Tribute to Glenn Doman

The world lost a great man this week.  It has been an emotional time for me as I contemplate what this man has done for my family, and the depth to which he has touched my life.  I can't imagine how different our family life would be if I had never heard of him, if I had never touched on his research, read his books, or changed my entire parenting philosophy as a result of his life's work.  I love him.  I love him so much for the difference he has made for me, for thousands of others, and his undying, constant love of children, and his firm belief in every child's potential.  Because of his work, brain-injured children have been made whole.  Because of his work, well-children have become exceptional.

His work extends beyond the work of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential.  Stemming from his research, companies such as Your Baby Can Read, Monkisee, Right Brain Kids, and BrillKids, with over 110,000 members in its forum, have taken root and spread the beautiful message that young children are a lot smarter than we give the credit for.  Spreading this love was his life's work.  It is his legacy.  It is his gentle revolution.

Glenn Doman is a man I never met in person, but I love him like a beloved grandfather.  When I see his face, when I hear his voice, when I read his word, when I witness the awesome, beautiful change that has happened to my family, I am so touched with gratitude that he was born.  He died peacefully at 94, living a full, fruitful life.  I will not sorrow at your passing, for I do not think you would wish it.  I will celebrate your life, express my love to your family, and tell my children what an honorable man you are.  I am perfectly confident that you are very happy now, your life's work accomplished.  Rest in peace, beloved man.  Your work will continue, your legacy carried forward by the lives you have touched.

I know I cannot do justice to my feelings, to my desire to share what a wonderful man he is.  But I can pay tribute to him by sharing some of his own words that have touched me.  Last night and this morning I have been pouring through five of his books which adorn my library to find a few of my favorite passages.  I ran out of time, but I found a few I hope you will find of interest.  But first, you can see him firsthand as he introduces the Institutes and what they do there.

The Institutes were founded only after Doman began his work with brain-injured children.  It was only after his phenomenal success in helping these children heal that he began to wonder what was possible with well-children.  The next video is a tribute to his work with the brain-injured.

Words of Glenn Doman from his books.

Tiny kids would rather learn than eat.
Tiny kids would rather learn than play
Tiny kids think that all learning is play.  They do not however think that all play is learning as most professionals do.  That is because a good deal of what adults regard as proper play for kids is downright silly.  Nobody fools kids.
TINY KIDS THINK LEARNING IS A SURVIVAL SKILL.
TINY KIDS WANT TO LEARN EVERYTHING THERE IS TO LEARN, AND THEY WANT TO DO SO RIGHT NOW.
TINY KIDS THINK LEARNING IS THE GREATEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED. (1)

 ...

We are opposed to any brand of competition that dictates that I must score more points than you, I must overcome you - or prove that I am somehow superior to you.
...
We do teach our children here at The Institutes what we believe to be a higher brand of competition, one that goes like this: "If I want to reach some new higher level of mobility, one that I have never yet attained, only I can be the obstacle.  If I overcome myself and achieve my goal, then I have won."  In short, we teach the children self-competition. (2)

...

Babies can learn absolutely anything that you can present to them in an honest and factual way and they don't give a fig whether it is encyclopedic knowledge, reading words, math, or nonsense for that matter.
They'd prefer great things- reading, math, all the presidents of the United States, the nations of Europe, the great art of the world, the song birds of the eastern states, the snakes of the world, the kings and queens of England, the great music of the world, the international traffic signs, the dinosaurs, the state flowers, or any of the millions of fascinating things there are to know about on this old earth.
But they'll even take nonsense if that's all they can get. (3)

...

 We hold these truths to be self evident,That all men are created equal,
That they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights,
That among there are life, liberty,and the pursuit of happiness.

The italics are, of course, my own.  I would not dream of trying to improve upon that magnificent document, but only to emphasize the significance of what it says.  Although I have known it by heart since I was eight, I am unable, even today, to say or write even a part of it without tears rushing unbidden to my eyes.
I have always treasured the belief that the giants who wrote it had taken for granted the prior right to be intelligent.
For without intelligence, there is no true life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness.
With limited intelligence, there is limited access to life, to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
With average intelligence, there is average access to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness.
With unlimited intelligence (which is every child's birthright), there is unlimited access to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness.
...
For without the right to be intelligent, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear are mockeries, and hollow things indeed.
The most unalienable right of all rights for every child is the right to be intelligent.
That right is inborn, it is implanted in the genes of Homo sapiens.  It is his birthright.
All babies know it--innately.
All babies demand to be highly intelligent.
All babies can be highly intelligent.
All babies should be highly intelligent. (4)

 ...

Intelligence is the degree of ability one has-- to see the difference between the way things are and the way things could be and to make them closer to the way they could be. (5)

...

What can we do with thirty seconds?
What can we not do with thirty seconds!
Now you mothers with little time to spend with your children, pay attention as never before.
Your child looks out the window and sees a collie.  "What's that?" he asks you.

1. We can say, "Look, baby, Mommy has to get dinner."
It will take at least thirty seconds to get rid of the baby and make that stick.

2.We can look out the window and say, "That's a bow-wow."
It will take at least thirty seconds to make that one stick.3. We can use thirty seconds to say, "That's a dog."
It will take at least thirty seconds to make that one stick.  At least it's true to say, "That's a dog."  However, it is far from meeting the standards.  The word "dog" is not precise, it is not discrete, and it is highly ambiguous.  If one says the word "dog" to a hundred different people, a hundred different images will appear in the mind ranging from tiny brown smooth ones to huge black and white hairy ones.

4.We can say, "That's a dog called a collie."
We can then go on to tell him thirty seconds' worth of information which is precise, discrete, unambiguous, and true.

Number four is a fine answer and meets the requirements.
How sad it is that we put information into a computer with great skill and great precision and put information into our children's brains in a hit-or-miss, slip-shod, sloppy, and often untruthful way.
Remember also that, unlike the computer, we can never totally erase the facts which we put into our baby's brain.  They will remain as the first response available on recall.  They will remain if they are true and they will remain if they are untrue. (6)

...

High motivation is a product of success.
Low motivation is a product of failure.(7)

 ...

It is worth remembering that you are not simply teaching your child all that is worth knowing in this world, you are also teaching your grandchildren's father how to teach them.  It is a humbling thought. (8)

...

