Does the French curriculum also teach the gender of nouns? If so, when is gender introduced?

Just asking, since I noticed that the words are genderless in the video posted by Mela Bala and I had just recently read the following post http://non-nativebilingualadventure.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-29-month-old-daughter-just-corrected.html (after seeing the blog linked in another BrillKids forum post), which brought home to me the benefits of introducing a second language early to children...that they can get the gender of words "hard-wired" into their brains so that they don't have to think about it, unlike those of us who learned languages later in life.

One consideration is whether you want to buy just one carrier that will last you through toddlerhood or if you are ok with using different kinds of carriers at different stages. If you want one that will last through toddlerhood, then you should look for one that supports a comfortable back carry.

I started off with ring slings (a SBP one - it comes with a nice instructional DVD as well as printed instructions as well as one from another work-at-home mom that was ok, but I liked the SBP one better). It was nice to have two so that when one is in the wash the other could be used. I also tended to keep one of them in the car. It took a few tries to feel like I had the sling on right. I even went to a local store that sold ring slings for help. I liked it for the newborn stage and it was easy to go grocery shopping and run other errands with the baby. The DVD from SBP shows lots of carries including side and back positions. You can get them in lightweight fabrics for the summer. The one thing that I wasn't wild about was tucking the feet in. In the newborn stage, I wasn't so concerned about that, but as the baby grew, I was less comfortable with that. I think newer recommendations are to keep the baby's feet out (not bound by the ring sling), but I couldn't figure out how to do that comfortably. Recently I've tried the ring sling again with a hip carry and found that it was uncomfortable with the weight of the baby (now heavier) being supported on just one shoulder. So, I wouldn't recommend this as a long term solution, but it was nice in the beginning.

A few months in I started using the Close Parent Caboo DX carrier (available from/in the UK). This is similar to a Maya Wrap in concept, but instead of having to tie the fabric yourself, there are buckles. It also has lumbar/back support. This has been a very comfortable and easy-to-use carrier for me. I don't use the safety strap anymore (but watch carefully that baby is secure in the carrier and won't fall out backwards), but did when I started. I'm a small person and the safety strap seemed to slip on me a lot, which did not affect it's safety efficacy but made it a less than ideal head support (which I wanted it to be although the instructions were to support the baby's head using the main straps instead). Although DS is close to 18lbs now, I still find it comfortable to carry him in this and we take walks around the neighborhood in it. The drawback is that it only supports a front carry, which is less than ideal for preparing dinner at the same time (now that he's bigger). The next time around, I'd probably use this from birth. I don't know if it would be warm or not in the summer since it was fall before I started using it. It feels like a medium-weight slightly stretchy fabric.

We also have a Manduca carrier for Dad (bought when we were in Canada). He used it when DS was a newborn for neighborhood walks and found it comfortable. Since winter, he hasn't used it since he doesn't have a coat that can wrap around DS as well. I had gotten it since it was supposed to fit both small and large people fairly well. I found that I was not able to cinch it small enough to fit me for the newborn front carry position. I just tried out the hip carry the other day, and it seemed to fit me and was comfortable and DS was happy in it. What I really want is a back carrier, but I haven't tried out that position yet, so can't comment on how that is. Our main concern right now is that DS can't straddle my back yet, so would he be comfortable in a back carry? I've been meaning to go to a store to try out an Ergo to see how the back carry works there, but haven't found the time yet.

Would love to try out the Storchenwiege, but finding it hard to justify getting another carrier right now!

BTW, if you are flying with your baby, having a carrier that doesn't have metal in it is helpful if the airport will let you wear your baby through the screener. Some will and some won't. Unfortunately, I only had ring slings when I had to fly so I had to take off the baby and let the people behind me in line hold him since I couldn't manage everything myself.

This is exciting! Which version of French is it? That is, the French as it is used and pronounced in France or in Quebec?

Having used both, I think it is a matter of personal preference. People get used to what they have and prefer that.

I have VMWare Fusion, and the BrillKids software (LR/LM/LM) seems to work fine on it. There are occasionally playback issues where the flashcards flash by too fast and there is no audio. When this happens, I merely restart/replay the lesson. This only happens at the start of a Little Reader/Math lesson section. I believe the problem is inherent in the software, though, and would occur on any platform (it is mentioned in the support pages). From a software developer perspective, it seems like there is a thread management issue and Little Reader/Math sometimes tries to start a lesson before the resources for that lesson (audio files) are available in memory.

