Please ignore my previous question … I went ahead to buy Wink to Learn without the discount coupon as their free shipping offer will expire soon. 

I'm in the same situation, my girls can pass 2 hours whitout wet the diaper, but she does not pee on the potty all by herself. she is 28 months...

Hi L and J

I tried to potty train my DD when she was 10 month old.  She liked it for the first week but after that she would stiffen her body and refuse to sit on the toilet with baby toilet seat.  I’ve stopped since but occasionally would try my luck but still no success.

For the past 2 months, I’ve started looking for a playschool for her as she seemed bore at home.  She has been asking to go school after a few trial classes.  But some of the schools here require that the children be potty trained first even for a 2 year old.  I explained to her that she can go to school only if she uses the toilet and be able to tell the teacher when she needs to go.  This has been a great incentive for her to use the toilet.  I skipped the potty entirely as I do not want to retrain her all over again when it is time to use the toilet and using the toilet involves less cleaning. 

Then, I let her be diaper-free at home and remind her of the incentive every time I want her to use the toilet (I’ve sort of figure out her pee and poo schedule).  She only had a few pee accidents in the beginning and she has been doing great for a month or so and even tells me when she needs to pee. 

In my case, it is about giving her a good incentive to use the toilet.  Maybe, you have to find out what will motivate your little one. 

She usually goes on the potty at the very last second and I don't see how i could manage stopping the car, pulling her out of the car seat etc etc, same thing at the shops (and most of them do not have restrooms)..

Hi hypatia

My DD is 27 month old.  For months, she has been having dry diapers when we are out for 2-3 hours, when she has her nap and when she sleeps at night (except for 1 or 2 nights when she has extra bottle of milk when she woke up in the middle of the night). 

I’ve not let her be diaper-free yet when we go out (I still have not figured out how to let her use the public toilets as a clean one is hard to find where I’m from) although she is when she is at home.  To get her ready to be diaper-free during outings, I now make it a habit to ask her to use the toilet before we go out and straight after we arrive home.  As she normally pees at least 45 min after she has a big drink or have her milk, I know that she will not ask to go when I’m still driving.  Hope this helps.

I’m so happy when I saw see YBCR LR file for Chinese.  Thanks Patience and Joha!!

I’ve just run through it.  Correct me if I’m wrong … I think 够 in the LR file is meant for the translation for “reach” and 娃娃is meant for the translation for “baby”. 

I can read a bit of Chinese and I think 够 means “enough” and 娃娃 means “doll”.  But I’m not sure.  Maybe they are different words to say the same thing.  Can someone who knows Chinese check on this and perhaps suggest the correct translation for 够and 娃娃 if necessary?  Thanks Patience and Joha again for the effort.

I’m trying to buy a Wink to Learn 10% discount coupon from http://www.brillkids.com/partner-products/wink-to-learn.php.  But every time I clicked on BUY NOW for the 10% discount coupon, this page http://forum.brillkids.com/shop/?do=buy appeared.  Does this mean the 10% discount coupon is sold out and only the 5% discount coupon is available?  Can someone help?  Thanks.

Hi mom2ross

I’m not sure what you mean by “deck”.  What I used to do is to click “Slide Show” and then “From Beginning” to start the lesson.  As I’ve not done the audio to the slides, I read out the numbers of red dots (as indicated on the right hand bottom corner), “+” and “=” as they appear on the screen.  I stopped using the slides and instead I have been using LM when it was launched last year. 

If you want more information on teaching math to your little one, you can read the threads in this forum on the subject.  I was really inspired after reading the discussions here, particularly http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/anyone-get-results-from-doman-math-method/ and DomanMom’s experience.  Hope this helps.

Oh, no!!  Now it costs 200 points to download.  I also did not back up the file.  If I install the old copy of LR, will I have the file automatically?  But I can't remember which version of LR has the file by default.  Anyone can help?

