For me it all started with disbelief: WHY TEACH INFANTS TO READ? Then there an article about various teaching methods, mentioning Glenn Doman’s “Teach Your Baby To Read”. This article claimed that the method relied purely on visual stimulation, dry and boring, that was too limited for a good “all around” development. Now I realize that the author of the article has never read any of the Doman’s books – things mentioned in the article had nothing to do with his method. Back then I decided to search for a better method of teaching my baby, or relying to old fashioned alphabet methods: I learned to read letter by letter, everybody I know learned to read letter by letter, so why bother with some strange flash cards? But! But I requested the book from the library anyway.

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Al right, let’s assume (or pretend if you wish) you’ve read Glenn Doman & Janet Doman, How To Teach Your Baby to Read (from now on shortened as GD) and reviewed our Summary of the book’s guidelines. Or may be you enjoyed Laurie Tiemen’s really brief summary at eHow: How to Teach Your Baby to Read (Doman’s method in a nutshell). Since you are reading this article, you are highly motivated, eager to start, though a little confused and lacking resources. That’s where I hope to help you.

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It seems that there are as many ways to teach a child to read, as there are children: some learn by phonics, some by whole words; some have special books, some have special letter magnets, some have syllable blocks, some have flash cards; some do it with their parents, some learn in school, some might even learn all by themselves! So, which method to chose? Which one is the best?

I think it depends on a child, I think it depends on a parent. I’ve heard opposing views for every single method. So, select the one that appeals to you and your child the most:

• Glenn Doman, whole word cards: brief summary & jump start teaching to read and FAQ, or if you are looking for some materials, proceed to the PowerPoint presentations: Word/Phrases/Sentences cards, or Books, or even Encyclopedic Knowledge Books.
• Phonics
• Combination of Doman and Phonics methods
• Methods applicable to teaching to read in Russian
• Teach Your Child with Multimedia: educational dvds, toys, websites, etc

You can read my personal reasons for selecting a particular reading method or see comments below for other paren’ts experiences, and please share your own!

Thanks to Krista (the creator of MonkiSee DVD series) for sharing her own road to success: How did I teach my kids to read.

Thanks to Laurie (the moderator of TeachYourBabyToRead) for sharing her own approach and ideas: Teaching kids to read with written conversations

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For many kids (and their parents!) computer based “flash cards” work the best. The easiest way to show them is using Power Point Presentation. This program allows to setup sideshow, adjust timings between the slides, easily add sound effects, etc. You can dowload existing presentations and see our recomendations on how to use them , or create your own ones. So, here are a few tips for those who are new to this process.

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Children have a remarkable ability to pick up as many languages as you introduce to them. For adults – it is a painful and lengthy process. So, here are tips and methods for you to try to give them this gift of knowledge without much effort on their part!

• How to teach your child… Foreign Language with Doman Method
• How to teach your kids Foreign Languages – Lisa Mirman’s recommendations
• Teaching 4 languages and My Experience – Thanks to Teresa!
• Teaching your kids with multimedia: find web, dvds, and other resources that can help you!
• Teaching Spanish Resources
• Teaching German Resources
• Teaching Russian Resources

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Maisy is finally back from his vacation in Barcelona (if you are not familiar with our little traveler, read more at Maisy is going to Barcelona, Spain)! And, looking at his pictures, we can see that it surely was something remarkable. Thanks to our truly amazing neighbor, Maisy and us learned a lot about Barcelona! My son came up with all kinds of questions about things he wanted to learn about, and here is what we found out from Maisy’s diary:

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Are you pregnant? Did you just have a baby? Congratulations! That’s a great news!!!

I think that becoming a mother (or a father) immediately places you in some kind of sainthood. It’s extraordinary…

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