From the moment a baby is born, a struggle begins.  Mother does her best to keep her baby close to her, and the world does its best to separate mother from baby.
This is a mistake because mothers are the best teachers in the world for their babies.
...
There are strong forces at work to separate mother from child, and most people have come to regard each of these encroachments on mother's domain as normal. It is as if that is the way it has always been.
But hospital nurseries, day care centers, and even compulsory education are not the way it has always benn for mothers and babies.  They are newfangled notions, and a radical departure from the age-old human tradition of children being with their mothers until they are ready, willing, and able to handle life on their own.
...
New cars come with owner's manuals- new babies do not- and yet we all know that babies are a great deal more important than cars.  To be sure, there are manuals for the feeding and changing of babies.  There are books about the general stages of development that can be observed in average, healthy children.
But these aids are based on two main underlying assumptions.  The first is that the baby's needs are primarily physiological and emotional.  The second is that baby's development is triggered by the ringing of a series of genetically preset alarm clocks that go off on schedule regardless of what does or does not happen to him.
These assumptions are false.
It is perhaps because of these false assumptions that modern babies are being raised on accident instead of on purpose.  That is a great shame because the growth and development of the human child is much too important to be left to chance.
It is also because of these false assumptions that mothers have increasingly been persuaded, against their better judgement, to let their babies be cared for by others.
...
Mothers have know more about babies than anyone else since the world began.
It is mothers who have successfully brought us from prehistoric caves to the present.
However, the modern mother faces a very large problem: her own possible extinction.
She has the same powers of observation, the same intuition, the same insticts, and the same love for her baby that mothers have had throughout human history.  But she is threatened by a world in which it is no longer safe to be a mother.  In this world she must battle to keep her baby by her side from the instant he is born.  In this world she is often told that her baby is better off in a nursery than in her arms.
It is a world in which it is no longer considered fashionable or useful to be a mother. (9)

...

The brain grows by use.
...There is an old law of nature that says that function determines structure.The brain-injured child demonstrates that the opposite is also true.  A lack of function creates a lack of structure.We believed that if we could successfully treat the brain, the child would begin to increase his function, and that as this happened his structure would begin to change.
This is exactly and precisely what happened.(10)(This passage describes how brain-injured children are often small, but as they are properly stimulated, as they heal, they grow in size as well as intelligence.  This is true, whether the child is 4, 6, 10, or 30- the size of the brain doesn't stop growing at age 6, but when it reaches maturity.  The brain does indeed grow by use.)

...

Reading is one of the highest function of the brain--of all creatures on earth, only people can read.
Reading is one of the most important functions in life, since virtually all learning is based on the ability to read.
It is truly astonishing that it has taken us so many years to realize that the younger a child is when he learns to read, the easier it will be for him to read and the better he will read.
Children can read words when they are one  year old, sentences when they are two, and whole books when they are three years old-- and they love it.
The realization that they have this ability, and why they have it, took a long time. (11)

...

1.  Tiny children want to learn to read.
2.  Tiny children can learn to read.
3.  Tiny children are learning to read.
4.  Tiny children should learn to read.

I shall devote a chapter to each of these four facts.  Each of them is true and each is simple.  Perhaps that has been a large part of the problem.  There are few disguises harder to penetrate than the deceptive cloak of simplicity. (12)

...

Millions of young women watched other women moving into what had been men’s jobs and professions.
However they found that they wanted a different sort of profession and a very different sort of life for themselves.  They discovered that they wished to be what we have chosen to call "professional mothers."
It was not so much that they didn’t want to enter the male world.  It is that they wanted much more to be mothers.
...
They had decided that the best way to change the world for the better was not by improving the world’s institutions, but by improving the world’s people.  They controlled the world’s most important resource and raw material—babies.
...
They experience a sense of high purpose and take pride in their children and the contributions those children will make in the world.
They have expanded and increased their own knowledge and find that they are more confident and more capable than they were before they began to teach their children.
They expected their children to change but they were astonished to discover that they themselves have higher expectations and bigger goals for their lives as a result of being professional mothers.
Nice side effect, isn’t it? (13)

Footnotes.  In each case, emphasis original.
 1. From "How to Teach Your Baby To Be Physically Superb", 2002 printing, page 17.  Emphasis original.
2. ibid, page 233 Emphasis original
3. From "How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge", 1994, page 18.  Emphasis original
4. ibid, pages 64-66.  emphasis original.
5. ibid, page 93
6. ibid, page 220
7. ibid, page 230
8. ibid, page 263
9. "How Smart is your Baby?" 2006.  Pages 5-7
10. ibid, page 23
11. "How To Teach Your Baby To Read" 1990 version, page 1.
12. ibid, page 9
13. "How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence" 1994, pages 150-55

Math Resources

I have been meaning to do a post on all of the different math activities and things that we have been doing and none of them seem to warrant their own post, so let's have a math smorgasbord and look at everything briefly.  We really love math at our home.  :)

As a follow-up to my soroban post, this is the primary thing we are doing now.  I told my mom how cool I think the soroban abacus is and she showed me a neat homeschooling site called thehevproject.com, which has short and sweet abacus training videos with 15-problem worksheets after each lesson.  There are only 33 lessons, but that's plenty to get our feet in the door so that's where we are starting.  I'm looking forward to telling you more about this website in an upcoming post.  When I saw the abacus in the video, we went ahead and bought two Japanese Soroban Wood Abacus from Amazon (one for each of my older kids), got on hev's monthly plan, and today Peter finished lesson 10.  Helen will start next week.  So far so good.

Last Christmas we were working on multiplication.  We bought the flashcards and played games on www.multiplication.com.  Helen really liked the stories but Peter never really engaged with it.  Now we're doing soroban, but when we get back to learning our tables, I'm going to really dig into this site.

Thanks to the advertisements, I noticed www.bigbrainz.com.  We downloaded the demo and Peter BEGGED me for the full version.  We got the 3-month subscription for Christmas and they really loved it.  The catch for us was that I played the game with the kids and told them the answers.  That's just where we were at.  I told my 5-year-old the answer like this, "eleven times six is sixty-six", and he would have to type it in.  My 3-year-old got to hear "sixty-six", and my 2-year-old got to hear "six, six".  I passed the biggest bosses for them all.  They all had fun, and all of them became very good at typing numbers quickly.  It was a great approach except that it backfired a little because after they had each won that way, none of them wanted to play the game anymore, so we let our subscription laps.  Maybe we'll come back to it.  My personal thought:  it's very much like a video game, and I have mixed feelings on docking kids as much for falling off a a machine as they do for missing a problem.  The graphics were fun.  I had fun playing it.  I never mastered my 12 times tables past 5 until I played the game myself.  Now I'm sharp as a pin with all my multiplication facts up to 12.  Ta-da.  It worked for me!  Maybe not the best thing for the early learning crowd unless you alter the game like I did.  Then again, maybe your EL kids are sharper than mine.

The kids seem to be benefiting a lot from our family subscription to more.starfall.com.  There are some really cute math songs and games there.

I would love to spend some time exploring http://wholemovement.com/.  I am amazed at what can be created and and learned by simply folding circles.

The kids love Mr. Numbers on YouTube, and again, when we get to our times tables, I'm going to dig deep into http://www.patternplaymath.com/.  I like the idea of using more than one approach to teaching, and I love what he has done.  His materials are very affordable too.

