch while you quietly talk on the phone, read, etc. (while you observe your baby). You will have more energy after taking this short break and you will likely make more of your precious time with your baby.
13) Allow family members and friends to show your baby words. Your baby will benefit by having different teachers along with different teaching styles. Even if your friends or family members don’t show the words exactly like you may want, it will be great for you and your child.
14) Vary how you show words. There are studies showing that infants’ learning generalizes more easily if they have many different experiences instead of only the same experience repeated over and over. Most of the time, you will be doing teaching activities and saying the words as you point from left to right, then acting out the meanings. Some of the time, you can play “fast word games” that I will explain in future posts. Occasionally, do recognition or recall activities. Show words on whiteboards, on hand printed word cards, in books (when there are only a few words per page), on TV and computer screens (as long as your baby isn’t too close to the screen it shouldn’t be harmful – the content may be harmful in many cases, but I am talking about showing large words not entertainment-based shows), with individual magnetic letters on your refrigerator, with foam letters in the tub, using sticks in the sand or dirt, and numerous other ways.
15) Make it natural for your baby to see words at the same time as hearing words throughout the day by writing down words that are related to what you and your baby are doing. Get in a habit of writing down key words throughout the day and pointing to words as say them. Do this even if it is only for a few seconds here and there. The main idea is for your baby to acquire the written language naturally in a way that is similar to how your baby acquires the spoken language. To do this, simply add the written language to what you are already doing. If you are not with your baby for most of the day, then do what you can to select someone to care for your baby who will want to help your baby learn and show your baby words, if possible. In a few cases, loaning the daycare provider a YBCR DVD could make a difference.
16) Be creative. Play games with your baby with written (and spoken) words. Make variations of your games and make the games more challenging as your child’s skills improve. Play matching games with words and objects, sorting games with written words, physical games with words, object naming games, Bingo, etc. Add words to simple games or activities that you and your child enjoy. Add written words to the activities that you do frequently.
17) Make sure your child understands the difference between the word and what the word represents. In other words, sometimes you might say, “This is the word ‘arm’ -- this is ‘your arm’ -- and this is ‘my arm’.” while you are pointing to or touching the word, your baby’s arm, and your arm, respectively. Later, you could ask your child, “Where is the word ‘arm”? Where is my arm? Where is your arm?” In addition, you could also use a photo and say something such as, “This is the word ‘elbow’, this is your elbow, this is my elbow, and this is a picture of a child’s elbow.” while pointing to or touching each of these. Ask questions to see if your child can point to the photo of child’s elbow, the word ‘elbow’, and each person’s actual elbow.
18) Understand the difference between recognition and recall activities. It will be easier to answer recognition questions than recall questions, so start with recognition activities. A multiple choice test is a recognition activity. One has to recognize the correct answer and not recall it. An open-ended question would be a recall activity. Recognition questions give your child some options from which to select the answer(s). For example, say “Find the word ‘baby’!” while the word ‘baby’ and one or more other words are placed in front of your child. A recall activity be asking your baby, “What does this say?” while holding up a word. Do recognition activities most of the time until your child consistently selects the correct responses, then gradually transition to some recall activities for those words. When you introduce new words, start with recognition questions again.

Thanks again for all of your very generous and kind comments. I genuinely appreciate all of you and your efforts in helping your babies learn. Together, we will eventually change the way many people view this important topic.

Thanks and good luck helping your children move along the path to the next milestone.

Dr. Bob Titzer

I love how I got woken up yesterday, only in a EL home all right.
We normally do LR or LM while having breakfast in the morning, yesterday my 20 month old tried to wake me up by saying "words, words....., wake up mum, words"
Love it!!

At 18 months I posted that my daughter was having a verbal explosion and new word were just flying out of her mouth each day. It was a mixture of signs and words. Now at 20 months old she is still signing a lot and talking and reading!!.

The other night while I was putting her to bed she pretty much read the first two pages of  'The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by herself. She did  find the little words hard eg "of, the, and" but said the bigger words beautifully. So the next morning I tried to capture the magic again on video (see the link below) but her voice is very quiet and a bit hard to hear, but you can still see her signing words eg warm, egg, caterpillar etc.

My challenge now is to keep the signing going and not let its completely drop off and be forgotten. I want to keep teaching her to finger spell the alphabet, I want to keep introducing New Zealand Sign Language into her tool box as a second language and I will keep trying to sign while reading books and I will keep posting here and let you know how we are getting on.

 http://youtu.be/soqk7ysJrrQ

I'm the same with my child, she is 20m old and knows a lot but not all of the alphabet names and sounds. I've have just started to show her Reading Bear now and again. I dont think it really matters if they dont know all the letter names or sounds before they start. I think its just more important to mix it up and keep it fun.

Okay, so I LOVE the program so far....except.... sorry to be probably the ONLY negative commenter on here about it, but I HAVE to say something about one teeny tiny thing.  See if this sounds familiar:  "f--a--t.....fat..... The man is very fat....." along with not one, but TWO pictures of fat men's bellies...with NO SHIRT ON.....one side view with his gut hanging down over his belt and one front view...a video of him rubbing his fat gut and jiggling it ever so gently.  First of alll.....UGGGH !  Seriously, WHO wants to see THAT!?  Second of all, we teach our children that it is not nice to call people f--a---t!  Yes, the fact is...some people are....BUT.....still.....it is not OKAY to SAY SO.  !  You really couldn't find a fat cat or a fat elephant, pot-bellied pig, or even a fat dog?  The dog is very fat.  The pot-bellied pig is very fat.  The elephant is very fat.The CAT IS VERY FAT?  See?  Simple.  Okay..... I am done.  Going back to view the rest of the samples.  Maybe we will just skip over f--a--t for now.  LOL!

I just want to add that I don't mind that there is a picture of a FAT Belly on there at all. I did think to myself "ha, I've never seen that in a children's program before" but I don't think it has to be removed and replaced.
I suppose this is the difference between a free on-line resource made from the love of reading rather than a mass produced product where they have to take anything out that could possible offend people other wise people wouldn't buy the product. Its just one example of FAT and you skip past it fast enough that I don't see it as a problem.
It did make me think "oh what else will I come across on here" and i guess that's a good thing cos it keeps us on our toes more when we are showing our children things on the internet for the fist time.

I do a bit of everything, I have tried to make a scrap book for my child's first year, its ok but it was more time consuming than I thought it would be and doesn't even look that good. So then I decided to make a online photoshop book. The book is all ready to print but I just havnt got around to paying for it yet.
I do print photos still cos I like to cut them up and make homemade books out of them and things like that. I also have a private side page on my facebook where I invite certain friends of mine and upload photos of my daughter all the time.
I should go through and delete photos off my hard drive and just save the best but there are so many, but for now I just store them in age files eg 0-3months, 4-7months, etc

[Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs by Ellen Galinsky]

Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs by Ellen Galinsky

Has anyone read this book?

It says its research-based advice for parents on how to raise their children to be well rounded and achieve their full potential. Does anyone know if any research they are talking about was done on Babies learning to read?

I havnt read it, but I think it would be quite interesting

Facebook does keep changing their rules on privacy, so it does pay to check now and again i think

To be a member means you can write and post on the page and get sent notifications when some posts something cool.
Becoming a member wont expose any more of your page/life than you already allow it to. Check your facebook Privacy settings to see how much you choose to share.
Its best to just have everything on "friends setting" I think

yay!