Have just been watching an infomercial on an educational program for babies from 6 months called "Your Baby Can Read" (if you google the name it comes with the aussie site, but was originally developed in the US...and yes I did have a giggle at the name of the guy who created it ).

Basically there are some dvd's, flashcards and flip books that can teach babies as young as 6-8 months how to read simple words, do actions for them etc. It was pretty interesting and I think DF was quite interested in buying it...until I looked it up online and the whole set costs $300 (the trial on tv was 30 days for $19.90 but doesn't say how much after that if you want to keep it..I'd imagine it would be close to the full purchase price...).

It was pretty amazing, seeing kids around 12-18 months old saying simple words and reading them off the cards, and 2-3 year olds reading full sentences in books. They said they were at about a Grade 3 (possibly US..not sure how different their schooling system is to ours) level.
I'm a bit in two minds about it though (not that we would buy it at that price), it might be amazing to see such a young child reading, but is it really necessary? I learnt to read at the 'normal' age, didn't have much trouble and I've always loved to read, so does it matter if they start reading a lot earlier? Should you 'force' that level of learning on such a young child, especially the structured side of it like watching a dvd? They may enjoy it, but maybe it would be detrimental in the future?

It's really just repetition, I just said to DF it isn't really any different than me singing songs to DD, that's how she now knows the noises that some animals make and joins in with some of the songs, and if the program is so great then why isn't it offered in stores, and why is it so expensive...if it was so wonderful for children's futures then wouldn't it be better if it was more affordable so more children would have access to it? I dunno...maybe it's just their marketing making me a bit cynical about it, but would be interested to hear other's opinions, not just on the program but also 'structured' learning like that in general for little kids.