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Teaching Our Baby to Read
and Do Math

March 15, 2001 - May 2001

We started to teach Haifa how to read and do math at the age of 2 1/2 months old. This method of teaching her is based on the books:

How to Teach Your Baby to Read
By Glenn Doman
(click on the book to buy it at amazon.ca)

How to Teach Your Baby Math
By Glenn Doman
(click on the book to buy it at amazon.ca)

Despite my current philosophy that (what I call) the Doman method is a waste of time, I strongly feel that Haifa benefitted from using this program as a baby. She seemed to absorb and understand more of the world around her than Justice did at that age. But it was time consuming and required great organization and effort to execute on my part. We had piles of cards laid out on the living room floor in a 4' x 6' space. Once I started Justice's homeschooling on a daily basis (when he was three years old), I couldn't handle both Justice and Haifa's homeschooling programs, so I ended up dropping Haifa's. She also began to grab the cards once she could sit up and grab (and especially once she was crawling) and it became more of a "dodge the baby" game than a reading or math lesson.

March 15, 2001: Haifa started her reading program with the word "Haifa" in large red letters 4 inches tall, shown to her approximately 10 times during the day.
March 16, 2001: "Mama" shown approximately 10 times during the day.
March 17, 2001: "Dada"
March 18, 2001: "Justice"
March 19, 2001: "nose"
March 20, 2001: "mouth"
March 21, 2001: "eye"
March 22-29, 2001: The first 7 words were repeated again in the same manner for the next 7 days.
March 30, 2001: Retired the first 7 words. Started 1 set of five words: hand, foot, hair, ear, knee. 3 times a day.
March 31, 2001: Introduced: cheek, snake, diaper, prayer, forehead. 2 sets of 5 words, 6 sessions a day in total.
April 1, 2001: Introduced: apple, banana, orange, spider, bath. 3 sets of 5 words, 9 sessions a day in total. Almost from the beginning of her reading program, Haifa gets excited when we show her a word that she recognizes. She smiles and moves her arms and legs. She loves looking at words.
April 2, 2001: Same 3 sets of 5 words each. 9 session a day in total.
April 3-4, 2001: Same 3 sets of 5 words each. 9 sessions in total over two days due to not being home very much. I Read Haifa a book with a large word on one side and a baby face on the other side of the page and she preferred to look at the side of the page with the words on it.
April 5-6, 2001: Retired: hand. Added: elbow. 9 sessions over two days due to not being home much.
April 7-8, 2001: Retired: foot, snake. Added: head, arm. 9 sessions over two days due to not being home much. She hasn't been showing as much excitement. I think I might be boring her - not going fast enough. Haifa has discovered her feet. She enjoys holding her toes.
April 9, 2001: Retired: hair, cheek, banana. Added: leg, shoulder, bellybutton. 9 sessions. Started Haifa's math program. Red dot cards. 1-5. 3 sessions.
April 10, 2001: Retired: ear, prayer, spider. Added: toe, thumb, tongue. Today I started doing all 3 sets of 5 words each plus 1 set of 5 numbers all in one session. So she now has only 3 sessions a day but it consists of 15 words and 5 numbers.
April 11-17, 2001: Continued adding and retiring words and numbers. From now on I will not include details of her reading and math programs unless there are significant changes or observations. We usually take a break from doing cards one or two days a week and occasionally spread one days program over a two-day period. Haifa is learning how to grab things and to sit up. She shows tremendous interest in food. I occasionally give her a taste of what I'm eating. She loves to drink water from a cup.
April 18, 2001: For the past 3 days, Haifa has been learning about farm animals. She is also learning how to turn the page of a cardboard book.
April 27, 2001: Haifa has learned to wiggle out of her seat and has fallen on her face three times this week. We now strap her in all the time or put her right on the floor. She has become very good at grabbing. She loves to crinkle paper. She loves drinking orange juice.
May 6, 2001: We have started addition equations using the dot cards 1-20.
September 23, 2001: Haifa stood by herself.
December 1, 2001: Haifa can walk!!! She was trying to get a lick of Justice's lollipop.

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