Hey everyone 

I found a series of living math books called Mouse Math at the library. It looks like a fantastic series! There are 12 books in the series and appear to have been published in the past few years.  I checked out one of the books to kind of get a feel for it, but I'm really excited about these books.

They teach all kinds of math concepts through stories of mouse adventures with main characters Albert and his sister Wanda.  The last couple of pages include activities that you can do to reinforce concepts, similar to the way MathStart books do.  We love the Mathstart books in this house, but I'm always looking for ways to layer the learning.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my latest find with you all.     

New update! My 25 month old read a preschool prep book cover to cover by herself with me just running my finger under the words until the last two pages when she insisted on running her fingers under the words HERSELF while she read out loud!  She was so pleased with herself  

She loves to be read to in English and Spanish, and she loves to read together! We spend a significant portion of the day reading at her request including everything from non fiction books about our solar system to mathstart books to fun picture books.  She likes to read independently as well, but prior to this she didn't usually read cover to cover.  

This latest milestone came on the heels of her bringing a picture book to a waiting room a couple of weeks ago and deciding to read about half of a picture book out loud to everyone in the waiting room!

It's incredible what childrens' minds are capable of!

I have to apologize for replying without realizing that you were speaking about a prenatal product.  Shortly before I read your post, I read an article about children having hearing issues due to white noise machines.  When I read the word monitor in your subject line, I assumed it was a video baby monitor, and that sent my mind to the white noise makers.
I hope you find the answers you're looking for!

No problem at all!  I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easily your toddler learns while using educational apps on the iPad 
My daughter used to love the Preschool Prep apps.  She still loves the Endless Reader, Endless Numbers, and Endless Alphabet.

Thanks for your input! It's quite helpful to hear from someone who learned Chinese as an adult as well. I appreciate your take on the topic, and I will be looking at the resources you provided. I can't wait to get started!

We also taught and are teaching our daughter ASL.  I started with just a few signs and kept adding more and more. At night, I would study ASL online at www.lifeprint.com, and the next day, I would teach her new signs and incorporate them throughout the day. We also reinforced with Signing Time. Once she had a big signing vocabulary, I took a couple of ASL classes to try to practice and learn more conversational skills so that I could pass that on to her as well. I wouldn't say I'm fluent, by any means, but I do my best to sign with her throughout the day.

Just a quick update: I haven't implemented anything yet, but I think I'm going to start with the Pimsleur approach, myself, and branch out from there. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I've also found a Mandarin Chinese speaking play group nearby that we will probably try to join once we get things going so that she can be immersed in the language, in person. I've also requested Baby's First Words in Chinese through the inter library loan system. If they don't have it, I will make the purchase soon along with Wink to Learn. In the meantime, we will start with small video clips on youtube of simple things like colors, shapes, numbers, etc. I'm excited about this new learning adventure.

We have allowed our daughter to use educational apps on the iPad for as long as I can remember, and she is 25 months old now.  She definitely knows her way around the iPad and has learned so much through the apps that we download for her.  I don't find that it's any different than showing educational DVDs or videos on the computer.  I wouldn't let her watch endless hours of television (nor would she want to), and the same goes for the iPad.   
We only use it in moderation, and she doesn't even ask for it everyday. We use it to reinforce concepts that she's learning, and I find that it is extremely helpful in making the concepts "stick." I have a thread going about the different apps that we have used/enjoyed for early learning.
I think you will find that many members are big fans of this technology 

Hi Nikita,

I don't personally have experience with this, but I have read that white noise machines may damage baby's hearing.  If this happened to your child, I am so sorry to hear this.  Baby companies sell so many products that produce white noise, including stuffed animals, that it would be easy to believe that there's nothing unsafe about it.  Everywhere you turn, there's a different toy or product made for helping babies go to sleep by producing white noise.  I hope you're able to find the answers that you are looking for.  Maybe others who have noticed an association will come forth and offer their experiences. 

Good luck, and I wish you and your child the best!

