Hi,  Here is one problem which I had with my son.   As children's reading ability increases, so does the length of the books which they are interested in.  After a while the chapter books have 100 to 200+ pages.  When my son was 5, he read Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang in the original version, --it has 114 pages.  So it might not be possible to read 5 of those books a day.  But happy reading anyway! and all the best

My grandson in Hamburg Germany has a 1/64 which is a real, actual violin.  I bought it from www.angelicoviolins.com in Virginia, USA.  The next size up is the !/32, and the next size up after that is the 1/16.  My son used the 1/16 when he was 4-6 years old in 1974-76, and grew up to be a professional violinist.  He started out with Suzuki violin.  I hope that this is helpful information.  Granny Skippy

Maybe you could invent little games around mealtime, bathtime, dressing, etc.  Colors, counting, teaching left and right, etc. are all good.  Mealtime,  The glass is half full, how many peas can you eat, What begins with the mmm sound? Milk. Make flashcards which say, cup, plate, table, etc.   Put magnetic letters on the fridge.  Do a lot of spelling.  Here is your C-U-P.  It has M-I-L-K in it.  We have C-A-K-E for D-E-S-S-E-R-T.   Spell out lots of words.  That way when she sees the word written she'll start recognizing words.   Find a bath book with letters or numbers.  Sing songs.  Find clips on Youtube.  There's hundreds of clips from 15 to 60 seconds or so.  Bring learning into everyday activities, and try not to put learning into a separate time or category.  Another thing I did was read onto a cassette tape (record onto a laptop these days), and then play the tape while I was making supper or otherwise busy.
Never say, "Do you want to.....?"   Always say, "It's time to ......" and then make a sing-song game of it.
Well, that's what I did years ago with my little boy and it worked. (Except that youtube hadn't been invented back then!) -- Granny Skippy 

Hello, I am in Halifax, Canada, email [email protected].  You can email me for more information.  Skippy

Hello, I have 2 music degrees and have been a piano and violin teacher for over 40 years and I've had 5 weeks of Suzuki training in Piano and Violin, so I am familiar with the Suzuki Method.  Suzuki piano is ok if other books, pieces and note reading material  is including in the teaching.  The idea of having children listen to recordings of the pieces can be very helpful.  Students who listen to the recordings usually play more fluently and have better rhythm. 
 I live in Canada where many, many pieces have been categorized into LEVELS,
by the Royal Conservatory of Music.   There is the Introductory (Grade Primary) then Levels or Grades 1-10, and then an advanced grade.  In my view the Suzuki Piano method is not nearly as good as the Suzuki Violin method for several reasons.  The Violin Method series has 10 books.  The Suzuki Piano Method has only 6 books, and books 4-6 become very, very difficult.  In my opinion, if Suzuki Piano had more pieces, and TEN books it would be a BIG improvement.  Books 1-5 should have been easier and the level of difficulty becoming gradually instead of suddenly harder.  Suzuki does not include any pieces which they would have to pay copyright on.  So there are NO modern pieces, NO pieces by Suzuki Teachers or students, and the keys which the students play in are very limited.
The Suzuki Piano Book ONE is equivalent to  Conservatory Grade Introductory.  In Suzuki Book TWO, the Levels jump around between Conservatory Grades One to Four.  For example, the first piece is Level 2, the third piece is LEVEL 4, the next piece is conservatory Level 1.  So I have found the method challenging to teach.  But I have taught my students many pieces from the Suzuki method. 
I like to have my students go on Youtube and find examples of the pieces they are
learning.  Some of the performers are better than others.  I have found Youtube to be very interesting.  I hope that this is somewhat helpful and if you have any more questions or comments you can send them.  Thanks.  Skippy Mardon, M.Mus.

Going beyond flashing and flashcards..  Youtube has hundreds of clips for early learning. Type in the word PHONICS in youtube, and come up with over 100 clips.   I've found over a thousand for my grandson, now 2 1/2.  He has done Your Baby can read and Math with Doman Dots.  He watches 40-60 clips a week from Youtube. He also reveiws the clips a number of times.   All of  clips are found in advance and downloaded.  Do a search in the Youtube search box for phonics, counting, alphabet, etc.  Also Montesorri House has cute e-books.  Topics I have found are sight words, phonics, alphabet, How to print letters,  science, planets, nature, math, counting, adding subtracting, multiplying, colors, shapes, animals, Suzuki violin, piano, children's songs.  The clips are generally from 11 seconds to 3 minutes in length.  Want to learn a foreign language?? -- check out the Chinese, Japanese, Italian, German, etc.  The clips are so short that you can easily start or stop anywhere, depending on the child's interest.   Using Youtube can make any program that you are doing more interesting and fun!