Before I got into Soroban, I printed out Ray's new primary arithmetic for young learners.  (Thanks to nee1 on BrilldKids for pointing this out!).  There are 89 lessons with between 15-30 problems each.  They seem like good practice questions, so if money is tight and you want a step-by-step approach, this will do the trick.  I still plan on making sure that ink wasn't wasted.  I think a child who completes this book will be ready to advance to Saxon 5/4.  :)

Speaking of Saxon, my plan is to use it as soon as my kids are ready for Saxon 5/4.  Did you know that Saxon himself didn't write Saxon books for the earlier grades?  Well, he didn't.  The company that ended up with the rights to his books did so they could make more money, and the general consensus I'm getting is that they aren't as good.  My father-in-law didn't like the 1st grade material when he used it at a private school.  I don't want to use it for the early grades.  I want something more hands on.  Like the soroban!  But after reading and following this thread, and then reading Robert Levy's reviews of Saxon math on Amazon.com, I am quite sold on using it for the upper grades.  I'm on track to begin Saxon 5/4 in about a year.  I think I could do it sooner, but I really want to focus on abacus training and developing mental math skills.  My plan is to finish the hevproject lessons, then do Ray's book with the aid of the soroban, supplementing with other sources as wanted, then the "in a nutshell" 3rd grade math on hevproject, and on to Saxon 5/4.  I've got a plan, and I LOVE having a step-by-step, know-what's-next plan.
Edit:  They say that to start Saxon 5/4, all a child needs to know is how to add and subtract two-digit numbers, and your multiplication up to 10.  Young children who know this information do well in Saxon 5/4, and it is thorough for other math topics.  Saxon designed 5/4 to be his beginning math book, and as such, it is comprehensive.  Starting 6-year-olds with the 5/4 book is not uncommon in the BrillKids community for this reason.  I promise I'm not a draconian drill-to-kill mom.  My kids actually really enjoy math, but I wouldn't call them a math whiz.  What I am suggesting, what I am using, is an accelerated math path.  Saxon is very good for this.  For more information, read the thread I referenced.  :)

For the younger kids.

Once upon a time, when I had but one baby, I read Glenn Doman's "How to teach your baby math."  Then I did something crazy.  I bought $40-ish worth of materials and painstakingly made my own math-dot cards.  I was crazy.  And stupid.  Shortly after finishing I found a site where I could have just printed them out instead of using stickers.  Really?  All that time down the drain.  :'(  You think I'm joking?  It was such a pain to check to double check to make sure each card had exactly as many dots as I thought it did.  I placed thousands of dot stickers.  Stupid.  Don't do that. Technology means you don't have to, there's plenty of free resources out there.  Check this article out for more information on Doman's math dot program.

I have a hard time trying to make the sale when it comes to BrillKids Little Math program.  Why?  Because I know it doesn't always work.  Little Reader and Little Musician are simply amazing, and I have perfect confidence that they will work so I freely endorse them.  Little Math, I'm not so confident about.  Certainly there are cases where Doman's dot program has worked remarkably well, such as here, but youtube isn't littered with success stories like it is with babies reading.  One theory as to why this isn't the case is because parents can't reinforce it when away from the learning materials.  We can say, "Look, that sign says stop", and read cereal boxes to them, but we can't say "Hey, look at those 46 sheep in that field", or "Hey, you spilled 53 cheerios on the floor."  Maybe that's part of it.  I am convinced that using Little Math with my young children has been beneficial for my children, and that all early exposure to learning has its benefits.  Nothing is wasted.  But it's a hard sell.  I don't think I would have purchased it without my deep understanding of Doman's work, of how babies' brains develop, and how my kids don't have to demonstrate the ability to quantisize big numbers for the program to be successful.  So there you have it.  If you want to be sold on BrillKids' Little Math program, read Glenn Doman's math book and know that Little Math does all of the work for you, all you have to do is push play and there are cute icons that flash for you and keep track of everything.  If you read Doman's book and want that for your child, get Little Math.  That's it.  I'm not going to try to sell it any more than this paragraph.  Someday soon maybe my baby will demonstrate that she's a math whiz and I'll change my tune, but in the meantime I'm content to say that we have Little Math and we faithfully use it.  It's very well done.

TweedleWink also incorporates the math dots into their lessons.  We bought the whole package and we really love it- full review coming soon.  :)  Also, Your Baby/Child Can Discover incorporates math in an engaging way that we really love.  These programs aren't "sit down and do math" videos, but they are part of our overall math enrichment, so I share them here.

Math Games and Activities is an awesome book I stumbled upon and we've used it a lot.  Fun with tangrams also stemmed from this book.

A friend in my local homeschooling group shared this.  It's so cool.  Math is beautiful.  I made a printout for this and we've played with it with clear glass pebbles.  They place them, for example, on numbers divisible by 3, and it's a self-correcting activity because it makes a pattern.
http://www.datapointed.net/visualizations/math/factorization/animated-diagrams/
And here's a blog post with a few ideas on how to use it:
http://mathinyourfeet.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-math-game-factor-dominoes.html
She references this blog, which has a higher quality image for a print-out:
http://mike-naylor.blogspot.com/2012/11/factor-visualization.html

We play with pattern blocks a lot.  It's mostly free-play, but we do have some pictures they can place the pieces on.  There are some awesome teaching ideas for pattern blocks on this channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/erloakland/videos.

https://www.khanacademy.org/ is awesome.

Products I would get in a heart-beat with a dream budget:  Math-U-See (we only have manipulatives and a decimal street poster, not the actual lesson books and videos), Mathtacular, Touchmath, Rightstart Math, and I definitely plan on getting Hands on Equations.

Phew!  I hope there's some gold nuggets in this article for you.  :)

Review of Little Reader Deluxe materials

Little Reader is available only at www.brillkids.com

Get 10% off with coupon code BKAFF13180

In a previous post I reviewed the Little Reader software, which is the meat and potatoes of this program.  It was $150, and for $100 more, you can get the Deluxe version with the physical products I review in this video.  We have been using Little Reader for a couple of months now, and we are seeing some amazing results.  I love the convenience of the software.  It takes much less screen time to do Little Reader then it did to watch DVDs, while being more effective.

The story books are very cute.  They are my favorite part of the whole program.  The start out very easy, but even the easy versions are stories.  Children know the difference between readers and real story books, and these books have the feel and quality of the real thing.  In the first video, you can watch my 1-year-old read one of these books.  This was 2 weeks after we got Little Reader, and it was his first book.  However, he already knew his sight words from "Meet the Sightwords", and most of the animals from "Your Baby Can Read".  Learning individual words is fairly easy, but putting it all together for story reading was one of the most challenging parts of teaching my oldest to read.  This becomes even more challenging when you consider that my little boy is still speaking with 2-4 word sentences.  In essence, he can read better than he can talk.  Reading full sentences has really helped him with his speech development.  The BrillKids Little Reader storybooks have made that process of reading full books easy.  The practice from these storybooks has helped my 3-year-old expand her reading abilities, as well has develop her confidence to do so.


