Do any homeschoolers do early education, in the sense of teaching basic math and reading skills to under 2 year olds?  If so, have nay used Doman’s materials, and what were the effects? I began preparing my son’s education before he was born.

I differ from many home schoolers on the matter of early education. I checked Raymond Moore’s sparse endnotes during my law school days, and found out that the persons Moore quotes DO NOT support the conclusion that Moore reaches. Later, I learned that Moore’s very influential idea that academic instruction is harmful for young children (I think that is how it comes across to many home schoolers) is based in large part on the specific teachings of Moore’s religious denomination. I AGREE with Moore and with many others that SCHOOL–in all of its social, academic, and other aspects–is not a good influence for children, especially young children. But Moore’s original pet issue was delayed school entrance, NOT maximally effective learning, and it is unfortunate that Moore has been so influential on the home schooling community, to the exclusion of other evidence.

I have read several of Doman’s books, all during my wife’s pregnancy (three years ago). Doman writes an intriguing book, but years earlier I had several of his better babies on a TV documentary. They weren’t impressive. I was astonished at what low-achievement adults the alumni of his baby reading program were, as described in the back portion of the revised edition of How to Teach Your Baby to Read. Well, actually, I’m NOT astonished that the Doman approach to reading instruction produces indifferent results, because I know on other grounds it is poor reading instruction. The reading instruction reading list posted at my World Wide Web site lists many, not all, of the sources for my point of view on reading instruction. If you can’t access the Web I’d be happy to post that list as an FAQ here. It does seem that you can teach a 1 year old baby the difference between 20 and 21, which while not too interesting to the 1 year old except as play, seems to be beneficial in terms of offfering more interesting learning sooner.  Algebra is far cooler than long division, so the faster you aquire basic math, the sooner a child can be introduced to interesting math.  Same with reading, and most learning in general.

Agreed. There is no reason to slow children down. Let them pursue their curiosity. My son is endlessly curious. He is still less than three years old and already enjoys trying to read words seen on signs and what-not. Refrigerator magnets in the shape of letters of the alphabet are the royal road to teaching letter identification–my son knew all the letters by age two, with NO coaching from me. I’m intrigued by my son’s developing sense of number and shape, precursors to math knowledge.

Here is a list of books useful in planning an early childhood education program in your own home. To find such books, browse in a Dewey-classified library in the 649s; the 153s through the 155s are good too. In Library of Congress-classified libraries, start with the LBs through LCs. Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983) (ISBN 0-465-02508-0) is the book to read before reading any other on early childhood education. His new book, Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice (1993) further develops his theory that there are at least seven human “intelligences,” namely linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. Gardner’s examples are full of food for thought.