Hey Everyone!

Okay so my daughter, Isabella is currently four years old. She has excelled greatly with Early Learning. She is way above grade level, according to me, she has never been tested or anything. Anyway I am writing because I have managed to not send her to traditional school yet, I am not really interested in it, I think she will get a much better education at home. Part of me thinks it is important for her to actually go to school but overall I think homeschooling is best. I do worry about the social part of school, which she wont get by homeschooling, I mean I would love to get her involved with dance and sports but economically it is difficult for us at the moment. Anyway, in terms of education I grew up going to catholic school, and she is being raised catholic so if she is going to receive her sacraments she is going to have to go to CCD right? Anyway from my experience, catholic school was a waste of $$$. Dad went to public school and thinks you get a much better education from there, but I reminded him that things are different now, even though we weren't in school that long ago he is 26 and I am 25. He isn't totally on board with homeschooling but I think I talked him into it at least for now. We have decided to do homeschool for the upcoming school year, where do I begin? I did look up the guidelines but it does seem a bit overwhelming ( I also have a 7 month old, who may be homeschooled as well, if it works for my daughter).

We live in Brooklyn, New York...Does anyone else homeschool here? It doesn't seem to be very popular, some members of the family think I am insane but I am an avid believer in it.

Please Help!

Thank you,
Christine

I can work on Italy if no one else is already working on it...Let me know and I will begin asap.

Best,
Christine

Im in...let me know what you would like me to do, like what country to research

A little while ago I remember reading on here about teaching handwriting and many including myself were looking for flashcards that my daughter could learn cursive writing from, they had to be big enough for a toddler. I ended up making my own dry erase flash cards, cursive writing and print including numbers. They are 4X9" but come as 5X7" with border...I am offering packs I made on etsy.com my link is http://etsy.com/shop/BloomingBrilliant123
I am selling them for 20 dollars each as I use a nice amount of ink (including colored for the lines) and other materials, if you were/ are searching the way I was I hope this could help you out.
Cheers!
Christine 

I am finding that chewing gum helps...its a easy solution that may help.

How about feeling exhausted from pregnancy? How can I cure that?

I constantly get error messages when doing the lessons with my daughter, then we have to restart the program and we have to start from the place we stopped because if we try to do the whole lesson all over again it will stop in the same spot. We also have to manually mark the pieces we watch as played when this error occurs because it doesn't do it on its own. I manage the program with the error, it isn't that big of a deal. But I thought I should let you guys know anyway. I would have placed the error message here but some how it won't paste into the message so next time it happens I will post it, if you need it.

I am at a place where I do not know what to do anymore. My daughter is almost 3 years old and has recently gotten very mean. If she doesn't get her way or just feels like it she will hit, kick, bite, or pinch. I tell her not to do that, that it is bad. That it hurts. That she should be nice, not hit or hurt anyone including me, her mother. She sometimes goes verbally and says I don't love you. Which I act like it doesn't bother me when of course it does. I do not understand how my baby who was so loving when she was younger turned into this little terror. I tried explaining to her that hitting is not showing love. That others wont like her or want to play with her if she continues acting like this. I tell her that instead of hitting she should tell how she feels, if she feels frustrated, or upset and why and that we can talk about it. I have also tried time outs, But she continues to hit. I am wondering if anyone with experience can help me, this is my first child, she is smart, she can be loving, but I do not know what to do when she hits and is mean.

Hey!
I am a mommy blogger and I always love reading new blogs. I hope you will check out mine. Its http://bloomingbrilliant123.blogspot.com/ about my en devours with early education, i write about products we use and games we play and even recipes that my toddler actually eats! Check out my blog and please post your blogs so I can check em out as well as the rest of the community.

Updated/ got a new blog URL, wanted to share it.

bloomingbrilliant123.blogspot.com

Anyone else have any new blogs out there about children and early education?

I started this post to ask for contact information for Soft way to mozart company. I needed to contact them for a CD-rom replacement because there is a small crack on my CD. I replied to the email that had the tracking information and they contacted me right away. Also I was having difficulty getting the driver to download as I have windows 7...they sent me a link and it worked. They are excellent, fast and very helpful. I was worried because I didn't open the package right away as it was a gift for my daughter's second birthday and then she has been sick and in and out of doctor's offices, so I didn't know if it was going to hard to get a replacement CD, it wasn't and overall a pleasant experience.    I just wanted to update this post so it was useful. If you have windows 7 and get Soft Way to Mozart you have to contact them and get the link otherwise I do not know how you will get the driver to work.

