Just wanted to say thank you for creating this great place! It's so nice to have a community of like minded parents doing great things with their children

Great idea about the pedestrians!

And I love the idea about the program running through its own code. My daughter has just figured out the terms forwards and backwards (she goes backwards and forwards in her cosy coupe), so I think that the would be able to follow something like that on the screen. Left and right would be a bit harder. But if the arrow shows the direction, it should be ok.

I've been trying to find a suitable keyboard to purchase for her to use, without all of the Function/windows keys etc but haven't found anything just right as yet. I wonder if a game controller, or even a joystick could work for even more basic controls.

thanks for your replies.

I'll just continue to count objects at this stage then. I must admit I don't do it that frequently - mainly just when we walk up/down stairs. And my daughter has come to expect that and always starts counting herself if I forget to. But I don't know if a stair is enough of an object, for her to realise that we are counting the steps and not just counting out loud because we are going up/down them - if that makes sense.

She loves things that match/are the same, so maybe I can work on smaller numbers using matching objects. And then go into the 1 for each person that the excerpt says a bit later on, as I dont think she is ready for that.

I'm not worried about her 'getting it' soon, but hope to include activities that will encourage the development of this skill. She does seem to pick things up very quickly which is how I came to discover the world of EL. I didnt even know it existed until a few weeks ago and I was searching Google for what to do with her because she had already learnt all her letters, colours, basic ideas like sink/float, big/small, high/low etc.

I might look into the More Starfall because we can use the other activities too. 

thanks!

I'm trying to convince my husband to let me 'decorate' our hallway too - such a lot of wasted wall space in my opinion!

I am hoping to include:

- a display for artworks with string and pegs, like this photo


- a daily planner. Initially this would be very basic, but include a length of wall representing the day. I'd try to show night vs day, with dark/moon, blue sky/sun. We could add other weather icons onto this (eg clouds, rain, wind). Then I'd have it broken into morning, lunch, (nap), afternoon, dinner/bath/bed etc. I want to put photos showing what will be happening each day. Unfortunately my daughter is currently looked after by 2 different day care centres and her grandparents while I work. So I thought it would be very confusing to her not knowing what is happening that day and who will be picking her up etc. So if I could show those photos and even the activities she would be doing that day (with photos of the rooms at each centre etc) then she could prepare herself for the day better. Eventually I would add more details such as day of week, date, month, season etc, and it would end up like a traditional planner you would see in a primary classroom etc.

- also a book ledge. But I'm hoping this will fit into the bedroom or the family room. I have already purchased Ikea Ribba picture ledges to use. I read somewhere that research showed children were more likely to read if they could see the front cover of the books. And of course I want to encourage that. If any one has more details on the specifics of this, I'd certainly be interested.


- somewhere I want to put a hook for coats, hats, bag, lunchbox, shoes to foster independence. But our hallway isn't wide enough for this, so I'm not sure where it will end up.

- and of course somewhere to display various posters. At the moment we are using doors for this - alphabet and numbers. But I'm also interested in displaying posters of the maps, human body, solar system etc as time goes on. I like the idea of using the toilet door

- umm what am I forgetting. Oh wall space is required for magnet boards. I have a board already. I wanted to set it up similar to this picture, with shoe storage bags containing the various magnetic items (letters, animals, marble roll tracks etc). I dont think this picture is a magnetic board, but thats the overall concept I want to use


- and a felt board for telling stories, dressups etc. Something like this


I'm not going to have any wallspace left! Oh I did see a good idea that you could do the felt cutouts on a glass sliding door instead. If you use the thin felt, when it is dampened slightly it sticks to glass. I can't find the blog post about it right now but that's definitely an option.

Ok enough rambling

Just wondering what age children start to understand one-to-one correspondence? I realise this will vary but just trying to gauge some sort of average.

Is the only way to develop this to continually count out objects, multiple times a day? So I would count everything and anything, say to a low number like 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5?

My daughter is 17months old. She understands that numbers refer to a quantity, when she has multiples of some object in her hand she will 'count' etc. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 is what she says at the moment. Sometimes 2, but never 1 and never 5

Is Starfall number section good? She loves the alphabet section, so I could buy the More Starfall bit if it is recommended? Or any other applications/videos for showing one-to-one correspondence?

And what other activities could I do before one-to-one correspondence is learnt? Also are there any tips for seriating? games/activities to play etc?

I don't want to use Little Math at this time as she hated the trial and I dont think we are going to have any success with it. So I am hoping to follow something like Marshmallow Math, before moving onto one of the other frequently mentioned Math programs (right start etc - I havent had a chance to research any of these as yet)

love the abacus ideas

We used room mates stickers from amazon and found they were ok. We do have orange peel walls, but except the thinnest stickers, they all seem to stick well. They have a few different alphabet varieties if you are after those. But they also have a great range of all sorts of other stickers like trees, animals etc.

