Thought I'd post this out there for those who would love to sign up for a giveaway to give Semester 1 of Brillkids a try :>)

http://thereedfamily-blog.blogspot.com/2011/09/brillkids-little-reader-review-and.html

I would give the Step into Reading books level 5 a try. These are chapter books with pictures in them. I would start with those and then ease your way into books that have black and white pictures , then into chapter books with little to no pictures.
I would think that this would be more of an easier progression. This is what I've done with my older children and what I plan on doing with my youngest. Going this route made for a much easier transition for sure into books like Little House on the Prairie or Ramona and Beezus.
Plus I agree too. Read lots of chapter books to him as well. 

Okay. So I think we're in the minority. My now 5yr old has watched Spongebob since I don't know when. LOL She has three older sisters who love to watch Spongebob (plus I guess I should count in dad too).
She hasn't had any issues with attention span. She's as smart as a whip. I do have educational videos here at home that she watches from time to time. But her love is for Spongebob.

On a side note we do have a Caillou video that my mother in law bought for my 3rd daughter when she was little. I'd like it put on record that I'd love to burn it. I can't stand Caillou , all he does is whine, whine , whine. Ugh.

Absolutely. We've used this too. My daughter's most favorite all time Kooma video is What Color is the Sky?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AMV3k_btfsA&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/AMV3k_btfsA&rel=1</a>

That's awesome. I didn't know anything about Doman with my girls growing up. But always knew the importance of 'tummy time' . Sadly it took a long time for my girls to stay on their tummy. Tummy time was torture time for me. They would just scream and cry and it wasn't any fun for them at all. I ended up being the mom that put their child in a walker , in a swing, just because no matter what I did for tummy time (putting toys out to encourage them, pictures etc.) They would just scream and cry, and cry , and cry  and cry. Even letting them do tummy time on the bed (thinking maybe the floor was to hard) they wouldn't have any of it. I see the videos of the babies crawling and on their bellies. Those just weren't my girls.

I would say there wouldn't be to many if any for something like that on the internet. Most likely due to the predators on the internet to begin with. Really doing so on the computer can be very dangerous. I wouldn't trust that who my child is talking to on the computer is actually another child.
Now if you did something like Skype where you have a camera and asked to friend people then that's a different story, and a good way to fill that social need if you live out in the middle of no where.

The best way to fufill children's social needs is to get them around other children when you can. The best places are libraries, parks, preschool groups ( if one is not available, then start one), or churches, YMCA's(not sure if those are available in other countries). Sometimes even going to a fast food place they have little activity areas that kids can play in. If you have older children, Girl or Boy Scouts (Guides), community sport clubs , other schools sometimes open up activities to parents depending where you live.
So really there are many options out there, you just have to utilize them. But I really would steer clear from the computer for social outlets when it comes to children. But that's my two cents. 

Anyone have any helpful tips  on helping a just turned 5yr old not confuse the addition and subtraction signs? 

Hello.
I'm  a mom to four girls ages 13, 11,8 and newly turned 5. I've been using Brillkids with my youngest daughter and she loves it and is doing so well with it.

I have homeschooled and will continue to do so. Though my middle two will attend one more year of brick and mortar school.
The school they attended last year dropped the 7th and 8th grade so my oldest will be home. As the high school in our area is not even an option. My youngest will be home as she has to much going on health wise to make it happen at the moment.
My middle two were offered a year of tuition free private school so , even though they don't want to go, they will go for one more year. After that I'll homeschool them as well. In the meantime I plan on supplementing at home so when they come home they can start from where they are at when I do homeschool them.

Thank you everyone! Yes, today is Maggie's birthday. My wonderfully special little girl has turned 5 today. I can't believe how quick time has flown by. I have to stop and remind myself to enjoy every moment of every day because time stops for no one!

Very good story. I will say being a mom to a child with special needs I always feel perplexed. You have some people who don't mind you asking about your child's differences. Then you have parents who feel that if you ask, or don't ask they get offended. So your in a no win situation as well.
To me, awareness is what educates people to be more compassionate. But that's just me.

It could be just a stage. The only thing I can think of is if she may have a little fluid build up behind the ear drum.
If not some people just can be afraid of loud noises.
 I know I was terrified of thunderstorms as a kid. Would send me into a tizzy. Now I'm 35 and handle it just fine. I still don't like fire works though.  But then my problem stems from having my ear drums damaged when I was little. So loud sound actually  hurts my ears.

My oldest was afraid of a toy radio when she was little and would cry every time my husband would turn on Alvin and the Chipmunks music. LOL
She grew out of it. But then later on we found out she had fluid behind her ears even though her hearing was great.  Now she's 13 and loud noises don't phase her a bit.

You'll have to do some school 'shopping' and look around. Some schools will promise they will let your child advance at their own level and end up not doing it. We don't have charter schools in our area. Just public or private and my daughter attended a private school for preschool that had grades prek-8th. They gave us this promise that if they needed to advance they would let them do that. They never did and held my daughter back with the class. It made me very angry.  They drilled and killed her with the alphabet when I had told her teacher she knew the letters and sounds. She ignored me. Then when I told her she could read , my daughter still did not come home with a book until April. Even so the books were so easy for her she would come home and read the entire thing to me that night. Then they would spend weeks on one book!  They were spending a week reading one sentence at a time.  Needless to say my daughter only got to read two whole books the entire year at school. She was bored and she was never challenged at all.

They also held my 3rd daughter back to 1st grade reading because she didn't know two words on their reading test. So the teacher promised she would start her out and go through what she needed to know and that by the middle of the year she would bump her up to 1st grade reading. Again that never happened and my daughter spent a whole wasted year reading stuff she already knew how to read. So she was never challenged and never progressed. So we've spent all summer bumping up her reading.

So remember what looks good on paper and what sounds good by the school isn't always so. You honestly have to make sure what you see and hear is what you get.

Needless to say we spent a ton of money for them to blow through a year when we could have worked on more at home and they could have progressed.  That's why we're going back to homeschooling.

If he is enjoying the televison. How about using products like Your Baby Can Read , or even better Monki See ( www.monkisee.com)?
There is also Preschool Prep and Kid 2020. Another product to teach reading is Rock and Learn (www.rockandlearn.com). They have a phonics program as well. I would give those things a try. Once they get a taste of T.V its really hard to compete with that.

I created a new one. We have never used Reading Eggs before. 
Maggie seems to like it. Granted it didn't really place her in the right spot because I had her use my laptop to do the placement test. And my laptop has a sensitive mouse so she accidently clicked a couple wrong answers. Oh well. She still likes it well enough.

Where did you place the code? The sight is a bit confusing. I've been trying to put it where it says redeem code. Am I plugging it in the right spot?  Or do I have to click Purchase Reading Eggs?