Both Fusion and Parallels have free trials. I would strongly suggest that you try both (and really exercise them for the full free trial period) and go with the one that is easier for you to use (or for you to get help with). If you don't have time to try both, try one first (the one that you can most easily get help with) and see if you like it. Go with it if you do or try the other afterwards if you are not sure about the first one you try. Both programs have different "modes" in which you can run Windows programs. Be sure to try out the different modes, since your experience will be different in each mode. Good luck!

I'm a bit surprised that my comment was so misunderstood and that the point seemed to be missed completely (based on the responses).

I'll try to clarify my comments. First, I want to note that I did not make any comments about (and did not mean to imply anything about) the quality of the Little Reader Touch app or the quality of the v2 curriculum, both of which are irrelevant to the point I was trying to make.

Although Little Reader Touch is sold as an "add-on" to Little Reader, some of your customers are evaluating it as a possible primary mode of using Little Reader because Little Reader is not available on the Mac and that customer lives in a household without a PC. For such customers, they want to know what the differences are between Little Reader and Little Reader Touch so that they can better evaluate their options, which are to either buy a PC, install Windows on their Mac, or use Little Reader Touch. The materials on the BrillKids webpages and the answers given by moderators in the forums never mention that the English curriculum is slightly different between the PC platform and the iPad platform, until someone asks why they cannot get the features of the v3 curriculum on the iPad. I was trying to suggest that it would be nice if BrillKids would disclose upfront the differences so that potential customers can take those differences into consideration when making their choice of platform. Someone new to BrillKids would not know that there has been multiple versions of the English curriculum, so they wouldn't know to ask which version is available on which platform. For many customers the additional features of the PC version (such as the ability to make your own lessons) are not that important. The ability to download new lessons may be important, but the marketing message on this is unclear...it sounds like from the forum that Little Reader Touch cannot do this, but the marketing on the website seems to imply that it can.

I was concerned that BrillKids would not take my request seriously and would instead have an attitude like

Yes I also don't see the big deal. It is a $20 app.

That's why I mentioned my iPad purchase, so that I could illustrate that the availability of Little Reader Touch may be used to justify an associated multi-hundred dollar purchase, which is a big deal in many households.

To help others understand the situation better, imagine that you made an online internet purchase for an item that did not specify a model/version number (maybe a new car or computer or some other educational program) and was sent the old version of the product instead of the newest version that is advertised on the manufacturer's website. How would you feel? Imagine further that the response from the seller was "lots of people purchased that version of the product and it works just fine." How would you feel?

The point is that consumers want to know what they are purchasing in advance of their purchase, not after. Some consumers may feel that an older version will suit their purpose just fine, while others may only want the newest version. But, that decision should be left to the consumer, I think.

With regards to the trial version of Little Reader Touch, the marketing for this could be made clearer as well. Although the app is a "free download", there is never any mention that a trial curriculum is included with the app. The impression is that one much purchase everything before the app will be of any use. Is it possible to try out Little Reader Touch with the trial curriculum without having purchased Little Reader PC? If so, this should be more widely advertised on the website and in moderator responses to forum questions as it could be helpful in households that do not have access to a PC. In addition, it's difficult to try out Little Reader Touch without an iOS device. Regardless, one should not have to try out the app and the PC version in order to find out that the English curriculum is different between the two.

It's good to hear that some households are using both the PC and the Touch version where the PC is the main lesson venue and the Touch is used for reviews. I can see that being of value in the future, but not right now for us, as I can barely manage two sessions a day and we always do them at home (are almost never out). It is not clear to me why I should split my current efforts over the two devices (especially since the journal of what lessons have been done isn't sync'd automatically between the two and the word lists for each day are slightly different between the two as well). My hope had been that I would use Little Reader only on the iPad. Instead, I now run Little Reader through VMWare Fusion on the Mac because I would like to use the v3 curriculum. Again, this is simply a consumer preference, not any comment about the quality of the v2 curriculum or the iPad app.

And, yes, the iPad can be used for other things. At not yet 8 months old, I don't really want to be throwing various apps at the child quite yet. The only computer/TV screen time we are doing is with the BrillKids software right now. It if weren't for the availability of Little Reader Touch, I would have postponed the purchase until the summer time, when I think the iPad would be of more use and there would likely be another version of the iPad then. However, given that I have it now, I am open to suggestions of "must-do" apps for children in this age range. Feel free to add your recommendations in the following thread:
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/%27must-do%27-ipadiphone-app-recommendations-for-6-9-month-olds/

Anyways, I hope my comments are more clear this time around.

