This child is just 15mts old. There is no reason to expect this child to sit still for a certain amount of time. Most toddlers are always on the go. The only time they sit still is while in a car seat, sleeping or in a highchair while eating.

[The Active Way]

There are in fact two simple ways that you can tackle teaching your child to read and these two ways fit perfectly into your day-to-day schedule; there is an "active" way and there is a "passive" way.

The Active Way

The active way is when you actually sit down for a lesson and "actively" teach your child to read. This in turn is broken down into time that you spend teaching them to read and time spent reading with them.

In the beginning, you will get amazing results with about 5 daily lessons of about a minute each. That's about 5 minutes per day. Not too much time on your part is it?

You will do this for approximately 30 days until your child can read their first book. Really!

After this, you will spend time daily reading with your child to improve their reading, correcting them and teaching them new words.

Once your child is comfortable reading and enjoys doing it (all children enjoy things that they are good at), you can then begin to make them self-sufficient readers by teaching themphonics. This in turn will take them to the next level ensuring that they can read by themselves.

The Passive Way

Reading takes a lot of practice and your child will do it only if it is fun. You can make this process easier for them by exposing them to reading from an early age and as often as possible. You can do this in a number of different ways:

1. Fill your home with books

By having a variety of books, magazines and newspapers in your home, your child can see the visible signs of reading and will want to participate as well.

2. Let your child see you reading

Your child will copy what you do, so if your child sees you reading he or she will come to realize that it is something that you value greatly and in return will want to do what you do too. After all young children always want to be like their parents and love to imitate everything they do.

3. Read to them

Children love stories and books are a wonderful source of the greatest stories available. By reading to your child you are indirectly encouraging them to pick up a book and explore these wonderful stories for themselves. This goes a long way to cement their ability to read as they will then have a method of not only entertaining but also educating themselves.

4. Give your child lots of books

You can show your child that you value their efforts by giving them books as gifts. Include books on your monthly shopping list whenever possible. This will give your child many opportunities to read and also to expand their vocabulary and knowledge.

So to answer our question: "How much time do you need to teach your child to read?", in total you need only spend about 5 minutes every day either teaching your child to read or reading with or to them. By making reading into a habit (for example having "story time" together every night before bedtime), your child will love reading and this is the beginning of a good education.

As fast as possible.

MIDI is a very simple standard for transferring note information between a keyboard and computer. The M-Audio keyboards are excellent and can be used with any software that accepts MIDI inputs.

Can I first just say VERY GOOD! ? Methinks that everybody should learn at least two languages.

I'd 'split' the flash cards; have one language at the top and the other at the bottom, with some way to tell the two apart (ink colour perhaps) to avoid confusion.

If youlook at that 'Dora the Explorer' program, they mix two languages (mainly using one languages but dropping in things in a second language). So presenting German and English as equal seems quite acceptable to me.

As such.

Of course there are some practical problems; if a Flashcard has YOU on it, do you put SIE for the German or DU or both?

Children are primarily visual learners and learn everything like pictures. So if you teach them 100 common English words, that's what they will learn. They do not have to learn numbers to read a word in English nor do they need any mathematical ability to read.

To them, reading is simply identifying the symbol (or word) and they will read those words that they know or have already learnt.

In fact, it is even possible to teach your child to read an entire book (their first naturally) without them even knowing the alphabet. Only when you begin to teach them phonics (and you should only do this when they are already familiar with the reading process) do they need to know the alphabet.

It is definitely useful to teach your child the alphabet earlier as it enhances their confidence but it is not necessary and they can start reading without it.

As a pianist you know that one needs finger strength and hand coordination. One place you can start is by teaching Kodaly as it develops rhythm. One example of Kodaly is "phant, phant, elephant" and have the kids clap as they are repeating the phrase.

I wouldn't take schoolwork with you, unless your child really likes school. You could, however, look at upcoming lessons and maybe do something related while you're gone.

In History is/will your child be learning about, say, the civil war? Are you going to a city that was a hub for a part of the civil war? Hit a museum or building and learn about it more in depth.

Is your child studying life science (or whatever the study of rocks and minerals is called where you live) and you're going to a place near a lake, stream or river? Have them collect a few (small) samples and identify the rocks when you get home.

Do they have fun stuff for kids? There is an old place about an hour south of me that was big during the mining days, and it's now a museum with a cave to explore, but in the "gift shop", you buy a bag of sand...take it out to a (man-made) waterfall, and using a screen, dump the sand in, little by little to sift it. The sand bags are divided by what's in them. Some have various rocks, others have gemstones, some have fossils, and you can also by a "mixed" bag. Once the sand is "mined" the kids keep whatever they find, and they get an identification chart so - if they want - they can investigate those gems, fossils and/or rocks on their own later.

So, yeah, just read ahead in their books to see what they are, or will be, studying, then check the city's website to see if there is an opportunity to do something related to their studies and make a little side trip during your vacation.

Even a water or amusement park can be educational. The angle of the slide/coaster vs. how fast one can go down it/average speed of the cars = science and math.

Going to a local roller or ice rink can be counted as P.E. if your state requires physical education of some sort. Etc.

Learning doesn't have to mean a "boring museum" ALL the time. Think outside the box.

[1. Read To Your Child Every Day]

Here are 5 Pre-Reading Tips that you can use at home with your toddler on a daily basis:

1. Read To Your Child Every Day - even if it is only for a few minutes this will give you quality time spent with your child and will become an enjoyable routine that your child will look forward to.

