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......

I teach at a university in the education department.

These kinds of programs and these kinds of claims are nothing but detrimental to the development of your child and nothing but a big waste of money.

The best way to develop a life-long love of reading in your child is to read, read, read to him/her as much as possible and to give your child an environment very rich in print material, books, magazines, newspapers.

You can provide your child with many books in the home very inexpensively by going to garage sales and thrift shops for 10 cent or 25 cent books. Take you child to the library often and let her/him pick out several books at a time to take home and enjoy.

Read, read, read, read to your child. And make sure your child observes you reading for pleasure also!

My 3 year old grandaughter can count, knows colors and letters all because of Leapfrog and Sesame Street. We read to her quite a lot, and she likes us to move our finger along the words as we read. She knows some words by sight already. I don't think the My Baby Can Read stuff is such a good thing, at least I don't think it's necessary.

I agree with oatw13. Kids read when ready and how early they start doesn't seem to have an effect on how much they like to read. Out of my four children, the son that was the slowest to learn to read (he left first grade not reading well) tested as reading at the first year of college level by the end of fifth grade.

Read to him a lot, make sure he knows his alphabet. Once he really does, move into sounding out simple words. He'll get there - every kid does.

And make library visits a big treat so he learns to love books. I read constantly and all four of my kids do too.

The name of the game is PHONICS. It has been taught to many of America's most famous people of history. And mostly at home by busy, tired mothers.
Not the method of the year that is being taught and loses the kids' interest in a short time.

I used a book called "Why Johnny Can't Read" which had lots of words to teach and how to teach them. My son could read newspapers at age 4.

Start with writing out lots of AT words and let him put whatever letter he chooses in front of them. That way he will start easily.
For instance, take just plain AT

AT can be RAT
AT and be chased by a CAT
AT which has a HAT
AT and can be hit with a BAT
AT but could not be caught because he SAT

and that went on longer than my own length of concentration.
Families that read will raise kids more likely to read themselves, since they see others they admire doing this.
Learning to read is the basis of all education.

And if possible get a bunch of books called McGruffrey's Readers. They don't bore the kids with all the "Look at Spot" stuff that irritated my own kids, one of whom is now a teacher herself.

Dr Seuse. No Pat, no! Don't sit on that!

And do NOT take to heart any way of teaching that you feel that is not to the child's best interests.

Nothing will replace a parent's influence. Be especially careful with anyone who pushes an expensive whatever, they are mostly out for the money. Teaching a kid to read easy books is nice and fun.
Check out the old fashioned ones by Dr. Seuess. All his books are fun to listen to and finally read by himself. Then it's off to the Bobbsey Twins and then to The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.
Contrary to what the "Experts" say, most kids do not want to read about other kids just like themselves. They want the magic of seeing and hearing about other kids who overcome great odds and win. Check out the Harry Potter books..lots and lots of publishers refused them on the grounds that they were too long, had too many hard words, were not like most kids lived, and whatever else some of their experts could come up with. I'll bet that lots of heads rolled when it was proved that little kids loved them. And adults, me included.

Save your money. This program basically teaches memorization and not real reading skills. Most kids who work through these memorization type programs have no idea how to take apart a word they have never seen before. I work with K through 4th graders and I can tell you that the best thing to do to teach your son to read is to read with him. You want engaging picture books. Have him tell you about the story as you read. Show him how to track the print with his finger. Have him predict what he thinks will happen next. Since he knows his letters, work on associating the sound with the letter. Since you already have the Leap system, he may already know some of them. Play rhyming games with him. Play sound deletion games with him (say cat, say cat without the c sound (at)). Play sound substitution games with him (say cat, change the c sound to an m sound (mat)). Make reading fun, never a chore.

I have to comment... I'm a teacher and a mom. My kids could both read/write before they started school. I read and read and read to them, usually 10-14 picture books a night for 30-45 minutes. They memorized favorite long books at age three--just from us reading them so often. Then I brought home an old Dick and Jane book--kind of a thicker one. My son was four and was so darned excited to read it to me in one night--took us a while, but he would not have stopped for anything. :lol: My daughter did the same when she was ready. The Dick and Janes give them the confidence they need to move onto other simple titles--just choose the ones they are reading carefully so their confidence soars and read, read, read to them for years and years and years.

:wink:

Some great advice here...save your money and like the majority have said...read, read, read....Make books an adventure, make shopping an adventure (lots of signs and numbers to read), even playing eye spy (I see a car...car starts with the letter "c" etc. etc.). I could read at age 4, and we didn't have any "special programmes, or TV".

I am a Nurse Home Visitor with the Nurse Family Partnership and we tell our young mothers that the time they spend reading to their child and talking to them about what they are doing with and for them throughout the day is much more helpful to the childs development than a purchased program. They not only learn about taking turns (as in a conversation), but also develop socially. That is not supported by being placed in front of a video with no human interaction.

I have done home education (23 yrs) with my children and we used Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Chi.../dp/0671631985
Some children read at three. I also own many other programs but come back to this. Just go at a very easy pace. Some of my children came out of hard circumstances, had nutritional depravation and institutional retardation (severe neglect). Now they are doing well and are in college. I also read to them all the time. Don't be scared to read on a higher level to them. Have you considered joining a home education group? Many people are not into pushing their children but want to slowely expose their child(ren) because the child shows interest.

I read to my daughter constantly. At about 3 yrs of age she asked what a "Chirpo - Practor " was. I tried to explaine and correct her, but she was insistant I was wrong it was Chirpo Practor. I finally gave up and went with her 3 year mindset and told her it was doctor that fixes up sick birds. She was happy and accepted my explanation.
So they do absorb in their own way and time.