Hi All,
I am new to the forum, although I have been reading the posts for a few months now. I live in Austin, TX and have two kids - a son (2 years old) and a daughter (4 months old). When I first began reading the posts, I reached out to Keri (kerileanne99) who was wonderfully gracious and generous with her advice (Thanks, Keri!). And thanks also to you all - wonderful parents who take the time to post and share your questions, insights and thoughts. It's been a great resource for me.
I discovered EL last summer - rather late as my son was already 15 months old then. Prior to that, I had not known that I could teach my child reading, math, or science so early.However, I was pregnant with my second baby and was too tired between caring for my active son and being pregnant to implement much of the EL I learned. I felt more and more guilty that I was letting valuable time pass without giving him the opportunity to learn as he clearly wanted to do so.
Without knowing about such a concept as EL, I began doing montessori activities with him since he was born. Although I nursed him for 15 months, at 9 months, we practiced eating at the table from a plate with solid (not plastic) silverware, drinking from a glass (we never used sippy cups), pouring water from a pitcher, setting the table, putting on his shoes, etc. He began doing all this by himself at 13 months. I used elimination communication and cloth diapers to potty train him - we began and 9 months and by 15 months he was potty trained (with occasional accidents which we still have). We did a little bit of reading, but he is too energetic and never sat still to read. Instead we went on nature walks to identify birds, bugs, etc. I had to go with what he found interesting (cars, trucks etc, nature, planets). We began teaching him swimming at 4 weeks old, using immersion and no floats. We did a lot of music and dancing using Putamayo world music for kids as a way of learning dance and about world cultures simultaneously. I highly recommend their CDs.
At 13 months old, I discovered sign language and taught him to sign. He loved it and learned it so quickly that we used it as a bridge between the multiple languages I was teaching him. That has worked out really well as my husband speaks only English but understand the signs in case my son speaks in another language to him. I speak to my kids exclusively in French. We also learn German and Hindi - as I'm from India and have relatives who live in Germany. He is exposed to Spanish, Russian and Chinese from our close friends and I try to follow up at home with a few phrases from these languages. But I rather focus on English, French, German, and Hindi as I am teaching him to read and write in these languages too. This is a tiring task as my French is non-native at a an intermediate level, and german is basic. So I have to supplement with external sources. Still I do not veer from the OPOL interspersed with a day of German and an afternoon of Hindi per week. Our days loosely model a French immersion montessori school. I guess it's the consistency that helps because my son is completely bilingual in French and English. He understand German but does not speak it, he can understand basic Hindi and loves to read in Hindi. For anyone who is teaching their kids a non-native language, take heart. If I can do it, anyone can. Later on, our kids will appreciate our efforts on their behalf even though it is difficult right now.
I wish I had known about EL earlier. I was working full time and barely had time to do the montessori and language training. But I began EL earnestly when my son was 20 months old. The added benefit is that my newborn is learning with him. She is already more advanced than he was at the same age. I think it is because of EL and watching her brother. My son regressed with speaking, learning, potty etc., a little when my daughter was born, but we didn't mind. I think it is natural and we just let it be and gave him loads of emotional attention. I gave up a little on doing any EL as I was exhausted caring for a newborn and having an extremely active toddler.
We are back on track now and just now beginning reading, math, science, and piano playing. I am sad to have begun so late. But my son is really unfocused - he didn't enjoy being read to or focusing on any activity for more than a minute until recently!! He didn't enjoy the LM or LR presentations. He didn't like the dots or even word flashcards. I just keep reading to him even though he show no interest. Plus, he doesn't demonstrate any evidence of whatever I do teach him when I ask him. It was hard to convince anyone, especially my husband that this EL thing (and the money for all the EL material) was worth it. Thankfully, my husband is wonderfully supportive and my own frustration was eased when I read some parents give great advice on this forum about providing input and not testing. My husband and I agreed that we will continue with our efforts and support our kids in whatever they want to learn without having to 'perform' for us. I have no support within my friends, though. Most of them think that I am being too pushy with him even though I explain that I am following his requests and interests. He gets a lot of play time. Although he enjoys imaginative play a lot, he gets bored and over stimulated with too much free play and then brings his 'school' work (number or word puzzles) for me to play with him. I wish that my friends could understand this. Other than my husband, I feel very lonely in my efforts.
I am struggling with how to help him with math, science and music concepts. From this forum, I hope to learn how others have accomplished this with their kids. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for bearing with my very long introduction. I'm glad to be part of this forum and hope to be a regular poster henceforth.
Gail
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