In June 2005, Alice and Robert Hollis, from San Antonio, Texas, attended the How To Multiply Your Baby’s Intelligence Course, presented at The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, in Wyndmoor, PA. Mr. Hollis returned in May 2006 for the How To Multiply Your Baby’s Intelligence Graduate Course. He went home full of enthusiasm to teach their two daughters and son—Ciara, then 36 months, Jasmine, then 20 months, and Vaughn then 3 months. Here is a reflection of the Hollis’s first year with The Institutes Early Development Program at home.


We took the How To Multiply Your Baby’s Intelligence Courses for one simple reason—nothing is too good for our children. They are our reason for being; they are our legacy. We were in search of something to really tap our children’s learning potential at an early age. The book How To Teach Your Baby Math opened a door and led us to an incredible pathway of opportunity for them. We simply want to do all we can to maximize their quality of life and we now know how to play an active role in that pursuit.
Within months of attending the first course, Ciara started trotting up to 3/4 of a mile, and even running in cross-pattern. Jasmine had been very far behind in her ability to move, but is now showing exceptional balance and mobility. Vaughn has reaped the benefits of The Institutes from birth. Within his first two months of life, he had accumulated over 1,000 yards of crawling. By 2.5 months, he had started sleeping 10 to 12 hours through the night consistently. His muscle development in his legs, arms, back, and neck allow him to lift his head to the ceiling and to take in the full view of the room around him. He can also hold his breath underwater for over four seconds and is ready for us to take his swimming lessons to the pool.
Intellectually, the girls have taken in over 3,000 Bits of Information in the past seven months. They love them so much that we created a game for them to play: TickleBits. We show them Bits they have seen in groups, and let them solve problems with them (such as “Which one is your favorite?”, “Where’s the mammal?”, and “Which piece was painted by Rembrandt?”). It is such an incredible experience to see our daughters lunge at the only appropriate answer and get rewarded with tickles.
Math has been easy for both girls, probably because that’s where we started. The Graduate Course has given us the tools to let them stretch beyond arithmetic and simple algebra. We have plans to introduce Cartesian Math as part of their pathway to higher mathematics. Both girls have demonstrated that they’re capable of more than we’ve thrown at them so far, and we now have the tools to keep them moving forward.
To be honest, the speed-reading abilities of The Institutes kids seemed unachievable to us. We therefore launched our reading programs with only the expectation of getting them to read early. Speed reading early would be a tremendous bonus. We are still entrenched in the reading program with lots of individual words and phrases, but Ciara has started to show signs of reading faster than I can read out loud to her. She has also taken the initiative to read some things (such as part of a grocery shopping list) to her little sister.
Being fluent in only one language (English), we were rather apprehensive of teaching additional languages to our kids. Given our locale and their heritage, we desperately want them to be fluent in Spanish and had hoped they could learn one or two others as well (French and Japanese). Today, Ciara has started to use Spanish words and phrases, and even prefers to do her computer math problem-solving in Spanish. As we continue to encourage Spanish, we’ll be giving the children more exposure to French and Japanese to give them some familiarity and options for later in life.
Our programs have extended far beyond what we thought possible. With both parents working full-time with many, many extra hours, we are shocked when we review this past year and consider all that we have covered. Anatomy, geography, art, music appreciation, performing arts (piano), arithmetic, math, horticulture, zoology, Biblical history, American history, astronomy, biology, and more seems like a lot, but since we rolled these topics in little by little and within the means of our schedule we have personally experienced just how doable this is. The best part of it all is that the kids truly love these experiences. The smiles, laughs, intelligence, and confidence they show provide all the fuel we need to keep up our efforts.
—Rob Hollis, Professional Father