By Engy Foda

The mother is the best teacher for her baby, no matter her education level; she is a customized teacher that just fits her baby’s needs. I always read that the key difference between a good teacher and the best teacher is how your students feel about you. If they really love you, they take you a role model, and will never forget you, moreover, they will always repeat your words, quote your words, and imitate your actions.  What about your baby, she by birth loves you and you love her ultimately.

When I knew that I was pregnant, I was so much concerned with:

1. How to increase my baby’s intelligence
2. How to raise a happy baby
3. How to have a healthy baby (good references for this are the book series: “What do you expect”; i.e. What do you expect when you are expecting, What do you expect in the first year, and What do you expect in the toddler years)

Then when Areej (my daughter) was 5 months I watched a video of little girl of 1 year old, can read and makes some v. hard gym actions. Then I knew that there are programs on how to teach your baby many different skills to be nearly genius. Frankly, at first I never imagined that those programs would work with my daughter and those kids are really geniuses but I tried them & Thank God they worked, & told many of my friends about them & they worked with all of them, too.

The programs are:

1. How to teach your baby to read.

Actually those which I have tried with Areej but there are others like: How to teach your baby math, encyclopedic knowledge,…etc. I shall explain more some of the above points in more detail.

NOTE: 2 important notes: 

1. Do not to overload yourself or your baby or stress yourself, you just do what you can and stop when you or your baby are tired, these programs relies on making learning as plays and games that both of you enjoy, thus if you don’t then simply stop.
2. Do not get upset if the results didn’t show instantly, you may feel that you are just exerting a lot of energy, money, and time in vain and your baby is not showing that she is learning anything but trust me suddenly she will surprise you and you will find that she learned everything you were trying to teach her.

How to increase baby intelligence

While she is in the womb, you can communicate with your baby through talking, yeah nice listening phase:

1. I used to read for her Quran daily, and then when she was born she used to soothe and sometimes sleep while hearing me reading Quran.
2. There are Mozart symphonies especially for the babies in the womb, it soothes them and enhances their taste of music later when they are born.
3. Talk to her, may be she can not understand but she feels that you really do care about her and feels that this conversation is directed to her. On later months of pregnancy my baby used to respond to me by kicking, I was feeling that she understood that I talk to her and just got excitedJ, this was really interesting and joyful.
4. Respond to your baby’s kicking by pressing gently back on the belly spot where she kicked, this is one way of conversation, she will feel this press. It is like you are telling her, “yes sweetie, I heard you and felt you, I am here for you any time”.
5. Eat lentils, beans, peas,…etc., they increase the baby’s intelligence and prevent the magnolia case. But not too much to not hurt the colon. 

After the baby is born and during her first year:

1. Try to stimulate her by the strong colorful toys (i.e. red) to enhance her vision.
2. Continue talking to her, this soothes her because it is the same voice she used to here while she was in the womb.
3. I used to read Quran to her still.
4. There are Mozart symphonies for first year.
5. Put her a lot on her belly while she is awake on the floor surrounded with toys and rattles that make sounds and move but make her sleep on her back.
6. there are physical plays that you can play with her, like sleeping on your back & putting her on her legs with holding her with your hands then raise your legs, she will find herself flying in the air, WOW they really will love it. you can find sorted by age on : www.babycenter.com and www.brillbaby.com 

How to raise a happy baby

Oh, I was always concerned about this. As long as you respond to your baby’s needs and she feels that you are around and that you love her then she will be happy. Many times I found Areej crying and didn’t know the reason, then me and her father figured out this checklist to check her so fast and satisfy her:

1. Check her diaper.
2. Check her temperature, if she is hot or cold.
3. I used to write down the time and the duration of lactation (it was required by her doctor), thus check if 2 hours has passed then probably she is hungry.

If the above list are all fulfilled, then probably she is crying because she is bored and missed you, give her a hug, kiss her , talk to her, hold her a little then put her back on her belly and sit with her to play together.

How to teach your baby to read

There are two schools in that: Dr. Doman’s and Dr. Titzer’s. Both agreed that the baby can read even before hi can speaks, thus both used to expose the children to words at very early age starting from 3 or 4 mnths old only, and both ways worked with hundreds of kids.  

Dr. Doman relies on using flashcards, he claims that every child is naturally smart, and we the parents who knows how to stimulate this or the baby will just lose his natural intelligence. He also claims that every baby can memorize about 25 different words every 5 days.

Dr. Titzer actually used a more interesting way in teaching reading, he used multimedia. He made video presentation showing every word at first then a song or a baby or child making the word or expressing it –if it is a feeling-, like happy or sad or crying. But still he used the flashcards accompanying every CD having pictures with them.

I tried both ways, actually Dr. Titzer’s was more entertaining, furthermore, I felt that she understand really the meaning of the word not only memorizes its shape.

I’m trying to make her memorize Quran in this same way, I made her powerpoint presentation having the verses with moving arrows showing how the direction of reading the words, accompanied whether with my voice or el Shekh ElHosary Voice with children. It is free and available for download.

By the way Dr. Titzer has put a sample demo of his CD’s online that you can try it and take as a template for your presentations. In fact, I was lazy in making her other presentations; I made her 3 or 4 only having the words, then picture, then a video of her doing this word or with this object if available.  She used to be more interested in holding the flashcard herself then of course taste it or bend it or tear it than concentrating in what I was saying, thus computer powerpoint presentation worked much better with her.  Now I buy her books that have pictures and a word naming it & try to read it for her.

More interesting links that helped me a lot :

http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-to-raise-a-reader_11545.bc

www.brillbaby.com

Children bringing up in Islam

May be because I am currently living in a no Muslim country, I was concerned about that, I looked for many books discussing this important topic but they only concentrate on 3 principles:

1. Read Quran a lot for the baby and the kid.
2. Tell the messengers’ stories and Sunna stories before sleeping or for soothing and playtime
3. Be a role model

I found none that gives a detailed practical one up till now but I found a nice series online not books that ris really interesting and has new practical information, you can find it on: http://www.yassernasr.com/sound.php?do=show_sub&IDS=10

Finally, I would like to ensure that the most important thing is to give your child care and love; this will enhance her confidence, ego and overall personality in the future. May Allah keep all our children from any harm, satin, and even from their self badness. For the record, I could not follow every single step mentioned in the above sites or books, I am doing my best and still searching for how to be a good mother and bring up a good children, God help us all in such tough task.

I would like to thank BronTrainer site to give a window to share such topics with you, I wish they were useful.

Please feel free to contact me on: efoda@ieee.org