Fun, fun! Thank you for sharing experiences. We do much the same ( in fact everything that you have mentioned , plus), not sure if I understood correctly what you mean by fretting a note, and when did you started that...

[Russian]

I would also vote for Russian ( since I already voted for Chinese I can not give my vote to Russian, but they are equally important for our family) 

[The World's 10 most influential Languages]

Yes, it was very interesting to see the results, however, not too surprising Of course, like G Weber said "every language is the most important language in the world - to its speakers", however I found an article which I think would be of intrest , --

The World's 10 most influential Languages  --  http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm

It can be a help to know what are the most popular, most influential, spoken in the most countries, etc languages out there. Of course those of us, who happen to have 3 languages spoken in the family and live in a foreign country as well, have our work cut out for us      However this is an interesting read if you are just contemplating on which foreign language to consider, etc., if you lets say a unilingual houshold...

To summarise it, The list George Weber  gives in his article “Top Languages: The World’s 10 Most Influential Languages” in Language Today (Vol. 2, Dec 1997):
(number of native speakers in parentheses)

Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion)
English (330 million)
Spanish (300 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (200 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Portuguese (160 million)
Russian (160 million)
Japanese (125 million)
German (100 million)
Punjabi (90 million)
Javanese (80 million)
French (75 million)

However, in terms of secondary speakers, Weber submits the following list:
(number of speakers in parentheses)

French (190 million)
English (150 million)
Russian (125 million)
Portuguese (28 million)
Arabic (21 million)
Spanish (20 million)
Chinese (20 million)
German (9 million)
Japanese (8 million)

Thus, if you add the secondary speaker populations to the primary speaker populations, you get the following (and I believe more accurate) list:
(number of speakers in parentheses)

Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion)
English (480 million)
Spanish (320 million)
Russian (285 million)
French (265 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (221 million)
Portuguese (188 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Japanese (133 million)
German (109 million)


The following is a list of these languages in terms of the number of countries where each is spoken.  The number that follows is the total number of countries that use that language (from Weber, 1997):

English (115)
French (35)
Arabic (24)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16, however, remember Russia is just one of thsoe countries but it is huge! AND the same goes for USA for english, India for Hindi and China for Chinese  )
German (9)
Mandarin (5)
Portuguese (5)
Hindi/Urdu (2)
Bengali (1)
Japanese (1)


After weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio-literary prestige), Weber compiled the following list of the world's ten most influential languages:
(number of points given in parentheses)

English (37)
French (23)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
Arabic (14)
Chinese (13)
German (12)
Japanese (10)
Portuguese (10)
Hindi/Urdu (9)


I think it is good to have an idea about these statistics in making decisions on which languages to consider as "priority" languages for curriculum, at the same time it is important to remember as I quoted earlier that ""every language is the most important language in the world - to its speakers"   

 

Thank you, Joha, just now was able to read your reply! Appreciate hearing about your progress. I guess we are starting now and will see how it goes. We did a couple of times so far, and she really seem to "get the idea". I am sure it will be a slow progress, but I am glad to see her trying to move forward and working on it... And we had fun with her toys 

[5 months! Summary of weeks 16-20]

Let me start....

5 months ( weeks 16-20)


5 months! Summary of weeks 16-20

-   Loves attention and showing off! Smiles to everyone and trying to meet the gase of people we meet or pass by, the moment she does she gives them big smile!

- Discovered her toes and likes sucking on them; she prefers left foot to her right one; if she has a sock on, she would suck it as well, so we started to have to change wet socks as well as wet bibs!

-Started to sit up without any support, for a short time will play with toys that lay in front of her ( big stuffed alphabet block, frog, etc.), then will lose balance; she ventures to let go of both of her hands, and use both of her hands to play

-   She is sitting in baby-pod for her school

-   Started to play “ball” with me, we use large stuffed alphabet block, and roll it to each other

-   Enjoyed her balloons that float, daddy will bring a few balloons for her occasionally, and she loves watching them, she learned to pass the string from one hand to another; and learned that if she let go, it will fly away

-Had her first experience with the sand on the beach; sand was very warm, we sat her in it and she loved it, tried grabbing as much sand as she can in her tiny hands

-   From one day to the next she decided that she does not want to sleep swaddled anymore, now she sleeps un-swaddled

-Went out to a church for the first time, loved the music, watching  piano being played

-   Had her first well-baby pediatrician visit. She was such a great sample during the whole time, -- smiled to everyone ( even though was awaken from sound sleep), asked to go potty and went immediately, did not cry for weighting and measuring, nursed. She weighted 12 and a half pounds.

-   She wants to drink water from the "normal" water bottle like us, when we are out, grabbing the bottles at every chance, we gave her a try, she did not like the water but liked the experience; the same with cap

-   Knows what we mean, when we say that we are going “to the park”, really shows her anticipation, even willing to be in a car seat. Loves going to the park! When we take a walk, sits up in her buggy and watches people and trees.

-   Started Little Reader curriculum, she loves it!

-   Started learning about animals ( Russian PPP, LR curriculum), and a little after we started she got a chance to see live baby chicks, ducks, geese, mice, hamsters in a farming supply store. After all these “real life” encounters she is all excited when “Animal facts” come as a lesson on her Little Reader!

-   Had her first encounter with real horses on one day and 3 months baby horse on another! She was so excited, absolutely loved the baby horse.