My DD is now 19 months old.  Her reaction to her first lesson in LR curriculum was “Where? Where?” referring to the missing pictures in Word Flash as she was so used to seeing pictures after words.  I think it has been about 2 months since we’ve started on LR curriculum and she still has the same reaction every LR session. The same goes with the Phonics.  I continue to show her all of the lessons but she just looks away during the Word Flash and Phonics, and sometimes even when words are being shown during Multisensory.  As she refuses to see anything without pictures, I’m not sure cutting the number of words in Word Flash (or Phonics) will help.  Is there any other way to get her to look at the screen during Word Flash and Phonics?  BTW, I don’t think her attention span is a problem as she can sits through more than 6 categories in one go and still asks for more, provided that they are things that interest her.

And remember, don't despair even though she may have given you wrong answers.  Even though she cannot give you the correct answers now, you can be certain that all this exposure to math concepts will be very useful to her later and will enable her to pick up math concepts faster.
 

That is what Im thinking too but deep down I wish I can see a little result to give myself a bit of encouragement.  I’ll definitely continue but I’m thinking of giving my DD a break from LM to see if she will get interested again later as I think the lack of consistency now maybe futile.  For now, I’ll try changing the icon as you have suggested.  How do I choose the icon for LM curriculum lessons?  I don’t see a button for “preset settings” when I’m at the “Course” tab.

Also remember, left-brain is not a bad thing!

I agree … it’s just that she will be using her left brain a lot more when she gets older and I’m hoping that her right brain will remain open longer … like you say it is more efficient to take in information using right brain.

And just because you are using your left-brain for something doesn't necessarily mean that your right-brain is being compromised.  From what I understand, the right-brain remains very active and open for the first 5-6 years.  The question is whether we nurture it and how we try to keep it open beyond that age.

It’s good to know that.  I feel a bit better now.  Thanks.

My 19 month old DD has been saying “No” to LM which seemed to have started after I showed her the more exciting video with music and cartoon on LR.  I do not make her watch LM but occasionally I sneak in a session of the curriculum in a day if I can.  Sometimes she is receptive to it and sometimes not.  Currently, I’m still at day 20 of the curriculum (Sigh).  Before I started using the LM curriculum, I’ve already finished showing her quantity to 100 and division equations … although not as consistent as I would like it to be.  She could be bored.  If she is, I’m sure it is not because she knows the stuff.  I did a little test with small numbers with peas (bad mommy here) and she got them almost all wrong. Strangely enough, she seems to like tests and asked for more.  But I did not oblige.

However, my DD started to be interested in counting after watching “Counting Bubbles” (http://forum.brillkids.com/downloads/?sa=view;id=6625) in LR.  She now likes to say some numbers when she sees the floor indicator panel in the elevator. She only knows how to say 1 to 6 but she gets them wrong 99.99% of the time!!!  I now read out the numbers to her instead whenever she starts to say the numbers in the elevator. 

Similarly for alphabets, when she sees words on my T-shirt or some colourful signs when we go shopping, she sometimes likes to point to the letters and say out some letters. She only knows how to say a handful of letters.  Again she gets them almost all wrong except for “I” and “O”.  Worst, she says “O” when I show her “COW” or “DOG”, and she says “I” when I show her “PIG” in LR. 

The questions I have are:

Q1)  Is it a good idea to start showing her numerals in LM or teaching her alphabets since she is interested in them?  I thought we are not supposed to teach them too early.  Hence, I’ve been delaying “seriously” teaching her numbers/alphabets or getting her numbers/alphabets puzzles (she has developed a liking for puzzles lately).  But I do show her video on number/ABC songs sometimes and count/sing to her for fun.

Q2)  I think my DD has a spoken vocabulary of more 200 words (I stopped counting when she hit 180 words 2 weeks ago and she keeps surprising me with new words everyday).  She also has been saying phrases and a few 3-word sentences.  I thought I read somewhere that language skill is more of a left brain ability.  Do you think she is losing her right brain ability and bridging to the left brain faster than she should and hence she sees “O” in “COW” and “DOG”, and “I” in “PIG”? If she is, it is not a good thing, right?  What should I do to keep her right brain open?

Firstly, karma to Jennifer for such a generous gesture. 

