I'm sure I posted yesterday but I do not see my post. Anyway.

Velvetkatze, I'm in a similar situation. I'm Russian who lives in the US. I chose not to follow OPOL for the same reasons that you did. We also have and read many more books in English than in Russian. I'm concerned though that my son will not be willing to speak Russian. He just starter saying single words (he is 2 yo). Out of about 40 words he can say, only 6-8 are Russian words, the rest are English words. Did you have the same with your daughter? How did you encourage her to speak Russian?

I have a number of Russian friends here. And those who did  not follow OPOL, have a hard time encouraging their kids to speak Russian. Basically, the mother speaks Russian to a kid, and the kid responds in English. They say it's either this, or they have to fight over language every time they talk. Do you  notice any resistance from your daughter to speak Russian? I would think that it is easier for her to express herself in English. How do you encourage her to speak Russian?

yes we have that "talking back in English" problem. But it's getting better. When I am sure that she knows how to say something in Russian - I don't react to what she's saying in English, just keep saying "in Russian please, I will help you if you get stuck" and then I start the sentence for her . Quite often she is stuck, and I am giving her words to continue, which she very carefully (most time incorrectly) repeats. It is getting better. Quite often she is stuck on grammar, as it's not like in English - verbs change - conjugation, time, who or what we're speaking about etc, so even if she heard the word said by me (2nd person) or about 3rd person, she doesn't know how to apply it to the 1st person, so I say something as if she's saying it. She repeats. It just takes time I think. She's not "resisting" as you say, I think it's just not a 1st choice in the brain, so I just have to persevere.
The best one for us so far was watching favorite cartoons in Russian and singing introduction songs (I help her out with missing words) and also we have some Russian books with buttons with songs or kids poetry (Barto, Chukovski etc.) - she learns them by heart and enjoys repeating phrases. I also started reading mostly only Russian books. (there are few exceptions, of course) If she asks to read an English book, I say that I only read Russian books and would she like to read one.

It's very difficult for her to speak russian when she's very tired, so in those cases I don't make her not to put her off, I just keep my side of the conversation in Russian.
But it's quite good that your son have already started to say Russian words. Just keep "giving" them to him when he says English word, so when he says "dog" don't say "No, it's sobaka, not a dog" just say "da, ty prav, eto sobaka". It'll all work out, I am sure. As I said - my daughter is getting better. You can also choose a toy which would "only speak Russian" and "doesn't understand English at all". We have Cheburashka and Masha from Masha i Medved' cartoon.

I don't think it will hurt either of them to watch the extra lessons. Especially if the oldest isn't reading yet, she could benefit from the input!  My youngest loves having older sister act things out and point to the words while we do LR. It helps the older one feel important if they get to be the teacher. Maybe show your older one how to point to the words, repeating each one so baby can learn it. She may learn to read in the meantime! I have found that the more things they do together as a team (even though mine are 3&1/2 years apart), the better they get along. They love each other so much because there is no competition between them, just team work! Eventually, the younger one starts wanting to copy the older one just because she sees how much fun Sister is having.

thank for your reply, the older one is not reading yet, although she recognizes couple of words from the books when we read to her, but she is reluctant to read by herself or even look at  books. Now I am just showing either of their lessons whenever they are both around, will see how it works out :-)

Have you tried "do a dot" exercises? I found this website that has tons of info on them. http://www.giftofcuriosity.com/15-ideas-for-using-do-a-dot-printables-to-help-kids-learn/
There's a lot of other free do a dot printables that could be found on the internet, or you can adapt these ones for number recognition - your daughter might be a sensorial learner in maths, not visual,  which means she needs to feel and touch what is being taught. Try different touchy - feely number games - cut out numbers from cardboard then let her wrap colored cotton thread through, make a "sensory bottle" with a filling of your choice with numbers inside, do foam or potato number printing - this sort of stuff. Also - I think Montessori number beads and rods are genius. http://straightfromthebelly.com/diy-montessori-number-rods/
http://livingmontessorinow.com/2011/08/08/montessori-monday-diy-bead-bars/ (I suggest you subscribe to this one, lots of inspiration)
Hope this helps

