Thank you, everyone, for your encouraging words!

I write this from my hotel room this morning.  It's all a bit surreal but I am tremendously excited and eager to learn directly from the experts.  Attending this course wasn't even on the remotest of my radar but when an opportunity falls into place, you need to seize it, right?

I'm attaching the agenda for the seminar to give you an idea of the topics that will be covered and how the course is structured.  Today is mainly an introduction day and we'll dive in tomorrow morning. 

Mandy, you are an inspiration! I will pass along your regards -- I'll say Mandy from California says hi!   Thank you for your pointers as well.  I have a page of questions ready to fire off and I'm sure more will crop up as I go.  And I remember you mentioning that you built a support system over the years with a couple of other mothers you met while attending the course.  I will make it a point to network. I hope I can still hold adult conversations

I'm particularly interested in the physical aspect of Doman's methodology - this I must say I have a preconceived notion of.  My husband is a former athlete and has always promoted sports/extracurricular activities and I've never given it much thought beyond that it's a great distractor for kids  - a nice focus and a way to keep out of trouble.  He generally handles all things physical and our 3 year old is on the verge of independent swimming.  But the more and more I read the more I'm humbled in learning that it's critical in brain development. It's very fascinating.  My questions range from the math program to the foreign language implementation.  We are dual language at home with a sprinkling of a third so looking to build upon this as well.

Now, I'm off to try the best philly cheesesteak this town has to offer!!  I'll be in touch!

Thank you! Yes, I plan to share my experience on this forum -- a simple way to give back to people that have given so much and been so inspirational!

Will do! Thank you, TheyCan!

Talk about a last minute decision! I just booked my spot at the "How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence" course.  I only learned about the course date last week - on a random whim I went to their website to check the dates for future seminars and was like "holy cow, it's next week!".  I hemmed and hawed about my decision as it's a hefty investment.  But it almost seems as though the stars were aligned for me to go: my husband is able to take time off of work next week and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of teaching my soon to be baby #3 in December (and I'm not nursing!! .    

A little background on myself: I discovered Doman about 10 months ago - my older son was 30 months and younger one was 13 months.  Yes, you're hearing me correctly - come December, I will have 3 under 3.5!! Crazy right?? You're telling me.   At any rate, I put his methodologies into full force and my older son was reading within 5 months.  We delved into every facet of Doman life from teaching both boys how to swim to creating an academically and exploratory rich environment.  It was a complete mental shift as to how we spent our days and how I perceived them and their abilities.  But like most of you, I had a hunch that there was more I could be doing with them which is how I stumbled upon Doman (I'm still surprised at the lack of familiarity people have with early learning!!!).  

I know this forum is an immense source of knowledge but for me I feel like my knowledge and execution is similar to a colander.  It has holes - and I would like those holes filled.  Sometimes I spend an hour or two at a time on this forum scouring to see how others are approaching something I'm stuck on but it's only a hole or two at a time that I'm able to fill and if I read something counter to what I'm doing it starts to shake my confidence.  What's worked for my older son doesn't always seem to be working for my younger son and I need the confidence and conviction to believe I'm on the right track.  I know the courses at the Institutes get mixed reviews - some say they are redundant to what's in the books and if you've read them then there isn't much added value to attending the course unless you are a newbie.  But for me I need the tangible - I want to see, feel, touch and ask as many questions as I can so that I'm better prepared (and more relaxed) about throwing another one into the mix and to keep on track with my older two.  Plus, I've never executed Doman's methods with a newborn and that somehow seems like an awesome task to me.  Now, I'm realistic and I know I'm not going to come back and be able to do this stuff with my eyes closed and I'll probably still have many questions- we all have stumbling blocks - but just the knowledge to keep trekking along and the confidence to weather those stumbling blocks will be worth every penny to me.

Enough babbling from me.  I'll be sure to post my thoughts/take-aways upon my return.  Curious if anyone else is attending?? And for those who have in the past - any thoughts/advice?

Andreasro = THANK YOU!!! Ahhhh, I didn't realize it was on Soft Mozart's website! I searched for over an hour on here last night. You are the best!! Thank you and karma to you!!!

