Wow that's very good for a 3 year old. He was reading at a really good pace and spoke clearly. I agree, I think that each child learns differently and sometimes an emphasis on sight words with some phonics will work well for one child but not another and vice versa. I experienced this with my own children. My oldest children did wonderfully with a phonics approach but my youngest (my 3 year old) did terribly.  Once I switched my approach to reading and placed an emphasis on sight words she did great.

My first baby was a c-section because they waited until I was 43 weeks pregnant to induce and she was 10 lbs 8oz! It was very traumatic for me and so I chose a V-bac (vaginal delivery after c-section) for my second baby. My Dr. said it was possible for me to have a v-bac because the incision on my uterus was horizontal instead of vertical. However, he strongly recommended that I have a c-section because there was a risk of uterine rupture. He kept insisting that I have a c-section. He said it was so much better for everyone involved. I told him it was not better for me because it was major abdominal surgery. He said the risk was too great and I shouldn't take it. When I asked him what the actual percentage of a uterine rupture was after c-section he said 1-2%.

I couldn't believe it. I told him there was no way I was going to choose to have a major surgery over a natural delivery if the risk was that low. He told me that was a high risk and said it wasn't worth it. Then I told him, "So you mean to tell me that if there was a 98%-99% chance you would win the lottery you wouldn't play?" He finally agreed to it but he wasn't very happy about it. He was still convinced a c-section would be better.

They checked my baby's weight before I got induced to make sure she wasn't too big. She was only 8lbs 8 oz. so they went ahead and induced me at 39 weeks. In the end I had  a great delivery and a healthy baby so I was very happy. My third child was also v-bac she 9 lbs 9oz and was out in 20 min. That was my fastest delivery.

It was so much easier healing from a natural delivery than c-section. I felt almost as good as new within a few days versus 8 weeks of agony after the c-section. A lot of the women that I have talked to who have had a c-section are afraid to deliver naturally. Not just because of the pain they think they will feel but because the Drs. make it seem like it's impossible or far too risky when in reality most cases are not much more risky than have a natural delivery. Although a v-bac is not for everyone, I hope that in the future Drs will start to see a c-section as a last resort not as the first or only choice because of a previous c-section.

I only speak English and Spanish but I have been using Little Reader Chinese, Better Chinese, and a bunch of YouTube videos to teach my kids Chinese. So far we have pretty good success it's not perfect but not bad either. Little Reader Chinese and the Better Chinese Books are awesome they have really been helping us make great progress. Here is my four year old reading in Chinese.

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I thought I would give you guys an update on our progress in Mandarin. My 4 year old is starting to read! Yay!!!    I'm super excited about that. Our pronunciation is not great and our tones are sometimes off, but we are making steady progress and I'm happy with it. Here is a video of my 4 year old reading "I Love My Family."

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I say add as many languages as you can. Especially if you are able to speak the language.The best time to learn any language is when your brain is still developing. We speak English and Spanish at home, but languages are so much easier for young children to learn that I have added Mandarin Chinese and French. I don't actually speak those languages so we are learning them together by watching dvd's, youtube videos, reading bilingual books with CD, and Little Reader.

My 3 and 4 year old have been picking up the vocabulary, and using it in their daily life. They learn the languages so fast they make me look slow      It just clicks in their brain, whereas, it takes a while for my brain to work things out. I think my language learning is actually slowing their progress in French and Mandarin  

We are making progress despite my slowness and I guess that's all that matters. Most of my family thought I was crazy for doing Early Learning with my children.  Now that they are starting to see that my children can read, do math etc... they are starting to come around and are interested in what I am doing with my kids.

Nani (my 4 year old) asked, "Mommy what does 100ths look like? Can you cut my pancake into 100ths? How small would they be? Like this?" and then she shows me with her fingers pinched. We have never actually had a lesson on fractions, I just  took Dr. Titzers advice and every time we had round food I would cut it up and describe what fraction I was cutting it into. It's amazing what they can learn by just conversing with them, answering their questions, and taking the time to describe things in detail.

Oh MY Gosh!! I am so excited they have finally made TouchMath for Homeshoolers that's actually affordable. My oldest is 10 and I taught her how to do basic addition and subtraction when she was 2  by using the workbooks they use to sell. Her learning style is very kinesthetic and has ADHD and Aspergers so when they discontinued those workbooks, it was difficult for me to find resources that would keep her challenged and meet her needs. I had to make do with discontinued TouchMath kits(they were made for much older kids) on eBay, but now even those are getting really hard to find. They finally made a Homeschool version of their K-2 grade kits. I think each grade is broken down into 4 modules and each module is $60. That is not a bad price considering the classroom version is usually $200 per module or more. So now my 2 little ones will benefit from this.

BTW My oldest loves math now and is very proficient/confident in it. She loved doing her math problems even at 2 and would always ask for more. When she did the last of 3rd grade TouchMath we moved on to Jones Genius without any problems. She can do 100 problems of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in less than 5 min.