We tried BLW and it wasn't really a great success for us. I bought the books (the normal book and the cookbook) and read them all and was ready to try it out. We did start early, however my daughter was already sitting unassisted and had no trouble getting things to her mouth.

At first it seemed like it was going well and she was very interested in trying all the foods etc. We offered various fruit, vegies, rice cakes with spreads before moving onto normal meals. She did sample them but she simply wouldn't eat much. She would take 1, maybe 2 bites and that was all. I know on the BLW forums that they are not concerned about this and state that there was 1 baby who wouldnt eat until 18months old. However, we tried BLW for 8 months - till over 12months old. So maybe we could have continued on, but...

Finally I started spoon feeding her because she would actually eat that way. I didn't make purees or anything like that - i just spoon fed her the normal chopped food, eg chopped pieces of chicken, vegies, rice etc. I did spoon the food in a baby friendly manner - eg not sneaking it in and only giving it to her if she wanted it, and let her decide when she had enough etc. By that time she was already over 12months and well and truly capable of feeding herself, she just wouldn't do it. Even now at 17months she does not eat a great deal. However one thing which does affect her eating is that she nurses during the night still.

She has a very limited range of food she will eat - nothing with the slightest hint of acidity eg most fruits, tomato etc. So whether there is some deeper underlying issue regarding her food, I'm not sure.

Is there any chance of a sale for Easter next weekend? Pretty please!  It would be great

We definitely struggle with finding the time too, especially on days when I work. We only shop on the weekend, so I struggle to come up with meals on Friday's especially when the fresh food is dwindling

- could you try prepping the food the night before after the kids are in bed - eg cut all the vegies, meat and put in containers/bags
- on the weekend, make up a big batch of food that will do for Monday night too
- also make sauces on the weekend and freeze. Then during the week you can cook some pasta and vegies in the same pot, defrost the sauce and it's done
- agree with the slow cooker - it's great during winter and you can use cheaper cuts of meat
- bbq and salad's are good in summer
- eggs are quick to cook
- make a list of quick meal ideas and refer to them when you are struggling. Oh and meal plan for the week, so you know exactly what has to be done and if you can prepare ahead of time etc
- agree with chopped fruit for snacks, also veg sticks and hommus are great too

good luck with it all and going back to uni!

It sounds like a good intro. I have no idea what age it is for though as my daughter is only 17 months and I havent had much experience with toddlers.

It sounds like it could be expandable though. From the initial one arrow = one move in that direction, more into a Logo style thing. On another level, add in turning. So you have to first turn left, in order to walk/drive left. And another level, if you wanted to move 2 moves left, it could show <-- 2 for example.

Another option - maybe another version where they have to 'catch' as many 'coins' (or whatever) is on the screen. So even if their program doesn't work as expected they will see the car go across the screen, as opposed to getting stuck in a maze. You could get points for getting all the coins in the most efficient path etc, some ratio of moves to coins collected.

also for younger kids, I think it could be still acted out in person, rather than on the computer - use cards with arrows on them and get them to make a pile showing the predetermined moves. Then they walk out their path and see if it worked etc.

Good luck with it. Hope you can find the time somewhere

Just wondering what the rules are about creating and modifying presentations (powerpoint initially). Can you reuse images from other presentations? Or do you have to find your own from Google etc? Initially just for my own use but wondering if I borrowed images and then uploaded those powerpoints later, would there be a problem? thanks

What were you thinking for the software? I am a computer programmer too and am curious!

I did look into Scratch but for use with primary aged kids

Ok thanks. I will let her know and see how see goes on Thursday, which is the day they spend the whole day together each week.

Her husband doesn't speak French so there will definitely be portions of English through out the day. And he will be speaking in English the whole time too of course. But hopefully she eases into it and is not so nervous. She actually teaches a class of students in French, so I'm not sure why she is so apprehensive about this. I guess she doesn't want to do anything wrong. I will say that any exposure is good exposure  

Thanks for the Sight Word app suggestion. I haven't used this one but I did try the alphabet one and that one is no good for us. I'll try the sight word one and see how it goes. I might put it on the tablet as my phone can be a bit small sometimes

I have just been doing all the activities in Reading Eggs that my daughter cant do and explaining them as I go, emphasizing beginning sounds. The bits she is good at is finding letters in words, and identifying the short words (we have only had am and Sam so far). So I do see potential in it as time goes on.

Thanks for your comments.

I asked my MIL again about it last night and she is willing to try but she wants more guidance on what to do exactly.

Do I just tell her to speak to my daughter in French as much as possible, but offer an English translation if my daughter gets frustrated and can't understand? Should she name things in English and then in French for nouns my daughter already knows? Or just speak French in a conversational manner with no emphasis on anything in particular?