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Mya playing her new favorite online game.
I’ve been on this quest lately to turn my daughter into an ultra gifted genius. Well, not really. I just thought I should take a more active role in her education instead of hoping she gleams some knowledge from listening to me ramble all day.
It all started when I got sucked into a “Your Baby Can Read” infomercial one night at 2:00 am. I was watching all these tiny babies read random words, page through Dick and Jane books and rattle off flash cards like a third grader. It was amazing and I knew that my daughter, at the ripe old age of two, was light years behind these kids. So four days later and $200 less in our checking account our very own, “Your Baby Can Read” kit showed up at the door and I figured within a few weeks Mya would be reading War and Peace while one of her self-composed piano arrangements played softly in the background. I think I was slightly overly optimistic.
For starters this kit is a lot more work that they make it out to be on TV. It is a combination of DVD’s, books, flashcards, songs, sliding word cards and complicated learning workshops for parents. Mya is supposed to view the Starter DVD, read the Starter book, use the Starter sliding word cards and the Starter flashcards for one month. Then once she gets used to those words we move onto Volume 1, then Volume 2, then Volume 3 and finally to the Review set. This whole process is supposed to take 5 or 6 months. Have you ever tried to get a 2 year old to sit in one spot and watch a 30 minute DVD twice a day? How about read a book that doesn’t include pictures of Elmo or Dora? It has certainly been an interesting experience. She now cries whenever I turn on the “baby” movie as she affectionately refers to it and won’t give it more than 2 minutes of her attention. We are well into our third month with this “Your Baby Can Be A Genius” kit and we aren’t even close to moving onto Volume 1.
So I tried a more practical approach this week. A friend of mine told me about this website that associates letters with animals and its fun for kids to play along. One afternoon Mya and I were sitting at the computer because she loves to stare at pictures of herself and I thought I would give this alphabet game a try. I went to Fisher Price’s website and pulled up the link. I was amazed at how interested and engaged Mya was. After just a couple days of her asking to play the alphabet game she started getting really good at singing the alphabet and recognizing the letters.
Moral of the story – you don’t need to buy complex, over-priced learning systems for your kids. There are several fun, easy-to-use options available online and your kids will probably enjoy them more anyway.
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