GOTiHe: How BigNard taught his daughter how to read before two years old
GOTiHe: How BigNard taught his daughter how to read before two years old: (Part 1)
“Reading is a critical part of development and as parents we want to give our children the best opportunities we can to help them succeed in life.”
Teaching my daughter to read before she turned 2 was a blessing and a gift from God. I grew up from humble beginnings, and reading wasn’t something I was a fan of. Fortunately, I was introduced to a program that teaches babies how to read, and it allowed me to pass on a priceless gift to my daughter. I am hopeful this process can be replicated throughout our community. The thing I realized was that I didn’t even know it was possible for a baby to read, and neither did anyone I know.
As parents, we send our children to school ill-prepared, waiting for the educators to teach our kids how to read when we can teach them to start reading by the age of one. You would think this would be common knowledge, but it’s not, at least in my circles. This is the type of information that needs to be spread throughout our communities. I read an article where a scientist said it was impossible for kids to read before 4 years old based on a study. I also read that the company’s product I used was sued by the FTC for false claims. I was confused because, based on my real-life experience, both my nephew and daughter were reading by 2 years old, and now my nephew is 11 years old, and he is doing just fine. In fact, his teacher said he was so far ahead of the other students who were still learning their ABCs and unable to read that he needed to find somewhere else to go as he was bored. To give an example of his reading, we were at Staples, and I asked him to help me look for paper. I explained that when he sees the word paper on the aisle sign, to point me in the direction. He found it, and when we got to the paper, I picked up a random pack and asked him to read the word I pointed to. He didn’t read the big word ‘PAPER’ at the tip of my finger; he read the smaller print that said, ‘Black Carbon Paper.’ I was blown away because I wasn’t expecting that, and especially wasn’t expecting him to read the more difficult part. Another example is when he impressed a 5-year-old girl who was visiting a friend. She asked if he could read, so I told him to read one of the words, and he started with “Chapter One” then started to read. The little girl yelled, “Wow, he really can read!”
We put a lot of faith into other people telling us what the correct way to behave is and how to learn, and because they have a title like “scientist” or “doctor,” we go against our judgment and ignore the obvious. I’m not saying that scientists and doctors are wrong, but not everything told to us is as straightforward as we are led to believe. My question becomes, why did I learn this from a friend and not from the educators, scientists, and other experts on reading?
The problem I have is that we aren’t exposed to the proper knowledge to help us make better-informed decisions in many cases. If I weren’t introduced to this information and had not seen my friend’s daughter’s incredible reading skills at 2 years old, I wouldn’t have believed it in a million years. She was reading and clearly pronouncing every word. When our ancestors said knowledge is the key, it could not be more accurate as it unlocked a chain that plagued generations. Imagine if many of our parents and grandparents knew this when we were growing up?
“What would be your #1 piece of advice you could give that would create the greatest positive impact?”
I didn’t enjoy reading until I had a God instance when I was in a bookstore looking at martial arts books and saw a group of kids standing around the bookcase looking with excitement. I was confused because I couldn’t understand what they were looking at, and it never occurred to me that they were that excited about books. After they left, I went to investigate and saw that there was nothing there but books. Curiously I decided to look at the books and found some that were of interest to me, titled the “Micro Adventure" series. At the end of each chapter, you would type in the computer code to follow the story. It was a dream come true for me as I had a computer and loved it. I found myself just as excited as the other kids who were there only a moment ago, which got me interested in reading. I’ve been reading ever since.
The revelation in the bookstore was the catalyst that gave me the understanding of how important it was to find out what my friend did to teach his daughter to read. At the time, I didn’t have any children, but I knew it was invaluable. A year later, my brother had a son, and I told him that he must try this and trust me. Fortunately, he listened to me, and his son was able to read newspapers and magazines by his 3rd birthday.
I would get so elated when I heard someone was expecting a child, and I would immediately start preaching the gospel of “The Reading Baby” to them. Some wouldn’t do it, and I had a few that said their child wasn’t interested and wouldn’t watch the videos. You can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make it think, yes, I know it’s a drink. However, I was trying to make them think about it.
When my daughter was born, I couldn’t wait to begin teaching her and started at 3 months old. We would let her watch one of the 20-minute videos 2x a day. I knew she wouldn’t understand at that age, but I wanted her to get used to seeing the words and images. From my experience, kids love to clap their hands and mimic what they see, and before I realized it, she started associating the words with the actions after a few months of watching. When she reached about 7 months old, she would see the word “clap” and start clapping and see the word “arms up” and raise her arms.
My daughter actually learned how to read simple words before she was one year old, but because she wasn’t talking, we couldn’t fully gauge how well she read or if she was memorizing the videos. We didn’t use the cards until she started responding to the words. We would spend about 20-30 minutes throughout the day using the cue cards. I later bought a digital drawing board that cut down on the paper cards and allowed us to randomly pick words and phrases, plus taught her how to understand my handwriting. We let her watch a few videos throughout the day, which mainly consisted of “Akili and Me,” as 95% of all of the children’s videos showed very few black characters, and most weren’t mentally stimulating. I wanted her to have cartoon heroes that looked like her, were very educational, set good behavior, and showed her black kids in a positive light.
We, as parents, agreed to the process and stayed consistent, and her reading grew exponentially to the point that she could read anything. So when she was about two, we introduced new languages using the same process, and she picked on multiple languages along with the characters. The goal here was more to make her familiar with other languages and help give her a jump start on speaking multiple languages, such as Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Brazilian Portuguese, to name a few.
