What I do with my 2 year old - I use family pictures in powerpoint. I take one picture, write very few short sentences about it (one word per slide), and repeat the picture after each sentence. Slideshow is very short. New slideshow every day.

Thanks lzp11  for your idea - to repeat the sentence.

My girl wants to read only about princesses. So, I open Word, make big font, and write stories about princesses, from tales and cartoons. Daughter stands with me and reads words as I type them. I try to write something fun.

Mandabplus3,
Don't bang your head! From my part of world, you are so far away that everything is possible 

I am not sure if I cal tell very much about the teaching because I learned at home and my kid also. Our people happily live without the names of letters; we know them but we prefer to say b instead of be because than we feel that we speak more precisely.

in our local parenting forum, mothers often ask "how to teach my 5 or 6 year old to read".
typical answers are:
- wait "the click";
- start with two letter words;
- teach what is the syllable, teach how to count syllables in a word and you will succeed.  Official teaching is based on syllables: kids learn to read single syllables and then bond them together. 
- I try to recommend things like "point on a milk pack and say "milk"" but nobody takes me seriously, whole word approach is not widely known here. 

I think, it is similarly as in other non-English languages.

English is my fourth language and I started to learn it at 22. I speak BSE (bad simple English   ) . Still I think that it is easier to learn English than German (I started to learn it at 12) or Russian (at 6). Because in English you can learn a word and use it. In other languages, there are genders and cases and you can not say a word without knowing a lot about it.

Writing is something different. I do not understand how do you know what to write if you hear "right" or "write". May be you need to develop your intuition to know what to write and may be this is a reason why English becomes so dominating - because of the intuition but this is just my funny theory 

In my country, there are no flashcards at all. In every kindergarten there are posters with "s for sun, m for mom". we learn phonics at 5, reading at 6. school starts at 7.

I definitely will focus more on phonemic awareness in future  

What is different for my language (Latvian). 
- We have a phonemic language. we write as we speak. every letter has just one pronunciation and every word is just a sum of letters.
- We never teach letter names to preschoolers. we teach that s is s and k is k. I learned letter names (f as ef, k as kaa) when I was 10. It is the same in all our neighboring countries and in all 5 languages I know. Except English. I really do not know why English children learn that K is Key. Than it is a double learning.
- our children learn reading exactly as in your videos. snap is s n a p. I do not know if it helps very much because many kids learn alphabet early but start to read late. We call it "the click" when suddenly kid understands how it works and she starts to read. Probably, your approach can help here

My brother (now 45) learned to read with flashcards. When he learned music, his teachers were impressed by his ability to read a whole line together. This skill is necessary but not easy to get.

I am sure that we will not be included in governmental reports because flashcard method (accordingly to Doman) can be used until 5 years but official learning to read is started after 5. So, failures are being corrected.

That was interesting to read about Australia. Maybe there is too much "one size fits all" approach which is too superficial. 

If I have even reached one parent I am leaving happy.. 

Well, you can be happy. In this forum we share methods, tips and experiences on early education. Your input is significant and your experience is reputable. Thank you very much for that and you can be sure that many parents will study your materials very carefully. Karma to you

But usually we share our methods without attacking other methods. Such a kind approach makes the audience even more perceptive

Probably there are some misunderstandings because of ages. My first kid (now 4 years) learned to read with mixed approach; she knew phonics but I did not stress it very much. Whole word approach dominated in our learning. Her teachers now say that she is much above the average, not because of her reading but because of her vocabulary and thinking. I think, nobody is writing governmental reports on her literacy because she is too young.

My 2 year old knows phonics and I show him whole words. I use self-made flashcards. He learns words easy and it seems that he has a very good memory. If the method will not work - I have plenty of time to switch the method and to teach him to read until someone will start to compile governmental reports on him.

In this forum, we teach babies and toddlers to read. If we are not successful we search for help and other methods. Probably you write your governmental reports on 6 - 7 year old kids. Probably, nobody is teaching 6 - 7 year old children to read with whole word approach in this forum.

If you meet failures of whole word approach  you should study them, too. Possible reasons:
- too late (method is not recommended after 5 year age except for children with brain damage);
- too superficial approach. if parents do not go deep in their kids interests, kids just refuse to watch.

I just do not believe that parents show thousands of words with ease. That is not easy; that is a continuous fight with own laziness and for kids interest. Many parents start - and give up within few days. Probably, when a governmental person comes and asks "why your 7 year old is not reading", it is easy to answer "we use whole word approach" instead of "we did not care and we left our kid 24/7 at the TV". like "a cat did it in my pants".

We will study and try your method. You should also try whole word approach. You will see that it is not easy and probably there something is not "clean" in these cases of failures.