If you want to check it out the link is bellow.

http://www.touchmath.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=homeschool.welcome

Thanks for the resources. I have to check them out because I am one of those moms too.    My kids can get rather "active" when bored. I have really been thinking about actively teaching manners and character directly to my kids rather than just through modeling and stories like "How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food" etc...

I did find a book about teaching manners to kids that I'm interested in. It is called "Manners Made Easy". It's softcover, has 48 pages, and is only $8.99. I found it on Timberdoodle.com, I love timberdoodle they have some amazing 3D models of organs and cells that are very inexpensive and some of them even come with a computer program(the program is a little dated but still good). They also have Chemistry 101 program which is amazing for teaching the whole family Chemistry. Sorry I got off topic but going back to the manners book. It's sounds very religious and I am not. But I think I might use it anyway minus the religious parts. Here's the link http://www.timberdoodle.com/Manners_Made_Easy_p/695-695.htm

This is the description:

Let's be realistic. Home taught children are scrutinized like no others, with the possible exception of the pastor's children. Of course, our children are always poised and brimming with exceptional interpersonal skills. At home, when no one is looking. In public, well, we are working on it. And now we have a more systematic approach to teaching manners, Manners Made Easy. This is an outstanding tool for teaching children etiquette. Using interactive exercises, creative demonstrations and question and answer sections, Manners Made Easy teaches practical life skills in a memorable way.

Topics include introductions, polite conversation, how to set a table, cell phone manners and so much more. Taking manners to a deeper level, Scripture-based learning activities are incorporated at the end of each chapter. Manners Made Easy is divided into two sections: a teacher's guide with helpful teaching tips and answers, and easily reproducible student worksheets with perforated pages. Unless you have an aversion to photocopying, only one book is needed per family or classroom. Manners still count; how do yours add up?

If anybody has used or read it please let me know what you think of it?

Yes thank you I just bought the coloring books for 50% off. It was pretty much the only thing I haven't bought from Preschool prep. 

I agree with most of the posters here the teacher/school your child attends can possibly be a negative to early learning. I have done EL with all of my children and my oldest is now 10. The Only thing negative I have experienced was when my oldest went to kindergarten.  My daughter was really bored with the work (because we had covered most of that 2 years before at home) and was talking/disrupting too much in class.

The teacher did not believe my daughter could read at the beginning. At the end of October (they started school in the middle of August) the teacher finally decided to test her during a parent teacher conference, my daughter blew her away by reading at the 2nd grade level. The class was on their 4th letter and my daughter was reading chapter books!

I thought well now that she knows my daughter can read at a higher level things would be easier right? Nope, I was completely wrong. Things actually got so much worse. The teacher refused to make any changes to my daughters school work. She said that she had to stick with the curriculum. I even offered to send challenging worksheets to school so that they could just hand to my daughter when she was done with her work. They (the teacher and the principle, yep I went all the way up to the principle but got no luck) said they couldn't do that either.

By January my daughter was bored out of her mind and didn't want to go to school anymore. She was so frustrated she stopped doing reading at school all together. They took a special reading test on the computer and she failed it because she didn't even try. At this point the teacher actually told me that I needed to stop reading with her at home!!!! I could not believe my ears. Apparently my daughter told her she only wanted to read at home not at school because it was boring at school. Hello!!! If that doesn't tell you, that you need to give more challenging work then I don't know what does.

The teacher said that if she didn't pass the second computer test in May she would fail kindergarten. I asked her if she was serious. Why on earth would they fail a child from kindergarten when they knew that child could not only read at a second grade level but add, subtract, and skip count? She said there was nothing she could do if she failed the reading test she failed kindergarten, even if they already knew she could read.  >

I didn't want my daughter to fail so I stopped reading with her. I mean really, how could I let her fail kindergarten? That was the biggest mistake of my life. I truly wish I could go back in time and remove my daughter from that school right then and there. The rest of the school year was horrific my daughter cried, pleaded, and begged me not to send her to school every morning. It was heartbreaking, but the worst part of it all, she went from loving reading to hating it.

In the end she passed their computerized reading test and kindergarten. But she lost so much. I took her out of that school at the end of that year. It was so traumatic for her she didn't want anything to do with school. I decided to give her a break and homeschool. I am so glad that I did. I wasn’t sure if that was the right decision but I figured she learned so little at school and so much at home that I couldn't possibly do any worse. It took a year just to detox. She really didn't gain much that first year after kindergarten and still hated reading. The second year went much better and she learned so much. Pretty much every year since has been great. Now that I have 2 little ones that can read I will not be putting them in school.

It is really heartbreaking to watch a child’s love of learning squashed. Especially after spending all of your time and effort to grow and foster a love of learning.

What I can tell you is that if you do EL and are planning on sending them to school, just make sure it is a school that will work at your child’s level and not just stick to the curriculum. Research the school as much as possible and don't just trust the schools word, try to seek out parents of children who are advanced for their age and ask them as many questions as you can. I did research before I put my daughter in her school. They said they were able to accommodate her but in the end they obviously weren't willing to.