We also started working on math as well and found that “Number Blocks” was a cartoon that helped reinforce and teach concepts that were advanced for her age. She knew how to read simple addition and subtraction problems, which helped her learn how to count. We counted up to one hundred, and as we got to one hundred, I turned around thinking we were done, and she said one hundred and one and continued counting. Another example was she came into the room, and I had the number 1,000,000 on the screen, and she thought it was one hundred thousand. I was blown away.
Reading is a critical part of development, and as parents, we want to give our children the best opportunities we can to help them succeed in life.
“Teaching a baby to read is like planting little seeds in a garden; even though you don't see the seed growing, you keep watering it and giving it sunlight. Once it breaks through the soil, it begins to grow rapidly, and before you know it, you are at the base of a beautiful tree that radiates life and energy into all those around it.”
The funny thing about being an adult is that you don’t realize how much you’ve learned from your parents or guardians until you try to remember when you learned it. I can’t tell you when I actually learned how to read, only that I know how to. Now that I have a child, I realize that a lot of the things we teach in her early years, she won’t even be aware that her foundation was forming without her knowledge. Can you remember learning how to talk?
THE PROCESS:
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with any of the products listed below, and I am only sharing what I used and did to teach my daughter how to read before she was 2 years old. Use the process we discussed as a guideline, and I recommend researching current trends as things may have changed since this writing. Everyone’s child is different, and there are different parenting styles, so your results may not be the same. Repetition, consistency, and encouragement are critical parts of the learning process. There are many testimonials on the internet that you can review. Anything you disagree with, you can skip and take whatever points you think will help you. I am writing this as a parent and advocate for teaching our children to read.
A question I commonly received was, “What were the steps I used to teach my daughter to read at a young age?”
Here is the general process we followed: (This list is only to give an idea of what we did as parents and is not meant as advice or rules to follow.) Remember, it’s very important to be consistent and encouraging.
We used the “Your Baby Can Learn” (This video is Free to watch on YouTube which will get you started) video series and started when she was 3 months old. These videos were the primary process that actually taught our daughter how to read. Everything else was used as re-enforcement. We did this until she was 3 years old.
We purchased: “Your Baby Can Learn! Deluxe Kit” from Amazon. (I’m not affiliated and make no money on this product)
Here is a video of Rapper Papoose & Remy Ma’s daughter reading word cards. (Click here)
Nick Canon’s 1 year old daughter is reading word cards. This is the same program. (Click here)
We agreed to the process as parents and stayed consistent throughout the entire process.
We read books and word books (the ones in “Your Baby Can Learn”)
We used cue cards along with handwritten word cards (I eventually purchased a kids writing board from amazon).
We limited baby talk when speaking to her, which helped reinforce everything she was learning (no goo-goo, ga-ga).
We never used a pacifier (I’m not a fan of the pacifier as I believe it impedes speech).
Most of the toys we used were educational and focused on words and numbers [Here is one I recommend].
We limited the cartoons she watched to educational ones like: (We started letting her watch these after she was one year old).
"Akili and Me" (Out of Tanzania – It’s an amazing and all-black cartoon to help her see herself in a positive light. It also teaches reading, math, and a lot more. I highly recommend this program)
“Alpha Blocks”
“Number Blocks” (For math)
We used red, black, and white visual stimulation videos and toys to get her eye coordination. (When she was 2-6 months). Two that we liked were: Tiny Adventures and Hey Bear.
We let her have fun while learning with no pressure and gave her a lot of encouragement. She didn’t realize she was learning because the process was fun and engaging, making her want to read everything she could get her hands on.
We didn’t focus on her getting things right or wrong; we just let her learning evolve and guide her. Also, we weren’t focused on her knowing what the words meant. At her age, the goal was to simply understand letters and their arrangements and then associate them with actions and things. She could read big words like hippopotamus, chimpanzee, and reaching, words she could read but not understand.
We try to practice patience and persistence. It's like planting seeds in a garden; even though you don't see the seed growing, you keep watering it and giving it sunlight. Once it breaks the soil, it grows rapidly, and before you know it, you are blown away by the beautiful flower that blooms.
After she was reading comfortably, we started teaching her other languages to be familiar with different cultures and engage with them. Also, note that she learned words and letters in multiple languages simultaneously, using the same process above, which kept the learning fun.
Note: Children learn extremely fast, and the knowledge exponentially grows as they start to teach themselves by reading everything they see. When driving, she can read all the street and store signs.
Share this with all of your family and friends as it really works and will give them a much-needed head start.
Bonus: Break the myth of babies keeping you up all night with “Twelve Hours’ Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old”
BONUS:
We saw a couple one day with a newborn baby, so I told them we were expecting and asked the mother what was her #1 piece of advice she could give us that would help us the most with our baby. She explained that her baby sleeps 12 hours a day and doesn’t wake up at night. This was contrary to all the advice I received about not getting sleep and buying toothpicks to keep my eyes open. One father jokingly told me whenever she falls asleep in the car seat to immediately pull over and try to get some sleep. We took her wonderful advice, and it worked great. It’s called “Twelve Hours’ Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old” This was another piece of powerful information that was not shared or taught in my circle. In fact, I had people laughing at me in disbelief, telling me to come back to them in a few months and tell them how it went. But, it really did work for us and is still working now. We were very consistent with following the process.
FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS:
Do you think it is beneficial for babies to read early?
Has this article helped you out in any way? If yes, please share.
Do you know anyone who used this process or a similar process and had great results? If yes, please let us know.
What would be your #1 piece of advice you could give that would create the greatest positive impact?
