Educate a Child from Birth

Nutrition Before Birth and Immediately After

There are about 100 billion nerve cells or neurons in your brain's cortex. They were all there when you were born.

The theory right now is that you do not grow new brain cells. You have x amount at birth and that's it.

Every neuron is capable of sprouting up to 20,000 dendrites if they are nourished properly and stimulated.

In addition to neurons, we each have up to 900 billion glial cells which develop myelin, the sheathing that wraps around neuron axons. Axons are the nerve pathways that send messages from neuron to neuron.

We grow new brain cells in the cerebellum, the lobe in the back of the brain that is responsible for motion, moving our bodies and muscle control.

The neurons, glial cells and new brain cells in the cerebellum all depend on what we feed our bodies with.

If the pregnant mother is undernourished and further damages her body by taking drugs, smoking, drinking alcohol, etc., the baby will not be born with the normal expected 100 billion neurons.

If the baby does not eat well or get stimulation during the first two years, the brain will not develop normally.

While you're pregnant, eat well and be healthy

Too much alcohol and drugs can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome.

Avoid smoking.

Avoid radiation. Stand away from a microwave oven.

Watch your use of cellphones. I don't trust invisible waves.

I don't trust wifi. I can't avoid getting my neighbor's wifi but I would never get it. A friend of mine who lives in an apartment building said he gets sixteen hits for wifi on his computer.

Stress can negatively affect a developing embryo.

Brian and Roberta Morgan in Brain Food say, "The human brain begins growing in the womb and the majority of this development does not slow down until the age of six. Growth in the brain of the fetus, infant and young child is time-dependent. This means that the brain grows in specific stages at specific times. If it does not have all the nutrients essential for its growth at those times, damage or malformation can result which cannot be corrected at a later date. A developing infant who is fed poorly during its period of brain growth may be left with learning disabilities which will remain for the rest of its life, no matter what is done at a later date to correct the nutritional deficiency."

Eat natural foods:

green leafy vegetables

fruit

nuts

vegetable oil

Take folic acid supplements.

Zinc and iron are essential for brain growth.

This is not a health book. Read mine or go to #610-#619 at the library.

Before Birth/ Prenatal Education

There have been studies done putting speakers, a microphone or headphones up to the mother's womb while pregnant and either talking or playing music.

Some proponents believe that this helps the unborn baby to start learning. For example, one guy played Beethoven's fifth symphony to the fetus and he claimed that the baby remembered it after birth because he gestured like he recognized it when he heard it. Some parents do this for an hour or so a day, perhaps playing a tape of dialogue next to the womb presumably to help it learn language.

asoundbeginning.com

babyplus.com, babyplus prenatal education system.

brillbaby.com, information on baby intelligence, prenatal education and early learning.

dellereemusicstudio.com, prenatal baby education.

neonatalnetwork.com

pregnancyandbaby.com/pregnancy/baby-learning

prenatalmusic.com

Baby Swimming Lessons

Both the YMCA and the Red Cross are concerned with teaching babies how to swim simply because of the high incidence of baby drownings. They teach babies as young as three months old. Check your phonebook for your local YMCA and Red Cross.

ymca.ca, canada.

ymca.net

ymca.org

babyswimming.com/safety.htm, pool water safety.

American Red Cross

431 18th St. Nw

Washington, Dc 20006

202-737-8300

800-842-2200

redcross.org

2800 chapters nationwide who offer safety and medical training.

Baby Education Websites

gogomama.com, baby education websites ratings.

babyclassroom.com

iahp.org

agonist.org/learning-center

amazon.com/tag/baby education

ape2zebra.com/baby-development.asp

babybumblebee.com

babycatalog.com

babycollege.com, language development.

babygenius.tystoybox.com

babyhearing.org/languagelearning

babylearntowalk.net

babyminestore.com

babyminestore.com/woodeneducationaltoys.html

babyplus-education.co.uk

babysmartstart.com/links.shtml

babyworld.co.uk

babyworld.co.uk/information/baby/swimming/swimming_lessons.asp

babyzonedirect.com.au

brainybaby.com

brillbaby.com, information on baby intelligence, prenatal education and early learning.

choa.org/default.aspx?id=500, children's healthcare of atlanta, increase intelligence in children.

dpslp.com/infant_games.htm

ebeanstalk.com

educationalwoodentoysandtoyboxes.com

elc.co.uk, early learning centre toys.

englishbaby.com

ezinearticles.com, baby's education.

fbmarketplace.org, first book marketplace.

freethinkingbaby.com

gallopingminds.com

gallopingminds.net

gotobaby.com/educational-baby-toy

granbsbabyballs.com

greatcomputerhardware.us/baby-smartronics-computer-learning-system.html

gymboreeclasses.com, developmental play music classes.