At this age (6-9months), I don't really want my child to spend lots of time in front of a screen (currently, we only do the BrillKids programs), but I was wondering if there are any "must-do" iPad/iPhone apps out there.

The following great post has a large number of iOS apps to try:
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/reviews-of-ipadipodiphone-%28ithing%29-apps/
so I will look into the ones that seem to be for younger children such as

Fruits & Nuts, Vehicles, Vegetables (Kindergarten.com): excellently conceived flash cards, should be appealing to the BrillKids.com crowd.  I'm sure we'll be using either this or something like it with our #2. 5/5

Alpha Baby Free (Little Potato Software): those of you with babies are probably going to love this.  You simply tap on a blank screen and up pops various numbers, letters, and shapes.  How could baby fail to learn from this? 5/5

Pet the Animals: good toddler app, you stroke an image of an animal and it makes its characteristic "ahh, that feels good" sound (like purring). 4/5

and

Five star apps

Peekaboo/Baby Touch (Ladybird) - 5/5 - really a gem.  Basically, it's a series of four baby board books.  Baby must tap the screen, anywhere (?), and the app shows the next slide.  The appeal is the story.  The illustrations are very abstract, as you might have seen in some baby books, but still very attractive to baby E. (and H. too).  Shows what can be done when you call some true design professionals in.

Tap Tap Baby - 5/5 - another gem.  It's like a bunch of baby toys.  It's unique--I've looked for others like it and couldn't find any.  We use this one with E. almost as much as the Counting app.

Counting (has a 1 2 3 logo) - 5/5 - this is what I do with E. when we turn on the machine to play.  Fantastic, simple way to teach about numbers.  Now, when I go down stairs counting, or hop around counting, E. starts giggling.  E. tries to touch the objects himself.

Four star apps

Various Smart Baby Apps - 4.5/5 - we use these all the time.  They're excellently customizable--the programmers/designers really put a lot of thought and work into putting in lots of options that make them maximally usable by people.  The other great thing is that there are a lot of words for a very little money.  One thing that's missing is some sort of management system features for Doman users...  I'd like to make a special mention & praise of My First 1,000 Words--excellent value.  If there is a problem with this, that would prevent me from giving them five stars, it's that--well, they're just flashcards, and even with all the features, there isn't anything extra that puts them over the top.  If they had videos, or extra sounds, or something...

Spongewords - 4/5 - I really like this app.  It combines some great features that nobody else uses:  showing/reading the word, letting the word recede into the background (but still visible), then showing a video (only videos), then bringing the word forward again and showing and reading it again.  As it turns out, this is very effective.  As to the voiceover--where is that accent from?  (Just curious.)  And where were the videos made?  (They are all, it appears, home-made, but pretty well made.)  Also, you get eight different presentations--and some, like the animals one, are very long.  Each presentation is a video (you can't do anything but play or exit the videos), and so not customizable, but the videos are so well-designed that I don't care.

Animals HD (Let's Hear the Animals HD) - 4/5 - really like this app.  Flashcards combining good pix of animals with animal sounds--for lots of animals.  Would make it even better to let us see the words separate from the pix, but it's still a great app.  Excellent feature includes all animals on one slide, or four at a time on one slide; the latter allows one to ask baby, "Which one is the tiger?"  E. was getting the answers to those questions right much better than chance!  Includes Spanish version.

I'm sure a lot of new apps have been added to the app store since those recommendations (nearly 2 years ago), so I was wondering if anyone has current recommendations for what they are using with their 6-9 month old child? Thanks!

I understand and appreciate the explanation for the differences.

However, I would suggest that BrillKids should be upfront about these differences as many purchasing decisions are based on the information provided in the online store/advertising, which does not explain these curriculum differences and there is no trial version of the iPad version as far as I understand - or it wasn't clear to me that there was.

I, for example, spent money on an iPad, iPad cover and purchased the access for the iPad, none of which I am using now. 

Tamsyn, if you don't mind, I'd love to hear more about what you did with your kids before they were old enough to play the piano.

In particular, I am interested in learning more about your two comments:
"the songs in this primer (JT's "Teaching Little Fingers to Play") are already familiar to [your] children" and "we have a separate piano book upstairs".

Did you just play songs from the primer to your children each day? Would they be on the bench with you or just as background music while they are playing?

What piano book did you use upstairs and did you have a second piano or a keyboard that you used at bedtime, or did you just sing?

Thanks!