 
Here is more detail about what is included in the Deluxe package.

Toys for Tots Early Literacy Program

I know that I have posted a lot about BrillKids lately, and I'm about to do it again.  They are such an amazing company and I really love them.  Today I'm going to tell you a bit about their charity arm.

I have been reading some of Glenn Doman's books again, and one of the things that struck me more this time around is how it is largely the middle class that is engaging in these programs.  Why?  Well, largely it is because the rich have a sense of security of knowing that their children will have an excellent education, so they don't think about things like early literacy as much.  The middle class are the ones who can afford to look into these kinds of programs, have the time to devote to it, and a myriad of other factors.

But what about lower income families?  The ones who often don't know where their next meal is coming from?  Sadly, these are the children that often struggle in school, who don't have books in their homes, and are caught in the cycle of poverty.  As I have learned more about early learning, my heart goes out to these children especially.  They have as much potential for greatness as any other group of children, but the opportunities to get the education they need for that is often hindered.  Sometimes the doors of opportunities are completely taken away.

Give a man a fish, and you give a man a meal.  Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.

For this holiday season, instead of giving a poor child a doll or a toy train, what if you could give a small child the gift of early literacy?  For less than the price of a candy bar, a state-of-the-art reading software program (in my opinion, the very best reading program out there), can go into the home of a small child in need.  Parents of these children will be empowered to give their children so much more, and all they need to do is push play.  Imagine what it could do for one of these children.  Instead of entering school far behind their peers academically, they could start ahead, already knowing how to read.  Imagine how they would embrace life's opportunities if they felt they were good at learning, instead of knowing they were behind and giving up.

I truly think that this is one of the best opportunities I have ever seen to lift a small child up and give them something truly delightful, something that can change their lives.  I have been using this software with my own children, and I can attest that they love it.  So many tantrums have melted into delight when I tell them that it's time for Little Reader.  BrillKids has generously given this charity full rights to distribute the software to the Early Education for Every Child Foundation, who in turn are making a big difference as they distribute this much-needed software to the children who love it most.

PLEDGE TO DONATE HERE


I feel so passionate about this cause that, not only am I donating to it myself, but I am throwing in a little extra incentive for you as well.  If you pledge $10 or more on their donation website, then I will give you a free copy of my "Beginning Rhythm" e-book.


Here is how it works:

1.   Pledge at least $10 to this fantastic charity

2.   Come back here and "purchase" the e-book through my online store.  The product is free, and I'm going through the honor system.  Please be honest and don't abuse the trust I have put in humanity in the name of helping these children out.  I like to think that people are good.  :)  You will need to include your e-mail address.  I don't have a newsletter, I'm not sure why there is a box for that.

3.  In the event that the charity doesn't "tip" (but it will, I'm sure), you can either enjoy a free e-book for your efforts, donate to www.eeecf.org, or donate $10 to a charity of your choice.  Do what feels right to you.

Here is a nice little documentary to tell you more about BrillKid's charity efforts in the United States.

Tribute to Your Baby Can Read

On July 16th, 2012, Your Baby Can, creators of the “Your Baby Can Read” and the “Your Child Can” series, was forced to close its doors due to legal battles with the organization “Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood”.

CCFC argued that babies can’t read, and accused YBCR of false advertising.  Although they have no proof of this, reading experts who witnessed babies reading from this program gave their opinion that the children in the YouTube videos were not really reading, but were only memorizing the words.  Furthermore, CCFC pointed out that the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend television or movies for children under 2.  Such was the foundation for their case.  “Your Baby Can” still strongly believes in their products, but could no longer fight the legal battles.

As a parent, I think I’m smart enough to decide for myself what products I will buy for my children, and judge whether or not my child really learned to read from Your Baby Can Read.

I attest that they can read, and I was very happy with my purchase.  If I was unhappy, they would have given me a full refund.  In a free market, parents(the consumer), not reading experts, would decide whether or not the product worked for their family.  If the product was not good, consumers would stop buying it and the company would have folded on its own.  However, YBCR was immensely popular, and the company grew. 

It grew a lot. 

It is only because of the legal battles that it was forced to fold.  I was very sad about that when I heard about it.

This video is a tribute to “Your Baby Can Read”:

Shichida Research

These recent posts about building memory have been accompanied by a spell of research and a renewal of fascination for what is being done in Asia.  Today I'm going to give myself a break in writing, and just share a few videos that I came across, if you're interested.  Unfortunately, Shichida's methods are a little bit secretive, and his popular book has not been translated into English.  Shichida's program uses a lot of Doman's ideas, which are widely available in his books.  The place that I have learned the most about Shichida is from Brillkid's forums.  Some of the parents in that forum have taken their children to Shichida's schools.

Overview- WOW!

Exercise for babies, similar to Doman's Physically Superb program.

This is a clip from www.homeeducation.sg about their program for developing photographic memory.   I haven't purchased or used these products, but I'm thinking about it...

Programs for photographic memory often include eye-tracking exercises, which are readily available on the internet.  My son loved the following one.  Watch out for the red and blue spiky one that YouTube suggests at the end.  It has a scary clown at the end as a practical joke.  I would have laughed less if my toddler had been watching it with me.  Superboy is just cute:

Memory Magic Review

Note: I am in no way compensated for this review. I am not affiliated with "Accelerated Learning Methods" in any way. I simply love this product and I wanted to write about it.

What is Memory Magic?
Memory Magic is a computer CD from www.acceleratedlearningmethods.com, designed to help young children develop photographical memory and speed reading. There are progress charts and reward certificates that you can print out and use with the program.

The elements I love
Silly Story

This is my son's favorite part of the program. Based on Makoto Shichida's program for developing photographic memory, the game helps children to easily memorize 100 objects in sequential order. When I first heard about this, it seemed incredible to me, but because of the silly nature of the story, simple animation in the computer game, and the funny voice that tells it, I was personally able to memorize them within a couple of days, and my 3-year-old followed suit within a week, with some story prompting. The game also includes a printable file, which is pictured here, and used in the video. This video was made a week after we got the program in the mail, and features the first 20 cards.  It was the first time we "played the silly story game" that day.  If we want to do all 100 at the same time, we do it on the computer.



Bits of Intelligence Cards
This was the meat and potatoes of the program for me. There are 380 bits of intelligence cards (Based on Glenn Doman's philophies) that you can print out and use with your children. That's 38 sets of 10 cards with a colorful picture on the front and a set of 5-9 facts about it on the back. Pictured here is one of the fruits, vegetables, and nut sets that I made on 8 1/2" by 11" card-stock for my children. Cost of printing, paper, and lamination not included. It may be awhile before I make all 380 of them…

Rapid Memory Flash games
These are associated with the bit cards. They quickly show 10 related bits, with the picture first and then the text. Then you can go to a screen with 20 or so small pictures and click on the ones that were previously flashed. If you get it right, the image is replaced by a star, if you get it wrong, it turns into a splotch of paint and disappears. When you have selected the ten that were shown, a smiley face comes out and says "Good job", regardless of how many you may have gotten wrong. This game is challenging for me! I usually play it with Peter and we try to remember the pictures together. Alternatively, you can just let the computer flash through any of the 380 pictures and let the kids watch it like a video. This is what I do with my younger children.

