Sunday, May 26, 2013

Bringing Us Closer Together: Thank You, Glenn Doman, for This Amazing Piece of Your Legacy

Glenn Doman bringing mothers and babies closer together original image: IAHP facebook page

"Once, many years ago, someone who did not agree with Glenn's ideas about early learning said of him, 'All Glenn Doman is doing is driving mothers and babies closer together.'
Well, it is not all that Glenn did in his long and highly productive life, but he often said, 'Put that on my tombstone, make that my epitaph: He drove mothers and babies closer together, and I will rest well.' "

Glenn Doman lived such an amazing, dedicated, impactful life. His service to the children of the world both directly and indirectly is so close to immeasurable, one can almost only dream about the influence this one man has had in his great lifetime. His legacy and reach will surely continue on for centuries.

There is so much that could be said of him, his life, and the impact he has had.

But today, I am pondering just one very minuscule fraction of that.

Even just of all the amazing things he has meant to our one family, today I am thinking about one very small part of that: how he brought me closer to my children in a powerful and extraordinary way.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"Every child has, at the instant of birth, greater potential intelligence than Leonardo Da Vinci ever used." -Glenn Doman


Thank you, Glenn Doman, for opening my eyes to the incredible capabilities and potential of my children.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"If, after reading this book, mother does nothing more than look at her baby with new respect, that will be wonderful. For surely that new respect will profoundly effect the way in which she raises her child." -Glenn Doman


For this knowledge has created a level of great respect and admiration towards my children that I never would have otherwise known, and changed the way I interact with them in for the infinite good.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"Tiny kids can learn anything that you can present to them in an honest, factual way. If you give them the facts they'll deduce the laws that govern them. That is exactly the same method that scientists use to discover laws. So don't give them theories and abstractions, give them facts, give them reality. From the facts little children are brilliantly able to intuit the laws." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for gifting me with such a strong motivation to have more quality interactions with them.

Thank you for opening my eyes to how meaningful and important and long-lastingly beneficial these interactions with my children are.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"When parents take honest pleasure in the company of their children they become the best teachers their children will ever have." -Glenn Doman


For within this increased time joyfully interacting together, our relationship has grown in indescribable ways.

The gift of time spent together, it is the most precious and priceless gift in the world. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for bringing us together in this way.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"The brain grows by use. There are very few sentences of only five words that contain more power to change the world than this one." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for teaching me the amazing way in which my children's brains grow. Thank you for teaching me which activities and interactions and opportunities develop which areas of the brain, and for what purposes.

Thank you for teaching me why this is important to intentionally provide opportunities to grow the brain, rather than leaving it to accident or chance.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold." -Glenn Doman


For this information and understanding has given me such a powerful sense of joy and satisfaction in our time spent together, as I am aware of the ways in which I am helping my children's brains grow and blossom, and in turn, helping their spirits grow and blossom as well.

It has transformed what might have been a dullness of simple routines to a bliss of meaningful pastimes.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
“The growth and development of the human child is much too important to be left to chance.” -Glenn Doman


It has changed my sense of purpose and dedication as a mother and bettered our relationship and quality of life. It has opened my eyes to see beauty and meaning and power in the seemingly mundane moments.

For in childhood there are no mundane moments, only moments of great potential and opportunity to be either squandered in meaningless pursuits, or captured and shared for the good.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"This book is dedicated to all the parents of the world throughout history who have delighted in standing their babies atop their own broad shoulders and saying, BEHOLD THE WORLD MY CHILD." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for teaching me to believe in myself as a mother. Thank you for teaching me to see my own value in my children's lives. It has made me better, and made us better, it has made our relationship and time together better.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"Inextricably tied to human mobility and manual function is human intelligence." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for teaching me about physical mobility and its effects on brain function and development. Thank you for introducing me to all the wonderful physical activities that can benefit my children and, as a pleasant side effect, myself.

Thank you for all of the family runs and jogs and hikes and after-dinner walks. Thank you for the extra trips to the playgrounds and the parks. Thank you for the family swimming sessions learning how to swim better or longer together. Thank you for the balance games and tumbling sessions enjoyed in the living room and on the lawn.

Thank you for all the extra things that I never would have done with them if it weren't for you.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"Very young children can and do learn to read words, sentences, and paragraphs in exactly the same way they learn to understand spoken words, sentences, and paragraphs." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for introducing me to the world of early learning.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"Always remember that math is a game. It is fun! It is playing with your baby." -Glenn Doman


For these moments spent teaching my children and exploring the incredible, beautiful world of knowledge with them have been the best and most meaningful of my life.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"Little kids... hear musical notes in the sounds of refrigerators and in horns in traffic. We see math, and they see solving problems. We see gymnastics as a subject and they see how the human body moves." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for the chance to see my children's eyes light up when they learn something new, or figure something out, or understand for the first time something great.