And hi liz79, I’ve read from another post that you are from M’sia.  There are DVD flashcards for sale too.  I’ve just bought a set of 2 DVD Chinese Flashcards 2 days ago as I run out of Simplified Chinese files with pictures (my DD refuse to see anything without pictures) to download here.  I’ve not gone through the whole DVD but from the first few lessons, it is not quite GD method as the words are below the pictures (as opposed word first then pictures).  But I’m desperate enough to use anything as I’ve not been showing my DD much new material on Simplified Chinese for a while.  This is the link for it http://www.babybrainflashcards.com/.  I bought mine at RM30 (normal price RM40) from Popular Book Store during their current promotion.  Maybe you want to check it out.  There is also an English version which I did not get as I’m not done with LR English curriculum yet.  Hope this helps.

I’m always in a dilemma on whether to spank or not as I read that spanking may tell our children to get results with violence.  So far I gave my 19 month old DD a little slap on the hand twice. In the first incident, she hit my head with a soft toy and I told her “No. Not nice”.  Straight after that she did it again with a remote control and I told her “No” but she did it again with a phone.  Basically she just grabbed whatever she could see and used them to hit me and each time it just got harder.  She only stopped after I gave her a slap on her hand.  Her eyes were filling up with tears and I immediately regretted it and I apologized to her.  I think she was trying to see how I would react and it was like a game to her.  I have to partly blame my husband for it as he was using a soft toy to hit her head playfully a few days earlier. 

The second time I gave her a little slap on the hand was when she repeatedly threw her food to the floor on purpose and my countless “No” did not work.  For the next few times over a week or so, she would hit her own hand after she threw her food.  That made my heart ache.  I have not hit her since then no matter what she did. 

However, I think I traumatized her even more last week when my husband had been away for more than a week and I got really tired but that was no excuse. I lost my patience and grunted quite loudly at her when my “No” did not stop her from kicking at the mirror, something that I’ve been telling her not to do and explaining that she may get hurt if the mirror breaks (it is time to remove the mirror).  She got really scared and closed her eyes tightly as if trying to make my angry face go away.  I felt bad immediately and explained that I was angry and how she could have hurt herself.  I apologized and hugged and kissed her.  She seemed fine after that but I found out that the damage was already done when I saw the fear in her face when she heard me said “Angry” as I was telling my mom the next day about the incident.  I’ve never seen that kind of fear in her before … not even she was having stranger anxiety.  I wonder if she would be less traumatized if I had slapped her little hand the very first time she kicked the mirror.  One thing I know is slapping her hand did not help her remember not to hit me (or anyone for that matter) … she just hit me yesterday again after a kid in the playground tried to hit her.  I think it’s “monkey see monkey do”.

I really do not want to spank my DD but if it is to stop her from hurting herself (or anyone else), I may just have to … like I said I’m in a dilemma now and I will have more to deal with as she grows.  If you use spanking, do your children learn to hit others as well?

I'm thinking about getting it, but just as you said online may not be the best option for me.

I’ve recently purchased the Tweedle Wink overview course.  As I always have internet connection problem, I also prefer downloading the audio files to listen offline. For Part 1 of Module 1, I managed to right click the MP3 icon and clicked “save target as” to download the audio file as per the instruction on the site.  However, I could not do so for the rest of the audio files.  After numerous failed attempts, I emailed them about my problem and they were kind enough to create a special download for me via email after a few days.  Maybe you want to try emailing them.

Hi texaslady

This is interesting.  When can this approach be used?  I think my 18 month DD has recently learned to throw tantrum in her playgroup …  every time a kid does it she would stare.  I basically ignore her when she does it herself and if I can’t take it anymore, I would distract her (such as asking where her toy rabbit is).  If she is in her high chair and she does not get her way, she will throw her food/spoon/bowl off her tray.  And today she stood up in her high chair (she knows how to undo the strap) when I turned my back to get a new spoon.  It really gave me a scare.  She knows what “no” means and she would say “no” herself after she does something I told her not to do before.

Noted but it is not only for me but also future members who will miss the grace period for free downloads + they will not have many points to start off with.  It also may not be possible for every existing member to monitor all the time on new downloads before the grace period ends. 

I bought LR last year as I thought I could have access to unlimited FREE downloads.  As I may one day use up my points, I hope I could still continue to have access to free downloads even though the files do not have the extras such as video to make it to the Premium status … some of these files are already great the way they are.  I really appreciate the hard work from everyone who contributed to the files and off course BrillKids Team for all the effort to make LR such a great education tool.  And I’m now trying to download as many files as possible before they get converted to Premium files.