It is wise at this point to talk about the rate at which each child should learn to read, or absorb encyclopedic knowledge, or recognize pure quantity in mathematics or , for that matter, learn anything.

Don’t be afraid to follow your child’s lead. You may be astonished at the size of his hunger and at the rate at which he learns.

New information is the spice of every programl. It is the most easily overlooked ingredient of success.

When new information is plentiful, you and your child will be flying along. There will never be enough hours in a day or days in a week.

Your child’s world will be in a constant state of expansion. This is what every child is aiming for, every day of his life.

We adults were raised in a world that taught us that one must memorize twenty facts perfectly. We drilled these facts over and over. We must learn and be tested at 100 percent or else.

For most of us, this endless drilling on a very narrow body of information was the beginning of the end of our attention and interest in whatever the subject may have been.

Instead of 100 percent of twenty, how about 50 percent of two thousand ?

You don’t need to be a mathematical genius to know that one thousand facts are a great deal more than twenty.

But the real point here is not merely that children can learn fifty times more than we offer them.

The important point is what happens when you show the twenty-first fact or the two-thousand-and-first fact. This is where the secret of teaching very young children lies.

In the former case the effect of the introduction of the twenty-first fact (when a child has seen the first-twenty ad infinitum and ad nauseam) will be to send him running in the opposite direction as fast as possible.

This is the basic principle that is followed in formal education. We adults are experts on how deadly this approach can be. We lived through twelve years of it.

In the latter case the two thousand and first fact is eagerly awaited. The joy of discovery and learning something new is honored and the natural curiosity and love of learning which is born in every child is fed as it should be.

Unfortunately, one method closes the door on learning, sometimes forever.

Fortunately, the other opens the door wide and secures it against future attempts to close it.

In fact your child will learn a great deal more than 50 percent of what you teach to him.

It is more than likely that he will learn 80 to 100 percent.

But if he only learned 50 percent because you offered him so much he would be intellectually happy and healthy.

And, after all, isn’t that the point ?

Always be willing to change your approach. Make each day new and exciting. A tiny child changes every single day.

As information comes in at a tremendous rate, he uses that information to put two and two together. This process is taking place all day every day.

Sometimes we get a glimpse of him doing something that he has never done before. At other times we may have an insight into some new way he has of looking at the world.

Whether we are lucky enough to see it or not, his abilities literally multiply daily.

Just as you are becoming comfortable with one way of teaching something, he is getting it all figured out and naturally wants something fresh.

You and I like to find a nice cozy rut and stay in it for a while. Tiny kids always want to move ahead.

When you say “Goodnight” to your child each evening you should say “Good-bye”. He won’t be the same tomorrow.

So when you have a nice routine that you like, you will probably have to toss all the cards up in the air and revamp for the “new kid” who woke up this morning.

- Glenn Doman