Hi Teresa
depending on the age of your child and his/her interests - there should be lots of things to try out. Here in UK lots of museums have children's sections where young children will be exposed to higher standard of native language, there's even a few museums only for children that are highly educational. Some times you can find science playgroups to go to together and this could be an "exception day" when you speak Italian. Also - you can just reserve one day in a week to speak Italian ONLY to your child.
If you hear a word that you think would benefit your child - repeat it in English then say in "in Italian it's .... " few times. Then continue speaking English. If you do frequent trips in the car - put the local radio on, and occasionally repeat "beneficial" words as you hear them. I usually "talk to myself" something like "oh, they said "mechanical" - that's a good/interesting word" (and explaining to myself what that word means) then keep speaking English as if nothing happened - and lo and behold - few days/months later she repeats this word in conversation. Stories on CD's work well, especially if they are mixed up with songs. Choose stories that are slightly higher level than your child's speech, and listen to the same one as many times as it's requested - repetition is the key. Your local library should have lots of these for hire. If something interesting happened during the day, ask your child to re-tell it to another family member or to a toy in Italian (because they don't speak/understand English ;-) - works most of the time), and at this time help with choosing words if you see him/her getting stuck. You can choose a special cartoon "treat" with a developmental cartoon (with lots of talking, as some cartoons are very poor on language) in Italian slightly higher then your child's level of speech/understanding. My girl is only allowed to watch 3 cartoons on English TV (we record some of them, as the screening time is not convenient) they are all quite educational. Favorite one is Octonauts (children usually older then her watch it) where she picks up a lot of good language and info about marine animals. I am sure you can find something similar in Italian.
If you have favorite relatives living far away - you can let your child Skype them in Italian. You can subscribe to an Italian magazine for older kids and this should be read to your child often by another member of the family or by you on your "weekly Italian day". We subscribe to a monthly nature magazine for kids, and occasionally buy a magazine with a theme of a favorite cartoon, where I ask her to re-tell me a story that she saw on TV and describe what she's doing.
Hope this helps :-)
I think you shouldn't worry about saying an Italian word here and there, as the majority of your speech will still be English.

I am Russian living in UK. I found out about Doman Method when my girl was about 18 months, and I started trying bits and pieces since then and we started LR and LMusician from about 2y.o. I am the only person who speaks Russian to her and from 6 months till 18 months she was at childminder 3 - 4 days a week, so she had very limited exposure to the Russian language.
I am at home with her from 18 months and was speaking English and Russian to her not sticking to OPOL rules, simply because I wanted to enrich her English using words in my speech that people don't normally use when talking to babies and small children, so I didn't want to leave her speech development to a childminder or school (or my husband who has a very limited time with her every day) because ( 1)a child’s vocabulary growth is directly linked to his or her overall school achievement, 2) the size of a child’s vocabulary in kindergarten predicts his ability to learn to read, 3) the more words a child knows, the more information the child has access to etc. - you can read great article here:  http://www.hanen.org/SiteAssets/Helpful-Info/Articles/build-your-childs-vocabulary.aspx)
She's now 3,5 y.o and everyone in preschool thinks she's starting school this September - her English speech and communication skills are that good. On the down-side she is only now starting to speak in full sentences in Russian (that said - in several months only she made and keeps making huge progress). So I am satisfied with her English for now and will start excluding it from my everyday communication with her.
For English reading we used home-made cards first, then I bought LR. For Russian reading we're using cards and DVD with pictures only. I think it's best to keep one language to one medium and another to a different one. Although occasionally when there's a picture of something interesting I would name it in both languages, as we read tons of English books from the library and there's not ever enough of Russian books to read to cover all the topics.
For Russian we use BITs cards and reading cards from www.umnitsa.ru - they are a great time saver, and they have different methodics as well, which we use too, there's tons of materials on their forums as well.
I have a second child now - 5 months old and the only thing I'd change is to start earlier and be more consistent in lessons - I had massive ups and downs and break-up of the lessons for a very long periods of time with my first child for various reasons. I'll still keep LR only for English and printed materials mainly for Russian. We're currently doing both with the baby. And once both languages are more or less established I'm introducing Spanish, as I can speak it as well and a third language would be a big plus - the older one is already picking up some French at pre-school but I don't speak it, so better stick to Spanish :-)

Glenn Doman recommends showing the sets only 3 times a day. 5 sets of words (5words in each set) and 5 sets of math (5 cards in each), and some BITs cards, on the same principle. It doesn't matter which sets and how many sets you do daily- whatever you can deal with, it's just 3 times a day for each card is important. I think with LR and LM it's different because it's multisensory stimulation - sounds, videos etc, not only cards. Besides many words are being re-used later in different lessons as a part of different things, like word split for example.

Thank you very much Mandabplus3! I guess I'll just keep going and see what happens. It's just so disheartening sometimes and I keep blaming myself for all the little failures.. But I am glad it worked for your daughter

I am not a very good educator if I compare myself to other parents on these forums. I have LR and LM, I also show Russian reading lash cards. I had attempted showing Doman Math cards to my child but they never went well, so I stopped after I showed (almost all 100) dot cards. I ad a few start-stops, and currently only managing to show one part of LR lesson and 1 music lesson a day, and 5 sets of Russian cards. I have a 4 month old baby as well, so same amount goes for her. I have started the baby earlier on all the programs than the older one - the older girl started cards from 18 months and then LM and LR
I have purchased Chinese curriculum, but hardly touched it..
My older girl is not reading by herself yet (3,5y.o) but loves to be read to - we take 12 books from the library every two weeks, plus I buy her magazines and we read a lot of old favorites as well.
I am so disheartened that she cannot read yet, and I feel bad about our irregular lessons - but I cannot MAKE her to watch them, I tried bribing, being overexcited about the lessons, making other family members watch, toys, etc. but she is very much into imaginative play now and that's good for brain development and we play outside a lot, planting, climbing, going to the beach, watching insects, going swimming, going to playgroups that she loves etc.  - there's just not enough time for everything I need to show her. And I feel like all of my (probably humble in some people's opinion) efforts are not working. Shall I just give up on the lessons and let her be?
Anyone have any success stories with irregular lessons or is it all just a waste of time if I cannot push hard enough?
thanks!

