Thank you for your suggestions. I will definitely check these out.

Haydeejamison, I believe that video games do not help develop imagination/ creativity, strain the eyes (if played for a longer time) and do not allow for more parental interaction- all of which is still possible with books. In addition to that, coloring, doing puzzles, joining dots etc with pencils helps with fine motor activity too. I've seen these things with my friends kids. Books are definitely better. That's just my opinion.

Thanks for sharing

Hi everyone,

I wanted to gift my friend's daughters (4 and 7yrs) with some magazine subscription. They are in Canada.

Do you have any recommendations?

I loved the 'MISHA' children's magazine as a kid :-) It has been out of print for many many years. I still remember how I would wait to receive it in mail and finish the whole book on the same day.....lovely memories :-)

Thanks in advance,
Shaman





 

Thank you!

We have the wooden blocks by Ryans room (the colored ones). My son absolutely loves playing with them.

http://www.amazon.com/Ryans-Room-Wooden-Blocks-Natural/dp/B003Y9ZUHM

3 ideas that I can share:

1. We are doing Jones genius and we received 1-100 posters. I designated a color to each numeral from 0-9 and completed coloring the whole chart up to 100- it seems this helps in pattern recognition and children can place numbers easily- got this idea from one of TMT's posts. My son loves Monsters Inc movie, so I made a home made book with monster stickers- green monster has 1 eye, blue monster has 2 hands etc. So 1 is green, 2 is blue etc.

2. Got this from some website: Take an inexpensive clear vinyl shower curtain and write numbers on it with permanent marker- your child can then jump on the numbers (can make a number line)- useful if your child is very active.

3. Rightbrain kids website has some 'touch cards' which has numbers from 1-30....you will have to print and laminate it. I haven't used this, just came across it recently. I have found that if the child learns numbers till 20 or 30 first, they pick up on the pattern easily after that and it doesn't become overwhelming for them.

Hope that helps.

Thank you!

We started Jones Genius when my son was 25 months. We like the math part because we can do different things at our own pace e.g- he learnt 1-20 forwards and backwards before even being able to identify all numbers correctly ( or atleast tell me correctly- sometime my son like to test me  ). He likes putting the dots on the numbers with playdough, beans, stickers etc, so it is anways engaging. I like the fact that he gets to see what the numbers represent, so it is a good mix of abstract and absolute. I thought the double dot technique (touchmath) would be confusing for him at this age.

Jones is good for addition and subtraction since it is built on the number dots and there is no other variable/manipulative required- I dont know if I have explained myself well.

We are doing the Singapore curriculum with this for patterns, sequencing etc- that too at our own pace and using our own sequence  . 

I will probably get the rightstart abacus at some point to show him the numbers for skip counting.

We have been taking a lot of breaks in between, so I wont be able to give you a correct timeline etc. We are working more on phonics now.

Even my son is very active and I make good use of his- I make him jump on his ABC vinyl mats (Lakeshore learning) and we are trying that with phonics and word blending too   he absolutely hates workbooks.
For phonics, I needed a good curriculum, so we used Jones Genius initially and now HOP- he looks at the DVD's as he is playing and I reinforce the same words with DadDudes fleschcards. I go through the letters used in the words and use them in different ways- so last week it was the letters m,a,t, p, s,f (mat, sat, fat, pat)- I do starting sounds, ending sounds etc with these, somwhat like the Montessori alphabet box. One thing leads to the other and the curriculum just builds itself

Even I used to get stressed initially when I would read about all the different curricula that everyone is following, so I sat down and made a checklist of what I want to teach my son and what is being done by others and realized that we had done enough- just not in the order and sequence that everyone else was doing.

There are some good posts by moms who homeschool and those that don't- just use their routine as a guideline and build your own curriculum on that.