-   When she is done on the potty, she “gets up”, kind of leans with all her body forward, almost falling off, letting us know that she is finished

-   Her favorite books “Christian Mother Goose Big book” ( “Pussy Cat”, “Lucy Lady Bug” and “God loves you little one”), “Whose Baby am I?” ( with big colorful illustrations of animal babies and russian "Colors" book

[monthly milestones]

Here is an idea I though to share. It is always helpful for me to "compare" in a good sense of this word with other children, when my little one is growing up.

We used to do "monthly milestones" with the small group of mothers, just writing few main points that baby did, learned, experienced in such and such month. It was really neat, as it was not just educational, but also gave me an idea about some things that my little one might be capable of, but I just did not think to try, or would enjoy doing, but I have not considered. It also was a great way to see progress and to cheer each other up.

So I thought to start the thread here, where we can chare the MONTHLY MILESTONES of our babies. It will be great to state at the beginning of the post something like week 20 - week 24 ( or 5-6 months), for example. And just a short run down of the points, the s that your baby was able to do, accomplish or experience for the first time that month. I think later, it also can be helpful for other parents to look through it and see lets say what other babies did at the age of 9 months. Of course each one os different, but it can be a fun avenue to share ideas and progress...

Joha, thank you for that answer a while back!    Now, my daughter almost the age your daugter was when you wrote it  . It just did not work out for us to get it then, so she is now 5 months and 3 weeks, and we just got the crawling track.

She does not crawl yet, so we thought it would not hurt to have it ( since I dont feel comfortable putting her straight on the floor ( I can keep it nicer and cleaner in the track)), plus we can use it for her exercise later, etc., like you mentioned.

Now that you have a couple of months behind you with using it, and you have started at the same age we are starting, can you share any tips? How did you start? How soon did she started to crawl in it, did she make any progress in the first few days? How many times a day do you do it, anything else?

I would really appreciate hearing from you!

Anyone else, who started it with older babies, around 5.5-6 months? Any tips or experiences will be appreciated!

We have a large family ( 23 nieces and nephews, and a lot more cousins, etc.   ), many of which used Doman method ( I would say 8/10). The ages at present anything from 18 years old and down. I was not involved in their school, but observed some of the resuts on the occasion, and also talked with their parents. Four of their parents are actually professional educators, and they did try other methods, primary with teaching other children. They all, after try and error,  say that they will definetly chose Doman's method for early education over anything else. Later on in life, they did introduce other age appropriate learning methods ( most of the children were incredibly early learners, so they were ahead of their age group in their schooling) for math, etc. But they definetly say that from personal experience and results, they will be starting with Doman Method, even if you do not see immediate results and it seem like the child is not showing progress. As much of this method of learing is a preparation for other ones later in life.

They also used combination of other schools, like Montessori, etc. Adapting it. When I asked them about the "results" factor, they agree that it is about giving baby knowledge and opportunities and making it fun, and letting the baby figure it out and develop on its own pace, not expecting him or her to perform on cue. It is not about raising uop geniuses, but rather helping each kid to progress and be challenged according to his or her own potential and pace.

Just thought to share it

I am planning on starting Geenogee musical concepts for my baby. It looks great, from the first glance. Does anyone has some tips and experiences, adjustments that made it funner/easier for their kid? Results? Will appreciate hearing from you!!!

Thank you, Jad!

 Very nice, graffjamie!

I agree with you about no age limit    Our little one was very intently following my husband fingers as he is playing classical guitar since she was about 10 days old.

She also would react, when he would "miss" a cord ( on purpose) in a familiar melody.

And watching my husband play is her favourite activity.

I am so impressed that you were introducing classical guitar to your son as well! So inspiring!

Would you be able to share some practical tips? What would you do in a typical a few minutes "lesson". I am sure for him it is a fun play, but do you have some structure, where have you started first, do you show cords and tell their names, notes and show their names. Is he primary watching and listening or you are giving him some picking to try, and how dis you started it?

Anything else along the same lines... I am so glad that someone does it and very curious to hear back from you with some tips.

K to you!

That's great we will try that too, sounds like fun!

Just wondering if anyone had experience with early musical training using guitar. There is a lot of information available on piano, and I agree that for teaching child to play that would be an instrument of choice ( and we will be doing that). But I was wondering if anyone had experience teaching baby notes, sounds and melodies, musical concepts using guitar, mainly for perfect pitch or music recognition and appreciation, not much for playing per se, as child has to be at least 4-5 to be able to hold the cords on guitar properly....

Will be looking forward to get some input! Thank you!

"Now with LR, when the color section comes, he does not seem interested. I am not sure if he is doing that because he knows the colors or if he is simply not interested in learning colors anymore "

That is so interesting, Quester, I had the same reaction, and was wondering why... One of my theories was that I've been teaching colors in Russian already, and we went through few colors presentations (PPP) regularly. So when I showed the colors to her in English, may be she is wondering why do we need to learn them again...   Not so sure! So we skipped the colors section a few times ( it was the only thing she was not interested in, so it made me really curious, since she is REALLY INTO LR)

That is so neat to hear about your acoomplishments, Quester, Joha, gives me motivation to keep on going, even though she is a bit young to show the results just yet 

Joha, what kind of color games do you do? Will be interesting to know!

[Longway, these are excellent presentations!!!]

Longway, these are excellent presentations!!! Some of the best ones I've seen! Thank you for making them and especially for sharing them with us all! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THESE!!

Looking forward for more presentations from you, as you making them for your little one! Now I have motivation to continue Chinese with my daughter ( I am not Mandarin speaker).