TmT, Can you pls share your list of curricula/resources

[Korrale4kq]

I made a bunch of styluses (styli?) using dollar store things. Markers, a cello sponge, copper wire, (both need to conduct electricity.
I saw a video on how to make them. I will add the link.



<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/67PSuahRuKc&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/67PSuahRuKc&rel=1</a>

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I found a really cool website! http://www.instructables.com/ If you type in abacus or soroban, there are lots of homemade suggestions for other parents looking for ideas on how to do this. The site is really cool overall!

& C4andy20, I looked online for you and this is what I came up with just to give you some options.

http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/abacus.html
http://threesixty360.wordpress.com/category/multiplication/
http://adarnay.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/quick-abacus-tutorial/

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/phPj5i6V6Cw&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/phPj5i6V6Cw&rel=1</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/MsIaMT5ZCjQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/MsIaMT5ZCjQ&rel=1</a>

(I've really derailed this topic badly.   sorry guys!)

[CVMomma]

Thanks, Korrale for your very extensive list!!  Quite impressive!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Our family skips regular TV for the most part, so we  watch learning DVDs that take the place of the time most kids watch children's television.


Science- Peter Weatherall DVDs & CD's, www.MakeMeGenius.com and www.brainpopjr.com. More recently, magic school bus and other videos from the library like Bill Nye and kids documentaries.



Math- Little Math everyday now, although we took a break from it for a while. We count to 100 and do skip counting everyday, along with math equations to mastery, so we are working our way through LM again that way versus with the daily curriculum. We use RS inspired Abacus & ShowMe Soroban software. We have some random math workbooks we pull out from time to time. Lily finished Early Bird math quite a while ago but we have been doing more hands on lately versus workbooks although I'd like to invest in the next in the set. Although, she used to be more into workbooks, now the kids seem to be more drawn to computer games. We have Destination Math and just did a trial of dreambox, probably will end up subscribing because they liked it a lot. We count our food allll the time (raisins, m&ms, pretzels, etc, and do math with them before we eat them-- add/sub/multiply/divide.) We've always done a lot of pattern work, have also have some workbooks for time and money that we bring out sometimes.



Reading- We just read whatever,  whenever. We have several hundred kids books I am guessing with lots of educational titles along with regular children's stories. We don't have nearly the collection I would like in terms of classic kids literature, but so many of the books were given to me they were free or cheap, there is tons of variety, and I cannot complain. Tumblebooks online, we have used mightybookjr and some other websites that escape me at the moment. Sometimes I will let Lily stay up and read if she doesn't want to nap or isn't tired yet at bedtime.



Foreign Language- For Spanish we have used LR files, Boca Beth, KidsStart Spanish, Salsa, YBCR Spanish, and Speekee. We have some spanish books with audio cd's. For Russian, we have a ton of materials by Umnitsa and Lily goes to Russian enrichment on Saturdays although we have been slacking big time on this since starting Saturday morning piano. It's too much and we need to figure out how to balance it, they are the only classes she takes but  unfortunately y they fall on the same day.  Our babysitter we hire from time to time is a native speaker as well. We always try to hire sitters who can reinforce a foreign language although I don;t have date nights nearly as much as I would like! :P We dabbled with LR Chinese for a while a long time back but dropped it in favor of Japanese because we are moving to Japan next year and need to get going on learning the language.



Technology- My hubby is a computer nerd by trade and it's always been important to him that the kids have access to a computer all the time. My son began using an ipad around age 1 and I have never sen such a technologically inclined 2.5 year old in my life. They easily operate tons of iphone apps on all subjects and are comfortable using Windows or Linux. Owen knows how to cut and paste things (at least used to, I havent asked him in a while), he changes user accounts, gets into the folder systems to find what he needs, etc. Online they go on disney junior lately (I prefer they do the games instead of just watching junk TV although they do watch some), and on youtube, brainpopjr, tutitu, and their math and reading sites, things like that. I plan to give Lily our old digital camera soon and teach her how to take and upload pictures on the computer. That will lead into teaching her how to make her own LR files (with a spelling and computer manipulating component built into the lesson) and how to take videos and edit them in Windows Movie Maker, which is relatively straight forward. Owen loves to get on his Dad's video games when I let him (not often, he's 2 for crying out loud) but he plays a game called Peggle sometimes--http://static-www.ec.popcap.com/www.popcap.com/sites/all/themes/popcap_2012/games/peggle/screenshots/peggle1.jpg. I am amazed he is capable of playing this game using an xbox360 controller and to have that kind of eye hand coordination to aim the balls and such at a target. I completely realize with my husband being a technology guy, it will be next to impossible for me to convince him that my son should not have access to video games (everything in moderation, right?). So, I decided early on I will be implementing a token/reward system when the time comes to deal with it. He doesn't play frequently enough at the moment to worry about it though, but that is the plan in a couple of years or whenever it's necessary. Maybe I need to get my husband on a similar reward system and tell him he can't play COD until he cleans out the shed? 