 

I have a 3,5 y.o and a 4 months old baby. I am not a very good educator, I try my best but my best is not even close to what other parents here are managing to give to their children. Older one is not reading yet. My problem is - I have started showing lessons to my 4 months old baby and the older one wants to be part of the action and she wants to watch these lessons as well. She keeps interfearing and distracting the baby though, acting as if it's her lesson. Also - I don't have time to show LR twice a day to each kid, so sometimes baby ends up watching older child's lesson as well because I cannot leave baby on her own. My question is - shall I allow older one to watch baby's lessons and is it bad for the baby to watch older kids's lessons at all?
thank you for any input
KAtja

Hello all!
Please could anyone direct me somewhere where I can read how to use categories and downloaded BITs? I am sure it's been covered somewhere but I cannot find it, I've been searching for a while! I have downloaded and imported into LR a few categories and BITs (like parts of the body and internal organs etc - my toddler is very much into this stuff now, but the only way I can see and play it is by clicking on Play and Edit in LR and there, in Categories I can see the downloaded content. I can see pictures in a small window on the right, but I cannot see how to play it as normal slides, I can click on the microphone then it reads the word for the picture out, then I can click on the "picture" to get the picture again. But I'm sure that's not how it should be played. Please help! thank you!

thanks for the replies. Yes. I tried helping her by holding her hands while clapping, holding her foot while stomping - she would give up doing by herself or take her foot/hands away. Tried marching - she starts dancing completely out of rithm/tune. If we sing the rhymes - she starts dancing and stops clapping alltogether, and we always do it together, but she doesn't take my lead :-(

I have this problem with my LO - when it comes to the end of a lesson and Games part - after she chooses the correct answer - it shows a picture or word then sometimes says a fact about this object, but sometimes asks a question about that object. Example: word "SQUARE" - it shows a square then asks "do you see any squares around you?" - I understand that the program is using existing slides, but this is very distracting for the child, as she starts looking for sqares/etc or tries to answer the asked question, meanwhile the program quickly switches to the next set of words/pictures to choose from and asks "can you find SKY/DUCK/etc. - and we always miss the question part, as she's busy with the previous task. Is there any way I can switch off this narration after each correctly chosen word/picture? Or ways to repeat the question for the next set of pictures?

thank you very much

For as long as we've been doing LM (about a year now, as we were moving, new baby arrived and my LO had periods when she didn't want to do music lessons at all) she likes most parts of it, but completely doesn't get the clap-along part. As soon as it starts - she's start dancing or clap or stomp her feet completely out of rythm. I tried to explain to her that you only clap/stomp when the character on the screen does, or when a shape crosses the line, tried counting, tried changing the rythm settings - nothing works, she just claps whenever she fancies, mostly too fast. Any tips please?
Thank you

Hi
I bought Little Reader Storybooks by mistake as I haven't realized that same ones were already included in LR Delux that I purchased at the same time. Brillkids team offered me to send them back, but I went to Post Office today and the cheapest quote was £45 to post by tracked post, I will get no money back if I do that.
Books are exactly like here: https://user.brillkids.com/onlinestore/tls-little-reader-storybooks-1.php#section=description
Price for these are £25 plus delivery to UK about £20, I will sell these for £30, free delivery around UK.
Call or text me on 0796 0603 698
Thanks

Following this topic, as it is of interest to us. We are (regrettably) monolingual, but are determined to teach our son multiple languages.

One thing we have considered is a nanny or au pair who speaks other languages, even though I am a SAHM (mostly). Has anyone ever tried this? Au pairs in any of the programs we have explored cost about $25k/yr for all fees & usually stay 1yr at a time. Do you think it would be worth the expense when we really don't need the child care aspect? We found one nanny locally who spoke FIVE languages (including all the ones we wanted our child to learn, except Spanish), but she is engaged full-time as an after-school nanny for another family & would only be available 4hrs/3day/week. Not sure he would really get much out of that. Thoughts?

If you are a stay-at-home mum, there's one thing you can do (I'm in the process of moving houses, so I haven't done it so far, but I definitely intend to do it!) - There's a lot of cheap play groups around our area (once a week, stay-and-play with the parent) and in those groups some parents speak other languages to their kids, you can also hear it at the playgrounds or kids rhymetime sessions at a local library. Consider getting friendly with those parents and do a "child swap" one day a week (or even half-day) purely for the purpose of teaching other language, especially if you can offer some other types of tuition to their kid (like math or music) if your English skills would not cut the deal :-).