Need advice for a 3.5 year old

[marrtai]

I hope I had started the early learning with my daughter when she was younger.  I came across this site when she turned 3 and we got LR, LR Chinese and LM.  Due to my schedule, we can only do 3-4 times a week, and twice a day for the 3 programs back-to-back if we are lucky.  She liked it in the beginning as we did it during our cuddle time in the morning and before bed.  I find it is getting harder and harder for her to sit still, especially with LR Chinese.  I know that I am supposed to stop when she seems not interested.  But if that is the case, I don't know how I can keep the programs going.  I recently started to import different interesting things within LR to keep her interest and she likes it so maybe I will show her different ones between the programs.  In the beginning she would repeat the words when she heard the new ones but now she would not do that but just bounce around the room.  I don't know if she actually absorbs anything or not.

Does anyone start the LR program when the child is a bit older?  Any recommendations? 

Thanks!

[marrtai]

By the way, I have not started any math or EK programs yet. Should I wait?  I look at the sparkabilities DVDs link and it seems interesting.  I am not sure if I should get the whole program or I should skip the first few since she is 3.5 already.  I am ordering magical school bus and I hope she will like it.

Thanks!

[c4andy20]

Periodically my two little ones will get extra wiggly during LR lessons and seem not interested. What I have found is that if I take a break from the computer programs for a week or two and just read a lot of great books with the them, then they really get back into it. I guess sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, because then they can't get enough of it and I usually have to tell them we can't have anymore and they will cry and beg for me to put it back on.

[marrtai]

Thanks for the suggestion.  It seems that things are getting better in the last few days.  Hope that will continue.

I just wonder for the older children, do they usually repeat the words that are shown on the screen?  Mine does not.  I was hoping she would do that in order to absorb the materials better.

Thanks!

[Mandabplus3]

My 4 year old hasn't once repeated the words on the screen. Not once that i can remember. Although he had a crack at pronouncing the dinosaur names once I had made 6 attempts to get it right and lost it with laughter!  Pronouncing them doesn't matter, the information is still going into the brain. Even if they are wiggly and distracted it's amazing what they will learn! One of the kids in my class (4) never sits still and rarely looks at the screen and yet he can read a number of the LR words, including his favourite word " multi sensory"
Your child will love magic school bus! Oh boy yes!     
If you want to add some more then consider adding in some phonics. It could be magnetic letters on the fridge that you make words from and sound out for and with your child. Or maybe reading bear or starfall? At 3.5 add some counting and skip counting to your daily activities to get a heads up on math. Also try some measuring and weighing in the bath or kitchen. Play with patterns and matching and positional language like " Teddy in ON your head" " Teddy is UNDER your arm"
Do what you can with your lessons and don't feel guilty if you can't do it all, even one lesson is more than most kids get to see! 

[MummyRoo]

My son is 3 and also wriggles like mad during LR - I just have to assume he's learning something.  Even if he doesn't start sight reading, there are a lot of vocabulary words that he may not come across in general conversation, and practice with things like colour and shape. And if she doens't hear Chinese at home, then even 3 or 4 LR sessions a week will make a massive difference in her ability 

Try Reading Bear - it was an immediate hit with us and in a week he was sounding out CVC words. 

Nikki is absolutely in love with 'his' School Bus and would watch it all day if I let him!    I can't imagine it being less of a hit in your family! He also loves the Leapfrog DVDs (Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory etc.) which taught him the letter sounds and introduce a lot of phonics rules that he has yet to actively use (but I'm sure he knows because I have memorized the dvds from the number of times we've seen them over the last year )

It might make more sense to your daughter if you go through the numbers section of LM using the grid format - she is at an age where she probably won't learn the difference between 98 and 100 dots placed randomly on the screen, but will notice the two missing dots from a grid. I am doing this with my son, though we will play through a daily lesson if he wants it as an extra.

[msocorro]

for my 3.5 year old , I sarted late as well, but if I let him work the computer he can be for hours at a time, LR, LM, starfall, reading bear, reading eggs... name it, he loves them, If I am the one working the computer he loses interest a lot sooner...

[marrtai]

Thank you everyone for your suggestion.  We stopped the programs during X'mas and New Year break since we were so busy doing everything else.  We are trying to slowly working on our routine as before.