Eye Tracking Cards
These are neat. I wouldn't pay six dollars for them, but my children like them and I think that they are a valuable asset to our bits program. We show them during breakfast every day, and it takes about 20 seconds to do. My five-month-old baby can do these.  My husband has been studying eye health for himself, and he was very impressed.

Follow that Dot!
This is a computer game that flashes a dot in a specified shape. On the next screen you click on the outline of what you saw. Harder levels flash more than one shape before you get to click on what you saw. This is a challenge for me! With my children, we only watch the flashing, which they love. Picking the outlined picture is frustrating for them, so we do not do it.

What I didn't like*
The programming. This is an older program, and it was not very user friendly to set up. My husband thinks that the makers were originally developing a subscription website, and when that didn't work for whatever reason, they put the whole website onto a disk. You essentially are getting a webpage in disc format. Included are pdf images of buttons used in the game, and other weird files that my husband could decode but are Greek to me. The "name" of the disc comes up as "Drag contents to" Instead of "Memory Magic". I also had to install a flash player off the internet to play the games. In the "Learn More" section, the information links to their website, so you have to have internet access to learn more, AND some of the links are broken. But don't let that stop you.
*See comment by company below

Conclusions
The content is fantastic. If you are potentially interested in purchasing this product, I recommend subscribing to their website. We purchased this product when a secret sale came up that I only knew about because of my subscription. After seeing the quality of this product, I will probably be purchasing from them again, and I enjoy their e-mails. They have a lot of useful information, whether you purchase from them or not. I have been subscribed for a year and I look forward to their e-mails.

Crawling Track

Today I wanted to share some tidbits about how we use Glenn Doman's crawling track in our home.  (As seen in Teach your Baby to be Physically Superb, and How Smart is Your Baby?) We have been using the crawling track with my son since he was about a month old.  Doman's book mentions how lucky the baby is who has parents who bring the crawling track to the hospital with them, but I find that using the crawling track from birth is a little bit impractical.  Even if I did go to the hospital for my births, the last thing I would want to pack around is a bulky crawling track!  Some of Doman's ideas have to be taken with a grain of salt, but please understand that Glenn Doman is one of my heroes.

So, we don't use the crawling track from birth, mostly because I want to wait until the umbilical chord has healed before laying them on their tummy.  The other thing that I don't do is have the crawling track right next to our bed.  We were originally going to do this, and that is why we put a "wall" on one end (the top end in the video).  We did this with the idea that the crawling track would be elevated between our bed and the wall, and if the baby crawled the length of the crawling track at night, the wall would protect them from crawling onto the floor.  However, in practice, I prefer to have the baby sleep right next to me.  It's better for breastfeeding and for helping me respond to the baby's needs.  I don't recommend adding the extra wall onto the end, it was a lot of extra work.

What we do do with the crawling track is use it every day, mostly as prescribed by Glenn Doman.  We do the short, specific sessions to encourage the baby to move, but I rarely leave them to explore in the crawling track for extended periods.  Considering his older siblings, we do this for his own safety.  (Plug for babywearing!)

When they are first learning how to use it, I put my hands behind their feet as pictured below.  When the straighten their legs, they are propelled forward.  When the bend their legs, my hands follow.  In this manner, they experience success from the beginning.  For this exercise, I like to have them fully clothed so that they are as slippery as possible.

Phase two, using a book instead of my hands.  Now they have to a create blank space to move forward.

Phase three starts at around three months of age for us, where the child has to move independently.  Clothing for this is a simple onesie.  It makes the body slippery, and gives the arms and legs some traction to work.  I still help sometimes.  My son in this video primarily used his arms at first, and would become frustrated when his arms were struck behind him.  I would gently move his arms forward and he would propel himself forward again.  Rinse and repeat.  Now he uses his legs, and sometimes makes pretty good time getting down the track.  In this video he is 4 1/2 months old.

So What's the Point?

The goal behind using a crawling track is to teach children that moving their limbs can ultimately result in transportation.  But there's more than that.   Using the crawling track helps their brain develop as they learn to understand the third dimension sooner.  As they move down the track, objects become closer.  Reaching mommy's arms, or a red ball, or any other object becomes a specific, reachable goal.  That's empowering for a newborn!  At one month old, my two children who have used the track are usually very passive, but when they are placed on the track, you can watch a change come over their face.  The wheels are turning inside.  When they reach their goal, they smile and are empowered.  The crawling track is worth it for that alone.

For more information, I refer you to Glenn and Janet Doman's books.  There are a lot of enrichment activities that they provide that are beyond the scope of this post.

Encyclopedic Knowledge

The Philosophy behind Encyclopedic Knowledge for children

One of the funnest and most rewarding programs I have found is Glenn Doman's "How to give your child Encyclopedic Knowledge". The underlying philosophy is very simple. Children are learning anything and everything that their environment can teach them. As their primary link to the adult world, we have an incredible opportunity to help them on their journey.
To paraphrase an example in his book, a child asks his mother "What’s that?" The mother has several ways that she can respond. "I don't know honey" is the most convenient answer. "It's a doggie" is an improvement because it shows the child that you are paying attention to their question. "That dog is a German shepherd." is a fantastic answer because in addition to giving your child's question the respect it deserves, you are also implying that there are many different kinds of dogs, and that there are specific names for them. This final answer was as simple to give as the former two and is much better for the child. If I gained nothing else from any of Doman's books, I did internalize this concept. I never speak baby talk with my children, conversely I have sometimes been teased for my crisp diction with them. That's okay. They're learning to speak English and I am their primary model. When Peter is curious about the toilet, daddy takes the back off and shows him the chain, the plug, the lever from the flush handle, and lets him watch how it all works. We have truly changed the way we interact with our children, and it has made all the difference.
To go back to the German shepherd example, what if we could take it one step further and teach our children the essence of "dog-ness"? By making bits of intelligence cards you can. They are essentially flash cards, but I have to smile that the book insists that they are to be called "bits". After all the work that goes into making these high-quality educational materials, it is an insult to call them flashcards. I am not insulted by the idea of using flashcards with my children if there is lasting value to it, but "bits of intelligence cards" has a nice ring to it, so that's what we'll call them. By showing your child several different dog breeds, even if they do not remember them all, they will still imply the elements that make an animal a dog. They will not be confused to think that cats or horses are dogs because they also have fur and walk on four legs. They will understand what makes a dog a dog. Sitting here writing, I am intimidated to explain in words what "dog-ness" is. I would want to get a scientific entry to paraphrase. But if you show your child several pictures of dogs, they will learn. They will internalize. They will understand.