Spelling- We use Apps for spelling and talking about the sounds of words and their letters. I have a ton of letter magnets for spelling on the fridge. My son taught himself spelling through apps and youtube. He can be a bit of a youtube junkie so I have to monitor him, but he learned to spell by copying words to look up videos he wanted to watch.



Music- We've tried so many music programs and never, ever have I seen such progress as I have with Little Musician. I am the biggest cheerleader around for it, particularly since it developed their ears so well. Since music education DVD's are so hard to come by, I previously would buy any that i could get my hands on for the sake of variety. Of the ones I've tried,  we use or have used Trebellina, Suzy's Piano Primer, Your Child Can Discover which has a music component among other things, and the Tunables (love this!). We recently discovered Little Einsteins too which has a decent amount of music education in it, songs, instruments, symbols and terminology, that sort of thing.

We used to do Prezuki and stuck with it for about a year. It was quite a drive to attend but it was a good introductory music appreciation/pre-violin class. We have since bought a piano and enrolled Lily in Yamaha Piano class. She is BLOSSOMING on the piano in terms of playing with both hands, using the piano without color coded stickers, etc, although she is still playing simple nursery rhymes her technique has improved dramatically over using just her index finger. The quality of Yamaha materials is very, very good IMO and the facility is just 5-10 minutes down the road, versus 30 minutes to Prezuki depending on traffic.  However, the biggest draw to piano over Violin was the cost. The idea of buying an instrument every 5 seconds is not in our budget right now, and she won't outgrow this piano until she's ready for a baby grand.    Ideally, she is interested in both instruments and I would like to provide that for her and hope to, but Piano is a good start at the moment. Previously, I was concerned about the delay in Suzuki introducing sight reading until later and considered Saussmanhaus instead for that reason (we have a local instructor). However, that is no longer an issue because  the kids are reading music beautifully thanks to LMs and reinforcing it all with homemade manipulatives (as shown in my youtube videos). Plus with us moving to Japan, if we decide to begin violin, there will be more continuity for the kids to stick with an international program. So, at the moment it's just Piano but that may change. Oh, and we are using Soft Mozart sometimes as well, but it's not going to be super cost effective when it's time to renew our subscription so I am looking into other similar options. We also have a decent collection of hand percussion instruments we use with LMs or as a standalone. Lily also draws music staves/notes in her drawing notebook on a regular basis for fun and composes songs on paper and sings them back. I need to get that on video sometime. Part of Lily's Yamaha piano homework is finger tapping on a hand or arm based on the finger numbers. We choose to do that to a metronome because she is working on developing her rhythm and timing and we are doing the tapping anyway, it's just one more learning component. I like playing withe the metronome sometimes too for fun with our other instruments or marching, they are very versatile.  We have memorized many, many of the songs in LMs, but I will keep expanding that curriculum with new solfege songs for the duration of their childhood to practice sight singing until it's a fully automatic response like a fluent language, learned one song at a time to mastery for the most part.
 


Right brain- We do Mandalas on and off, magic carpet style guided imagery sometimes (I encourage Lily to visualize her piano, music notes, and soroban). We have done Memory Magic but I think the App is better than the full, older software version. We have recently started doing bits of the Wink program, and I want to encourage Lily more regularly to draw with both hands at the same time, just circles and things. They do dry erase mazes and lots of floor puzzles. My son does select 48 piece puzzles at 2.5 years old now,  his skill surpasses that of his older sister at the same age. They also do a lot of duplos and recently have starting getting into building from the model plans. Does anyone know where I can print off some good duplo models online? Lily recently got a "Lego Friends" Dog Show set (pink, purple, girly looking color, and very tiny) which she built with her dad and loved it. Since then, she has taken a much greater interest in building things and I've been teaching her how to stack the blocks with structural integrity to overlap them on the seams. They also do "playful patterns" tangram style foam tiles on cards sometimes.



