Anyone doing all three programs??

[mrseddy]

I currently have the trial version of all three programs and thinking of purchasing the bundle.  I have two LOs - 2.5 and 1 y/o.  I want to start them both on the programs (have been using flashcards for the past month) but wanted to see if that is feasible to do and how other people are structuring their days.  Would I do 1 lesson from each program back to back say in the morning and one again in the evening?  the lessons don't seem too long so this seems like an option.  Currently, we do BITs via videos during mealtimes and both boys love it so i think they would have the attention span to sit through....but i also want to weave in flashcards, puzzles, writing, drawing, BITs, etc. throughout the day.  I tried searching the forum for ideas but couldn't seem to find any hits.   Any thoughts?

[Skylark]

Hi Mrseddy and welcome to our community!

2.5 and 1 yo is an excellent age for all the programs. My two youngest ones are 1 yo and 3 yo ( so almost the same)

We do all 3 programs - Little Reader, Little Math and Little Musician, as well as Little Reader Mandarin, Russian Lessons in Little Reader and Custom Made courses in Little Reader for Encyclopedic Knowledge in Geography, Chemistry, Music Appreciation, Art Appreciation, writing and general EK.

For me the main advantage in Little Reader is that I have a year-worth of prepared lessons available on the click of the mouse. What I mean is that before I had to prepare all our learning materials for the week in advance - flashcards, EK cards, math facts, etc. While it worked ( even though it was a lot of work) with 1 child, it was close to impossible feat with 3 little ones who are only a year apart. Not just preparing the materials, but organizing it  and marking each child's progress.

BrillKids products were a real Early Learning Salvation for me.

Each program comes with an option of creating a separate profile for each child. Once you do that, the progress for each child will be marked and kept track of!

While it is a great idea to have some kind of schedule, for us we have more of a general guidline, and when it is a good opportunity and kids are ready we watch a lesson.

We usually do LR lesson in the morning, followed by a couple of customs created LR courses I have for my little ones (according to their interests), sometime mid-morning we do Little Math ( very briefly), following it by some simple hands on math activity, when we have time and interest, if not we go on straight into Little Musician lesson which we follow with some dance along to classical music, or independent play to classical music. At 4 yo my daughter has a perfect pitch and she usually goes on to improvise melodies, using bells, xylophone or guitar right after Little Musician. While other kids watch and participate.

So as you can see we usually fit in our short LR, LM and LMs lessons in the morning, sometimes back to back, others days with some additional activities inbetween. My 1 yo is on different lessons from my 3 yo. So I usually do it with him one on one and my 3 yo joins if he wants to ( which is often the case) and " helps" his baby brother to play the games    Which is a great review for him.

Some days we fit in the second session in the evening, but others days we do not. I am not stressing about it. We usually do our languages and additional custom courses just before or just after the dinner.

If we have not fit the second session in the evening, I just going on to the next day lessons the next day, and it worked really well for us.

Hope it helps! You are always welcome to ask more question and I will try to answer!

[mrseddy]

Skylark - thank you so much for such a detailed (and quick) response! So reassuring and helpful!  We had our inaugural run with all three programs today and my older one is hooked!  My 1 y/o is much more interested in exploring his surroundings now that he can walk but I'm finding the best time to go through flashcards-and today, with the programs-is during their meals because they're seated (baby is restrained  ) and there are less distractions.  The 1 y/o will sometimes look away then look at the screen -- and when I tried showing the program in-between mealtime, he would walk away and then return to see what was going on then be off again.

I am so happy I stumbled on Brillkids and Doman's methods when I did.  It was by accident.  A girlfriend mentioned she took her LO to his 4 y/o checkup and was feeling down on herself b/c he wasn't reading yet or doing anything particularly "advanced" and I exclaimed why on earth would you expect him to be reading at 4?!  She said she knew someone who flashed words to their son from the time he was 6 months old and at 5 was reading Shakespeare.  So, I retorted that he obviously was a rare gifted specimen and she said there's this whole program of flashing cards to babies/toddlers.  I had to see it for myself.  Fast forward about two months and hours upon hours of research and print outs, I now feel like I have direction!! I feel like my days are no longer aimless and I don't have the guilt of not knowing if I did enough for my kids that day.  And I can breathe a sigh of relief that I have a pre-built program that is seemingly comprehensive.  Phew!  In fact, I have been wavering about continuing to work  - long before I learned about Doman.  I wanted to stay home with the boys but felt unproductive some days and thought myself more useful to myself and others if I worked.  But now the decision is a no-brainer.  I am so impassioned about early learning that there's no going back.

My older son has always shown an intense curiosity, attention to detail and focus but I didn't know how to nourish it beyond what I was already doing.  Yet I knew there had to be something more.  By 17 months he was putting together alphabet puzzles unassisted, knew his colors, basic shapes, could count to 10, spell his name and by 22 months was doing 12 piece puzzles unassisted. I had always wondered how some adults always seemed to know everything about everything.  Exposure!! Of course! And why not start exposing now?

Skylark - just a couple more questions....with the BITs, how long do you show them for? 10 days, fewer? Then maybe refresh on them every once in a while? Also, have you been on the "welovebrillkids" site? They sell the programs a little cheaper but wanted to see if it was recommended to purchase from there vs here.

Thank you!!

[Skylark]

So nice to hear that your kids loved the program!

I have 3 Little Ones and my 4 yo ironically can read Shakespeare :-), well anything she gets her hands on for that matter  She reads chapter books, encyclopedias, she is standing beside me when I am typing sometimes and reads faster then I can type.  My 3 yo is almost there, he reads simple things and my 1 yo loves his Little Reader to pieces.