Setting the child in a high chair with toys, cheerios, etc. is fine, while they watch.  Don't quiz them very much on what they are seeing and learning.  Just keep showing them things.


If the child is doing signs, try teaching flashcards of signs they already know.

For intruducing subtraction, find some little things that he likes to eat.  For example,
chocolate chips, cheerios, etc.   Put down 2, and ask him to eat one.  Tell him there is only 1 left.
Put down 3 and ask him to eat one or 2 and tell him how many are left.
Work only with the numbers 2 or 3 for several days.  Always tell him the answer at first.
Play the game at meals and snack time.
The child is getting undressed.  He is wearing 2 socks.
He takes one off.  Now he is wearing only one sock.
After a couple of days, ask him if he wants to tell you the answer.
Don't act too demanding.  Say something like,
I wonder if you can tell me how many socks you are still wearing.
How many cookies are left, etc.
You can also put things in a box, like stuffed animals, balls.
After a while, move up to 4, then 5 or more. (this won't work with socks!)
By this time he's really catching on.   Change the socks and cheerios to big dots.
Use big dots on cards.
After a week or more, start using numerals.  2-1=1.
There is no hurry. --Make it a fun game. -- Granny  Skippy

Get a mirror 4-5 inches wide that can be held close to the face. 
Practice saying different words such as
Wing and RRRRRING.    See how they look different  in the mirror.
also WONG and rRRRRONG. 

See if this helps.

Granny Skippy

There are 3 types of Abacus.  The AL Abacus has 100 beads, 10 in each row, and is used mostly for basic counting and adding.  I think that it may also be called a "Dvorak" abacus.  In my view it's not a real abacus, but a set of counting beads.  There are 2 types of Asian abacus.  The Beads on the Abacus are divided into the "high" group, called the "Heaven" beads, and the "low" group, called the "Earth" beads.  The difference is that the Chinese abacus has 2 Heaven Beads in each column and the Japanese SOROBAN Abacus has only ONE Heaven bead.  The Soroban is the type which is being advocated for math education.  There are several clips on Youtube which are very useful:  There are 5 clips up so far with the heading "Soroban Abacus Set 1", and "Soroban Abacus Set 2" 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/tVw3bdYvWbY&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/tVw3bdYvWbY&rel=1</a> 

There are 4 Tutorials on Youtube called "Soroban Tutorial 1" etc through 4
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/2-W7NygmpPk&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/2-W7NygmpPk&rel=1</a>
They are a bit slow but after the parent has watched the video,
they could explain it to their own child.

Then there's
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/wD5ALPHQuC0&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/wD5ALPHQuC0&rel=1</a>
Abacus Intro for Kids
This is a neat explanation for kids

For an online Abacus that you can use with a computer mouse go to
http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/java/AbacusAppJS.html
There's a choice of types of abacus so
Click on either
Soroban Japanese    OR
Roman Hand Held        So far I haven't figured out the difference

I'm sure if you watch all these videos, it will help to understand the abacus.

I hope that this will be helpful. 
Skippy Mardon

Hello, This company in Virginia, USA (Angelico Violins) has violins in 1/32 and 1/64 size.  The smallest size didn't come with "fine tuners" and it's my understanding that the company is looking to buy some, maybe from Japan.  www.AngelicoViolins.com 

I also bought the book -- They're rarely too young and never too old to Twinkle.
from Johnson String company in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.  Other companies carry this book but they were offering a good price that day when I was looking.

Also I encourage you to go on Youtube, search for " Pre-twinkle" or "Twinkle Suzuki Violin" -- Find the ones you like best and then watch them with your child.  There may also be a Suzuki violin school in your area. 

Thanks.  Skippy Mardon

My grandson is 17 months in a trilingual home.  In English he says "Kah" and points to the cat, cup, car, clock,. Does this count as actually saying 4 words. ??  How does one count how many words the baby knows?  How clearly does baby need to say the word for it to count as "knowing how to say that word"?  What are the levels of speech??  For example, What if only the mother knows what babys says, OR
What if Baby can speak plain enough so that anyone can tell or at least make an intelligent guess. 

Hello, What is PIM?  I see that it's advertised.   I'm from Canada, and up here a PM is a Prime Minister, but what is PIM?  I am a piano and violin teacher.  Thanks. Skippy