For the past several weeks, I've been showing my daughter the "Your Baby Can Read" video (see link to the right). It gives her something to do while she eats her finger foods in the high chair (and while I clean up the kitchen!). We've moved from the "starter video" to the "Level 1" video.

Now, I realize I'm opening myself up to debate here on a couple of levels. One is the use of videos at all. I'm not a huge fan myself, and I avoided it for the first several months of C.'s life. And then, like most new moms, I relaxed a bit. And I have to say, if I'm going to cave and use a video, this is the one to use. It's about as interactive as a video can get. C. was freaked out by Baby Einstein, and Brainy Baby only marginally held her interest.

The other issue is "Why would you want to teach your baby to read?" And my response is "Why not?" Okay, that's the simplistic answer. The real answer is slightly more complex. One, because my husband wants us to do this. Two, because I learned to read early, and I think it helped me immensely. Three, because there's a body of evidence suggesting that children learn more easily in the very earliest years. Fourth, because if there's the slightest chance that I can avoid the reading struggles that I read about so often, I'm going to try it! Fifth, because C. loves the theme song for the video!

Now the question is, does it work? It's a little hard to tell, considering that C. doesn't talk a lot. I know that when the word "dog" comes on the screen, she has said "dah", the same thing she says when she sees a dog. She also puts her arms in the air when the words "arms up" come on the screen. So either she's reading the words or she's memorized the video and knows what is coming next.

And now we have lots of fun all the time doing "arms up!" and "arms down!"