I would not worry much about your 1 yo wandering away and back when you show lessons. At that age kids are amazingly fast learners, they use predominantly right brain for reading, math. music, logic activities and sometimes just a brief glance is sufficient for taking it in, they use photographic memory of sorts. I read a lot about it in Shichida writings, where in some of his centers they will continue doing activities with the child seemingly paying not much attention, but then when they tested the retention they were getting it all. I also noticed it with my oldest daughter, because she was very very early talker and was able to communicate very clearly with words and signs. At that age, she was so excited about her new mobility, that she would not sit still. We continued ( enthusiastically) with short regular lessons, and she was getting it all!!

But it is also a great idea showing their lessons at their meal times, it also will help you to establish some sorts of a routine! And kids love routine, it helps them to anticipate what will be happening, and they grow to love the activity.

Feel free to ask more questions, we all here happy to share our experiences, and we all learn from each other!

[mrseddy]

Thanks, Skylark! Again, very encouraging words. Wow, sounds like you are doing an amazing job! It's nice to see that you've been able to give your kids the gift of learning - and the foundation for a lifetime of the love for learning!

Can I ask at what age did you start your 4 y/o with LR?  Also, have you seen a similar trajectory from LR as compared to when you were preparing the materials yourself? I assume you've had to supplement LR with more advanced words? Lastly, for BITs, how long do you show the same set of information for? a week or depending on interest level? 

Thanks again so much for your help!

[Skylark]

Thank you for your kind words!

We started with my oldest one about 11 months with LR (at about 6 months with physical flashcards ( I did not know about LR before that)). I believe we could have done the same with physical flashcards, if I would have unlimited time and finances to prepare large variety of paper flashcards, somehow organize  them similarly how LR lessons are organized and make sure each word represented by variety of fonts, pictures, sizes etc    Those critical features of LR made all the difference for us

We did not supplement LR lessons with more advanced words, she started to read words that she has never seen shortly before finishing LR course. We did not do anything to teach her phonics, but she figured out most of the phonics rules herself from LR lessons and us reading together. We traveled a lot internationally and  I had 3 babies in 3.5 years, so we were not consistent, we had breaks, we stopped and started, we did not had your "perfect" learning schedule, but we enjoyed doing EL activities together,  we did not stress about it. My goal was not to make them geniuses, but to have fun learning new thigs together and to not deprive them of opportunities. They enjoyed learning new things so much, and that what we gave them -- opportunities to learn

In addition to Little Reader we read every day a lot. Also when we read I always followed the words we read tracing them under with my finger or one of the kids fingers, this is the method of native reading you can read more about, but it is pretty straightforward -- just read variety of books, with variety of vocabulary, and make sure you point at the words. It worked really well for us.

Have to run now, but hope I answered some of the questions  

[luv2laugh]

Skylark - you are so inspiring!  I love your attitude and feel similarly.  My mom balked today that our home looks like we have a 3 year old, not a 4 month old. I just told her that we love learning and like sharing it with her.  Whether she learns a lot of none of it at all, we are attempting to satisfy her curiosity and having a lot of fun doing so.   

My little girl is 4 1/2 months old and we've been doing the trial version of little math and music (repeatedly) and full versions of little reader english and mandarin for the last couple months. I am excited for when we purchase little math and music, but finances just don't make it realistic.  She still enjoys the short lessons of little math and the music and interaction of little music - they are actually her favorite.  I thought it would be more important for her not to get bored of the words so we purchased those.  It is odd to me that YBCR is the same words over and over again.  We don't watch a lot of those videos, but I will put some on a a bit.  She's really enjoying those books lately and I think I may make some of my own.  They are perfect for baby readers - big words, pages that are easy to turn and difficult to destroy!

Now that she is done with crazy colic and able to interact with her environment more, I think I want to implement a 1.5-3 hour school schedule and just do it every morning rain and shine - unless she is sick of course.  Lately, she's had boundless energy and is barely napping.  I was thinking of making it preschool-ish.  I already have a calendar, like this

http://www.amazon.com/Get-Ready-Kids-Classroom-Calendar/dp/B001AZ6Q5M/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1390183618&sr=8-20&keywords=school+calendar

I was thinking of buying something like this....
http://www.amazon.com/Scholastic-Teachers-Friend-TF5102-Schedule/dp/0545114985/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390183677&sr=8-2&keywords=classroom+schedule

I'm playing around with schedule ideas, but was thinking....

1.  Calendar
2.  Songs (with ASL signs)
3.  Little Math and music- labeled computer
4.  Play and tummy time
5.  10 minutes of Reading Books
6.  Little Reader - mandarin and english - labeled computer
5.  Play and tummy time
7.  Songs
8.  All Done

We don't have her on a schedule for food/sleep, so we would attend to those needs as necessary.  If we do second sessions, I would usually just do them when she is alert, but low energy.  Just like playtime, math and reading, we will do more during the day, but I don't know if it needs to be scheduled.  It's a little different with an infant, as she isn't mobile.  Sometimes I put it out for tummy time, as it motivates her to stay on her tummy longer. Thus far, we just do it when she is alert and interested. 

Although, I'm pretty sure our schedule will change a gazillion times before she goes to preschool, I like the idea of 1.5-3 hours every morning no matter what. 

[mrseddy]

Thanks again, Skylark! Appreciate your words and time. My 1 y/o has done a 180! He LOVES the programs - all of them.  He used to squirm and run away even at the mere sight of physical flashcards. but he adores the digital version!! It's so motivating to see my boys engaged and loving their "lessons".  My son asks for them!  It truly makes learning fun! Thanks for your insight!

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