Teach Your Baby To Read?

I haven't blogged in awhile.

Life has been busy. Our whole house was sick for about 6 weeks. We just kept trading germs. It was really fun.

Being sick gave us a lot of time to watch TV. A lot. I know. That makes me a bad mom.

This bad mom saw the commercial for "Teach your baby to read" more times than I can count. If you haven't seen the commercial-let me explain.

Apparently, by using a bunch of flashcards with pictures (and corresponding words) you can teach your baby to read.

At first, the teacher part of me kicked in. I take it personally when these programs brag about how important it is for your baby to read without mentioning that before your baby should read, your baby should know shapes. And do all those baby things like babble and crawl and walk and use their senses to explore the world around them. It's how the brain works. There's a fancy teacher buzzword for it called "scaffolding" and it's actually pretty darn important. Without "scaffolding", you may 'teach' a concept, but heaven knows that concept won't stick in little brains worth a darn.

More importantly, though, was when I realized there were really no benefits in teaching my baby to read, but there were lots of benefits in keeping my baby in the dark for awhile.

For example, my now almost 4 year old can spell "cat". It's only a matter of time before she figures out nap is spelled n-a-p. There goes my ability to say, "She needs a n-a-p." I also like to spell c-r-a-n-k-y and d-e-s-s-e-r-t. The sooner my kids learn how to read, the sooner they learn how to spell, and then if I want to talk to my husband behind their backs, I actually have to pull him in to the other room so we can be alone. And if I pull him in the other room so we can be alone to talk, then I've left my almost 4 year old alone with the baby. Who knows what could happen? Then I might have to sue "Teach your baby to read" for not putting in the warning clause about how if someone uses the program then someone can't spell around their children anymore.

I might start a movement.