Making Bits of Intelligence

For detailed information on how to make good bits, I refer you to Doman's book. However, I have made several sets and do not mind sharing some of the tips I've learned. A good way to find pictures on the internet is to go to google and search just their image engine. I have found several good pictures this way. For example, for musical instruments, I searched for "violin", went through the pictures until I found a violin with a white background I liked, put it in a document where I could print it, and went on to search for clarinet, piano, saxophone, and other instruments.

When I make bits from found pictures, I use a gluestick for the picture on one side, and print of a short sentence (so I can use large print) about the animal in question on the other side. For animals, I like national geographic magazines, which are easy to find used. I have also used several calendars, and some people also use posters. I always laminate them, and they look very professional when they are done.

These are a few calendars that have yet to be made into bits. The bottom three are perfect because they are already just slightly smaller than 8½" by 11". I make all of my cards this size on cardstock because this size is readily available, more affordable, easy to laminate, and then easier to store. Doman never did say what was so special about 11" by 11", so I've disregarded that advice. I've even used flashcards from the dollar store, but tiny children try to eat them.
Brill Baby and Child and Me also have very good resources, but some of them don't have white backgrounds so they're not as printer-friendly. They're absolutely fantastic if you want to do your sessions on the computer and you don't want to make them. I drastically reduced my bit-making productivity when I discovered these resources, and that’s not a bad thing because my time with Peter increased. I purchased a laminater online for $35 from target.com. It only laminates 8 1/2 by 11 sheets or smaller, but it works really well. It's one of my favorite Christmas presents! I purchased 200 laminating sheets from Sam's club for $20, which was cheaper then their online price. I've seen similar prices on other sites for these products. That's the cheapest way I have found to laminate. We have used it a lot, so it was a good investment for us. I recommend laminating because my children can hold them and play with them without damaging them. I want a large family and will have less time for making materials as our family grows, so I need this time investment to pay off. It's so rewarding to see the finished product come out of the laminator. My husband laughs at me because I still giggle with delight when I finish a set.

The Encyclopedic Knowledge program in practice

Here I am doing a session of bits of intelligence cards according to Glenn Doman's book, "How to give your baby Encyclopedic Knowledge". I normally would not do this many cards in a session, and I admit that I'm testing him, which is not advised. Normally I would move through the cards quickly and simply tell him what they are. I made an exception this time because we wanted to make a video. He's 24 months old in this film.
In reading the Doman books, and seeing some of the you-tube videos of amazing tiny children its easy to get so excited about what we're going to do with our children, and when it doesn't work out, it's even easier to get a little depressed about it. "What am I doing wrong?" But we don't give up, and then magic moments happen and we see that we're not doing so bad after all. We have to be grateful for what our children are doing, and not get hung up over what they can't do. There are so many "genius baby" videos an the internet and they have inspired me to implement these programs in our home. But here we must be very careful, because it is so easy to compare our children. Maybe if our own child was side by side to these children in the real world we wouldn't be so intimidated. Each child is unique and has their own gifts and talents. This is not a competition.
When Peter was 12 months old, his interest in bits right seemed to be limited to throwing them all over the floor. Sometimes he would listen, sometimes he would look at the pictures, but mostly I would bring them out and know immediately that it was time to put them away. But I have been somewhat consistent by still offering to do it and a year later we are beginning to see the fruits of our sessions. He is growing every day, and what a joy it is for me as a mother to watch this little man blossom in his understanding.

Organizing your Bits of Intelligence Cards

If you plan on making several bits, it is imperative that you create some system to keep them organized. At first I simply put them on a bookshelf, but as my collection grew, I found myself spending more time looking for the specific cards I wanted then I did spending time showing them to Peter. The system I have in place now was very inexpensive, perhaps even a little tacky, but it is very efficient. I took a used food-storage box for #10 cans, which was the perfect size. I created tabs by cutting 8½ by 11 cardstock pieces in half and writing on them. The smaller tabs were simply trimmed to fit. This box is on my children's dresser, where I have easy access to it. I store construction paper and some other supplies behind the cards. This system works better for me than a filing cabinet would because it has no lid. A lid would create one more step to getting them out and putting them away, which would probably mean that I would not use them as often. To make the program effective and easy to use, create a system that is easy to access, easy to put away, and located where you spend a lot of time with your children. These cards get a lot of use and are loved by both of my children.

Physically superb

Our experience with Doman's "Physically Superb" program

“How to teach your baby to be Physically Superb” is a book that has truly changed the way I interact with my children and how I view their physical development. Now it is a big part of our homeschooling program. I think some of the things he recommends doing in the book are somewhat impractical, like recording how far your child crawls or walks each day to measure improvement. I just did not want to deal with that, but applying the principles have really helped my children. There are a lot of things you can do with your child around the home with things you already have. This book is very different from Doman's other books. It's fully illustrated too.
Some of the things I learned from it are things like dressing your baby for success as they are learning to crawl and walk. For example, having a child wear pants while they're crawling on the carpet is important so that they can be comfortable, and the rough surface of the carpet won't discourage them to try. For walkers, a hard surface without socks or shoes is ideal because it is easier to balance. I spent a lot of time with Peter in the kitchen when he was learning to walk, and it really did make a difference. I also did not hold his hands when he was learning because the book says that the act of holding your arm above your head throws your body off-balance. That made sense to me. When I was helping him learn to walk, I only offered him back up support, catching him if he lost his balance, keeping my support at his waist level. He was walking solidly at 10 months, and I know it was because of the help this book gave me.
His book also talks about the importance of mobility for brain development, not just physical development, as children learn about spatial recognition, and can explore their world. (Baby-wearing is also great for brain development for the same reason.) So don't lock your kid up in a car seat all day. Really the only expensive equipment he recommended was the monkey bars and the crawling track, but there are directions for making them at the end of the book if you choose to do so. Most of it is practical things you can do around the home.

