Progression of introducing new subjects.

[Tornado]

I agree with nhockaday.  I first started signing with my daughter on my own as soon as she was able to focus more, somewhere around 2 months.  I would just sign "milk" to her whenever she would nurse.  About 3 or 4 months she could clearly sign "milk."  Although she did not consistently use it at that time.  I started adding on with signs like, "Mama," Daddy," "happy," "book," and "more."  Signs that were applicable to her everyday life.  This was really useful... instead of crying because she wanted to be entertained she could tell us "book!"  It also proved to be a huge lifesaver for us... when she was about 6 months she had a rather dramatic fall, I caught her but she still hit her head and bit her tongue.  As a new mom I was horrified, I nursed her to provide comfort and then discussed with my mom, who was with me, whether we should take her to the ER... I was terrified she had neurological damage!  As my baby nursed I looked down at her and she signed "happy!"  Obviously there was no damage done!  What a blessing to be able to communicate with her at such a young age!   

[nhockaday]

Skylark, I mean show her the signs yourself. Sign the most important words, like you mentioned. You can still get the videos and watch them yourself. They are great for you to learn signs. Then in a few months she can start watching them, and she will already have a good foundation.

[trinity papa]

You can try the links below .... it was posted in "results" ..... basic idea on doing PP .... is to show them the note and play the sound for them and tell them this frequency that they are hearing is the C note .... listen to it often and it sticks .... you know like when your favourite sitcom is on you can always tell by the sitcom's music .... just that now when you play that note you have to show them the flash card on that note ..... its sounds easy .... but monotonous ..... and it can't be played 10-20 times in a go .... it has to be done 2-3 times a day for like months ..... each time playing 2-3 cycles .... we are still doing it ... but now once a week ... your musicians so it is much easier ..... you got instruments around ... not necessarily piano only .... best is to use tuning forks but to get the entire set is quite hard .... not in HK, .... so should i get a autograph from your baby now before she becomes famous ....


For those interested in teaching music concept to their babies try this one i have been doing it for 1 yr now, sometimes repeated ..... print the file and flash them.... and then download the files to play them .... its a great site except its abit confusing that's all ..... its for 0-2 or 3 yrs old before they learn to play the piano .... you can call it music education early stage ..... it is the gap that you can use before using Helena's doremisoft .....

http://geenogee-early-learning-supplies.com/music_concepts_downloads.htm

You'll need this to open the file ......

http://www.finalemusic.com/store/search.aspx?p=3

It is the best method so far for me to teach my child music notes and theory and ..... to train her perfect pitch ability ..... i am no music guy, but those who are, can use this to their full advantage ....

[trinity papa]

Teaching multiple language ..... and reading books.... sorry just noting it down first before i forgot...

Lets talk reading book first ... we talk or read with different tone, pitch and facial expressions ... mainly to attract her attention, to let her feel the expressions, and also to allow her to express herself ... you will see her kicking, smiling and squeeking .... but there is a purpose .... it allows the little one to focus, to see and hear to know where the sound comes from, the sound and pitch with the facial expression allows her to link facial expressions to sound etc .... its more for baby's physical and mental well being development .....

I got a book like winnie the pooh, with some poems in it, some disney stories like the little mermaid etc ... there is no structure ... we just read and have fun as and when she is bored and in her rocking chair .... or before bed, and we do read chinese story books too .... idea is to get her get used to a story before sleep or use to story time .... so now before she sleep she always sign book and wants to look at her book ... we do up a diary of what she does of her friends or pets and relatives ... and we paste the photos on even pages while writing short sentence stories on odd pages .... laminate them and file them like a story book ... so now she always take the book out to read ... we make only 1 book a month ... that is starting from 13mth .... hope it helps ...

[trinity papa]

Teaching multiple language ...

Some research says that a baby can seperate or differentiate the tones and pitches of each language ... from birth upto 9mth -12mth if they listen to it enough they will be able to speak in native language without all the dfferent accent .... so we did play lots of different language CDs, hired japanese teacher as playmate (stopped since as she flew back to japan), read english, chinese books etc ... but there will be problem .... there maybe language speaking delay .... one language baby speaks earlier .... so say .... so we stopped all other language at 13 mths and concentrate only on english .... now she is just starting to speak in english .... we will gradually add in other languages again as she build a stronger foundation in english ....

Hmm i can't say that there is a structure, we just know we have to teach something, and we get some language CDs, like intro to japanese and we speak japanese together with the CDs like as if we are learning japanese ... and we speak it in front of her ... as if she is learning with us ..... does it work?? no idea .... we just try .... in any case we plan to send her to formal classes ... at 3 yrs old .... the earliest they are willing to accept ....