hookedonphonics.com

increasingintelligence.com

infantlearning.com

learningcurve.com/learningcurvebaby

mybabycantalk.com, sign language for babies, my baby can talk, dvd series.

mybinkybaby.com/baby-learning-toys.html

mypreciousbaby.com

neonatalnetwork.com

parenting.com

piggybankshop.com

sapphirebabies.com/baby-education.aspx

schoolization.com, mom baby education.

simplest-shop.com, electronic learning baby products.

thebabycorner.com/category/31, free newsletter.

thebabywebsite.com

thisnext.com/tag/babyeducation

toysrus.com

underthelamb.com, child educational toys.

vsmilebaby.co.uk

wiki-images.com, early childhood education.

yourbabycanread.com

Chapter 2. The Baby-Kid Basics

Brain Stimulation During Babyhood & Youth

The evidence is everywhere about things like poverty, single parenthood, divorce and children in foster homes growing up mentally inferior to others because of both stress and a plain, unstimulating environment.

I saw a documentary film called Poor Kids on PBS and the thing that struck me was why wasn't the single parent smart enough to take the kid to the library. They sat in a bare room. The little girl said she had nothing to do.

Anybody has the right to join the library. That one thing alone can save a lot of poor kids from growing up in a barren environment. There is no excuse for a barren environment in North America. There is a public library within reach everywhere.

A lot of poor people blame everybody but themselves for their own misfortune.

I'm willing to bet that in the average poor person's house, they are more likely to have cable TV than a computer or a library card.

You can read all the research you want by typing the following terms into a search engine:

baby development

childhood development

critical period, baby

preschool child brain

cognitive development baby

Take your kid to the library. Take him with you for walks. Take him wherever you go. It's not rocket science.

Eat natural foods over processed foods.

Get your kid tested for health, eyesight and hearing early to correct any problems that might be there.

Get the kid doing some physical activity everyday. He can walk with you and/ or go to the playground in the city park. There are lots of free playgrounds in the city where I live.

Girls have a slight cognitive advantage over men because they have thicker corpus calloseums.

As far as straight learning goes, most is done in the first five years but it's not academic. It's learning about life. All that Baby Einstein stuff for sale out there is a waste of money. Who cares if the kid knows the alphabet by three years old. It does not mean he will be an advanced quicker thinker than everybody else. By six years old, all kids know the alphabet.

You give a kid just as much stimulation with a box of discarded wood pieces from a lumber yard that he or she uses to build stuff than you would get from some two hundred dollar preschool education program crap, if not more because with the wood scraps, the kid is using his pure creativity unfettered by the world. The pots and pans in a kitchen are enough for a kid to play with to build things.

Allow the child to make his own mistakes so that he learns by its own trial and error.

Every day is a learning experience. Let kids do stuff. It doesn't matter what. Just do things rather than have him watch TV.

They are their own best teachers.

Encourage them to explore.

Enriched environments equal dendrite growth.

Impoverished environments equal decreased dendrite growth.

Avoid formal packaged classroom-style education until five years old. Give the kid some flashcards or simple books but don't tutor him formally. Let him do his own thing. Just buy the books and give them to him.

Play and education are the same thing for a kid. Turn play into learning experiences. Make sure that most learning is fun.

All you have to do is talk directly to your child everyday from birth to five years old to stimulate him. Talk even when he doesn't understand you.

Touch and massage the baby everyday until two years old.

Smile at your kid.

Find other kids to spend time with your kid. This could be siblings, neighbors or kids at the church, YMCA, the playground, etc.

Kids who learn to do physical activities like kick a ball or swim are developing brain power. This crosses over to school brain power.

Anybody can dance. We used to dance to a local show called Don Messer's Jubilee. They did folk dance on TV and we danced around our living room as kids. Dancing makes you smart, at least as a kid. It builds brain connections.

I was a good swimmer, rower and hiker by five because we had a summer cottage. Country kids have a lot more to explore on face than city kids.

Give your kid money and show him to count.

Give him chores.

Develop language, curiosity, intelligence and social ability in the child.

If there is a family business or workplace, bring the kid there. Get him to do chores.

Do multi-sensory stimulation to hit all the five senses; sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.

Have fun, rich experiences.

Baby-Kid Brain 1

Children do not learn things until their brains are ready for that particular level of knowledge.

This is why all that baby Beethoven-Einstein stuff on the market is basically crap. Even if a child learns some basic things before everybody is taught that stuff in school, he or she gets no qualitative advantage in life.

The brain will not wire itself to a higher level of cognitive ability just because of some B.S. overstimulating early learning program.

Geniuses are born but they have to do the work to culture it. Most will gravitate to their genius naturally. They will go to the library or to certain academic websites they like on their own.

After they learn the three r's, gifted kids don't really need the teacher all that much anymore.