I wanted to try to update this a bit. At 25 months, the "endless" series are still a favorite for my daughter. We have also downloaded several new apps that I'll share.

-Math 3-5 by onebillion (used to be called Eurotalk math 3-5, I think)...this app is amazing and comprehensive. I love it!

-comparative adjectives (by Grasshopper apps)...my daughter enjoys this one in short bursts. It shows several pictures and ask questions, such as "which is the freshest fruit" or "which kid looks friendlier" or "who is the tallest person"...

- match animals...it's a great memory game using animals that becomes progressively harder as you finish levels.

-bugs and buttons...excellent app with 18 fun games. It covers concepts such as counting, alphabet, matching/sorting, etc.

Starfall ABCs...this one so fun. It's just like the free version of starfall online but with the convenience  of being on the ipad.

Any others you all can think of?

Hi Laralinn, I will think about it.  I'm getting ready to make some other purchases right now, and I'm not sure if this is something I would like to use yet. 
Thanks for your reply!

Are you selling all of your TW DVDs and the Dora DVDs for $40? How many Dora DVDs are you selling? My daughter has never watched that show. Is it entirely in Chinese with Spanish words?
Thanks!

Perfect! Thanks for the feedback on this…I tried to do a search on here for it, but I didn't really find many posts on it.

Great! Thanks for the feedback. Do you think the starter set is enough or is it better to get the full set? I think amazon has the starter set for $20 and the full set for $90.
Thanks!

Has anyone bought the BambinoLUK for their toddlers?  I'm thinking of getting this for my daughter who just turned two.  Maybe for Christmas?
Any feedback is appreciated.  Thanks!

It's so much fun when they get into the math and reading games, isn't it?  I just knew he would learn the PP Sight Words DVDs quickly!  It's such a great series. Have you shown him the Blends and Diagraphs DVDs yet? Those are great too. Did you do Meet the Numbers with him?

For ReadingBear, I showed most of the vowels 2-3x, and the review one time. Beyond the vowels, I am showing presentations only 1-2x, depending on her interest, but I can't show the same presentation 2 days in a row because she gets bored if I do this. She loves Reading Bear, but she wants a new presentation each day.     So, if I repeat, it has to be separated by at least a couple of days. Right now, we are at the review for the second "unit." We usually go through one full presentation each day, sometimes only a couple of sections from a lesson and not always in the same sitting.

We go through the presentations on "sound it out quickly" now, as the "sound it out slowly" was becoming boring for her. I thought she was tiring of Reading Bear, but she would say "mas" (more in Spanish) every time a presentation ended.  Once I changed it to "sound it out quickly" I saw progress again, and I saw the excitement come back. Amazing how such a minor thing can make such a major difference.

When she reads, she doesn't sound words out, she just reads them. If it's a new word, she pauses for a moment and then says it. I wonder if she's sounding it out in her head or if she remembers reading it before. She's not reading books cover to cover yet (except for the Priddy books or similar books with one word per page), at least not out loud, but she does love to help me read books, and we read a LOT of books!    

As for math, we just started Little Math. I've had it for awhile but was never consistent and never got past lesson 10. This wasn't due to lack of interest on her part, it was just that we were doing other things for math. She loves LM though.  She counts all day and likes to watch counting videos on youtube, even boring ones that are just of a person counting on a hundreds board. She counts pretty much everything she sees: puzzle pieces, books, etc. We purchased the RightStart curriculum but haven't yet started. I'm also very interested in Mortensen Math. I'm hoping to buy the blocks second hand or on sale. I wonder if the Math U See blocks would be suitable. I found some locally that are fairly inexpensive. We also use ideas from Marshmallow Math.  I'm going to be purchasing large dice soon to play games with.  I also saw the Learning Resources Math Mat Challenge that I think she'll like.  She likes variety and can get tired of seeing the same thing repeatedly, so having lots of resources, for us, is important.

I will keep posting updates, and I hope anyone who is reading this will too!