All Working Moms

[pp118]

 I am a fulltime working mom and I am unable to be consistent with my child. I leave for work at 6AM and my son is sleeping then I get home by 6:30PM and we do onesession of LM and LR and by 8:30PM we do another session. IS this OKI? I cant do any flashcards to EK etc. I wish I had more time to spend with my DS.

All working moms there, pls share your experiences and challenges.

Thank you

[linzy]

I work and that is similar to what I do. With my eldest we do reading right before bed. He reads well now so I read him a chapter of a read aloud book, he reads me a chapter of his book (original Winnie the Pooh or alternating pages with me in Harry Potter or something like that), then I read a section from a childrens encyclopedia.When he was younger I would read three picture books and then we would do a reading lesson once he got to be about 2. My babysitter does a math flashcard review with him daily and he does one page each of the kumon writing and math books (We will be switching to Jones Genius Math 3 and copywork soon though). In the evening we also do some math either reading "addition the fun way" or fact review or sometimes he requests that we just "do mathematics" and we will do multiplication, addition with carrying, multidigit subtraction, counting coins or telling time (but those we just do at his request because he is interested we don't really do any practice.

For my younger son (16 months) we do litle reader and math (just one lesson a day), he also watches YBCR, Preschool Prep and little Pim French intermittently. We work on easy puzzles and shape sorting in the evening and he does a lot of drawing and playing with Duplos. He is present during our evening reading time and I also read 1-2 picture books to him.

[pp118]

Thanks Linzy, just wanted to be sure that I was not going wrong.

My babysitter is not tech savvy and hence I cannot have her do the sessions with him nor can she converse well in English so flashcards are outta question too. I really feel he can do something more during the day- any suggestions?

[mom2bee]

How do you have your LR and LM set up?

Your baby sitter should be more than capable of using the software for your son if you take the time to show her how.

Why don't you create a 2nd user, delete EVERYTHING off the desktop and have only 1 or 2 VERY LARGE icons on the desktop for LR (1) and LM (2). Leave that user running and unlocked when your son is with the babysitter. Show her how to use the software for a couple of sessions and then ask her to use the program with your son.

What is your babysitters native language, does she speak it with your son? If so, then perhaps your will benefit more from doing activities with his babysitter, in which he gets alot of verbal instructions and prodding.

[pp118]

Thanks for the suggestion Mom2Bee
My baby sitter does stories and songs in our native language. Apart from that they do building blocks and I have asked her to show him how to use colors as he started showing some interest in them too.
I did try to teach her LM/LR on the laptop howver she is afraid of doing it wrong , she is OK playing a DVD player and has shown him YBCR a couple of times however my son is seems to be bored of YCBR.

[linzy]

Our sitter used to be only spanish speaking. I had her do a letter of the day with an activity in her native language. Counting in spanish. Reading many Spanish books throughout the day. They did play-doh, coloring, cutting.

[pp118]

Thanks Linzy for these great ideas, I will have my baby sitter try them

[Sarah108]

PP118

I am also a working mother. In the mornings, my maid shows her little reader. We are fortunate to have a wonderful an au pair in the afternoons, who creates right-brain specific lessons and follows a lesson plan with her.

HOWEVER!!!! - I would like to stress that "afraid" of doing it wrong sounds like she lacks confidence, which I KNOW you can give her. My maid comes from a rural area in Africa, and has THREE years of schooling behind her (in total!!!).

I did EXACTLY as Mom2Be suggested and took away all the icons. I sat with her patiently, showed her how to switch on the computer, and how to work little reader. We did it a few times until she had the hang of it. Not only did it boost her confidence incredibly, but it also made her feel like we were including her more in my daughter's life.

She also puts on the DVD player to play Tweedlewink lessonsw which have been invaluable.

I really think that we are terribly disadvantages to be working, but we have the gift of knowing this incredible early learning technique, and we should exploit it as much as possible. Why don't you try to train her and keep giving her confidence boosters, to make her feel more confident.

It doesn't matter if she messes up your program - you just reload it.

Best of luck!

[pp118]

Sarah108:

You are right- I feel so terrible at a loss when I see other moms working so hard with the children and here as a working mom have no time at all.I feel so helpless and think I should quit but financially wont help us at all. I want to encorporate flashcards into his routine but again time is a terrible constraint here.

I agree with boosting my BabySitter to help out my son. I am going to give it a try and see if that would help.

PP118

[Sarah108]

P118, it is with great difficulty that we go to work each morning. I, like you leave at about 630 and return at 1830 and it breaks my heart.

There really are many wonderful opportunities that you don't have to lose out on, though, with your children. It sounds like you're doing a great job of being committed to showing LR - even when you're exhausted when you come home!

On the weekends, if you can find ANY time to make flashcards, and have them printed, then maybe you could augment your lessons in the evening with some physical  flashcards, which may differentiate their learning and pique their interest.