The brachiation ladder

Brachiation ladders are essentially monkey bars. Brachiation ladders help children develop their lungs and upper arm strength. Babies naturally have a lot of upper arm strength, but they lose it if they don't use it, and this is a way to encourage them to maintain it. A lot of the reflexes that babies have are similar to other primates, and other primates need that strength to hold on to their mother at birth, and then for transportation. Here the book appeals to our evolutionary development, and I believe in the Creation theory, but I can take it with a grain of salt. The truth is, we have those reflexes, and the brachiation ladder can help children take advantage of those reflexes. We made a brachiation ladder and Peter LOVES it. We didn't quite make it to Doman's specifications.
See detailed instructions to build a brachiation ladder here.
Ours is 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide, and was made mostly by 2x4s instead of 2x6s (except for the base). The bars were made from 3/4" oak dowels spread 6 inches apart, and the ladder is 18" wide, which is the size Doman recommends for ages 18-36 months. It comes apart in 3 pieces and is easy to transport and store, there's two bases and the ladder. The ladder height is adjustable, we have ours set up so Peter stands on his tip-toes and can reach the bars, so he can independently swing on them. It took my husband and a neighbor about 8 hours to make two, plus the time I spend sanding and painting the ladder, which was also a time consuming thing. The cost was about $45 per ladder, plus the paint which we already had. This price was much less then the estimates I've seen other places to make one. We filmed a lot of the process and are going to make a video, which of course I'll share when we actually do it. Right now Peter is more in the pre-brachiation stage. He likes to move his hands around on the bars, but mostly we let him hang for a few seconds, and he just squeals with delight when we do. We count to three before we let go, and he always laughs in preparation. Of all of the Doman things we've done, this is his favorite, and he requests it several times a day. It was a lot of work to make it, but now we have a very beautiful and useful thing for our children to use, and we're in the beginning stages of parenthood, so we plan on using it for a long time.
We keep our ladder in the nursery. We're co-sleeping, so no bed in the nursery makes a little bit more room. We also store some of Peter's larger toys under the ladder and move them when we brachiate. I know some people put the ladders over the children's bed and that seems to work for them. But we're blessed to have a nursery where it fits, and I don't know if I would want one in our living room. My parents have an outdoor play gym with monkey bars on it, and my little siblings use it A LOT, so an outdoor set is of great benefit too. I know we use our set a lot more because it is inside, especially in the winter.
One safety concern we now have is that our neighbor's older child climbed on top of their ladder and fell through, and the bars were too close for his head to fit. Fortunately it was close enough to the ground for him to stand up and he was alright, but it's a bit scary in that respect.

Here is another use for the brachiation ladder.

...and another use for the crawling track. Weee!

Make a brachiation ladder

How to Make a Brachiation Ladder

by Michael Spackman

We wanted to make a brachiation ladder for our children, but when I saw the instructions of how to make one in Glenn Doman’s book, I thought -- I can improve on that design to fit our needs better. I did learn some things that I would have done a little differently on my ladder now that I have it, but overall I like the portability and cost of the one we did.
I have tried to take a lot of the guess work out of the process for you, but if you don't want to make a brachiation ladder because the project seems daunting, but you really want a ladder, I found a link to a carpenter who will make a brachiation ladder for you. You can also look into hiring a local carpenter if you give them the plans.
I wanted my ladder to be smaller than 10 ft long and 8 ft high -- where would we put it if it were that big? So we made it 6 ft tall and 6 ft long with a base of 4 ft. I also wanted to make it portable, aka, easy to take apart. We sacrificed a little bit of sturdiness for the portability, but it was a decent compromise.

NOTE: I made ours just less than 6 feet long -- 69 inches. If we would have made it a foot longer it could have fit over a twin size bed length wise which might be nice for some of you.

Materials
We spent about $100 to make two ladders, one for me and one for a friend that was letting me use his garage and tools, so close to $50 a piece.
To make a brachiation ladder we needed:
Lumber - we bought framing pine wood. It's cheap, prolific (you can be choosy because there is so much), and easy to work with. We were pretty particular to pick out strait boards without big knots or blemishes.

NOTE: a 2x4 is measured before it gets sanded, so a 2x4 is really 1.75 x 3.75 inches. Don't let that throw your math off.

We bought:

• 1 - 8 ft 2x6
• 7 - 7 ft 2x4(you may need one or two more 2x4 boards if you want to make it taller or longer. I used the extra from the end of the ladder and frame to make the support braces plus a little scrap wood we had.)
• 7 - 3 ft long 3/4 inch oak dowels
• 2 - 4 inch bolts with nuts and 2 washers each (needs to go through two 2x4s and have room for the nut and washers)
• 4 - 2 inch washers with small center whole
• 2 - 4 inch small diameter bolt and wing nut (needs to go through two 2x4s and have room for the nut and washers)

If needed:

• Box of 3 inch long wood screws
• Wood glue
• Sand paper

Tools:

• Power drill / screw driver
• Miter or chop saw
• Drill press
• Drill bits same size as screws for pilot holes and 3/4 inch for dowels
• Tape measure
• Power sander
• Quick Square for measurements
• Level

Making the Ladder

Before I get into the steps, I have to say that you can make a brachiation ladder all by hand, but that it will not turn out as nicely. Having the proper tools to cut and drill the wood is paramount to having a solid ladder. We did not have a drill press and drilled the holes by hand held drill. Some of the holes do not go in exactly strait and we had to sand them lots bigger so the dowels would go though the frame, then the ladder, then back through the frame. If you can, save yourself the trouble and use a drill press.

Step 1 - cut the boards. You will need:

4 boards, 72 inches long for frame sides
Adjust these to the height you want the frame to be. We made a brachiation ladder frame set at 5 feet tall and the other one at 6 ft. We liked the 6 footer a lot more as far as height, but you decide. 2 boards, 69 inches long for ladder sides
Cut two lengths of board the length of ladder you want. This is important to get right so that you have even spacing of rungs along your ladder - you want the spacing of your ladder rungs times the number of rungs + 1 1/2 inches on each end. So we wanted 12 rungs (we're counting spacing between rungs so 11 spaces between rungs) - that's 11 x 6 + (1.5 x 2) = 69 inches long. That’s pretty close to 6 feet. If you were doing rungs 8 inches apart you would probably do 10 rungs for (10 x 8 + (1.5 x 2) ) = 83 inches long -- one inch shy of 7 feet.
2 (2x6) boards for frame base
Cut the 8ft long 2x6 in half for the base bottoms.
2 boards 22 1/2 inches long for top of frame
If you can use the scraps from the other 2x4's for this, great.
2 boards 20 inches long for the ladder angle braces
2 boards 18 inches long for the ladder angle braces
Cut these from scraps you have. You need to have these overlap to a length of about 31 inches. The measurement is not exact as you adjust the length as you put it together. The 20 inch long one does not need to be a 2x4, it could be a 1x4. I cut an inch off the corners on these boards to make them semi rounded so that I didn't have corners poking past the frame or ladder.
6 boards 12 inches long on the longest side for frame base and top support angles
These need to be 45 degree angles on both ends and you will get more out of your board if you cut them at the angle already, then flip it over and cut the next one. Two of these can be from a 1x2 or other scrap wood.
10 dowels at 18 inches long
2 dowels at 26 inches long
2 dowel pegs at a tiny bit less than 3 1/2 inches
To get the 10 dowels in the middle, you cut 5 in half. Measure each piece though because the dowels are not all exactly even and it's important that they are exact for your ladder. The peg pieces come from the ends of the 26 inch long pieces.

TIP: we set up a fence to bump the dowels against so that we had the exact measurement for each board and didn't have to measure each time.

