That First Picture book is great.  I know a few people who love it for teaching.

Wow!  THanks happymom!

Jakim,  Most mothers much older than you aren't nearly as involved with their children's education as you are.  You are doing an amazing job.  Lots of people could learn from you.

Lucy

I had high FSH (a reproductive hormone) of 16 and so was told I had less than 5% chance of getting pregnant.  But then I read the book "The Fertility Cure" and I got pregnant.  I can't remember author's name but she is both an American doctor and a Chinese doctor and she uses the best of Western and Eastern medicine.  This book is essential and is the bible that everyone reads who is really having a hard time getting pregnant. 

Also, go to www.network54.com  -go to the society section, then health, then fertility, then the High FSH forum.  The ladies on the High FSH forum are long time veterans of infertility, they go to the best fertility doctors in the world and they can answer any question, not just high FSH.   

Many of those ladies (including myself and my sister) go to Dr. Check in New Jersey.  He takes patients from all over the world no matter their age and no matter how bad their diagnosis is, including the girls who have been turned away by other top doctors because they had almost no chance of getting pregnant (like myself).  He got me pregnant and my sister and both of us in our very late 30's.   I consider him a fertility detective -no matter how unusual or how nuanced your problem is, he will figure it out because he's seen it all since he takes the hard cases that no one else wants.

So if your having problems, cut to the chase, here is what you need (#3 being the most important):

1. The books "The Infertility Cure"  and  "Taking Charge of Your fertility"

2. The website  www.network54.com  -the high FSH forum

3. Dr. Jerome Check at Cooper in Marlton, NJ

Anyone can private message me if they have questions.  Good luck!

Wow Fatima, thats wonderful!

What age was he when you started with the flash cards and power point? 

My daughter is 21 months and she loves phonics but she only just began learning letter and their sounds.  Can you please give me advice on how to teach phonics?

Thanks so much!
Lucy 

You can always drop the book off at kinkos and they will color lazer copy each page and super size it then bound up you new bigger book.   It might cost a little but then you would have a great book with big words and big eye catching pictures.

Congratulations!!   That is so wonderful.   I was told I had less than a 5% chance of having a baby.  But thank God I was able to have my little one who is now almost 2 years old. 

You'll do fantastic, I'm sure.

Lucy

Anyone can answer this but Kimmba, I thought you would have direct experience with this. 

My husband and I only speak English but we are trying to teach our 22 month old French.  She's been watching Little Pim on and off for about 6 months and for the past few weeks we have her on the below schedule. Tell me if you think she will learn enough to be fluent on this schedule:

She will be spending 2 hours on Sunday afternoon playing "one on one" with a native French speaker and then 4 hours on Monday mornings playing "one on one" with a DIFFERENT native French speaker.  And then on Tuesdays she will take a 1 hour native French play class at The Language Workshop for Children.  That's all we can afford for now. 

Any insight is greatly appreciated!
Lucy

   

If one doesn't learn phonics along with site reading, then how do they decode a word they come across that they don't know?  Even as an adult, knowing how to sound out and decode words is very helpful when you come across one your not familiar with.  Phonics is an invaluable tool that I'm sure every one is grateful for.

I think when humans enter the world of reading they learn both phonics and site reading by osmosis. 

I tested my nieces and nephews.  One is a 14, one is 12, one is 10, one is 7. 

They all learned by phonics in school.   The 14, 12, and 10 year old read it fine.  They thought it was really funny. 

The 7 year could only read some words.  Although I can't really expect him to read anything too complicated since he's only in 2nd grade and he's still at a very basic level.

But even though the older ones learned by phonics, most words they have memorized at this point from reading so much in school etc, so they're site reading too like we I guess we all do eventually.

Bella, I completely agree with you.  I just don't see the point in my baby reading by 2 years old if it involves a ton of stress and pressure on the both of us (I don't care what anyone says, it is a lot of work and a lot of pressure).  When I was doing flash cards, I stressed that my little on wasn't absorbing the info and although I was hiding it good and always happy, I'm KNOW she sensed it. I just know it.  Now that I've let it all go we both love looking at books and words a lot more now.  By reading to her constantly and pointing at the words and talking about the pictures I think she will automatically read by 3 or 3 1/2 years old but without all the stress of the whole Doman thing.   

I do love the Brill Kids program and I'm going to use it for stimulation but I'm not on a deadline of any kind. 

My baby is also learning a second language right now from a babysitter and a language playgroup so I know that by exposing her to lots of books, a different language, and constantly playing with and pointing out different colors, numbers, shapes, etc. she will be years ahead of the average child but we both will be stress free and enjoy every second of it.

I am worried about the brain connections and the use-it-or-lose-it factor that's why she is learning a second language, playing the drums, being exposed to a ton of words, and doing a lot of what she loves most which is puzzle/block building. 

By the way, I don't think she cared about seeing the different countries in flash cards.  At such a young age, she had no preconceived notion of what China was so to her it was just a pic of a red square (flag).  That is some very dry material.  And to a 16 month old, it's completely useless information and not nearly the fun, exploratory, and multi-sensory learning experience as playing the drums or balancing building blocks (in a mud pit).  Now, I know a lot of you are saying "but my baby does all that too but ALSO sees the flash cards".   I know that.  But I'm just wondering why any of us should bother with the country flash cards when seeing a picture of China's flag couldn't leave nearly as big an impression on a child at 16 months old compared to figuring out how to balance blocks in mud at the same age (I'm talking about a healthy child who is taking in everything around them, not a brain damaged child who needs to build the eye-brain connections).

I hate to admit it but this is a common problem I keep hearing from parents with children who learned to read very early.  I keep doing flash cards with my little one and there is no doubt that learning to read at 2 years old is easier than learning at 5 years old but  I don't know if it means the child likes it any better.  A lot of early reader parent say the child does like learning and reading better but probably just as many kids love reading and learning who learned to read much later.   

As a matter of fact I wonder if the child who learned to ready early, before they even realize they were being taught and before they even knew how to feel the excitement of the learning process, misses out on that first time thrill of success that 1st graders find so exciting and that they feed upon in later grades and can always look back on and remember.   I guess I just wonder if feeling the thrill of learning, in first grade, at a time when a child understands what's going, has more positive impact on their future learning rather than them not even being able to remember how they learned to read.  Especially, when you consider that they all eventually wind up reading and comprehending at the same level shortly after first grade.  Which child was the first grade classes more exciting for and how does that excitement affect their future? 

Any idea on when LR will work on Mac?   My mac is a few years old so Bootcamp and the others don't work on my Mac so I can't use LR at all and I can't spend the money to buy a new PC. 

Are you working on LR program being compatible with Mac or should I waiting for this happen.

Thanks!
Lucy

I'm a mac user and I am waiting for LR to be mac compatible.  Any update as to when that will be?

Thanks!

I definitely think age has something to do with kids absorbing languages through dvds or not absorbing it.   Once the child is familiar with the language, watching the dvd must help just as it would help adults. 

For those of you trying to teach our child a second language that you don't speak, the child must be exposed to someone who speaks that language if even for just a half an hour a week. Of course more is better but I know a lot of us can't afford it.  But your child will learn every word that the person is speaking once they hear the words in context and coming out of a human beings mouth.   Thousands of words and sounds can be heard in a half an hour and week after week of exposure will make a huge impact.  And once the baby has had this kind of exposure (as little as it is), they will get a lot more out of the dvds.