All the best

Andreasro,
I know its easy for me to say, but don't blame yourself- all of us go through different situations so we really can't compare. Even my son was in the NICU for 4 days- I shudder thinking about those days and am still wondering where I got all that courage from. He was kept away from me for all that time but I had camped myself in the NICU I guess, when the mom is strong and ready, she can make things happen - whatever anyone says.

My son would'nt latch on but I was keen on giving him breast milk- so I kept pumping every 3 hours no matter what (even pumped in air on a long flight  )

I started taking fenugreek tablets after the 7th month. He was only on breastmilk for 9 months 

Count me in!

I go through guilty phases too, but who doesn't? I've realised that its not the quantity of time spent but the quality of time spent that matters- so I try to make the best of the time I get with my son and make good memories.

My son has started understanding what I do for a living and now wants to become like me . He often imitates me on the phone (as if I am answering a page  )

Balancing work and home is difficult but all we can do is keep trying

Amazing as always  She is so cute!

I'm going to try her technique with my son- I like the way she goes 'bbbbb......at'  and sometimes its more like b- ba-t= bat. That means we should probably use both styles- 'b-at and b-ba-bat' with our kids....I was just wondering about this recently (about which way would be easier)

Thanks for sharing all this with us.

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions.

Aangeles,
thanks for suggesting artistic pursuits, it seems like an interesting program. I will look into getting Tweedlewink- I had stopped flash cards and LR for some time and started it a couple of days ago to see if he is still interested in those and the response was good. 
How do you fit all these programs in a day? or do you plan it on a weekly basis?
I think I need to get more organized with his curriculum.

TracyR4,
even when my son was a baby, he would look away from flashcards after some time- that was when he knew what they were and would show interest with the new cards. He does something similar at school. I have met with his teacher multiple times and have explained to her what we did and are doing. She watches him closely and gives him something that is a little more challenging. I am lucky to have found such a teacher for my son. She did mention that I should try methods other than Montessori for my son. He is a well behaved and a non-aggressive child but the boredom problem is very true in his case. It is becoming a challenge for me to keep up with his hunger for learning something new all the time- its amazing how kids soak up things!

Maquenzie,
Thank you for sharing your experience with me. I was making the same mistake of doing Montessori at home too and his teacher asked me to do otherwise. The materials don't seem to be as interesting at home sometimes- I tried to use chop sticks as counters once and asked him to place it with the numbers- he looked at me and asked 'where is the box my teacher uses?'- He was talking abt the spindle box  and didnt want to do anything with the chop sticks anymore- he probably didnt want to count at that time, but this became a good excuse for him to use 

You have an awesome schedule. I will use that as a guide to get more organized and plan his day well. My son is in the toddler program now- hopefully the '5 days a week to set a routine' thing will work.

Thanks again  ,

Shaman

 

Hi everyone,

I am a working mom of a 2 and a half year old. My son goes to Montessori preschool 3 days a week (this will change to 5 days a week 8:30-2:30 soon so that he has a routine). I have been doing many activities with my son but now I am not sure how I should follow the 'curriculum for home'.

I was worried about over stimulation since he already does Montessori activities in school but he enjoys what we do. One of my family members warned me that if I teach him everything at home, he may not have the drive to go to school and learn there since he already knows most things. He does get bored when they do things he knows but his teacher gives him other activities that he shows interest in (I love Montessori  ).

I wanted to know what curricula other 'non homeschooling' moms follow and what are your kids routines like? Do you do more right brain activities at home Tweedlewink etc to balance what is done in school? I am afraid most of what we do is 'left brain' stimulation. Most of the curricula I see online are for home schooled children and I am not able to always follow them.

Right now, we are doing (over one week, one subject a day):

Hooked on phonics
Jones Genius- math and English
Some Singapore math
Soft Mozart
Will start Swimming next week
I want to do flashcards but am not able to do LR daily so I was looking into Tweedlewink- any suggestions?
I would love to make activities like those suggesting in 'counting coconuts blog' but am not able to do more than 1 a week.

Thanks in advance,
Shaman

Thanks