A year and a three quarters ago my sister (kiwimum) got YBCR and put her little baby in front of it.

I remember thinking how creepy it was that she was so absorbed in the DVD. But wow, imagine if she could take in just a tiny fraction of what she was watching, that would be amazing!

Then she discovered baby sign.
I spent a lot of time at her house, helping to introduce and remember new signs, reading books to Chloe and putting labels on everything with masking tape. input input input.
I think it was about a year ago that we discovered LR and this amazing forum.

...then we got pregnant
I scour the forum and the EL facebook group links almost daily.
I purchased LR, LM and LMs at 4 months.
Read "how smart is your baby" again at 6 months.
Last week I finally let myself start making black and white infant stimulation cards and some flashcards (action words, common animals, colours, family members)
This week i'll try and gather together the materials for a crawling track...
I've got a box of YBCR material and a bunch of EL-graffitied childrens books coming from my sister.

Two months till he's due to arrive.
Cant wait to meet him and start our EL journey... I wonder what will happen next!

there are a few "multicultural" books in this list
http://www.thealphaparent.com/2013/03/feminist-childrens-books-part-three.html

I think that LM incorporates the Doman method but I haven't read his "teach your baby math" book (yet).

That book would be the best place for you to start.
Others have uploaded resources you can use to follow Doman but I doubt that you will find a step by step "entire program".

I also bought equipment (a PC) especially for LR as it wouldn't run directly on my Mac. I will definitely be getting an iPad for our LO when he arrives. I've seen how quickly little fingers master the touch screen.

Many parents on here make great use of their iPads, there are a lot of free or cheap ] apps for reading, math, language etc that fit in with what you are doing with LR. I hope you will find it was money well spent.

My niece refuses to clap herself sometimes, but she will help a toy frog to clap...

Ilala:
Mum, of course EL is GOING to happen at our house. And you'll be there a lot of the time doing a lot of the work 
I think its highly UNlikely that conventional school will have changed AT ALL in the next 5 years in NZ and Australia.

School is big a concern, for our baby and for your other grandchild.
Amanda seems to have it all running smoothly
I just wanted to open the conversation towards modifying behaviour (of kids and of schools)

Amanda,
Please tell me how your daughters get on with classwork that is not aimed at their level?
How much flexibility/extension have you negotiated with your school.
Is the before-schooling and gymnastics enough to keep them satisfied?

We are a wee way off yet (not due till July) but I have been trawling the forum and researching links.
Its REALLY great to find the detail in your last post here. Thank you.
We live in NZ now but plan to bring our little man up in Aussie.

My partner is onboard with EL, having seen the possibilities with my niece (almost 2).
School is a big issue though.
He remembers school as unchallenging and boring. He is concerned that an advanced kid will be labeled a troublemaker or slow.
Ive read lots of homeschool posts and blogs where this the reason they took their kids out of school.
That's not an option for him.

Kezia,

If you are a Mac user and you don't want to use Little Reader (PC) through Boot Camp, Parallels or other similar workarounds, then you may simply use Little Reader Touch to play your courses.

how?

It wont automatically open from the itunes on my macbook.
google searches for "run ipad aps on macbook" come up with "not possible" responses.


I bought a PC a month ago specifically so I could get LR, LM an LMs. (the work-arounds for running LR on my mac were not too far off the price of a second laptop)
I use my mac for day to day stuff as the pc has windows 8 which drives me crazy and my partner (who despises my mac) has colonised the pc -things will change when the baby arrives

Its not essential, but I imagine it would be super handy to be able to run lessons from either laptop depending on what was at hand

My niece (kiwimums little reader) is pretty handy with a touchscreen so i definitely see an iPad joining the family eventually.

3. My sister "kiwimum" had a similar experience with YBCR. Her daughter Chloe really focused on the DVD but she would cry/scream when she got to a part of the DVD she wasn't familiar with, even with us sitting right there, talking about the words and pictures with her. It took time and repetition for her to get to the stage of seeing the whole DVD.

I suggest just turning it off when she loses interest (or in our case screaming). Start again from the start the next time/next day. Your 6month baby will get to the end eventually.
Kiwimum also started sign about 6months, my mother ("Ilala" on the forum) made a bunch of mini flashcards with words, pictures an sign on them.

1. With your elder daughter i think she WILL be taking in any reading that you do. My niece (almost 2 now) is often busy doing other things and appears not to be paying attention when we read to her but if you pause before saying a word she will finish the sentence for you.
When she is on my knee for a cuddle while reading I run my finger under the words as i go, she is following the story AND looking at and pointing out the pictures. I think that learning whole words means that she can scan the text much faster than i can read it.

I think it is likely to be the same with your daughter. It appears that she is only looking at the pictures but maybe she has already looked at the words that she knows?


2. Chloe is very vocal about getting us to switch off programs she doesn't know / enjoy.
But there's always another way to try to introduce the same concept.
Maybe you can watch the phonics video yourself after your daughter is in bed to get the basic idea of what its about and use the techniques occasionally in your story reading?

I acknowledge that this is an old thread too but I feel the need to publicly agree with mommytoautumn.

Early Learning to me is an appreciation of an infants personhood.
Realising how much they are capable of and how early and thoroughly they absorb what we do. They are amazing!

I cant reconcile this with the idea of controlling a child with threatening behaviour.


Admittedly, I'm not a parent yet so i haven't experienced the frustrations first hand but i'd like to think that assault wont be in my bag of tricks.
My sister successfully used sign with her daughter to head off many of the tantrums she was expecting.

I had nausea in my first trimester, tried all the usual remedies. It settled down for a couple of weeks after christmas and then came back worse than ever: painful bloating and violent vomiting. I stumbled across a blog somewhere recommending more good fats to keep you blood sugar levels even. I started probiotic egg milkshakes for breakfast and the nausea went away immediately. I've gone without a couple of days since to test the theory and the nausea came back. So two (cooked) eggs a day, full cream milk & yoghurt, a tablespoon of coconut oil and a banana in a smoothie has been my solution.