I'm confused. I had downloaded the Little Reader trial and completed the lessons there (using VMWare on a Mac). Just received iPad so I downloaded the content there, but the first lesson of the non-trial English (US) curriculum on the iPad is different from the trial English (US) curriculum on the PC. The trial had pattern phonics and games starting from Day 1. The iPad version does not. The vocabulary list is also slightly different. Is this correct, or what should I do to fix the situation? I was under the impression that the curriculum would be the same on both, but it does not seem to be. Which is better?

We are six weeks into our "introducing solids" experience. We are doing a modified form of BLW (modified from the book anyways), based on what I see our baby wanting, though I still think of it as being BLW, since I think it embodies the spirit, if not the exact prescribed form, of BLW.

The main principles that we are following are no commercial baby foods (with 1 exception explained later) and no special foods made just for baby and the baby gets to decide for himself whether he eats and how much he eats. Our deviation is that I am willing, and do, use a spoon and a food feeder (Kidsme one in this case, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_baby-products?_encoding=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=Kidsme&node=165796011 ).

We started about a week and a half before his six month birthday. Before that, he had been joining us at our dining table for a few weeks to observe us eating. When we started, I wanted to follow "the book" and offered sticks of fruit (banana in this case) in front of him. Nothing happened. So I cut off a small chunk and offered it to him with my hand. I put it in front of his mouth and he opened his mouth and tried to shove my hand in it, so I popped the piece into his mouth. The piece of solid food surprised him but he managed to swallow it. I offered a second piece which he eagerly took and then started crying after having worked on it, so we took it out of his mouth and stopped for the day. Similar experience the second day. On the third day, the food feeder arrived and I put the banana in that and he was much happier. He was able to control the eating himself and was able to eat a lot more of the banana.

As I was starting this, I also read the book "Feeding Baby Green". The main takeaways that I got from that book was that I didn't *have* to wait three days before introducing a new food and that according to one study, babies that were introduced new foods everyday became less picky eaters than babies that were introduced new foods every three days. I still understand the reasoning behind the conventional "three day waiting period" advice, but reading this book freed me from feeling like I had to adhere to that, so I went wild after that and no longer strictly adhered to that advice. Inspired by that book, I am currently halfway through my goal of introducing a new green vegetable to my son every day for a month (though we took a break yesterday since Dad made dinner instead of me).

Back to BLW. I continue to use the food feeder every day and have introduced foods in stick form. The problem with foods in stick form is that my son wasn't developmentally ready for them even though he very much was interested in solids. He's only started reaching for things in earnest these last two weeks and still doesn't pick up anything from the tray (though I'm sure that will change soon since he reached for the food on my tray last night, for the first time, though I didn't think it was appropriate for him yet, so I didn't let him have it). So, what I would do is prepare a few sticks of food and place them in his hand. He would bring the stick to his mouth and bite off the top. He has gotten to the point where, for certain foods, he can now take more than one bite off the stick. But, it took a few weeks to get to that point. When he was done with the stick food, though, strict BLW would assume that's all he wanted to eat, but that wasn't the case at all. Instead, when I offered the same food to him in the food feeder, he'd eagerly grab it and I'd fill the food feeder for him multiple times. It's just that he's still working on how to eat chunks of food and finds it more difficult than the "mush" that he gets out of the feeder. But, he still has to work to get the food out of the feeder, and it gives him a sense of independence and accomplishment, so I don't feel guilty using it. I always offer the stick form before the food feeder form, if it's something that I can put into a stick form.

We have also been doing a lot of soups for dinner, because I love soups. It's also an easy way to incorporate green vegetables (which aren't that great for the food feeder, which I usually fill with fruit). For soups, I take out his portion before we season it with salt, etc. for us. If the soup is thick enough to stay on the spoon, I will often just load the spoon and let him have it after that (using a soft baby spoon so he isn't likely to hurt himself with it). If it is more runny, I use a larger Asian-style soup spoon, but he guides it into his mouth or slurps it from the side of the spoon, like a cup. He likes to help get the food off the spoon and into his mouth. He is not coordinated enough yet to feed himself with the spoon and he doesn't get enough to eat (based on his interest in being fed with the spoon) if left to his own devices (with his hands). So, I don't feel guilty using the spoon or helping him to guide the spoon to his mouth. He will shut his mouth and also stop reaching for the loaded spoon when he no longer wants to eat. At that point, I stop.

