Looking to Buy Hooked-on Phonics or Titzers Babylearn 2 Read Need Advise???

I have not tried either of these programs. Both my kids, before they were two could recognise all their letters, both uppercase and lowercase. My daughter (who is now three) knew all the sounds of all the letters well before she hit three. She is now three and a half and beginning to put together words by sounding them out.

My secret? The computer. Fisher Price has a great website that changes letters whenever the child presses a key on the keyboard. (you don't need to know how to use the mouse) Google, "toddler games" and you will find it.

THe other site is www.starfall.com. You will need to teach your child how to use a mouse. This goes over letter sounds all the way to stories. Both my kids love this one.

I let them do what they want when they want. They really just picked up all this stuff on their own with the computers help. All i really do is reinforce it when we are driving or whatever.

Hi D.,
I agree with Lisa. You do not need to spend money on any programs to help your child learn. Especially at this point in her life. She needs to be two and do a good job of that. Learning to read early doesn't really help kids in the end. Everyone else catches up and you will have wasted money and time that would be better spent enjoying your daughter.

I agree with the rest. My daughter just turned two, and is really interested in numbers, letters, counting. I've taught her to recognize a few words, but that's all it is. Memorization, not reading. And that's all these programs do. Clearly you are really interested in teaching her things, and she's probably very smart if you are even considering this. I doubt she will be at any disadvantage when Kindergarten comes around.
Take this time instead to relax and enjoy her. They are only two for a short time!

Oh my goodness, Lisa has the best response, I couldnt have said it better myself!
My biggest problem with "My Baby Can Read" is that it doesnt actually teach babies how to read but rather how to recognize and memorize the shapes of words. When you see the commercials it looks amazing but its too good to be true. They have found that this method for teaching reading is very short-sighted and does not work in the long run, because no one can memorize every single word out there. Its better that kids learn to "sound it out", because they can then apply this technique with words with which they are not familiar.
But listen to Lisa. Save your money and spend time with your child, reading to her, talking to her, and exploring the world together! Children learn best through playing and from experiencing.

I second starfall.com
It is a wondeful website for a variety of ages!

Save your money! I read everyday at many different times to both of my children and my 7 year old is reading at a forth grade level he has always enjoyed reading and writing we play restaurant and have "menus" w/ both the word and picture of the food on it, we use written words where ever we can. We made place mats for the table that say plate, fork, cup, spoon, etc we always have a different letter on our fridge every week and we talk about it and we go around the house trying to find things that start w/ that letter or we do a number or color.

My own advice? Save your money. Take your daughter out into the world and show her things, tell her things, cook with her, play with her, teach her songs and nursery rhymes, let her get dirty and make mud cakes etc. ALL of these are the BEST prereading skills you can teach your daughter.