Practical life / Grace and Courtesy- We work on building manners and listening to Mommy being calm while Mommy is one the phone, that sort of thing. We have a lot of fun but they can be a little wild sometimes.    I just got some big Abeka flashcards on good manners that I am introducing this week. I know there are DVD's out there on manners too which I would like to get just to help reinforce, My kids clear their space at the table after every meal (well, probably 85% of the time anyway) and need to "try again" and say please to get what they want if they forget. They tidy their rooms at least twice a day, typically before nap and before bed, and tidy the common areas of any of their toys before their dad comes home from work. They put their own clothes in the hamper and that sort of thing. We make a point to teach them to apologize and ask for forgiveness, and we encourage each one that the other is their "best friend." It's so sweet to hear them call each other that! That is, when they're not bickering with each other.    We are really big on one child serving the other first which they now do without thinking about it now, and often one will pipe up "Lily/Owen needs a snack, too!" if one of them has something the other one doesn't.  Lily has started going to kids cooking school for a class once a month or so as a treat, she loves it, and often helps her dad cook at home, We also teach them about health and hygiene. Two big things we teach them are "Every day, all the time foods" versus "Sometimes foods."  The other is "What things do we can do to grow up healthy and strong?"  Together we list off 1. Wash up every day (both showers and hand washing) 2. Brush our teeth 3. Drink lots of water 4. Eat everyday all the time foods 4. Get fresh air and sunshine 5. Run and play (exercise) . 6. Be happy (we talk about growing a happy garden in our heart full of sharing flowers, loving flowers, kindness flowers, etc instead of yucky weeds, and discussing the kind of garden we choose to grow.)



Physical development- They go to preschool 3 days a week and play on the playground there. Good enough for me! haha. We do the occasional youtube kids yoga clip but nothing regular. They dance with me or as a family pretty frequently, but I'd like to enroll them in a class at some point, like a dance class at the community rec center or something. They need to learn to swim too. We just don't to much in this area, they are happy, healthy kids, but I am doubtful they are Physically superb" or anything like that.  They are high energy and do front rolls on a yoga mat in the living room if that counts. 



Handwriting- The TV Teacher videos and dry erase letter boards. I would like to start journaling with them both. They both have thick sketch books that they draw in for fun on a daily basis and Lily often adds in words about the picture or "To Mommy" and that sort of thing, predominantly in what Dr' Gentry calls "Kid Spelling."



Crafts- We do random crafts that involve cutting,, gluing, paint, markers, glitter, etc. Just fun kid stuff that helps with fine motor skills and creativity.


We are MOST regular with LIttle Math, LIttle Musician, and Soroban/RS Abacus on a daily basis, along with daily piano practice as assigned by her piano teacher (20 minutes of songs, some listening, some singing, some playing).  Everything else is when we feel like it for the most part. But those things are what we do first thing every weekday morning. I'd probably just opt to enroll the kids in Kumon or something like that for simplicity but it's more cost effective to piece things together at the moment. You may notice that I always refer to what Lily is learning rather than Owen. He learns everything twice a fast and I don't have to worry too much about his curriculum because he's on par or just behind Lily in some many areas, I only need to keep up with her and he just absorbs everything by being around it. Hopefully something in this long post is helpful!

[Korrale4kq]

Tonya,

The book James uses for his journal I picked up from Walmart. It was this one by mead http://www.amazon.com/Mead-MEA09956-Primary-Journal-K-2nd/dp/B001JTL032/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345089339&sr=8-1&keywords=Mead+journal

However it is a fraction of the price at Walmart. Maybe even cheaper now with back to school.

I have a question I have been meaning to ask you. What book is Lily reading from in her 24 month reading video. Not the preschool prep ones, maybe it is a Hooked on Phonis books?

[TeachingMyToddlers]

That is so easy to source, I live 2 miles away from walmart and hate to admit that I practically live there.    Wonderful! THANK YOU.

This video? <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/XtL4eWqH3Zc&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/XtL4eWqH3Zc&rel=1</a> It was a Hooked on Phonics workbook, kindergarten level.

[aangeles]

Hi TmT!

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed update of Lily and Owen's progress.    It is always a delight to read what they are up to and the things they have accomplished! So you are moving to Japan next year instead of this year? I know you were planning to enroll Lily in Japanese kindergarten when you get there, but what are your plans for her English education? Are you going to homeschool her in English, and if so, what curricula are you considering?

Thanks again for sharing! 

[Tamsyn]

Here is another abacus on the market:  http://www.timberdoodle.com/Aba_Conundrums_by_Fat_Brain_Toys_p/391-409.htm

[arvi]

Thank you, TmT and Korrale4kq.
TmT, Some of the resources that you have shared are very new to me like  www.MakeMeGenius.com and thanks for sharing. Glad to know that you are going to one of the countries pioneer in EL. Hope you make full use of it including Shichida and share the knowledge with us 

Korrale4kq, Can you tell us about the Draw Write Now curriculum. Can it be used with 3 years old and what are the pre-requisites for it.