The only baby food item we have is baby oatmeal. I have oatmeal for breakfast almost every day and had started by trying to give him some of my oatmeal, but we didn't feel like it agreed with him that much (lots of hiccups on those days). I looked at the ingredients and it seemed like the baby oatmeal was just ground up oatmeal with vitamins/minerals. I'm a vegetarian (no eggs, no seafood, almost no diary), and I know there is a push to be sure that babies aren't iron deficient since they supposedly use up their store of iron around six months. Feeding them iron-rich foods like meat is the recommended first food in Canada now. I am in the States, but we were in Canada for the holidays when we started solids. So, I did end up buying one package of baby oatmeal in order to have some iron-enriched food on hand. I only use it when I feel like I haven't made enough stuff that our son can eat that night (we are mostly only doing dinners right now, since that is when we are at the dining table eating together). He also gets an occasional snack of fruit during the day. So far, he's had the baby oatmeal 4 times in the last six weeks, so we don't use it very often (and not enough to get the daily recommended values of iron from it, but I figure some iron is better than none at all and will get him tested at 9 months).

Now that it seems like stick foods will be more viable, I will try more vegetarian sources of iron (like things made from beans). But that essentially means that I will be making new foods to introduce into our adult diet, since most of what we typically eat isn't that amenable to the "stick food" prescription of BLW, and he definitely doesn't have the skills yet to pick up individual beans.

So, one step at a time is my philosophy. As long as baby seems happy to eat, I let him eat. And when he wants to stop, I let him stop. To me, that's the most important part of BLW. It's been a lot of fun. My son has been eager to try everything and has liked almost everything.

Good luck to you, AraBoo, on your new adventure!

We have a Korean playmat - the one from Baby Care, which is half the price of the Dwingular one (can find on Amazon). You can also find them (the LG and Parklon brands) at HMarts (the Korean grocery store chain in store and online). It is easy to clean (wipe-clean), is well-cushioned, and has a grippy surface. I felt like my son started to move more (but still only backwards) after we got the mat (just a few weeks ago). The main selling point for me is that I can clean it easily every morning and throughout the day with a wet rag (with a dog and dad that tracks in "stuff" from outside all day, our area rug was just too filthy for crawling on). Size depends on what you have space for. We have the large size, which is nice, if you have the space.

I feel like the cloth/comforter/baby gym type surfaces are not ideal for learning how to crawl because they aren't stiff enough - the baby can pull the mat up instead of pushing against it.

After reading about the Doman philosophy and track, I try to put him on the mat with exposed elbows and knees occasionally (instead of in the sleeper all the time). Not sure if it makes a difference or not yet, but I can see why that would be recommended.

I too was excited to start EC from birth but was unable to hold my son over the sink (found out later that I had a bad case of "Mommy Thumb" in both hands/wrists). I was unable to use the two potties I had (unbranded models from Europe that were marketed on an EC website) because they were too wide for him to straddle and I couldn't figure out how to use the top hat potty without making a mess all the time. So, I gave it a rest. My son also had screaming fits during bowel movements, but finally outgrew them (it seems to last a long time during that time, but now, looking back, we don't think it was really that long, maybe 2-3 months).

I started again consistently three weeks ago, when he was just past 6 months, in the Baby Bjorn potty chair. By then, he was able to sit on his own, and it has been much easier and quite successful. I had gotten the potty chair instead of the more compact smart potty since I had gotten it before he could sit up and wanted the high back. As it turns out, he hasn't used the high back and you want the boys to lean forward anyways to keep the pee in the toilet, as I've learned from experience. So, wish I had gotten something more compact instead.

Based on this, I think if you can find the bumbo trainer locally, I would recommend taking your baby to the store and seating him on it to see if it seems like he would be comfortable in it. The design of the bumbo trainer is pretty different from other over-the-toilet seats. It seems to be designed for the child to sit in the very back of the seat and tilts the child up a little (similar to the Bumbo floor seat). Given that, you'd want to check if your son is big enough to sit that way and straddle the pee guard comfortably. If he is not all the way back, you would still want to put him an inch or two back from the front guard, otherwise the pee is likely to splash. There are a number of Amazon reviews from people who said they have used it to EC early on, though many such reviews seem to be for daughters.

I don't know how similar the bumbo trainer is to the Bumbo floor seat (whether they have the same angled bottom base). We have the Bebepod flex seat (alternative to the Bumbo) and had tried to use that as a seat starting around 4 months and my son just hated it. He's o.k. in it now, but we don't use it very often since he can sit on his own now and we have a high chair that attaches to our table. So, I don't think he would have liked a Bebepod shaped toilet trainer at that age (but who knows).

Just some things to think about.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!