Teaching Our Toddler To Read Part 3

By Dad

Today we have posted a video of our 20 month old Daughter reading. Can you believe there were people out there thinking we had made all of this up? Tut Tut.

Here is a video of us shamelessly bribing our daughter (with sweets) to read for the video camera. This was shot a few weeks back when she was between 19 and 20 months old. The pronunciation isn't fantastic, I mean she's not even 2 years old until the end of Summer but you get the drift. The only word she pronounces way off is 'nose' which she pronounces 'Om'.

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Teaching our toddler to read part 2

By Dad

A couple of weeks ago we tried a little experiment to teach our toddler to read. We were astounded by the results, so have decided to follow through and it looks like she is going to be reading before she is 2 years old. We continue to outline our methods and results and hope other parents will help us refine the techniques.

During the first week Amélie had learned to recognise about 5 words. We can't believe how much progress she has made since then. We play the game about 4 times a day and add an average of 1 word per day. She is now up to 17 words, and would typically get all 17 correct but 2 or 3 answers would be second attempts. By second attempts I mean she reads incorrectly and we ask her again and she gets it correct.

During the first 10 days she didn't always want to play. We started giving her a grape after each game which made her much more enthusiastic. She still has a lot of Easter eggs left, so we broke one up and gave her a little bit after each game. Obviously this was a dumb move on our behalf as the grapes don't do it for her anymore!

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Teaching our 18 month old toddler to read

By Dad

We thought it would be another couple of years at least until our daughter would begin her journey to reading. After a silly experiment we never expected to work it looks like she could already be on her way.

We have started a little experiment teaching our 18 month old daughter to read, and have no idea how it's going to turn out. As I write this article we are a week into the experiment, and are amazed at the results so far. If any of you think there is any value in following along and adding your own ideas and experiences it would be interesting to get your feedback.

We imagine a lot of parents would have already tried similar experiments themselves. It's bound to have occurred to a good percentage of people so if you have done this in the past get in touch and let us know what works and what doesn't.

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Choosing Baby's first pair of shoes.

By Dad

Our baby is a year old now and walking quite well. She spent the summer barefoot or with cheap plastic sandals on. Clare and I have both had nagging thoughts that now was the time to get her measured up and fitted up for her first pair of proper shoes. We had one bad experience and then a good one.

I figured it would be easy, and it should have been. From what I remembered as a kid, you put your foot into a machine which measures you up. Then you pick the shoes, try them on, the salesperson tells you to wiggle your toes as they feel the end of the shoe and you are done. Meanwhile your Mum pays for them as the salesperson tries to sell all kind of extras to protect the shoes.

As a kid we always went to Clarks so that's where we headed. My first surprise was the sheer amount of customers up there. You had to take a ticket with a number on and wait for your turn. After 15 minutes it was our turn, we had to fill out a form while Amélie was measured up by hand with a little machine which measures length and width. She was a 3.5 E/F, the kid who served us ran off to get some shoes in her size.

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Teach your baby to swim - The diagrams part 2

By Dad

More detailed diagrams showing the moves used during our baby's swimming lessons. Following on from part 1 of the baby swimming diagrams.

Some of the techniques such as 'Humpty Dumpty' and 'holding on' need a swimming pool to illustrate correctly so I've been working on a 3D Swimming pool. I've based it on a cross between where we have our lessons and the baby pool at our local public swimming pool. Both are a similar size and depth (a little less than waist deep).

The bar that the babies hold onto is different though. At some pools it's a kind of gutter, where we have our lessons it's a thick bar (very difficult for a baby to hold onto), and our local pool has the water level so high the edge of the pool is where you hold on. For the model I've used a metal bar.

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Mother and Baby Yoga Class - Lesson One

By Mummy

Amélie and myself had our first Mother and Baby Yoga class today. I have done yoga before but I was still not sure what to expect. Both of us had a fun time so whilst the class is still fresh in my mind I will tell you more about it.

The Mother and Baby Yoga Class consisted of 18 mothers and their babies. The baby age group ranges from 6 weeks old until the baby is walking. The class can be attended by Mothers once the Midwife is happy with the Mother's health. This is usually when the baby is 6 weeks old. No equipment was needed for the class. A mat is provided for you and a smaller mat for your baby. I wore tracksuit bottoms, t-shirt and trainers. The class costs £4.40 for both Mother and baby and the class lasts for an hour.

There are two other Yoga Classes one of which is Pregnancy Yoga, which I will attend if we are lucky to get pregnant again. The other class is Mother and Toddler Yoga class. I will attend this class in the future if the Mother and Baby yoga class turns out to be good

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Teach your baby to Swim - The Diagrams Part 1

By Dad

There are now quite a lot of articles about teaching your baby to swim on the Website. I've put together some diagrams, which you may find useful to reference as you read the articles.

I've spent all Weekend drawing the Baby Swim Shorts and you can't really see them in the pictures. What you can see though is the exact positions that we use in the lessons. I think being able to see under the water helps too.

I'll add more of the swimming routines and positions, in part 2, possibly even get some animations up if I have time. I've mixed in real life pictures of myself and Amélie, although my body doesn't quite measure up to the computer version.

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