Okay so I have been using Little Math as often as possible since my daughter was about 6 months. My daughter used to enjoy watching it, we would sit and watch it together everyday usually two times a day as recommended sometimes we would watch a little more because she seemed to want more.  We had started from day one a while ago when I had to switch to new computer because my other broke down. As we have progressed in the program we are currently on Day 112 she screams every time the program opens on the computer. No! I don't like Math. No Math! She knows the difference between Little Math and Little Reader. She loves to watch little reader especially the sentences and stories. Even though she screams and flips out that she doesn't like math the truth is she does. She just doesn't understand. She doesn't like the program is what it comes down to. Because we do lots of math play. Counting objects adding them and subtracting them, and she loves this she will initiate it all the time. I have tried everything to make the program more appealing to her. Change fonts, background colors, different audio, different icons ( I have downloaded so many different icons to try to get her to watch.) I believe in the product otherwise I wouldn't even try to get her to watch it if I didn't. I want my daughter to have a  love for or at least enjoy Math and understand it; have a good foundation in it. I believe this program could and has done that in some children. I know I am not the only one struggling with their little one and little math. I have tried to make it an enjoyable  experience for my daughter and we usually try to do it during meal times, although we have tried other times to see if it would work better. Nothing has worked! So I have some ideas that can hopefully be used to make this product better. Beside the fact that we need to be able to print the screens like we can in LR. I think the voice should be a little bit more child like and asking questions like in LR. I know that I can do this for my daughter, make my own or change the audio but truthfully I do not have the time to sit and do all that audio the whole point of the program for some of us is to lighten the load in our early education. I do not have a moment to myself even write this post let alone try to make some audio for the program.  I think the audio should be something like We have 5 objects...we add two more objects... how many objects does it equal... That's right we now have seven objects!  Also I think we should be able to incorporate some counting videos/ songs to make it more playful. I know that isn't the point but I think the overall program is excellent it just isn't keeping the children's attention as much as we want...and I know a lot of parents are having the same struggles I am with little math. I know the program is beneficial and I do follow the lead of my daughter if she doesn't want to do it we do not do it because then it wouldn't benefit her anyway. We have taken breaks and it still doesn't work to start again in a week or month...so I don't know what else to do with the program. I mean I spent about 200 dollars or more on this and I would like my daughter to enjoy it. Again I believe in the product, I love it and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in early education with a new born. I know I may sound like I am complaining, I am not. I just have a few suggestions that may add an attraction for children as they grow over a year old.

That is the way I am too...Just want to get her EVERYTHING! My daughter when she was younger use to stack the play doh containers and knock them down like blocks.I introduced it "play doh" to her at like 19 months I think maybe 18 so at first she would stack them and then she got around to playing with the dough! I think it is great! 

My daughter has had the little people doll house since about 15 or 16 months old and she just started to love it. She liked it but it mostly sat on a shelf and she never thoroughly enjoyed it until now. Now she takes it opens it up and plays with it and the people. The mommy and daddy and baby...They go to work, they go on the potty, take a shower, cook, eat. She has this whole little world she makes up as she goes which is wonderful to watch. So I chalk it up to this is when her imagination and role playing stage. Even with her dolls now at this age she puts them to bed, feeds them, takes them for walks around the house...I think its just they have to get in the stage where their imagination or role playing comes alive. It is wonderful to watch...really and truly.

Oh My mother...her grandma got her games like candy land...and memory. Which I think are really great also. She also got her this huge canister of Play Doh at Target it has a lot of different molds and cutters like abc and numbers and shapes and other fun things and it was only twenty dollars, which I think was a pretty good buy for all that you get with it. Dolls and Little People are a love for my daughter. There are so many great things!

My daughter is also turning 2 in about a week! I made a list of stuff on Amazon it is a public wishlist so take a look I have a lot of educational things on the list including toys. I had signing time DVDs (like signing time volumes we don't have) and more books (like eric carle who she loves)  on the list but I had taken them off because of some of the judgmental friends and family. I put them on a separate private list for those who are more supportive of my en devours in early education. However I think my list is pretty good. I would love to get her a play kitchen and a trike but that has to wait till Christmas her father and I got her a keyboard so she can learn to play the piano. She really wanted it. I can just hear what those judgmental people will say when she opens it but oh well. You can look up the list...just search for Isabella Carbonara.

For some months now I have introduced him to number magnets by melissa and doug and number bean bags by educational insights to play various math games. (I also got their alphabet, phonics, shapes, and colors bean bags)

How do you like the bean bags? I wanted to get them actually they are on my daughter's wishlist for her birthday so if she doesn't get them from someone I may order them for her? I am trying to find alternative ways to teach her math. She doesn't want to watch LM anymore no matter what I do. She just says NO I don't like Math. I don't like Numbers. Which kills me!!!  So we don't do it. I do flash cards and I play with items and we count them and I show her how to add and subtract with things but it gets boring doing the same old thing. I do wish she would watch LM again because I know she would retai n the information like she has with LR and other videos. Don't get me wrong I love doing off screen educational play but sometimes I need a break to clean or take care of something and the videos help they are short and educational. Math is really important for me to teach my daughter because I did not love it when I was a child and I wish I did and I want to make it easier for her.