I'm still trying to figure out why I cannot get past the 'trial' and download the license key properly. But here are my suggestions so far (sorry if these problems are addressed after Day 10 of the curriculum):

Under the Music Appreciation section:
It would be very helpful and more stimulating for the learner to observe the piece of music being played (very, very valuable), the melody moving as notes on the score, or the metronome moving according to the music while the composer's piece is being played. These could come up in a randomized fashion as they do in Little Reader. Even showing the multiple instruments that make up the musical piece would be more beneficial than a blank screen.

Under the Clap-Along section:
I agree with another user that it is harder especially for the younger learners to clap so slowly. Also, for when it's appropriate to clap only on the first beat, for example, I think there needs to be reasoning shown why (for example, a moving image "1-x-x-x-1-x-x-x," where "1" represents a clap-- sorry, just trying to creatively express what I mean using only keyboard symbols), not just teaching a 'kareoke' mindset of clapping when the icon shows you it's time to clap.

When introducing musical instruments:
I think it is crucial that not only the photo image of the instrument is a real one, but that it is shown a real instrument is being played by a real person. Teaching how the instrument projects sound (plucking, pushing, strumming, rubbing, hitting, etc.) is an essential part of learning what an instrument is or does. Unfortunately at this point I don't see this part being introduced in Little Musician. (To give you an example, it's like teaching the word "hammer" to a child, but not showing what it does of what you can do with the hammer.)

Furthermore, music is a form of nonverbal communication. This form of communication simply cannot be shown or taught by animations not exactly playing the instrument properly. (Sorry, I feel so bad for the workers who worked so hard on this!) Showing video clips of real, professional musicians expressively (you'll see why in my last paragraph below) playing the instrument being introduced in this section (and don't forget--also showing video clips of children joyously playing the instrument) will improve the quality and value of Little Musician TREMENDOUSLY.

Another category you can add is Instrument recognition. Again, forgive me if I simply did not see this because I'm having trouble downloading Semester 1 and 2. But this is a good category to add in the beginning anyway.  Perhaps an audio of a violin being played with a "?" on the screen after a "Can you guess what this instrument is?", and the next page showing a violin (or even several instruments to choose from, and the next next page showing the answer) with the original musical audio. The level of difficulty of this game can be increased by perhaps, a flute and a harp being simultaneously played, with the question, "What two instruments do you hear?" etc. Listening activities such as: "Do you hear the triangle? Can you raise your hand when the you no longer can hear the triangle" also teaches the valuable and unique traits of various instruments. It also encourages more interactiion (rather than passive listening and repeating) and more parental involvement and modeling behavior to actively encourage the learner to mimic and learn. Let me stress the word actively.

Under Chord Recognition:
What a wonderful a guessing game! But this guessing game can be easily ruined if you couldn't hear the chord being played and your only choice is to turn to the next page (which already tells you the answer) when you didn't have the chance to guess. An option of a "repeat button" on the "?" page would solve this problem easily (like, "Press the space bar to hear it again.").

Well, those are the comments I have so far. I love that the notes are occasionally trucks or strawberries! It keeps it all interesting! Just wondering, though: does a section for emotional interpretation come up later in the curriculum? Because as I've said, music is a form of nonverbal communication, and I think emotional interpretation deserves to be recognized in music education.

Got the Little Musician up, but even after downloading the license key (had some trouble with this but my husband helped me), the Little Musician says that I am on a 'trial,' and that I have 15 days to update my license key. What do I do now to be able to continue the beta testing until May 10?

Just found a website offering free nutrition lesson plans. Always great to encourage healthy eating!

http://blog.superhealthykids.com/nutrition-lesson-plans/

[Recess plays an imporant part in grade-school aged children, it helps with obesity, a right to free play, and builds soical skills with peers. Some school officals want to reduce recess (NOT PE) to focus more on academic skills and that taking it away will not affect how our children learn and act...]

Hello all!

My friend is writing a paper that requries her to get personal thoughts from friends or family....any comments will be helpful.

Ok, here it is, in her words:

Recess plays an imporant part in grade-school aged children, it helps with obesity, a right to free play, and builds soical skills with peers. Some school officals want to reduce recess (NOT PE) to focus more on academic skills and that taking it away will not affect how our children learn and act...

Lets here what you think. If I use your statement I will quote you:) Thanks guys!!

Or LMs! We could be the next group to test it out.

Thank you, aangeles, for clarifying! It's been forever since I knew what they were called.

About the chalk paint--

I goodled it and came across this product:
http://www.krylon.com/products/chalkboard_paint/

AMAZING!! Congrats! Always great to hear success stories! Keep up the good work!

I know of a Montessori mom who bought only the mattress that goes to the crib, but not the crib itself. She put the mattress on the floor, and allowed the baby to sleep there. (I think she put a yoga mat on the floor next to the mattress just in case.)

Her philosophy was, if the baby rolls or gets off the bed, that in and of itself was one of his discoveries (kind of like the Domans say every accidental crawling motion should be used to encourage and benefit brain development). As long as your house is clean and baby safe, (and might I add, no pets that come to "cuddle" and accidentally suffocate the baby,) I would assume there shouldn't be a problem.

Just for another point-of-view:

I know in traditional households in Japan (of which the Domans are fans), everybody sleeps on the floor. Babies co-sleep with mom, and are allowed all of the benefits the mattress on the floor offers. Kind of like the best of both worlds.
(And a sidenote: "kicking them out" of the bed is almost unheard of in Japan. The child does not go through the traumatic "eviction" many Western cultures have the kids do. I know many Western couples who cannot imagine sleeping with their children for years, but in Japan, it is the normal thing to do. Personally, I grew up this way and I think it works, but my husband on the other hand, who grew up in America, isn't so sure.)

