My husband and I are looking into buying the my baby can read program for our son. He just turned 4 so he is a little late in starting the program but because of his late birthday he wont be starting kindergarten until he is almost 6. My husband's friend at work bought this and he swears that his 16 month old can read and that it really works. He is a single dad with full custody of his son. Other than him I haven't heard of anyone else using this. So anyone else out there given this a try? Is it worth the 200 bucks?

I'm a nanny, and the family I work for has this program. It's great, but the 4year old got bored of watching the same thing over and over (repetition is one of the tools used in learning the words) and the 9month old's interest wasn't held for more than 5 minutes. I believe it can be fun and help some children, but it's not for everybody. Maybe if you incorporate it into your routine... everyday after breakfast we watch it... or something like that it would be more effective.

It did help the 4year old learn some new words when she actually wanted to watch it. So I believe it's effective, if you can get your child to sit down and really consistently work with the DVDs.

Alright, there's my 2 cents. We ended up giving up on this, but I think it works for some situations.

Hi!
You can find fun programs at Walmart on DVD. In particular the Leap Frog ones. Also besure to sit and read to him. A strong phonics approach might seem more work in the beginning but it will pay off in the long run.
Anna

Thanks for the input. That's kind of what I was afraid of. Seems like it would take a lot to get any kid to really pay attention to it.

Just recently there was a news segment about this program.
The guy who wrote and sells the program has no educational background. He just wants to make money. If you read to your child they will learn as you go along. Time with your child is more important than setting them in front of TV.

Rest assured, your child will learn to read when he is ready. Sit down and read with him. Quality time spent with you will be far more valuable than anything he gets from a DVD.

Look into some of the Hooked on Phonics programs. Some kids really get phonics and it helps them learn to read. Our library carries a lot of these, so you could try them for free if your library has them, too.

Teach him the alphabet if he doesn't already know it. Teach him to write the letters and to write his name. The reading will come in good time. :)

READ to him....daily and often. I could read very early and it was just from being read to (sic), I then read everything I could find. Always have.

Thanks for the advice. We do have the leapfrog tag. He loves it. We have a lot of fun with it. He knows his alphabet and can recognize all the letters separately. I am a stay at home mom and he is our only child so needless to say he gets tons and tons of attention. We are probably one of the few families that don't have a tv subscription. We cannot get local television. He does get to watch the occasional movie but that's it. Thanks for all the suggestions. Kind of what I was already thinking. But the hubby gets a kick out of all sorts of things. And he thought if it worked we might as well do it and help our son as much as we can.

The makers of such things prey on parents goal to outdo other parents.
"My child was walking at 6 weeks reading at 6 months."

Save your 200 dollars and hit up a book fair/book store in your area for Christmas gifts!

I think any of the programs take ALOT of parent/adult interaction to keep their interest.. and u can pretty much do it without a $200 investment.

thats what I learned......