I also use beads etc for Maths - have a look at one of my recent threads of more physical maths activities which I do with my daughter which stimulate interest and may even be fun for you and your child. Even if you only manage to do it on the weekends with them, it certainly could be a fun bonding time with your child, and would take about 5-10 minutes out of your busy sat and sunday.

I also purchased some montessori materials, such as the dressing frames, the knobbed cylinders, the maths bars, thermic tablets, colour tablets etc and we play with those i the evening when I get home. In that way, she is learning AND having fun. I do try to ensure that we also have imaginative play - which is very important for Right brain development. Many of the montessori "toys" you can make yourself.

I think the important thing to remember is that after a long day's work, you're terribly exhausted, and probably the last thing you feel like is sitting doing lessons with your child, So if you mix them up a little, it may be more interesting for you too, and therefore may make you more enthusiastic which will also spill over onto your child.

[shaman]

PP118,

I went through the same thing for many months. I spoke to my son's daycare teacher about using flash cards and she did. I let her do it the way she wanted to but told her that she should limit each session to 2 minutes and try to do it atleast 2-3 times if possible. To her credit, she did do some flash cards with him- something is better than nothing I stressed the 2 minute session thing with her. During that time, she showed it to him, he played with it, tore it  but atleast he got used to seeing words and later did identify them!

I also wrote large words and labelled things around the house. I would just ask my husband to carry him around the house and stop for 10 seconds where he saw the word and show it to my son. My husband did'nt know how to use the LR- I think I scared him by telling him all the rules    My son would point at things when I asked him about the labelled items- that helped his vocabulary atleast.

I recently made a song from 1-20 forwards and backwards, sang it to the tune of the phonics song (on youtube- sing read spell and write) and recorded it on the iphone. I play that on and off or my son- he looks amused  and pays attention. Maybe you can record a few things in your voice and ask your nanny to play it for him.

Even if you do the LR once a day, he'll pick up things...just be consistent.

Hope that helps.

Shaman

[pp118]

Shaman,

Its great that your Daycare would help you with the flashcards. For one of my friends the Daycare providers refused stating its not a part of their curricullum. However labelling items is a great idea. I can have labels put all throughout the house this way my son would read and recognise the words. Ofcourse we as parents would need to do a round with him on weekends and week nights.

[pp118]

P118, it is with great difficulty that we go to work each morning. I, like you leave at about 630 and return at 630 and it breaks my heart.

There really are many wonderful opportunities that you don't have to lose out on, though, with your children. It sounds like you're doing a great job of being committed to showing LR - even when you're exhausted when you come home!

On the weekends, if you can find ANY time to make flashcards, and have them printed, then maybe you could augment your lessons in the evening with some physical  flashcards, which may differentiate their learning and pique their interest.

I also use beads etc for Maths - have a look at one of my recent threads of more physical maths activities which I do with my daughter which create interest and may even be fun for you and your child. Even if you only manage to do it on the weekends with them, it certainly could be a fun bonding time with your child, and would take about 5-10 minutes out of your busy sat and sunday.

I also purchased some montessori activities, such as the dressing frames, the knobbed cylinders, the maths bars, thermic tablets, colour tablets etc and we play with those i the evening when I get home. In that way, she is learning AND having fun. I do try to ensure that we also have imaginative play - which is very important for Right brain development. Many of the montessori "toys" you can make yourself.

I think the important thing to remember is that after a long day's work, you're terribly exhausted, and probably the last thing you feel like is sitting doing lessons with your child, So if you mix them up a little, it may be more interesting for you too, and therefore may make you more enthusiastic which will also spill over onto your child.

Math beads is a great idea. These small activities will definately help bonding time too with the child
Thanks a lot Sarah108

[Kballent]

That's fantastic that so many of you were able to have sitters or day care help teach your children.  I kind of have the opposite question.  My son will be starting day care in a couple months while I go back to school full time.  Have any of you had experience telling a day care NOT to teach your child something?  I plan on starting LR and LM as soon as I can get the money saved for them.  I've already started Doman style teaching.  DS is 3 months and I want to make sure he has a really strong foundation before they start teaching him the letters or symbol style numbers (vs quantities). 

[KL]

That's fantastic that so many of you were able to have sitters or day care help teach your children.  I kind of have the opposite question.  My son will be starting day care in a couple months while I go back to school full time.  Have any of you had experience telling a day care NOT to teach your child something?  I plan on starting LR and LM as soon as I can get the money saved for them.  I've already started Doman style teaching.  DS is 3 months and I want to make sure he has a really strong foundation before they start teaching him the letters or symbol style numbers (vs quantities). 

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about that at all. If they teach letters and sounds, I think it's fine.  In a way, it's no different from whole words. To babies, a letter is also a 'thing', with it's own 'sound'. I don't see any harm there.

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