Thanks for posting the satorismiles.com link!  I found the "rain gutter bookshelves" in the reading room a wonderful idea, and am thinking of installing some of those in my child's bedroom! 

These are my favorites, used after YBCR:

1. Brainy Baby (ABCs, 123s, Shapes and Colors)
2. Preschool Prep Sight Words
3. Kids 2020 Dolch Sight Words
4. Munchkin Math
5. Wink to Learn language DVDs

Hi, thanks for posting the video.  I had come upon this site before when a friend of mine's child had tested into a gifted and talented public school program after taking one of these IQ tests, but looked into it a little deeper after you referred to this site.  I'm in the middle of reading Testing for Kindergarten as a result, and even signed up for those free daily questions/tips from its sister site:

http://testingforkindergarten.com/

I found these reading milestones from Dr. Titzer's blog after having completed the YBCR dvd/flashcards.  They provided the map which I followed in teaching my preschooler to read. 

Since he's taken down his blog, it hasn't been easy to find.  But as a refresher:

Milestones of Learning to Read as a Baby/Toddler

• Learning that the shape of the word is the most important factor
• Baby recognizes her/his first words
• Parent notices the baby understands a written word
• Learning to read the first 50 words (baby has learned how to learn)
• Learning to read around 200 words (baby has learned or is ready to learn phonics)
• Learning to read two- and three-word phrases
• Learning to read phonetically
• Learning to read sentences from left-to-right
• Reading a book from cover-to-cover
• Learning to read quickly
• Reading a book the child has never seen from cover-to-cover

My 3 year old is now interested in spelling, found some great magnetic letters/numbers sets from kazootoys.com by Quercetti:

http://www.kazootoys.com/quercetti-magnetino-letters.html

http://www.kazootoys.com/quercetti-magnetino-numbers.html

Was introduced to a website that has math games on it, for anyone interested.

http://hoodamath.com/

My DD does not use a mouse yet, but this is a topic of interest to me because she just started getting around the computer using the touchpad on the laptop of our PC.  Soon after she turned 3, she climbed right up to the laptop and starting surfing around, to my shock.  I know kids these days are able to get around electronics so soon, they are around it all the time.  Our friends who own IPads, which we don't, say that their kids are able to get around the IPad pretty well.

We had been showing her starfall.com and Tumblebooks on the computer.  The only thing I've shown her was to click on the arrow at the bottom of the page in the 'I'm Reading' section of starfall.com.  Though I bought her some vtech toy laptops, she never showed much continued interest in them.

So I downloaded http://www.kidzui.com/ to our laptop.  It's a kids' web browser, that shows only kids' websites and kids' youtube videos, etc.  She really likes to surf around on this.  There are a few sites I don't approve of, I think they are still too old for her, and kidzui used to have a function where parents can block certain sites.  I think they are going to bring that function back soon though. 

I did buy a tiny mouse to hook up to the laptop, it's a Targus compact mouse that plugs right into the USB port.  But she hasn't shown much interest in using it yet, just the touchpad.

Hi,
I enrolled my daughter into Kumon a few months ago, shortly before she turned 3.  She's been reading at what I estimate to be a 1st grade level, and due to her reading ability, is able recognize numbers up to 100.  I had been trying to teach her math, but it was difficult for her to pick it up.  Also when counting objects, she tended to skip numbers.

I thought Kumon would provide some structure, and the repetition and drills made sense to me.  I checked out several Junior Kumon centers nearby us, and though the method is the same, the centers vary by location and by the personality of the instructors/franchise owners.  There is only one instructor per location, with several assistant teachers.  The Junior Kumon is held in a little room, with a maximum of 5 kids.

The monthly fee in our area is $110 US dollars per month for a math course.  Another $110 per month for a reading course.  I decided to do only the math course.  We would attend 2 classes per week, half hour slot each.  10 pages of homework (20 sides) per night.

She was given a diagnostic test, and was put in the level where she would begin to write, mostly tracing and connecting the dots exercises.  Although I had done the Kumon tracing workbooks with her at home and she could hold a pencil somewhat properly, her writing still needed work.

A couple of weeks after beginning the program, due to her age, I requested to bring her only once a week, and to limit the pages to only 5 a night.  It turned out to be more difficult to finish the homeworks than I expected, but we managed to finish the homework before class.  The homework is sometimes tedious and repetitive.  The instructor distributed repeat homework we had already completed until I told her we were ready to move on.  Apparently, this is typical.  My daughter does not always want to do  the homework, she has to be in the mood.  Still, she does manage to get it done, but it requires a great deal of motivation/commitment/time on my part, especially at this age. 

The Junior Kumon class is like a revolving door, with kids coming in and out every half hour.  They are each doing different assignments according to their level in math or reading, and mostly older children.  The Junior Kumon instructor sets her up with an assignment for the day, or a number board, and jumps in when she appears to need assistance while helping the other students with their respective assignments.  There is a reward system - so far she has been receiving stickers to place on a sticker map for homeworks done.

She has now begun a new level, and starting to actually practice writing numbers - these assignments are now timed and move a lot quicker. 

She is more confident in her writing skills and clearly shows interest in writing numbers and letters, so in the short term, it does work.  We haven't begun addition/subtraction yet and won't do so for awhile, so I can't say much about that. 

Having purchased Kumon workbooks in the past, and the Kumon dry erase flashcards, I would say it is a different experience than just doing it on our own with the workbooks.  At this young age, it is a big commitment, and it might been too early to start.  People who say it worked for their children had them enrolled for years and started early.  The homework can be tedious and repetitive, but it does provide structure and consistency.  Now that we've started, however, I'll continue to keep her in the program. 

Hello everyone, Brillkids team,

I am a SAHM mom of 2, both under the age of 3.  I used YBCR with my first child, and as we were finishing the program, she began reading words out loud.  Looking online for ways to continue her progress, I found videos of KL's daughter reading.  Truly impressed, it led me to this site.

I've been following the forum for awhile now, and am amazed by how much the parents know here.  I was able to gain some ideas and continue teaching my child.  I've never participated in a forum before, but decided to take the plunge now. 

Thanks!