Ok end rant...

As far as EL damaging the child in any way I really can't think of any. I did early reading and math with all of my kids and haven't experienced anything that hurt them intellectually, emotionally, or in any way. My 10 year old is still advanced for her age and has a large vocabulary. She will often talk to adults and there have been times where she had to explain what a word meant (to the surprise of the adult). The adult will usually turn to me and give me a questioning look and I will usually say that she is right.

Periodically my two little ones will get extra wiggly during LR lessons and seem not interested. What I have found is that if I take a break from the computer programs for a week or two and just read a lot of great books with the them, then they really get back into it. I guess sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, because then they can't get enough of it and I usually have to tell them we can't have anymore and they will cry and beg for me to put it back on.

I actually looked into the float rings but unfortunately my kids were too old by the time I found it. So I had to keep looking for something that would help me teach my kiddos to swim.

I have successfully taught many kids to swim over the past 15 years. Although all the kids I have taught were 6 years old and up. It usually takes a lot of time to teach kids to relax in the water well enough to float. Then you have to teach them proper arm and leg movements, etc.... Most floatation devices/swimming aids restrict arm movement and actually make learning(and teaching kids) to swim much more difficult because they tend to develop bad habits. Usually kids wear floatation devices will tuck their arms and elbows in or they will keep their arms straight out. Many kids will also try to stay in an upright position and not want to lay down in the water. This upright position makes it extremely difficult to float. Water wings are definitely the worst offenders, but life jackets, and tubes don't help either.

So when I discovered the SwimFins online I was super excited. There were not very many reviews that I could find but what sold me were the few videos I found of kids wearing them on youtube. Right away I could tell that kids arms were not restricted and that they naturally went into a prone position. I bought them at the beginning of the summer (my two little ones are 2 and 3). They cost $24-$30 which is the price of an average life jacket. They are in the shape of a shark/dolphin fin and the kids love to wear them. It's definitely one of the only swimming aids kids fight to have, even if they can already swim .

I was originally going to film a tutorial on how to teach a toddler/Preschooler to swim using the SwimFin. My kids were used to wearing water wings so they had all of the above mentioned bad habits So I figured it would take a few weeks to teach my 3 year old(traditionally kids take much longer) and my 2 year old probably wouldn't be swimming for quite a while. I thought I would film myself teaching the kids to swim on the first day, then once every week after until my 3 year old could swim. Well that didn't work out as I had planned because just five days after my 3 year old put on the SwimFin she declared she didn't need it any more, she could swim. I was skeptical but I figured I would try to encourage and support her new found confidence. I went to the middle of our pool and let her go. To my surprise she swam from the middle of our pool to the ladder. That's 12ft across without any assistance. That completely blew me away, I was one proud mamma 

Two days of seeing her big sister swim without her shark fin (as my 2 year old calls it) my 2 year old refuses to wear it claiming she can swim as well. And off she went. Lola my 2 year old can only swim 3-4ft without assistance but Nani the 3 year old can now swim all the way across our 24ft pool. I know without a doubt that without the SwimFin these results would not be possible.

If you guys are interested in seeing the SwimFin in action, I have put a youtube video of my kids using it the first day, their first swim without the SwimFin, and then different clips of them swimming without the SwimFin.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/zmau3tGQVYg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/zmau3tGQVYg&rel=1</a>

TmT I would love to teach saunpan but I haven't found any good software/curriculum/videos for it that is in English. The book it came with is pretty good at explaining counting, adding, and subtracting but not anything above that. There are very few examples in it. If anybody on this forum knows of any videos, software, or curriculum please let me know. If not, then I think I am going to have to take off the top beads.

I was going to make an abacus as well, but then I found this one in Chinatown in Chicago for $8.99. I was so excited I kept saying, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I can't believe I found an abacus!!!" I think the sales lady thought I was crazy. 

Anyway, it came with an instruction book in English  but I am also going to get ShowMe Soroban. The book doesn't have enough examples for me to be able to teach anything other than basic addition and subtraction.

This abacus is actually pretty sturdy, the only thing I don't like about it is that all the beads are black. I really want to paint them. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what color would be best? Or maybe I could have two different colors to differentiate the top beads from the bottom? I don't know I am going to have to do some more research.

Oh contact paper sounds great. I didn't even think about that.   

Yeah I had to prime ping pong balls because they had a small logo and the paint sticks/covers better when you do. I would suggest priming them with spray paint. The first ones I did, I primed with acrylic and even though I watered it down a bit, they still ended up lumpy. The ones I primed with spray paint were nice and smooth. You will have to seal it with some sort of sealant. I used one from Plaid, it is an outdoor gloss sealer. Like I said my kids are rough on things and the ping pong balls have taken a really good beating and haven't chipped or peeled. I bought acrylic paint from Walmart for less than $1 a bottle. The sealant I bought was $1.95 from Joann Crafts. I made 36 ping pong balls and did two coats and still have more than half a bottle of sealant.