Can your baby read? Should your baby read?

Who cares. Yes, I've heard all the arguments against Your Baby Can Read. There's a class action suit- blah, blah.

If you are one of those people who doesn't think kids under two yrs old should be watching tv, ok, fine, YBCR falls under "tv watching" so don't use it.

But, in my opinion, I don't see any difference in letting your child watch Sesame Street and watching YBCR. I think it's the people, stupid people, who think they're just going to plop Junior down in front of the tv with YBCR all day and then miraculously the kid is going to start reading. That's not how it's supposed to work. It's explicitly said in the "directions" anyway. You still have to interact with your child. You still have to read to your child.

We got it as a gift. It looked interesting. At some point during that first year, I needed to shower. Alone. With no bouncy seat on the bathroom floor and without singing, "they all rolled over and one fell out, there was 5 in the bed...". I put YBCR on for E and he seemed to like it. The first discs were 22 min long and that was the perfect amount of time to shower and put some clothes on. We were both hooked.

We never did the flashcards that came with it until much later. We just had him watch the discs twice a day (hey- there are other things Mama needs to do besides shower). At the time, it was just something to watch. I didn't know anything about children's television shows but I had these discs so we figured we'd give them a whirl.

Well, guess what? He eventually saw the flashcards and by two, he knew all 40 of them or however many there were. No, we're not home drilling him. He says, "Let's play the words", so we say ok, and he likes to go through them.

Is he a genius because of YBCR? I doubt it. He might be a genius naturally, because..well...look at his parents. But. I certainly don't see the harm in viewing the discs or "playing the words". He is a whiz with logos- he knows a TD Bank, Harley Davidson, and a Macy's from miles away. I sort of think YBCR helped with this knowledge. I don't know for sure and I don't care.

I just don't get the hate. E has a ginormous vocabulary and was speaking early on. Again, is he a genius- well, only time will tell. But, I know YBCR didn't do him any harm and it might have done him some good. If you don't want to shell out $99-$199, I get it, but don't be a hater.

http://www.yourbabycanread.com/