Good idea! I've considered it too, but we haven't been at a place where we could freely paint or repaint walls yet.

Have you heard of the black paint where you can use chalk draw? I thought that was cool, and it's erasable, too. 

I know researches recommend having larger paper to draw on as opposed to the smaller ones. They argue that the larger the paper, the larger the child's imagination. So, since they are saying larger is better, they recommend walls and floors. (like maybe huge sheets of paper on walls or writing on the sidewalk)

Also, the larger the paper, the more the child's arm is in motion. In stead of just the fingers moving, so does the wrist. And if on even bigger paper, so does the elbow. And on even bigger paper, so does the shoulder. Each joint of the arm offers a different radius of coverage on paper, which translates to offering more possibilities of creation on paper. Does that make sense?

I know in Japan, every toy store had this cardboard house or vehicle for sale. It came in the basic shape of the house or vehicle with outlines for windows, doors, etc. But the kids were free to draw on the cardboard as they liked. I don't know if they have it here in the states. It was a huge hit, but something you could do at home, too, you know? You could combine a few boxes and make it look like robots, fire trucks, whatever your child likes, and enjoy drawing the people and tools, etc. It is fun!

(This doesn't have much to do with drawing, but also popular was the use of empty milk or juice cartons to make bricks to create animals, giraffes, play houses, vending machines, everything!)

I have a three-year-old daughter who still benifits from coloring IN the coloring books (well, within the lines anyway), but I also heard there are many people against regular coloring books. (After a certain age/stage, I think,) they feel that kids should not simply color IN, but actually learn to draw. I forgot what they called those coloring books. Maybe something like the UNcoloring book, but I cant' be too sure.

Don't forget to encourage your child to use both hands to draw (if you're not against using the left hand for drawing)! It's a good way to encourage even more brain synapses. Start early before they start to prefer one hand over the other! (I do the same for chopsticks, too.)

My daughter and I like to talk about mixing colors, like making the rainbow with only red, yellow, and blue. She seems to get it. We talk about putitng yellow apple juice in a blue cup to make green apple juice, too. Silly, fun things like that.

Combing songs with drawing is also known to be a good technique in teaching how to draw. I follow a Japanese program for that but I'm sure you can find something like that on youtube.

Hmm, I know there's more but that's all I can think of for now.

@Tom,

That's why I said those classes better be REALLY good    I don't disagree with you, Tom; sorry I wasn't very clear. But sometimes if you translate the time you put into sacrificing to attend a class, one'll find that it  increases the price of the class itself, and if it is only a class of mediocre quality, it's not that great an invenstment in your time and money.

But for a REALLY GOOD program, like what you describe and from what it sounds what you're doing, oh it would definitely be worth the travel time and money! Sometimes I wish there were more of you, all spread out in all areas of the world teaching soroban.

Do you have a list of schools you've observed? Where can we find schools like what you described? I would love to know which schools you would recommend and not recommend. Maybe if that's hard for you (I'm an educator myself so I know how it can be tough endorsing specific schools if you know how it should be done ), maybe you could tells what aspects of specific schools you like? I'm thinking maybe that'll make it easier for some us to find good soroban schools in our area.

Those Soroban classes better be REALLY good because in place of those 16 hours a month of JUST driving, I could do research, read books on soroban, practice the soroban, AND teach what I know to my child, and still have several hours to spare. I think if you started going there and learned the basics, you wouldn't keep going. I don't think I would.

I am not exactly familiar with Photo Eyeplay, but I also have the same problem with TV. I joke with my family that I was born allergic to TV, but it is something I've always struggled with; when it's really bad, it's like morning sickness all over again. The only way I could get myself to feel betters is to sleep it off.

I've asked my doctors if there is anything like that with a medical name. Not one doctor has been able to give me a decent answer. Basically, doctors aren't aware of this 'disorder.' And for the longest time I thought I must be the only one in the world with this struggle, but come to find out, several of my friends have trouble going to movie theaters, watching TV, watching documentaries, etc. I also have trouble listening to the radio, and even using the internet from time to time.

I did some personal research, but still no good answer. I know for the most part it has something to do with your eyes, maybe some dialogue, but somehow you get "dizzy." Older TV models are the worst; my daughter and I just moved back to the states where my husband is, and he has (according to him) the best and most recent of TVs, and it hasn't gotten me sick as I used to get before.

I know it's different for each person. My condition was funny: if I was really really into a program/show, it usually wouldn't bother me if I didn't watch for a prolonged period of time. But if it was anything I had no interest of, then it immediately got me sick. With our recent move, and our new TV, that hasn't been the case, but one time I was watching it sideways (by that I mean not across from it), and I got sick again, even with the good TV.

Don't know if this helps, but in some of the pages I've come across it mentions that sometimes even the electronic wiring in walls can cause not only headaches but also illness in people. Funny that, the families who took care of the electrical wiring and who happened to have children with ADHD, autism, etc., discovered that the symptoms of those brain conditions completely disappeared!! Apparently, there isn't eneough research on this, but you can infer there is some correlation with electrical wiring and illness! (Well, I guess it isn't so much a surprise if you recall synapses are basically, electrical connections in the brain.)

(My friends in the house-building industries also recommend against houses powered exclusively by electricity because of the silent health affectly they have. According to them, most electricians are aware of the side-effects of electricity, but ignore this because they are also trained that the side-affects are very minimal.)

I saw online there are steps to make sure your house is safe, and instructions to fix the problems if the hosue isn't as safe as you would like it. I am still in the middle of this whole process so I cannot tell you if it is working for us, but maybe you could try it?

But do know that the nausea is real; we just need to spread more awareness on this subject, so that more research goes into this and we will know what we should do to help and protect our children!

Ayesha--> I can translate, but I'm assuming you have to have the app to view the videos, right?