Normal people with normal intelligence can maximize their brain power but at a certain point, it's not cognitive anymore. It's spiritual and esthetic. Great thinking is not the result of learning lots of academic stuff. It's the ability to have a mind free enough to make unusual, novel connections between things that seem unrelated to most people on face.

Many great thinkers in history were great not because of superior brain power but because they worked every single day at their craft.

medicalnewstoday.com/articles/206553.php

Baby-Kid Brain 2

We learned from the Harlow monkey studies among others that babies need love and stimulation in order to thrive. Isolation with no love or stimulation leads to messed up babies but stimulation is not an exact science.

As long as babies see and hear different things by being with you as you go through life, they'll be fine.

All that crap they sell in a field called "baby educational products" is basically a fraud because it doesn't matter if some two year old kid wows everybody by spewing off the alphabet. By the time this wonder kid reaches six, he'll be at the same academic level as every other normal kid.

You can't speed up natural cognitive development. A kid who is born gifted will discover himself on his own once he has conscious awareness and a basic reading ability at five or six years old. All those products for sale that supposedly accelerate a kid's learning ability are a big, fat con job.

There is no such thing as a baby genius Einstein. This might be a cute marketing term but a savvy lawyer could easily file a class action lawsuit about all these products and present all the research about the uselessness of trying to educate babies with structured activities as his case arguments. I heard that Disney owns Baby Einstein.

I'm sure they have a lot of high-priced lawyers ready to defend their products with testamonials from satisfied parents but the problem is that all these parents had no control subject to compare to the baby who used the products.

If you had a baby who went around with you and listened to the conversations you had, the radio you listened to and the TV you watched, he would have the exact same language development as some kid using these "baby education" programs.

Furthermore by seven years old, any "quicker" learning these programs caused is all gone because kids can only reach their limited potential at any developmental age. They can't go any higher no matter what until their minds are fully mature then the normals separate from the gifted and the stupids by nature.

Whatever you try to teach a baby by buying some so-called cognitive enhancement program, they will lose that edge by grade two at the latest because everybody has cognitive limits.

They all converge to average except for the few naturally gifted kids. In their case, none of those products on the market helps them. They do it all on their own by following their own interests.

Baby-Kid Brain 3

The truth is that the geniuses of the human race get to their genius on their own by exploring the world on their own terms.

The other big truth is that babies and preschool kids don't learn by watching TV or watching "Baby Einstein" DVDs. They learn by doing things, interacting with the world around them and interacting with people.

A certain level of a child's intelligence is fixed, partially due to genetics and the mother's lifestyle which determines the nutrition, health and stress the fetus gets in the womb.

You can buy all the baby and preschool educational videos and things in the world but they won't help your child get ahead in school because whatever they might learn from them that gives them an advantage when they start school is gone by grade one or two.

By the time any normal kid in grade school is 18, he or she has reached their ability to learn potential. This potential has nothing to do with trying to hurry the kid up as a baby to learn the alphabet, basic math, etc. The kid reaches his or her potential on their own through their own love of learning, curiosity and brain ability or lack of them.

The kid shapes himself. All you can do is provide a stimulating environment and hope he gets into it rather than just watching TV or playing video games all the time.

Don't listen to the hype of the massive baby and young child education junk industry.

Present opportunities to your children. Let them choose what they want.

Take them out into the real world rather than park them in front of a TV or computer watching some alleged educational video.

Learning should be fun, creative and sociable not done at the end of a whip on a schedule.

Take them to the library. Let them pick their own books.

Let them be creative by playing.

When I watched a reality show on TV, they had a couple on in NYC trying to get their kid into some hyped-up preschool daycare program. The four year old kid had to write a test. The kid didn't make the standard. It was ridiculous, to have the hype that there is some preschool daycare program out there that is going to create advanced children way ahead of everyone else.

Imitation is an Early Form of Learning

Children imitate. They see what adults and other children do and try to imitate it.

Humans are hard-wired to learn by imitation.

nytimes.com/2005/12/13/science/13essa.html

Chapter 3. Early Learning is Fun Which is Brain Stimulation

Raise a Smart Kid

Encourage children to read books.

Read books with them.

Do outdoor activities together.

Limit screen time.

Make sure your children watch good quality shows.

Live an interesting, inspired life.

Early Childhood Education Books

National Association for the Education of Young Children

1509 16th Street NW

Washington, DC 20036

naeyc.org

humongous.com, (800) 499-8386.

earlychildhood.about.com

enchantedlearning.com

Knowledge Adventure, Inc.

(800) 545-7677

jumpstart.com

knowledgeadvenure.com.

