I enjoyed your reading your post. Like you, I've always encouraged my 9 year old daughter to read. She just completed 4th grade. Even before she turned one, I started working with her and hoping that she will eventually enjoy reading and I got frustrated at times that she didn't have a lot of interest. I continued reading to her at night until she was 7 or 8 years old. She sees me reading too than watching tv. She always excel in her class too and I know she can do much better. At her magnet school, the new principal started giving students' incentives if they reach their AR goal. In her class, all students had a goal of 30 points. They are to read books to reach their goal. As soon as they earn points, the teacher will post their points on the board for everyone to see. My daughter and another student competed for these points. Lo and behold, that has changed overnight. In the first 2 quarters in 4th grade, she finished all 7 Harry Potter Books (with each carry about 30 or so points). She was determined that nobody will beat her as far as points. On the 3rd quarter, her teacher raised her goal to 100 points. She started reading books that carry a lot of points like Eragon series, Fablehaven, etc. At the end of the schoolyear, she beat the 5th graders and had the highest # of AR points in the whole school - she read over 3.5 million words and 48 books for the whole year. She just recently finished her 2nd Twilight book which we picked up from a yard sale. I thought the incentive system has worked for these students. I am so glad that she turned around and started to really enjoy reading. It may sound like bribe, but we started giving her two bucks for each book (that has at least 200 pages) she finishes that goes in to her savings account or for her to buy anything she wants when we go shopping. As parents, we have to be creative and unfortunately in this day and age, they don't work without incentives....hope your son will have a change in her attitude towards reading....Just be patient. I think we overteach, overparent that our children will likely resent.

So now your baby is beginning to sit up. Babies are more aware of you and all of the things around them. Even TV is an attraction that can have your baby captivated. So the question we ask is, "...should we start teaching our babies things like reading and spelling?.." As far as we have seen teaching a baby early on in life can only be beneficial for them when they begin school. Whether you're baby will be going to nursery school or kindergarten, having that edge of being able to read early is a benefit. Most children born before the 1980's didn't have access to all of the learning tools . It's not that parents didn't care about it, alot of households had 2 parents working(as they do now) and it was difficult for alot of parents to spend enough time with their child. Or to have the type of tools that could really benefit the working parents of yesteryear. But things have certainly changed. There are many tools now available to increase cognitive skills and teach learning abilities for young children and babies.

Child development organizations have done alot of research and testing on several types of tools, toys, books, audio etc. that help teach our babies to learn easier. Some people believe that teaching children to read early may do more harm than good because they're cognitively not ready. It's believed that this could put too much pressure on the child. However this assumption is incorrect. By teaching your child to read early on would actually save them from the anxiety and/or overwhelming stress of new learning once they reach school age. They've also found that even while the baby is still in the womb, using audio has it's beneficial effects. It's benefits are a step up in the right direction. If a parent waits for their child to learn to read once they start school, the pressures of that alone could cause undue stress to a child, even a very young child. I was amazed when I saw little toddlers, 27 months old reading. I noticed that the way the words were written, with large letters and pictures that represent what the child was reading.

I also noticed how the parent would point under each word and the child would say the word. Then the parent would show the picture and read what the child had just read. Of course the parent would read back what the child just read using all of the noted expressions. Today with technology learning is much better than the old "writing on the chalkboard" way. It seems to be much more easily received by children.
Even using Flash-Cards seems to be useful for teaching words to babies. An article I read where a parent has been using flash-cards(twice daily) with her baby starting at 4 months old. She would introduce a new word when she noticed her baby getting board with an old word. The new structure of the word would get the babies attention long enough for the parent to repeat it a few times. With each day of doing this the baby learns to recognize the words and will make every attempt to start repeating those words shown.

Amazing! So I guess with technology on the increase, learning has definitely gotten better. I believe using any means of positive teaching should be the base for teaching our children. We as parents know our children will need their education and learning abilities to carry them on through their lives. Shouldn't we give our children the best teachings we can to enhance their abilities for greater and further success in life? After all...they are our true assets for overseeing the future. For more information about teaching babies how to develop their learning and cognitive skills check out this blogsite I stumbled upon.
THe Babytree2 at: THe Baby Tree 2

I'm so thankful for the local Library Book Mobile coming in our community every Wednesday including summer. We read, read, read even near the swimming pool!
Have a nice summer!

I used opposite tactics with my first and second borns. With my oldest child, I read the same picture books over and over until she memorized them. favorite from this period is Sam and the Tigers, by Julius Lester. Reading came easy for her without formal instruction. She learned to read at 4 or so, and has been a voracious reader ever since. My second born learned to listen to long books from a young age, including the unabridged version of The Wizard of Oz, and The Chronicles of Narnia. I homeschooled him from the beginning, and tried letters of the day, letter hunts, and various phonics exercises to teach him to read. He wasn't interested either, and ultimately what worked for him was buying him his own Bible, and insisting he read a chapter book in the 2nd grade. He is 16 now, and a avid reader, comfortable with reading difficult classics, like The Count of Monte Cristo, and he loves comic books.