Step 2- Construction

Mark the frame side for drilling and drill 3/4 inch holes. Start 2 inches from the top end and mark a line every 6 inches. If you want something different than 6 inches, make sure they are evenly spaced out as you need the ladder and the supports to move the same amount up or down when you adjust the height. Mark and drill 3/4 inch holes on the ladder. Measure and mark 1 1/2 inches from the end, then every 6 inches (unless you are doing 8). You do this the entire length of the board. If we did our math and measuring right, you should have 1 1/2 inch left when you're done. When you drill the ladder - only go half way in - no more than one inch deep. This will make the dowels go into the side, but not all the way through. Drill the first and last hole all the way through as you want the dowel to go all the way through and into the frame.
Drill a small pilot hole all the way through the holes with a drill bit the same size as your screws.

TIP: we used a speed square - it has an edges that rides down the side of the board and makes measuring the drill hole in the center of the board very easy.TIP: stop drilling just before you get through the other side, flip the board over and start drilling from the small pilot-hole bigger bits leave; this will prevent the wood from chipping as the bit comes out the other side. This can also be achieved if you drill with your work clamped to a scrap piece of wood.

Now we make a ladder
Place the ladder sides next to each other and lay out the 10 dowels that go in the center. Put glue in the holes and spread it around. Put the dowels into one side of the board poking up, and then put the other side on top of them. It might help to wiggle one dowel at a time back out a bit so that it connects inside the hole of both sides. Use a hammer to tap the two sides together firmly seating all 10 dowels into both boards.
Pilot drill a hole from the side of the ladder into each dowel. This is CRITICAL as you will split the dowels if you do not. Seal the deal by putting a screw into each dowel.
Wipe up any glue that came out. Wood glue is water soluble till it dries.
We use glue so the dowels don't spin when they are put together, but the screws really hold the ladder together.

Build the frames (do this twice)

NOTE: I measured my ladder width once it was put together so that I would get this part right. Mine was 1/8 inch narrower than 19 1/2 inches so that's how wide I made my frame. You might need to make it slightly narrower or wider. Err on the side of being slightly wider.

On the 2x6, mark two lines for the sides of the frames 19 1/2 inches apart (9 3/4 inches from center on both sides). We marked another line 22 1/2 inches apart so we could see where the frame sides would sit to drill holes etc.
Drill two pilot holes in the 2x6 base and then attach the sides of the frame with two screws through the bottom of the base.
Drill two pilot holes in the 22 1/2 inch top boards Measure the top part of the frame to be 19 1/2 inches on the inside and attach the across the top.
Now that you have the square frame put together, it will be wobbly without the support angles in place. You need to square the frame up just like you would a door frame. To do so, lay down the frame. Tweak it till the opposite corners measure the same i.e. measure from the top right corner to the bottom left corner and top left to bottom right (forms an X). Once it's trued, attach the top angle support using screws. This should make it stay put long enough to add the two supports at the bottom.

Creating your support pegs
Drill a hole through the center of the 3 inch dowel pegs. Run the 4 inch small bolt through a washer, and then through the hole in the dowel. When you use these, you will add the washer and wing nut to the other side.
Putting it all together
Once the glue in the ladder has had a chance to set, we want to add the ladder stabilizer supports (we did put screws in it so you don’t have to wait days for it to dry before you do this step). Drill a hole for your bolt between rungs 4 and 5 - should be about 22 inches from the end of the ladder. Drill another hole into the 18 inch board near the end of the board. Fasten the 18 inch board to the ladder with the bolt using a washer in between and on the side with the nut. Do this on the same side of the ladder board but between rungs 8 and 9.
Drill a 3/4 inch hole into the two remaining 20 inch boards near one of the ends.
Now the balancing act...
This part requires at least two people as the ladder will be very unstable while you do this. It might help to push one of the frames up against a wall.
Put the ladder into the frame towards the top by sliding the 26 inch dowel through a hole in the frame, then the ladder, and then through the frame again. If you cannot slide it through the holes -- it means they are not aligned and you will have to sand the holes a little bigger in the frame and / or ladder so that the dowel fits through them all. Attach the other side of the ladder so it is in the other frame. Just let the 18 inch boards hang loosely for now.
Attach the 20 inch boards to the frame using the dowel pegs skipping two holes or about 18 inches from where the ladder is connected.
The goal will be to square the ladder to the frames, and then tack the two boards together (the 18 inch and the 20 inch). You should have about 8 inches overlap to connect the boards.
To square it up, you can use a large carpenter's square, or you can make the frame level vertically and then the ladder level horizontally, but that might be really hard. It doesn't have to be perfect, just close. Once you have the frame and ladder how you want them, Hold the 18 inch board up underneath the 20 inch board and mark where they meet. Once you have it marked fasten the two boards together using nails or screws. (We used an air compressor and finishing nails to tack them together, but that was because it was just handy.)
When one side is done, move to the other side.

NOTE: if the ladder will not fit inside the frame at all because there is not enough space - then you might be able to squeak some room in by taking off the top piece of the frame and widening the frame at the top, then re-attaching the top.TIP: we used a Dremel tool to sand the holes bigger. As we drilled the holes by hand - they were terribly skewed and we had to sand a lot.

Finished!!!
Wow! Now you have made a brachiation ladder. It's portable, adjustable, and yours.
Some final thoughts:

• We sanded and painted the boards before we glued the dowels in. This made it easy to work on and not get paint on the dowels. I suggest you do some finish work on it before you get it all put together.
• This design allows for some wiggle, but it is strong enough. In the next video, I hang from it and shake it hard. I weigh 165 lbs and can shake pretty hard. My little 2 year old would have a hard time making it move but just a tiny bit.
• 3/4 inch dowels won't hold more than a 6 year old and so the brachiation ladder doesn't need to be bigger than what a 6 year old could reach. We figure by the time our kids need something bigger and more solid, we will make a new one with 1 inch dowels.
• The spacing between the bars of 6 inches is dangerous. Our boy can fit his body between the bars but not his head. That means that if we let him play on top and he were to fall through the bars, he could be seriously hurt. Just be careful and watchful. He is drawn to climb to and play on top. I haven't figured out If netting or some sort of board across the top would prevent that or not or how to set it up so that it would protect him. Any suggestions?
  

Dimensions of our ladder:

(4 - 2x4) height 72" -- ends up being 75 after you add the top and bottom boards (2 - 2x6) base width 48" (2 - 2x4) top width 22.5" inside frame width 19.5" ladder width 19.4" (5 - 3/4" oak dowel cut in half) rung width 18" (2 - 3/4" oak dowel) end rungs to hold ladder 26" (2 - 3/4" oak dowel) 3" piece to hold support, get from scrap of other dowels (2 - 2x4) ladder length 69" (12 rungs 6" apart = 66" + 1.5" at each end) (2 - 2x4) support beam length 31" other scraps to build the support triangles screws (2) 4" lag bolts with nuts and washers to hold supports to ladder (2) 4" bolts with washers and wingnuts