Living Books

Mattel Interactive

(800) 395-0277

mattelinteractive.com

Reader Rabbit Preschool

Mattel Interactive

(800) 395-0277

mattelinteractive.com

Sesame Street Baby and Me

Sesame Street Toddler

Mattel Interactive

(800) 395-0277

mattelinteractive.com

Confetti Entertainment Company

11641 Valley Spring Lane

#207

Studio City, CA 91604

800-797-1050

confettibooks4kids.com

Discount School Supply

POB 7636

Spreckels, CA 93962-7636

800-627-2829

earlychildhood.com

Special Kids Videos

POB 462

Muskego, WI 53150

800-543-7153

specialkids1.com

Early Childhood Education Art & Music Books

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain 1158 26th Street

PMB 530

Santa Monica, CA 90403

888-372-9101

drawright.com

Fascinating Folds Origami

POB 10070

Glendale, AZ 85318

888-968-2418,

fascinating-folds.com

KidsArt Art Teaching Supplies

Box 274

Mount Shasta, CA 96067

530-926-5076

kidsart.com

Lark in the Morning

POB 799

Fort Bragg, CA 95437

707-964-5 569

larkinam.com

Music for Little People

POB 1460

Redway, CA 95560-1460

707-923-3991

mflp.com

NASCO Art Supplies

POB 901

Fort Atkinson, WI 53538-0901

800-558-9595

enasco.com

Suzuki Music Corporation

POB 261030

San Diego, CA 92196

800-854-1594

suzukimusic.com

Free Coloring Book Websites

fun-with-pictures.com

awhitehorse.com/centaur, the arabian horse coloring book.

berenstainbears.com/colormain.html, berenstain bears coloring book.

bonus.com

cdkenterprises.com/coloring, cdk's coloring pages. abcteach.com/dots/dotstoc.htm, abc teach; connect the dots. outer-limit.net/coloring/barbiepages.shtml, outer limit: barbie coloring pages.

chevroncars.com/free/coloring, color some cars.

christiananswers.net/kids/clr-indx.html, bible-based coloring pages

clip-art.kaboose.com

clipart4projects.freeservers.com

colorbook.tripod.com, kendra's coloring book

coloring.ws

coolarchive.com/clipart.php, cool archive clip art.

corypaints.com, cory's paintbox and coloring book

blackdog.net/refrigerator/coloringbook, black dog's online coloring book.

coloring.ws/coloring.html, coloring pages.

disney.go.com/magicartist/coloring, disney magic artist online.

janbrett.com

nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/archive

ctw.org/sesame/printplay, sesame street alphabet and numbers.

dltk-kids.com/alphabuddies/mabcposter.html, alphabuddies: alphabet coloring pages.

enchantedlearning.com/coloring

floridaconservation.org/educator/colrbook.html, animal alphabet coloring book.

gimp-savvy.com/photo-archive/index.html, copyright-free photo archive.

govdocs.evergreen.edu/coloringbooks.html, coloring books.

greenvalley.com/coloring/colorme1.html, recycling coloring book for kids.

janbrett.com/activities_pages.htm, jan brett activities page.

janbrett.com/activities_pages_artwork.htm, coloring pages.

jimarnosky.com/colorindex.html, animal coloring pages.

kidsgowild.com/wa-naturepaint.html, wild life conservation; nature paint

kidsites.com

kinderart.com/coloring.shtml, kinderart; coloring pages.

members.aol.com/pforpeace/workitout/color.htm, we can work it out; coloring pages.

members.aol.com/rainboland/color.htm, rainbow land coloring pages.

nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/archive

nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/archive, animal coloring book.

nationalzoo.si.edu/conservationandscience/migratorybirds/education/kids_stuff/pages_to_color, birds to color.

outer-limit.net/coloring/animalpages.shtml, outer limit: animal coloring pages.

outer-limit.net/coloring/peoplepages.shtml, outer limit: people coloring pages. surfnetkids.com/games/thanksgiving-cb.htm, thanksgiving coloring book. childfun.com/color/food.shtml, foodnutrition coloring pages. rainbowplanet.com/kids.html, rainbow planet.

outer-limit.net/coloring/pokemonpages.shtml, outer limit: pokemon coloring pages.

outer-limit.net/coloring/veggiepages.shtml, outer limit: vegetable coloring pages.

pacificnet.net/cmoore/color/bee.htm, children's storybooks online

pbs.org/rogers/contents.html, mister rogers: children's corner.

pbs.org/rogers/make_believe/mbindex.htm, pbs: mister rogers: coloring pages (click on picture). kidscom.com/orakc/mousers/color/color.html, mousers coloring book. foodsafety.gov/dms/cbook.html, fda food safety coloring book. nps.gov/plants/color/northwest/com.htm, wild flowers coloring pages. users.adelphia.net/byb1/paint.html, uncle fred's learn how to draw. users.adelphia.net/byb1/paint.html, barnyard buddies coloring pages

picsearch.com