I think you have to choose a core language which you want her to be proficient in as your main language of communication and subsequently at age 1 concentrate on it ..... once she starts speaking much words you can gradually add back other languages again like at 1.5 or 2yrs of age .... why i did it this way is so that she can learn to speak faster and hence able to communicate with us, however we still can continue with 2 or more language but maybe at the expense of early speaking ...

Nevertheless, it is understood that they remember the tones and pitches but not necessarily the words or its meaning .... therefore when they do it again they will be able to catch on to it quicker .... however, language like maths and music .... well its a continuous effort and process ....  hence there maybe a critical period of squeezing all the language and flash cards into their brain before they turn 1 ..... but in so saying we still do chinese but .... only twice a week an hour each ... much less compared to english ... and we still do listen to chinese and japanese CD, just we speak and communicate in english .... she can follow instructions in english ... hope it helps ..

[Skylark]

Thank you, thank you!

So I have a question about reading. Some people say they read loads of books every day. Others say that reading the same book over and over again for a week or even two is what does the trick with their baby.

Friom what I understand we read primary to get them used to the sounds of the language, to get their reaction, to stimulate them, -- not to memorise the book. So it does not make much sense to me to read the same book over and over again. However I know that babies tend to enjoy some degree of repetition, I guess something that they get familiar with.

From your personal experience, what did you do? What worked the best for you? I do not want her to get bored, but also do not feel like racing through 10 books... Just wondering...

[Tanikit]

I think it depends on the child and also their age. When my daughter was about 7/8 months old I could only read one book at a time a few times a day and I used to switch books as she didn't seem to have a preference. Around 12 months of age she was very keen on reading but wanted to turn the pages herself so mostly I'd just read whatever I saw on the page before she moved to the next page/s and we also started just general talking about the pictures. By 16 months of age I was still only reading one bbok at a time as her concentration was not that high and I didn't want her getting frustrated. We read a wide range of books and she stilled showed no particular preferences. If she said "no" when I took a book out then I'd try something else. Now at 20 months she does have favourites and will ask for the same book a few days in a row. I also get books out the library and change them once a week - if she develops a liking for a particular library book I may have to keep renewing it or else it will just be gone and she'll have to do without it. Nowadays she asks for "more" when I am finished a book and then I will either read the same book again (if thats what she wants) or pick a new one.

At 3 months of age I'd say its entirely up to you - in fact you do not have to read childrens books to her - you could always read an adult book that you like - she will enjoy your soothing voice.

[Joha]

My daughter is almost 6 months and she has her days with books. Some days we get to six sometimes to one. When she was your baby's age it was much easier to have her look at the book and listen. I think the good thing about reading children's books are the colors. This definetly kept my baby's attention when she was younger (it sounds like she is a grown up 2 months later  )

[trinity papa]

Tanikit is right ..... at 3+ mth or even upto 1 yrs old it actually doesn't quite matter ..... as long as your reading we bought story books for 4-6 yrs old books with nursery ryhmes or bedtime stories when we were young .... there are like 200 over pages with 20-30 stories ..... since they are young they can't read, its best they don't the words are too small anyway it may result in short sightedness, and they don't move alot so we read to them, its stories so we pretend play .... and they get the kick out of it .... initially we read chinese in the morning till 2pm then after 2pm we read english books .... of course inbetween she may have a nap etc ..... we have 4-8 books each ..... and we just rotate it ..... but once she starts to crawl and grab books (around 7-8mth) then the problem comes in .... they want to grab it and they may accidentally tear it .... i got a few torn books .....

so at this age we give her those soft toy books to flip flop .... there are words on it and my wife would say teach her the dora dance ..... and she flaps her arms like butterfly with it ...... and for sometime she gets so attached to it she sleeps with it ..... but as with anything ..... she gets bored after some weeks ..... and then out come another soft toy book .... .... we also are playing some story book CD for young toddlers .... recommended for 1 yr up .... its a series word books with pictures on the other even pages, and CDs and DVDs of the same thing ..... we didn't let her watch this DVDs till 12mths (she watches YBCR at 10mth) .... as its like 15 mins per chapter ... and she watches 4 chapters in a go .... she really has that stamina or concentration .... especially when we sit next to her .... new chapters she can get really attracted to it .... its not cartoon animated type .... its cartoon painting type .... with a little movement ....  But she has been listening to the CD since 6mth ....

[trinity papa]

Oh yes, every morning as it is routine every morning since 12mth .... after her morning milk she will grab my hand and go into her play room, and she will point at the light to tell me to on it, then walk to the CD player and point to it to tell me to on it, she listens to her songs ..... the catchy type from abba, etc, no hard rock type ..... and she will dance to the tune .....

