How to Give Your Baby

I wanted to pipe in that we have used this and the other Doman books with our 3 children with wonderful success. This book is so easy to follow, and will provide you with many hours of joyful interaction with your child. We started the BITS with my son at 8 months and at 6yrs old he is now doing 5th grade work with ease.

This book has its pros and cons to be sure. However, the most important aspect of this book was not the individual facts the author encourages you to teach, but the vast potential he shows each and every child to possess. Your child. My child. The neighbor's child. Despite what others have come to believe and thus expect from little children, their potential is vast. And the book tells you how children most easily pick up information. I found the work in preparing the "Bits of Intelligence" cards to be time consuming and/or expensive, but the outcome is real and the learning process a great deal of fun for my girls ages 4 and 1 1/2. They love spending the short focussed, happy time with their mom. The book encourages you to physically hug and verbally encourage your children before and after each learning period of 30 sec - 2 min. What child wouldn't love a no pressure, mom's happy and hugging me time. I had just read the book when I decided to teach my then 9 mon old her colors. I applied the basic colors from colored paper to the size poster cards they recommend and "flashed" them to our baby three times a day for a few days and VOILA, she knew her colors. I would ask her to pick up the yellow block or bring mom the blue ball and she would correctly identify the colored item the great majority of the time. The book doesn't talk about using the method to specifically teach colors, but I was honestly a bit skeptical about the reality of their methodology, so I applied it to our lives in our way. I feel as if their is nothing they can't learn. My goal for this summer is to teach the fifty states. I had started with a few that our relatives live in and immediately my then 3 yr old started picking up info from newscasts and children's books and connecting it to what I had taught her. "Mom they are talking about Massachusetts. Isn't that way up north where Grandma lives." She then went on to remind me of the state bird and tree (which I cannot remember). What was so exciting was that SHE was so excited to be able to learn additionally info. in a meaningful way because she had something to connect it to.I had difficulty finding three times a day when all three of us were awake, up and in a good mood. Also, sometimes my four year old would just not want to play. We have put the cards away for weeks at a time, esp when sick etc. And it takes some organization. A copier would be of benefit also. But remember, if you can read this book with an open mind and not get bogged down with the multitude of info it talks about teaching your children, then it can be a wonderful tool to use in teaching them whatever you want. Children are happy to learn new things, be it about saints, leaves, food or clouds. Let them learn and have fun too!

5Starts is not enough, when it comes to improving our children, there is not enough stars in heaven to rate this book. I encourage you to not be like "The Mother from Hell" look beyond her comments. It is clear that she ABSOLUTELY did not understand the methodology or the philosophy behind it, as she clearly labels it a memorization exercise. On the service the whole program looks like nothing but memorization. However if you understand the philosophy you understand that it is all about Quality repetitive stimulation, not memorization. The philosophy is simple and we have heard it a million times, The brain is like a muscle the more you exercise (stimulate) it the more it develops. There is one important difference however, the development of the brain is some what inversely proportional to ones age. The youngest mind (Infant mind) responds (develops) the best to stimulation. There is one other major point we need to understand. There is a difference between learning and developing the brain. Developing the brain is the establishment of the neuron connection in the brain in to the different areas of the brain, this is how your increase your IQ. Learning is the activity of studying a subject, and internalizing it, this is how you increase your wisdom/knowledge. We all understand to become a professional athlete, we need to develop the capability of the muscles to perform the work and we need to learn the skill to perform the work. We also understand there is no way to separate the two different development areas. That is as a beginner to any sport you have to and do develop both the skill and the ability at the same time as you participate. The whole point Glenn and Janet Doman are making is one that any good coach understands, the most effective way to increase the rate of development and potential of ability is to engage in quality repetitive stimulation.My degree is in Education, and I am a student of life and how we, and why we learn, Glenn and Janet have written several books that clearly explain why and how to increase your child's potential. The philosophy is sound and the methods are well proven. There is but one thing to consider, are you willing to develop children that are smarter then your self and give them a real chance to excel. If so read the books, understand the philosophy and consistently employee the methods. Your children will be greatly rewarded!!

Taking 60 seconds of teaching, and 2 minutes of play and love have been the most fun times my kids and I have had. It's a great way to show that learning is fun for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. The book substantiates its theories, which may seem boring, but...when you start to see your child read, "play" math, and tell their babysitter all about a Plateosaurus dinosaur, you realize something has been accomplished! Over the past 5 years, I have followed the program off and on as our schedule permits. My children 5 1/2 and 3 can read, enjoy learning music, computers, and are at the head of their classes. Movies like Baby Boom mocked the program, making parents like me seem retentive, but you have never seen the celebration of learning, the cheering, and delight of my children. Yes, some parents think I'm wierd, pushy, or retentive...but then their kids are with babysitters while the parents are golfing! I'm with my kids!

This is an excellent series of books. I wish someone had introduced me to it when my 9 year old was born. Mr. Doman is very personable and entertaining and presents his subject very well. The best thing is that this method is not terribly time intensive. It can easily be done in a series of 3-5 minute sessions throughout the day, and can start from birth.