But look at the most popular method of teaching reading in schools (flashcards) and the results- its not working.

Is this a popular method in schools? It is never, never used in my region. Sounds very interesting. At which age and in what amount? 

http://www.sleepyplanet.com/sleep_needs.html

I was HSC. I learned early to be silent about my needs and stop feeling them. I grew up feeling guilt and shame about everything. I was depressed and even suicidal for 15 years. After psychotherapy and much other work I am free of that.

When my daughter says "I like to live as I live" and "we are a happy family and we love each other" I feel that this is more important than my other parenting activities.

Before my child was born, I was reading tons of books about attachment parenting. But my child did not grew as secure and extravert as my books promised. Now after reading about HSC I know that it is not because of my wrong person but because she is born as HSC.

It becomes better with years. Last summer (age 4) she started to talk to her grandfather (we meet almost every weekend since her birth, and she started to speak very early).

It's definitely true that many babies are crawling later nowadays

In my region, kids crawl earlier and walk later. Doctors recommend belly time, floor time, and avoiding vertical elements. "Back to sleep" is not popular here. 20 years ago babies were kept more in cradles and there was nothing else to do than to learn standing and walking. Doctors say that many of them have backaches because of early verticalising. I do not know.

Sitting after the crawling is the usual way (as recommended by our doctors ). My both kids did it.

Here you can read online the summary of "highly sensitive child" book. Tips etc.
http://www.mandalachildrenshouse.com/DYK/Did_You_Know-Highly_Sensitive_Child_1-08.pdf

I have a sensitive child (19/23 according to test of the book). She is very sensitive emotionally (startles easily, perfectionist etc) but not physically (does not feel scratchy or sandy clothing). My another child is completely different.

From my experience, there are two types of sensitive children: these who are understood by their parents and these who are not.

It is so terrible when parents do not understand their sensitive children. They call their children egoists, spoiled etc, and penalize them for crying. They treat their children like aliens from another planet.

I was a sensitive child too, and I know what happens if needs of sensitive child are ignored. (...)

There is a book which fits very well to the case of my child, and helps a lot. It conforms with my feelings about how I should be parented when I was a child. "Children are from heaven" John Gray, http://www.amazon.com/Children-Are-Heaven-Cooperative-Compassionate/dp/0060930993/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335168078&sr=8-1

My girl is 4.5 years now. Kindergarten teacher says that she is much above the average. Well, I know that she is. Even when she was one year old I always felt that she is considering one dimension more than other children, when talking about events, processes, people. Other kids are not discriminating people very much.

She likes dancing very much and we went to local dance class when she was three years old. For two months she was just sitting and watching. I tried to be as supporting as possible. After two months she was ready to participate. But she become pale when other child tried to take her hand. So I decided to stop this, and I will continue next autumn when she will be 5.

You must consider that teachers in such classes can be firm. Our teacher was very kind - but I am sure that she is able to train tigers, too. Also the music was too loud. And my child becomes totally unhappy when someone physically tries her to get in a direction where she does not want to go.

With my second one, I applied Doman since his first day. Belly time, balance program. He started to crawl at 7 months, walk at 15 months.

I wondered why he did not start creeping at 2.5 months. And I wondered what doctors are writing so much in their papers. Now I know that he had a kind if dysthonia in his legs, and without Doman he should start to crawl after 12 months.

Now (2 years) he is running faster than my 4 years old. Some kids are more active than others. And it is ok to start later.

In my region it is believed that crawling is good for back development. That it is not good to walk early. Doctors recommend to avoid early standing and walking. My first kid crawled 7 months (from 8 to 14 month age) and my second kid crawled 9 months (7 - 15) and doctors say that it was very good.

I still can not finish installation of LMs on my second computer because I can not get the license. I press "manage license keys". Since today, it shows:
Brillkids Acconnt. This program cannot display the webpage
At the same time I am logged on and visiting account page (parental control is off).

upd.
Website opened and asked me to log on. It offers only Little Reader Content & License Keys.

My 4 year old also asks for more and more, she likes LMs very much

At the beginning there are notes with put out tongue. Usually we do not listen because all the family put out tongues and laugh
Very tempting; often I join them

I tried to install LMs on two computers. On first it was successful and on second unsuccessful; I can not get the license (previous version worked on both). Is it how it should be?

Wolfwind ,
you should read also these

http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm
http://www.janetlansbury.com/2010/03/praising-children-risking-failure/
http://forum.brillkids.com/coffee-corner/brilliant-kids-lack-confidence-the-perils-of-praise/

two years ago, it was a revolution in our family.

but it is not hard, to praise for effort. just start