And then after that, when she is settled she will point to the books, we will play her reading CD series and take out the book to read with it ..... its some 8 chapters in the 1st stage, 8 more in each of the 2nd and 3rd stage..... she listens and watches the CDs and DVDs for 1st (for 1yr old) and 2nd stage (for 2yrs old) but only read the books from the 1st stage .... there are some torn ones ....

anyway .... in april we found certain interesting thing .... when we read the books, she is able to point to all the pictures, or moo like a cow, and do some exercise like in the book like wriggle her fingers, stomp her feet etc .... and the interesting thing is she knows which book to pick out from the 8 that matches the chapter playing on the CD, she also knows the story and does the action even before the page is turned or the words are said ..... so i guess she is very very familar with the stories now .... we play 2 chapters a day initially playing 1st 2 chapters for 2 weeks and then introduce 2 more chapters playing 4 chapters for 3 weeks and then introduce 2 more totating it over 3 weeks ... each day 2 chapters .... this is excluding DVD .... the DVD we rotate between signing times, YBCR, and wink to learn .... signing times i started late at around 14mth or 15mth, but she learned very quickly and started signing almost immediately  .... that reminds me ..... she is turning 17mth now, and since she is familar with stage 1, i should be taking out stage 2 books ..... before she gets bored out of her mind .....

But as much as we are doing all this .... i have to say that at 3-12mth its important she has enough crawling, enough play time, i sometimes let the CD play while we are playing with blocks, balls, etc .... she is very expressive .... and she knows how to show her displeasure when we are not around her ....

[trinity papa]

oh yes structure ..... i wouldn't say we don't have structure ... its more like a flexible fluid structure .... you have to have a plan on how or what your going to introduce .... lik eyour title progression of introducing new subjects .... what your going to introduce, when your going to introduce and how your going to introduce it ....

The what will be based on your research and what you have in your area, when will be dependent on your baby's progress and this is highly dependent on your observation, and how ....gradually, as of, book first or CD first etc ...

We have prepared alot of stuff .... some for 2 or 3 or 4 yrs up .... we happen to see it we like it we think it will be productive for her .... we buy it .... we can spend time and money on non brainy stuff or we can spend time and money on educational stuff ..... like we plan to teach her to play the piano and violin, so right now when she is eating we play videos of children playing violin and piano ... there are some prodigy out there .... its early introduction ... she feels its normal ... because other children are doing it she sees it and hears it ..... there is a cheap electronic keyboard at home, she wants she can play anytime she wants too ...... but somehow i think she feels the electronic keyboard isn't giving her that right frequency, with PP she can tell the difference ..... so we will be investing in a more expansive one later when we can order the software .... so yes there is a structure .... we know what we want to teach and we research on it, we find local support and if none we will have to search overseas .... US has lots of stuff ..... (i want to order this beethoven's wig CD, but the delivery charges are really ex.) ..... and then we see how she goes along and we try to fill her time .... without neglecting the core like swimming and walking time, playing and music time, and dvd learning time, she has finished signing time and i am afraid she is going to get bored soon so .... must replace one session with something else .... she watches signing initially 4 times a week, now twice a week .... so i hope the music thing can come about soon for me to decide what i should do and how soon i can implement the next stage and how about to implement it .....

hmmm i guess i talk too much sometimes .....

[kizudo]

Hi Skylark,

You asked to see a photo of my flashcards that I use with my signing video.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the camera at the moment.  What I did was buy some white posterboard from the dollarstore (my store sells them 2/$1!!!) and I cut them into four strips (the short way).  This is plenty big enough to write words like "airplane" or other medium length words.  They're long enough to go from one side of the tv screen to the other.  When I hold them up, you can see a small bit of the picture on the screen, but the flashcard takes up most of the space.  They take up space while they're being stored and are a bit cumbersome to use but my first flashcards that I printed on half of an 8X11 were way too small to grab my son's attention.  If you buy thick enough posterboard you can use both sides for words.

I already wrote that I do word flashcards while the signing is being done, but forgot to mention that when I show YBCR I also do the signs for those words.  Who knows if this is working...we've only been at it for 3.5 weeks.  My son is not yet verbal (oh, he makes noise - and plenty of it! - but no words yet)...nor does he sign anything yet...  Anyway, I'm hoping for the best! 

I hope that my explanation of the flashcards is helpful.

[Tornado]

Great suggestion kizudo!  I think I am going to go through our Signing Time videos and make a PowerPoint presentation with the words!

[nhockaday]

Oh yes, our dollar store (dollar tree, I think most of the US has them) sells poster board 2/$1 too.

[mother of faith]

Oh yes, our dollar store (dollar tree, I think most of the US has them) sells poster board 2/$1 too.

you can purchase online www.dollartree.com

We purchase from them in bulk for our ministry.

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