My Baby Can Read - Month 1

Ok, so I was planning to do a weekly update on this but as you can see that didn't happen.  Life got busy and as I started thinking about it, a weekly update would have been over kill.

Month 1

When I posted about this I found out that some people had VERY strong opinions on this both positive and negative.  It caught me a little off guard but made me feel like blogging through our experience with my baby can read would be helpful for other parents out there.  So Month 1 we did this:

The program outline recommended watching the video 1-2 times a day.  We only watched it once a day.  Then there were also Flash cards and a Book that went with it.

Video - We were very faithful in watching this almost every day (I think we missed 1 day).  I tried to watch it with her but sometimes I just put it in for her to watch.

• Observations - Maddie loved the video.  It was about 20 minutes long and she was excited every day to watch this.  As a mom I was glad to see her excited about something that would help her learn.  She loved seeing the other kids on the video and loves animals so that got her excited too!

Flash Cards - We tried to do these a couple times a week but it depended on how busy I was.  This was something I had to do with her because I didn't want her to tear them up.

• Observations - Maddie really liked these too!  They slide open and she might have been more interested in pulling it open than actually looking at the word.

Book - I did this the least probably.  She liked it but again it was one that I did with her.  It has flaps that go up or down and if you've been around kids at all you know how they love to rip those off. 

• Observations - She enjoyed the book too but probably the least of the 3.  Sometimes we would start and finish later because she got distracted.  This was a good time to ask her questions to make sure she was getting what the words meant.

Progress Report:

• When we started I thought she might be saying dog but wasn't sure.  She would also say things that sounded like words (ex. mama, dada) but wasn't sure she knew what they meant.
• After a month she has started speaking MUCH more.  I think the repetitiveness helped her a lot.  She saw it on video, flashcards and book plus I made an effort to specifically point out those words when we saw them in public.  
• She has learned several new words.  Our favorite phrase was "Arms Up" and we would say it a lot to her.  She learned that in a couple days.  She's also starting to learn different body parts (eyes, arms, nose, mouth).  At the end I was working with her on things like "where is Maddie's nose?" and "can you open your mouth?"  Those are still a little shaky but I am hoping she will get better this next month.
• I was able to recognize several words that she already knew that I was unaware of.  I would say "clap" and "wave" but wasn't sure if she knew the words or just mimicked me.  When they would say "Can you wave?" on the video she would.  This was neat to see and reassuring for me as a mom.
• She's talking more in general.  She doesn't make sense most of the time but she's at least trying to verbalize things.

My hope for the next month is that she will start using words to express what she wants.  Specifically - milk, up, down, etc.

That's month 1.  I will update you again next month and again, if you have questions, let me know!