I've scoured the forums and can't locate the "soft Mozart" forum. I'm looking to upload the SM icons to little musician. I read on another thread that it's a zip file and the closest I got (I think) was to a couple of soft Mozart files in the library but those are uploaded to little reader.  Can someone provide me with detailed steps as to a) where to locate said file and b) how to upload it to little musician?  thank you!

My son was so excited to read when he first cracked the code but now sees it as a chore. I let him pick out as many books and whichever books he wanted at the library last week and he became interested in the Biscuit series but other than having it be on his terms, he doesn't love reading and will often times try to squirm out of it.  I want to develop a genuine love of reading so he eventually does it unprompted.  There are certain decoding rules we are working through so that he has more fluid success when reading and hopefully is more enjoyable for him (ie., "c" is pronounced like the letter not "k" when proceeded by an e, etc.)....but any advice to motivate?  What worked for you??

As the lessons progress, the speed reading section no longer reads aloud the text -- is that something I should be doing or is the point to have the viewers follow along on pace to the beat?

Also very curious to know!! Thank you!!

Thanks, Mandabplus3! You guys are the best!!

I had only heard of early learning 6 months ago.  My son was almost 2.5 and I thought there was more I could be doing for him.  At around the same time, my friend mentioned a 4 year old she knew who was already reading.  My initial thought was this child was passed down the "smart" gene.  My friend said she knew this child was shown flashcards as an infant.  So I proceeded to google, and google and google some more and found myself on a crash course on Doman's reading and math methodologies.  I created flashcards which my older son absorbed but my younger one wanted nothing to do with.  I also found it cumbersome to keep track of the words in rotation and went back to the internet in search of another approach that better suited the needs of my family and voila! I landed on this website which has changed our lives forever!! I was working part-time and wanted to stay at home with my kids but felt that they were perhaps gaining more from being with their grandmother on the two days I was working.  But once I committed to LR, LM and Little Musician and saw the excitement on their faces when they were learning I knew the decision had been made for me and I decided to stay home with them.  It was the best decision I've ever made!

At 2.5 my son knew his letter sounds but that's it as far as reading went.  We did LR diligently and I slowly started introducing Preschool Prep meet the sight words 1, 2 &3, digraphs and blends and Leap Frog talking words and word caper (all resources from my local library) in addition to a slew of helpful youtube videos.  About two months ago, my son started sounding out the letters in words (phonics) so I focused on blending (PSP dvd) and became more diligent about text pointing and word association.  Last week I checked out Bob Books from our library and I could tell my son was decoding words and making progress.  He also seemed to know the majority of the sight words in the Kindergarten series.  Two nights ago, however, it was painstaking to go through one book.  He seemed disinterested and words that I thought he knew, he wasn't reading.  Then last night was transformational.  He WHIZZED through 5 books (all books he'd never read before) with very little help from me.  With each page he read, he grew more confident and motivated to continue reading.  I couldn't believe the speed in which he was reading and he was BLENDING words!  For example, if it was a word he hadn't seen before, he would decode the word then repeat the word but this time blended to the correct word!  It was amazing to watch and I was so happy for him.  In looking back at the 12 native reading points, I'd incorporated much of it since my son was a baby but hadn't realized it.  He always had a fascination with letters and I tried to nurture it but never thought I could take it this far.  We still have a lot of practice to go but I am a total believer in early learning and sticking it out because we are doing so much good for our children.  To help them make learning fun by teaching them this early will unlock so much potential for them least of which is the love of learning.  Thank you Brillkids for the insight and motivation!!!!

Apologize! I meant to ask you, Lappy, if you had any updates on the status of the Arabic curriculum??  Thank you!

Yes, I second Syraj.com -- i have a few videos on my playlist linked from them.  Same for Little Thinking Minds -- they also have an itunes app.  Can't remember but I think it's free.

Thank you so much, Kezia! Much appreciated as always!!

Hi Adina - i've made a playlist of early learning arabic songs, videos, etc. on youtube.  I've linked it below. 

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTBR_ewFUS5gdHfLQQvpo3zBPAndwK7dH

Also, I've found some good free resources online and laminated flashcards.  I've made flashcards for shapes, colors, etc. which my son is now comfortable with. I've attached a pdf of the alphabet -- love the size of the cards.  I'll dig around for more resources.

Serene