Update and request for suggestions!

[ELeducation]

Long post! Here it goes:

So, my daughter is about 2 1/2 now, and she blows me away by how much she learns everyday! Her decoding skills in reading are really taking off, and she's interested in spelling. Can anyone recommend any good spelling apps or programs? We've tried a couple of apps, but she wasn't really interested in them so I'm looking for something engaging.

For science, we watch Magic School Bus and Rachel and the Treeschoolers. Afterward, we reinforce concepts through fun activities. For example, after an episode about plants, we planted a seed and have been watching the plant grow. She knows about parts of the plant and that it needs sunlight and water, etc. For a planets episode, we made all of the planets out of materials we had at home, and she played with these for weeks! She loves dinosaurs and insects and birds, and for some reason she loves Bill Nye! We read books about the different topics as well which she loves. Am I missing anything in this department?
Any apps?

I want to help her continue to develop critical thinking skills. She asks a lot of questions and makes amazing connections between concepts. I'm thinking about buying Lollipop Logic and maybe some stuff from Critical Thinking Company. Any specific books you all can recommend? 

For math, she counts to 100, knows numbers beyond 100, understands one to one correspondence, counts backwards quickly, skip counts by 2s and 10s, can do simple addition and subtraction, knows some fractions and measurements. I really want to get her going in math, but I'm still trying to determine which route to take.

Currently, we read Mathstart books, play with dominoes and dice, play with measuring cups in the bath, she helps me measure while I cook, and we do other math activities through play. We have also started reading Brian Cleary books, which she loves. I think Mortensen blocks are an excellent idea along with getting a password on Crewton Ramones House of Math website, so I'll be placing an order soon. I think this will help her to really understand math. In addition, I am thinking Singapore math would be good for her. I want to start teaching her Soroban as well maybe in a few months, although I have no experience myself. I know there are other curriculums out there too like MEP and Jones Geniuses. Please share your experiences!

Any other routes or ideas you can suggest?

Memory is another area we want to focus on. I've heard of Memory Magic, but it seems their apps no longer exist. Anyone have experience with the software? Are there any to her apps you can suggest?

We watch Tweedlewink several nights a week and welcome any suggestions for more right brain materials.

Just a little background on her. She grasps concepts pretty quickly, and she doesn't like too much repetition or she gets bored. I find that she prefers a variety of methods vs seeing the same thing everyday which is why we tend to use several different curriculums, apps, etc. 

Thanks in advance!

[mybabyian]

She is doing wonderfully!  Keep up the good work!  I think playing with math blocks is a great idea.  One game I play with my little girl, same age, is which number is missing?  We have big foam numbers and I line them up and then she closes her eyes and a stuffed dog then swipes one of the numbers and she has to figure out which one is missing by counting.  She can't yet figure it out without counting.  She loves this game.  We do this with blocks too.  I line the blocks up in a stair case and in the same way the dog swipes one of the blocks.  She chooses the block that is missing from a pile of blocks.  For this we so far only go up to five blocks and she can choose from a separate pile of those same five blocks.  More than that and I think it would be a bit confusing.  We take turns.  She loves stealing the number/block but she can't keep a secret. So she tells me right away. 

Also, Today I got a copy of Singapore Math Kindergarten and at lunch was going through it with her and her brother.  I did it mostly for her but her brother answered most of the questions.  Still she was engaged and paying attention.  The books have nice colorful illustrations so I think it is great for a little one. 

For spelling you could try tiles like in All About Spelling.  Maybe make your own, bigger than what they make.

[GeniusExperiment]

wow, she is doing amazing!
Her Maths is impressive.
Well done, keep it up!

[ELeducation]

mybabyian,

Great game idea! It sounds like one she would really enjoy.
Thanks for the suggestion
We are in the middle of a transition right now, but as soon as we are settled in, I will probably order the blocks, a password, and Singapore Math as well.
I remember looking at All About Spelling awhile back, but I didn't think she was ready. I'll probably make my own tiles as you mentioned and start playing around with those a bit. Do you know of any good apps?

GeniusExperiment,

Thank you for your encouragement!  I try not to test often, so i dont always realize what shes picking up, but when she feels like it, she suddenly tells me things that I didn't realize she knew or understood.


Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.  Critical thinking, memory, and right brain activity ideas? Science?. When we settle into our new place, we will be adding more things to our daily activities so I'm brainstorming right now.

Foreign languages have taken a backseat lately even though she was progressing quite nicely. I need to make that a regular activity again.

Music is another area that she absolutely adores. She learned the Curwen hand signs thanks to a free video from Preschool Prodigies and a few practices. We do Little Musician, although not as regularly as we should. She really enjoys LMu and is obviously learning from it! Earlier today, I downloaded an app that asks you to identify the note that's played, and she answered a few correctly but answered using solfege note names. I did a quick search and saw that Teaching My Toddlers had a ton of great game/activity ideas to reinforce the material in LMu. Thanks for the neat ideas!
We did the starter program for Preschool Prodigies thanks to Tamsyn's recommendation, and my daughter loved it. I think we will start that curriculum and then start Soft Mozart. Or can we do both at once?

Thanks in advance!


..

[mybabyian]

There is a spelling app by the same people who do Endless Reading.  I think it doesn't have very many words, but it may be a good place to start.  We love their Spanish reading app too (Endless Spanish I think)!  Let me know if you have trouble finding it.  I am almost certain that is the name but if not I'll check!

[yusrab]

Hi ELeducation,
 
Would you mind sharing how you taught your daughter reading and math please?

I have twin girls 2yrs8months old right now and a 10month old son and just discovered EL and would like to start as soon as possible as.

Thank you,
Yusra

[ELeducation]

Hi yusrab,

I read a lot to my daughter since she was an infant, usually running my finger under the words as I read.  I took notice of which books she enjoyed most since they held her attention.  I pointed out letters and numbers everywhere.  We liked Preschool Prep Company's DVDs and apps and the Endless Alphabet, Endless Reader, and Endless Numbers apps.  

We also do a ton of reading everyday because she loves it so much.  When she was an infant, we would dedicate time to reading books with one word per page (in addition to reading other picture books).  While reading books, I would pause at words I knew she had already learned to see if she would read them.  Many times she did, other times she didn't.  I never pushed; I just had faith that it was all sinking in.  Then, I started showing her Reading Bear (www.readingbear.org).  It's free and wonderful for teaching to read by sounding out words.  We read different types of books, some books with rich vocabulary and also easy reader books to build up her confidence.

We also liked watching Leapfrog Letter Sounds, Talking Words Factory, etc.

As for math, Marshmallow Math is a great book to start with.  We like the YCCD DVDs every once in awhile.  We played with blocks a lot and talked about the different 3D shapes (ie. pyramid, cone, etc.).  We practiced making patterns and sorting items/toys.  We play(ed) with big dice and dominoes.  There's a cool app called Bugs and Buttons that she used to love to play too.  There's a show called Number Crew that is fantastic.  I wouldn't have thought my daughter would enjoy it, but she loves it.  Each episode incorporates different math concepts.  We read MathStart books which are living math books that teach math concepts through fun stories.  

The key is to reinforce concepts from the DVDs or books with fun activities.

This is just a very general idea of what we've done...

If you have any specific questions, I would be happy to share!  

Take care!

[Drjuliadc]

 So glad to hear your progress. Testing mom.com has access to many more critical thinking questions than the critical thinking company does for the money.

 My boys enjoyed the one episode of number crew that I accidentally purchased from discovery.com. I thought I was buying a series of them but it was only one episode for $30. I am not sure where to access the rest. 

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