Reading Programs for Babies

Babies don't need reading programs. When she is somewhere in the 4 to 5 year range, explore it. Otherwise, enrich her enviornment, read to her, talk to her, play with her, feed her and love her. You cannot jump start her development and make her any smarter than she will be otherwise, and if you play around with development, you might just make her less so. Let her development go the way it has been layed out in her brain already.
Learn about the devlopmental milestones and know that they happen the way they happen for a reason.

M.

There have been lots of posts about Your Baby Can Read on here. It's a total waste and a scam. A friend of mine bought it (I thought she was crazy anyway because her son was 4 months old) but she found out what a waste it was almost right away. It encourages you to sit your baby in front of a tv to sight-learn words. It doesn't teach anybody to read phonetically.

Your baby is so young. Enjoy her! Read to her! Talk to her! And she will learn to read just like everybody else does. Let her enjoy being a baby and toddler. The time goes so fast.

No program needed. Just read to her all of the time. We even played books on CD or our daughter.

It seems like you are really jumping the gun. I would recommend the Read-Aloud Handbook. I bet the reviews on amazon. com will convince you it's a good choice. Reading aloud to your children is the best thing you can do for kids to help them be good readers. If you want to go about it religiously, read the bible to her. The book has other ideas and things you can do.

She is too young.
Read TO her.

Keep activities age-appropriate.... developmentally.

A 3 month old does not even have an attention span, much less ability to sit there and follow words. Their vision is not even fully developed yet, and/or for colors.
And also, their eye-coordination, is not fully developed yet. She will simply not be able to follow along as you point out each word as you read to her or expect her to 'read.'

"Homeschooling" her, at this age... is jumping the gun.

Babies learn by 'playing' and exploring... but she is still very young. Even their motor skills are not developed yet, nor is she sitting up on her own yet, at this age.
And, I don't think you want her to be 'watching' tv yet, per video learning programs.

all the best,
Susan

Someone just asked on here 2 days ago about the same thing. The question was "anyone use my baby can read?". If you can find it (dated 8/23), I would read the responses to that. My mom read to me as a kid and I learned to read just fine. Now I read to my 3-year-old daughter at nap time and bed time and everyone will tell you that this is the best thing you can do, and really the only thing you need to do. That, and just love them and enjoy the time you spend with them.

Kids will learn to read when they're ready. Pushing them to do it before then is a waste of time that you could've spent playing with them...which btw is the way they learn things at 3 months old. Let your baby be a baby!
My son couldn't read at all going into kindergarten and within weeks was reading fine (b/c he was READY) and now in 2nd grade he reads on a 4th/5th grade level. Some kids aren't ready until much later and forcing them to do it b/c NOW is when you decide he/she is ready will only make it much harder and much more of a struggle.
Play with your daughter and she'll learn to read when she wants to.

Stay away from videos/dvds until your child is 2. They are too young to understand what is happening on the screen and it blunts creativity and imagination.

The most important thing you can do is read your to baby. The absolutely most essential thing, however, is to talk to her --all the time.

Mom, I teach young children and definitely would hold off for a few yrs. When she is preschool age there is the Abeka curricululm that has a Christian theme, you may want to look into it for homeschooling, but know she is yrs away from reading. Children's brains are not even fully developed until age 3. You may want to search this web-site for info for previous posts on this subject especially the "My Baby Can Read" pgm and save your $ for her college fund instead. You are much better off spending lots of time with her,personally interacting with smiles, talking to her, planty of reading to her at this age and as she grows,and cuddles, not to mention acknowledging and responding to her sounds and babbles when she begins to talk. This will encourage her to speak when it is time. Good luck.

The single most important thing you can do to teach your child to read is just to read to her. All those programs meant to "teach" your child to read are a scam. Interaction with live human beings is what she needs now, not TV programs. If at all possible, keep her TV free until age two, and read and sing to her every day.

At 3 months, she's not old enough to pay attention to any but the simplest baby books. Babies are particularly interested in faces, so get some of those books that just show faces: different emotions, babies doing different things. Also get those fabric/texture books for her to explore. More important right now is for you to sing to her. Dr. Seuss is also good, because he has such a sing-song quality.

If you expose her to books early on, she'll pick up the reading on her own as she gets older.

I don't know where you are located, but you can go to the FEAST website and get in touch with people who can recommend different curriculum. I think 3 months is a little early to start picking any out yet. There are also books you can read about choosing the right curriculum for your family. I plan to homeschool as well and my daughter is only 21 months. I have just started her on stuff from Lakeshore Learning. I don't do the age appropriate stuff, I always go a step ahead and she always catches on. I think just reading her books at this point is sufficient. She will get a lot of stimulation looking at the pictures and words as you read the books.

A.C.E. is Christian oriented. I started sign language when my son was 6 months. I started with one word until he got it and then with another and I gradually added more words as he got older. It helps with the frustations of him trying to tell me what he wants when he didnt know how to talk yet. I started out with "milk" as sign language when he wanted his bottle. I held the bottle up to him when he was hungry and I would sign language "milk". Then when he got a sippy cup I signed "drink". Then hungry, then water, and just small little things that helped us understand each other until he was able to tell me what he wanted with words. He is now 2 and will be 3 in Oct. Now we are learning to go potty. But we dont have to sign that one!! Good luck what ever your choice may be!! and congrats on your little girl!

Preschool Prep DVDs are great. They are good for infant through preschool/kindergarten for teaching colors, shapes, abcs, numbers, and sight words.

Here are some tips and more details at the link below on reading and babies:
http://blogs.goddardsystems.com/Cedar-Park-TX/2010/01/31/...

It is generally agreed among educators that one of the best things adults can do for their children is to read to them.

Parent Tips:

* During early infancy, reading helps babies build neural pathways that will eventually provide language development and acquisition.
* Reading aloud to children encourages association with happiness, love and enjoyment. All of this can lead to children’s greater interest in reading and can result in larger vocabularies and better literary skills.