The Magic school bus set are awesome!  I just love it.  I will let her watch it while I do other chores.  It's definitely much better than many other programs or TV shows out there.  We had the leap frog series and the baby art / music / poetry series. They are all very good.

I took her to two schools last week. One is Shicida and the other one is a regular preschool.  I like the right brain education idea and she seemed to be ok with it.  The next day we went to a preschool.  It is not Montessori but it is in a good location, the room well lit, teachers are experienced and nice, and she seemed to fit right in with the other kids.  I had been to other preschools including Montessori but we just did not like those or had good feelings about them.  As much as we like this preschool, we probably will be on a waiting list for next year as the existing 3-year-old students will have higher priority getting into the 4-year-old program.  On the other hand, I think the right brain method / Shicida may be better off in the long run in terms of how it trains and connects the right and left brain.

There are a few considerations:-

1. The regular preschool is a fun place for her. She has not been to any daycares before.  She gets to play with other kids.  In terms of learning, I do not expect too much from a regular preschool.  In any event, I can always do after-schooling with LR, Little Chinese and Little Musician, together with Soft Mozart.

2. I also consider the Montessori preschools.  It is more expensive and it is not necessarily easy to find a good fit.

3. When I tell other people that my 3.5 year old daughter is not in school yet, from their reaction I can almost sense that they think this is not a good way to raise kids and that they are about to give us a long lecture on parenting.  Not that I care too much about what the other people think but that does bother me some time. Well, not going to school does not mean not learning.  I like the home schooling approach but that is definitely not the main stream approach here.

3. Shicida or other right brain education method will be good for brain development during this golden learning age.  It seems that she could "learn" more in one hour per week in Shicida than a whole week's time in regular preschool.

4. I wonder how Shicida method is as compared with the Tweedle Wink program.  It is a nice idea to have a teacher and the teacher to student ratio is low (they said as long as there is room available it is possible to be the only student in the classroom so my daughter can get full attention).  It does get expensive over time and I am wondering if it is a good idea to just purchase the 12 Tweedle wink dvdd and the language and math dvd and just do everything in-house. 

Those are just some of my thoughts recently.  Any suggestions / recommendations would be really appreciated.

Thanks and best regards,

Marrtai

[Mandabplus3]

Take the shicida school! Without hesitation.  your child will get way more education there than any of the other options.
If you want socialisation and fun take her to a playgroup, or an art class, or gymnastics.
Alternatively have you considered Shicida in conjunction with less days in daycare/preschool? You are right in assuming she won't learn much at these places. Well much of educational benefit anyway. They do learn other useful skills....useful if you plan to use a regular schooling path anyway. Things like sharing, sticking up for yourself, asking strangers for help, how to take turns, speaking in front of a group etc.
if the choice was mine I would take the shicida, I don't even have that option within 2 days drive!

[marrtai]

Thank you Manda for your suggestion.  Yeah I am leaning towards Shicida too at least to try it out.  I may still try to fit her in part-time Montessori preschool for a few months to a year before kindergarten so that she will be somewhat prepared for full-time kindergarten life.

Does anyone have Tweedle Wink programs?  Is it a program to have?  I am considering getting some DVDs too from that program in Math and the one that teaches different languages, and maybe the 12 DVDs down the road.  One thing I am concerned is the screen time allowed per day.  5-10 minutes per program each time each day... If I have 5-6 programs, she will be watching the screen for an hour or two each day just for the educational ones plus other programs on top when I am doing chores.  That seems a lot to me.

I have some friends who send their kids to kumon class when they are 3 years old for reading and math.  One girl seems to do well and she can read by kindergarten and now she is in French immersion in kindergarten.  Has anyone tried that method too?  It seems they are doing a lot of workbook drills like a book a day.  Any reviews on that method?

There are just so many programs out there and it can be really overwhelming.  I don't want to do too much at a time but since we started late so I want to get her to expose to more while I can. 

She does reading bear and starfall here and there too.  She will look at the icon pictures of reading bear and determine what she wants to see.  That means she want to read something new every time before she is familiar with the old concept!   Starfall is nice too but she seems to like to do the same ones over and over again. 

Thanks again for any suggestions!

Marrtai 

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