[CVMomma]

"You may notice that I always refer to what Lily is learning rather than Owen. He learns everything twice a fast and I don't have to worry too much about his curriculum because he's on par or just behind Lily in some many areas, I only need to keep up with her and he just absorbs everything by being around it."

Tmt, do you think this may have to do with the age when they started EL??  If I remember correctly, you said you didn't know about EL until Owen was born, or shortly thereafter.  Or is it just the way each of them happens to learn.  I am wondering because of several other posts about gifted children and early learning.  I didn't start until my DD was 23 months old and I know she is not learning nearly as quickly as some of the kids.  I am very pleased with how much she is learning, just curious if she might really be amazing me if she had started sooner.

(btw, I don't know how to insert a quote the way other people do.  So if someone could please enlighten me... )

[aangeles]

Arvi,

Draw Write Now is a series of books that "combine beginning drawing instruction with writing exercises. Each drawing lesson includes a colorful picture and step-by-step instructions, while the writing lesson includes four simple handwritten sentences."

http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Write-Now-Book-1-8/dp/0963930796/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345369362&sr=8-2&keywords=draw+write+now

I have been using them as a supplement to our main art program, and we use it once a week or so. Recommended age is 4-5 years and above, but you can probably start as soon as your child is old enough to follow instructions and has good enough pencil control to form lines, curves, and basic shapes. I only use the drawing part of the lesson as we are doing a separate program for handwriting. Also, she likes to tell her own story about her drawing and I would rather encourage her to use her imagination and creativity rather than simply copying out the sentences in the lesson. Typically, she would tell me what she would like to draw, I find the lesson in the book, and leave her to work independently. She follows the instructions in the lesson and draws with a pencil (and she is such a little perfectionist that she can draw and erase and draw and erase several times before she is satisfied with her work). Then, I will help her to trace her drawing with a black marker and she colors it in. I refrain from correcting her work and only help out with tracing with the marker, because the first time she tried to do it, she messed up her drawing and was pretty inconsolable for the whole morning.

Picture 1 is her work from a couple of weeks ago and Picture 2 is a more recent one. She usually does not follow the lesson exactly and incorporates a lot of her own ideas into her drawing. For example, in the second picture, it was just a simple drawing of a swan in the lesson, but since we have been listening to the Swan Lake audiobook and music and watching the ballet on DVD, she wanted to put the swan in a lake with a crown on her head (she told me that it was the Princess Odette) and she insisted on adding a forest background where the prince was hunting. She also titled it "Arrival of the Prince." 

Hope this helps! 

[Mandabplus3]

Oh she is quite the artist too! Lovely! I can see the perfectionist streak too. Oh boy it's so much fun dealing with the perfectionist child isn't it
I quite like draw write now too. Tiana likes it to learn how to draw new things. It is very step by step but still allows for individual expression. Plus I find that she can transfer the skills to other drawings also. In the past we have tried some other step by step how to draw books but the kids havent been able to transfer the skills to other drawings later. I think it is perhaps because of the extra time spend on the project overall, with tracing and colouring. Actually I might try Jaykob on it this week...not sure why I havent yet, he is more than ready! I would say give it a go from age 3 up. Early 3's will need parental support but by 4 it would be self study for most kids.

[lelask]

Ohhh, people you are so inspiring!!!! Would you stop ?         I had no idea there is so many different programs I will want to try.
I like those Draw write now books. Thanks for posting it.
Beautiful drawing Ella! My daughter says " I want that"    I better get my pencils out and copy your birds

TmT is the Showme Soroban more for parents to know how to teach soroban? Or for children to use it?

[Korrale4kq]

I started using the first few draw write now lessons with James. He won't be 3 until December. What I have done for now though is to use them as tracing exercises. I removed the fist few pages and I put them in a sheet protector, then put them in a binder. I actually do this with every work sheet so he can revisit them again and I have them for a second child. James then traces over the lines of the drawings with dry erase crayons and markers. This way makes the works adaptable for the younger child.

[Kerileanne99]

Hi everyone!
If you are interested in trying out the Draw Write Now books, I just received an email from a homeschool blog offering free DWN printables and a giveaway for a whole set of books!

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2012/08/draw-write-now-giveaway-printables-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FXQbU+%281%2B1%2B1%3D1%29

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