For because of you these moments have been multiplied exponentially and have been found in ways that would have otherwise been never known.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"The younger they are, the more they believe that learning is a joy. The younger they are, the easier it is to learn anything." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for the opened doors of discovery we got to walk through together.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"By regularly reading classical literature to a child, using selections beyond his own reading ability, a parent will stimulate his enjoyment, imagination, and understanding of the vast and beautiful language of his culture." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for introducing us to the path of so many interesting, beguiling discoveries that lay waiting for us, ones that we otherwise never would have had the pleasure of experiencing together.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
“Every mother who embarks upon this adventure expects to expand her tiny child’s ability. She does this with such vim and vigor that she hardly takes the time to assess the changes that are taking place in her own abilities and viewpoint, until one day when she finds herself happily preparing to teach her child calculus or nuclear physics and is brought up short by her own bravado. She is startled, but not for long. ‘I always secretly knew I could learn anything’ she says to herself and gets back to work teaching her child.” -Glenn Doman


For these shared adventures have been sewn into the very essence of our being: a shared journey, a shared memory, a shared pool of knowledge, a shared interest and love that will eternally connect us, and enrich our conversations and hearts for the rest of our lives.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"The purpose of giving a child encyclopedic knowledge is not to make Nobel Prize winners, or concert violinists, or Olympic stars, or geniuses of any sort. It is to give them unlimited options in life." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for opening the doors to greater hope and joy in my and my children's futures. For this new sense of potential and hope has, in turn, enriched our joy of the present exponentially.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"If indeed knowledge leads to good, surely this world will be a better place when its children are more capable and as a consequence more confident of their own superb abilities, and more able to use those abilities to solve the problems that beset us. This is, after all, what the gentle revolution is all about." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for the games. Thank you for the silliness. Thank you for inspiring me to creativity and ingenuity in finding fun ways to play with and teach my children.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"They knew the real secret. They knew that the magic is in the child, not in the materials... Most specifically, the magic is in the child's incredible human brain." -Glenn Doman


Thanks for the smiles. Thanks for the laughs.

In discovering the silliness of Andrew Jackson's hair.

Or the humor of Mommy playing peek-a-boo from behind a math equation.

Or the joyful abandonment found in dancing to Tchaikovsky.

Thank you for the kisses and the cuddles and the snuggles and the hugs. Thanks for the belly blows and wrestles and the high-fives and goofy faces.

Thank you for teaching me that learning together is the most joyful and wonderful experience a parent and child could ever have.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
“Mothers are the very best teachers. They know their children better than anyone else, and they love their children better than anyone else. And it turns out that kids are pretty crazy about their mothers too.” -Glenn Doman


Thank you for the chance to get to know my children better than I ever normally would have.
To, in planning for our learning together, study them and discover the things they would like to learn about and the best ways to teach them.

To, in teaching them, learn so much more about their preferences and favorites, about their moods, about their actions and reactions at different times of day and under different conditions.
To get the chance to notice. Notice little things that might have otherwise been overlooked. To notice their subtle changes and growth and development. To celebrate the neurological milestones that I might have otherwise never known to look for.

Getting to know my children in this deep and intimate level - has been priceless. And I thank you.

Glenn Doman Bringing Mothers and Babies Closer Together
"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." -Glenn Doman


Thank you for opening the door to the joy and power that is learning together

We are eternally grateful for the miracle that is you who brought us closer together in immeasurable ways.

Your incredible legacy lives on. Thank you.



3 comments:

  1. 2013/05/28 at 10:13 am

    What a moving tribute. Thank you for writing this post and adding some perspective to my day, tomorrow and forever.

    I have detailed plans of what I want to teach my children in the years to come, I have ideas about how to schedule math and music and language. Thank you for reminding me to schedule some silliness and cherishable moments too.

    You’re life, and the lives of your little boys is living a tribute to what Mr. Doman was about. He would be proud.

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  2. 2013/06/06 at 10:28 am

    This is a very beautiful post and one of the main reasons this blog has sparked my interest in Glenn Doman and his methods for early learning. Thank you for your inspiration.

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  3. 2014/10/23 at 6:01 pm

    This is really lovely.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments!