joining here because my son was born in 2005.  I cant believe he is 5 already!  Where does the time go?

Hello Everybody! Good to see everyone here from BrillKids!  I have a 5 yr old son and a 3 yr old daughter.  We have used Little reader and the Doman method with both children.  My 5 yr old is reading at a 2nd grade level and my stubborn 3 yr old recognizes many words but refuses to put them together!  They love thier bit cards and love using LR for EK.

i bought a set at costco when my oldest was newborn.  they were ok but there is so much better out there for much less expense.  Signing Time, Wink to Learn, Little Pim just to name a few.  About the only Baby einstein I thought were useful were Numbers Nursery and Lnaguage Nursery.

My husband chose both of our childrens names.  we wanted something a little uncommon.  we named our some after a place in Yellowstone, the Hayden valley.  Of course now Hayden is like on of the top 50 names! For my daughter we could not agree on her name at all!  She wasnt named for about 6 hours after her birth  ( those nurses came in every 30 minutes for 3 hours until I finally told them if they came and asked again I wouldnt name her until I leagally had to at 90 days old!)  I finally decided on Kayla that my husband picked.  He again wanted and uncommon name.  It wasnt what I wanted but I finally relented and she fits her name well.  But I just had to show my husban that the name wasnt as uncommon as he thought by watching Days Of OUr Lives until they showed the Character Kayla!  he was miffed to say the least!

My daughter sleeps 11 to 12 hours at night.  Most days she naps at least 90 minutes.  We put her down for a nap every day.  Days when she gets longer naps she is defenitly happier in the afternoon!

We tried it, it didnt work for us.  We still have night time accidents.  Some kids just are not ready until they are ready.

i bought several different classical composer cds at the music store when my kids were just babies.  We listen to Debussy alot cuz he is my favorite.  But we also have Beethoven, Bach and Mozart in the cd changer in our vehicles right now.  The kids aruge about wether we should listen to Beethoven or rockNroll in dads car, and over Debussy or chinese kids songs in Moms car!  we just bought Themes to remeber last week.  We are on lesson 3.  I got in the car this morning and for some reason Bach was on on the cd, we usually leave it on Beethoven.  The kids immediately recognized Toccato and Fuge in D Minor from Bach.  The only time they have heard it was from themes to remember.  So in short, YES, it is worth the price!

We are pro chores also!  My 5 yr old sweeps the kitchen twice weekly, feeds the cats and makes his bed daily.  My 3 yr old helps sort laundry and put it away and makes her bed daily.  They have to put dishes in the dishwasher when finished eating also.  No chores=No allowance!

We have used 3 aupairs and 1 nanny.  We have been blessed that each one of them was wonderful and caring with our children.  We have asked each one of them to stay with us longer.  We are just about to begin our search for our next nanny because we cant convince the current one to not go back to college!  Its always hard when they first start but we have been very lucky!

I know its been awhile but the website I have book marked for this site says
http://www.themes-to-remember.com/6YearSchedule.html
Hope this helps!

I have numerous sets of doman bit cards for sale.  Just about every category including some that are not available anymore.  pm me if you are interested.

Here is a direct link to the file
http://forum.brillkids.com/downloads/?sa=view;id=6431

or you can click on my username and that will show you all of my files

Khatty- Sorry I didn't see your post sooner.  Thanks for the compliment.    I try to follow the Doman formulas for my pois. And, yes it can take a lot of time to do the research for the pois.  There are alot of good categories on here from when we had the weekly collaboration group going,  that can get you started, so you can get ahead.  When I first started I made cards with out the poi on them, then added them later, when it was time to bring them back out.  Just remember not to get so involved in creating your cards you sacrifice other things for it.  Do what you can, when you can, and don't beat yourself up if your program slips every now and then.  You don't have to do ten categories all the time.   Anything is better than doing nothing.  Also, the gift is really the time you spend with your child, the learning is a bonus gift.  Good luck with your program.

You don't really have to laminate them, if you aren't letting baby touch them.  I don't let my children handle our cards that are not laminated.  As for your cutting and pasting ability, they don't have to be perfect.  And you will get better the more you make.  I have made about 800 cards, the first ones were pretty awful, compared to my last ones, but htey got the job done.  My kids still recognize the information I gave them on the cards when they see it in real life!  Give your self some credit.  Your children will love the attention they get from you when you show them the cards!

A great place to get pictures are calendars.  Wait until after the first of the year and everybody usually marks them down.  Also check out  used book stores.  Bits about Art are the easiest to make.  Birds are a close second.  Just my opinion.

We have the first volume of sing to learn chinese and we love it.  I just ordered the new voumes 2 and 3 and can't wait to watch them with the children.  My only problem is the song titles are in chinese and I can't read them.  We end up making up silly names for the songs based on what happens in the video.  Can anyone help me learn the correct names for the songs on each video?  Thanks.