First Encyclopedia - 14months old

Zo Ee at 14months 3days old. (14/6/2009)

We bought Zo Ee her first encyclopedia few months ago but have been reserving it and only introduced it to her last week. This is a very simple, clear and lively version especially designed for young, inquiring minds; which consist 158 pages, with most information simply written in a short paragraph(3-6 short sentences) with large print and many large colourful pictures.

My intention is to let her explore it at her own pace, so I have left the book in the living hall for her own comfort browsing; flipping through the pages as and when she likes. Surprisingly, she is excited and loves to browse over it again and again as she is so attached to those titles in big print, which she already know many of them.

Overheard !
As she was browsing this encyclopedia alone, I am amazed as she does understand many words (especially the title in each page), pointing at them and those related pictures while saying them aloud. She even acted out some of the words in her own way with enthusiasm. My observation tells me that she enjoys every second of it, especially seeing those familiar words and related pictures.

Some of Zo Ee’s simple perception.

Babies

She will say “Baby, baby, baby”, while pointing her little finger at the title babies. When she looked further, she said “baby, baby” with excitement while pointing at the baby in the picture. She was smiling and moving around the room, repeatedly saying “baby, baby” before returning to the book for another page of excitement.

Birds

“Bird, bird” while pointing at the title birds, before spending more time , seriously checking on each birds on that page. When she saw the peacock, another familiar bird to her, she got all excited again; walking around the room excitedly while kept saying “bird, bird, bird” as she couldn’t say the word “peacock” yet.

Dance

Though Zo Ee can recognize this title- dance (not pronouncing it yet), she was all excited again upon seeing it, doing her own dancing; moving her arms and body – her own version of dancing. Then she will point at the title dance again and repeat her dancing with excitement. She will keep doing this until she finally decided to move on to another new page.

Light

Light is a new word to her as I have never taught her before, other than the word “lighting”. But I am amazed that she was able to relate this word to the word “lighting” itself and pointing to the living hall’s lighting excitedly.

Moon

She's extremely obsessed with this page on the moon. She kept looking for it many times a day. She loves to say “oon, oon, oon” while pointing at the picture of the moon excitedly. Each time, whenever she gets excited, she will more around, make one small round in the living hall before coming back to that particular page. It seems there is such a need to exhibit her excitement which is beyond her control.

Sometimes, she will share her excitement and knowledge with me if I'm around the living room; telling me some of those words aloud while pointing at them. She loves to get my acknowledgement and response; positively praising her effort and giving her extra encouragement and motivation.

Also in the coming weeks, I may occasionally look out for opportunity to read her a fact or two while she is browsing it herself. "Why fact? Isn't this too early for her?" From the Glenn Doman's book "How to give your baby encyclopedia knowledge", the basis of all intelligence is facts. Without facts there can be no intelligence. With a small number of facts human brain can come to a small number of conclusions. With a huge number of facts it can come to a huge number of conclusions. If they are related facts the number of conclusions is breathtaking based on the mathematical law called the law of combinations and permutations. For example, by giving the child ten related facts, this will give him/her 3,628,800 connections in his/her knowledge bank and growing his/her brain every time he/she does.

"How sad it is that we put information into a computer with great skill and great precision and put information into our children's brains in a hit-or-miss, slip-slop, sloppy, and often untruthful way. Remember that, unlike the computer, we can never totally erase a fact that we put into our baby's brain. They will remain as the first response available on recall. They will remain if they are true and they will remain if they are untrue. " - Glenn Doman

(So never try to fool your child with any untrue facts, just tell him/her that you don't know the answer and will look it up, and promise to share with him/her later.)

"Motivation is a product of success!" - Glenn Doman.

Note: the above is not Glenn Doman's method in giving your child encyclopedia knowledge, he uses bit of intelligence. This blog is just to share with you the importance of giving your child "facts".