2. Encourage Your Child To Pick Out A Book - this helps foster independence and a willingness of participation on the child's part.

3. Point To Pictures & Words As You Read Aloud - showing word association with pictures will increase your child's comprehension skills.

4. Allow Your Child To "Pretend To Read" - they may not know the words yet, but ask them what is happening on the page and let them describe it to you.

5. Read The Same Book Over & Over - repetition improves memory and is a vital part of the learning process; just be patient, remember this is benefiting your child.

Is there some pressing reason you seem to feel the need to teach her to read? 4 year olds do NOT have to be reading, and she is likely feeling stressed and pressured that you keep pushing it.
If she knows her letters and the sounds they make, she is more than on track. Being able to read words (and understand what she reads) is a developmental stage that she may not be cognitively ready for. No matter how 'smart' she is.

For now, what you need to be doing is reading TO her. Let her learn that books are fun, and stories are interesting and exciting. She will begin to read when she is ready.

(FWIW, when my daughter was young, we were sure she would be a very early reader. Both her parents read voraciously, and we have a house full of books. We read to her often from infancy, she had dozens of books of her own, and she went to preschool. But, while I DIDN'T ever push her, she seemed unable to make the leap [on her own] from knowing letters and sounds, and having a handful of sight words, to reading.

When she was 5 1/2, just a couple of months before she started kindergarten, SOMETHING clicked in her brain, and she could suddenly read. By the time she started kindergarten, she was reading simple story books, and from then on, through school, she consistently read several years ahead of grade level -- and got a 750 on the verbal SAT.

Not being 'an early reader' didn't hurt her one bit. And it won't hurt your daughter either.

Wow. You went nuts on stuff. We used free Starfall. Same as ABC Mouse.

For a one and two-year old, I would just suggest signing songs and playing games. Go to the museums or zoos.. Many museums and zoos have Mommy and Me programs or Stroller Time. The local, state, an Federal parks often have programs for little ones. The Fed park near us has a toddler story / activity time twice a month. These are great programs that teach I think better than an formal school program.
Many libraries offer a toddler story time. Get out to these, too.

My day?
We have breakfast, count cheerios or discuss food groups
pick out our clothes - do you want to wear the red or the blue shirt?
morning walk, play iSpy or just chat about the weather
play time
games, stories
make , and they can hep a bit
nap
wake up, snack they can help choose and make
play
learning games
help with dinner, they might be seated at the table to play with small stuff while I cook

I learned Lithuanian and English, with German as a third language exposure. And I started talking (in whole sentences) before I was 1. It was only later, when I more or less lived with English as a main diet of language that I lost the German (the relatives who spoke it moved away), but the Lithuanian stayed with me, and even now, I still can understand about 90% of anything said to me or that I read in Lithuanian, despite not being near Lithuanian speakers on a regular basis for more than 30 years. (I do have difficulties talking in it nowadays).

My son was ready for kindergarten at age 4. Previously the school allowed 4year olds if they took a placement test. However, they changed that the year my son would have started. The school was rude and said "No, he needs to go play for another year". They gave no alternatives or encouragement so we began homeschooling and never looked back. This year he starts highschool still homeschooling.

Do not try to push her ahead. That added pressure often can lead to burn out and frustration for both the parent (teacher) and student. Just teach at her level when she is ready. If that turns out to be advanced, great. If not, it's not a big deal. I usually won't plan more than 1 year in advance other than a general idea of possibilities. Then in the spring, I will evaluate where my kids are and my goals for the next year then order the appropriate level curriculum. Keep in mind that she may be at different levels for different subjects. That's fine and perfectly normal.

[1. One-on-one tutoring]

Whether you are home schooling your child, or simply an enthusiastic pro-active parent who wants to give their child a head start, here are three very good advantages to teaching your child to read at home.

1. One-on-one tutoring
When a child learns to read in a class, they will be sharing their reading teacher with about 20 other children. This means that in a 30-minute lesson, your child will be getting one-on-one attention from that teacher for about one minute. Now consider that if you teach your child to read at home, they will be getting your full, one-on-one attention for the duration of their lesson, be it for 5 minutes or a whole hour.

2. Keep them interested for much longer
If a child is forced to read anything that does not interest them, something that should take 5 minutes to learn can take you an hour. My son balked at the idea of singing rhymes, and although many books offer reading content that is good for teaching the sounds of words, things like "Zac is a rat" and "the cat sat on the mat" not only did not interest him, but actually turned him off reading for a long time.

However, when I started to include words into his reading lessons that he liked (things like aliens, werewolves, trolls, bugs, etc) he was suddenly very interested in his reading. When we bought books for him to read, I allowed him to choose his own books. His very first books were on Winnie the Pooh, and he would read them all the time without any encouragement from me.

3. Avoid the reading wars
By choosing to teach your child to read at home you can avoid the reading wars altogether.

What are the reading wars you ask?

Well in most English speaking countries the school system and other educators are engaged in a great battle over whether it's best to teach a child to read using phonics (sounding out words) or sight reading (look-and-say). Fortunately for the home schooling or home school preschooling parent there needn't be a choice.

A child needs both methods to achieve perfect reading ability. By using the sight reading (look-and-say) method first to ignite your child's interest in reading and to build their confidence and then by introducing phonics (sounding out words), your child can be reading by themselves in 4 months.

Thanks for sharing. Where can i buy it online?