thanks for such a prompt reply. i'll have to check them out once more funds are available. do you watch the program in english or in other languages as well? there are some little pim videos available from our library, and this is great! i haven't really used them much but still it's a nice change of pace.
liza

what's wink to learn? i have never heard of it. there are so many products out there that if one took the time to learn about them all, it would leave a lot less time to preparation of actual teaching, and even less to all the daily minutia of life.

i also think that if your daughter is reading fluently, and from your video one can appreciate her level of reading, she should be ready for some gentle spelling learning. if beads are her favorite toy, then go for it. plus you will be developing her manual skills. whatever works. keep posting on your progress.
liza

thanks for posting your article. it was very informative and will be of great help in persuading my doubting in-laws. still, i find it hard to believe when the results are far off and we are not to test. if only my daughter could read off the words that i flash for her, that would make all the difference in the world and give a boost to my mood about teaching.

and what about little math, i know there is a lot of discussion about it, can we wait until after two years or will that forever ruin our chances of raising a genius? 
thanks for your expertise.
liza

i am glad that i am not the only mother having to deal with inquisitive fingers. it is very difficult to get my daughter to stop touching and turning things off. the ipad we cannot use at all. the computer works as long as we sit far away from it. even so, she will struggle to reach the keyboard and end up missing half of the lesson. and i thought girls were supposed to be attentive and calm.
liza

unfortunately, i don't actually have any suggestions but i would like to thank you for starting this post. for some time now i have been wondering what to get for my daughter so we can blow off steam now that it is too cold to go out and run around.
thanks,
liza

i don't know if this is any help but i have found it hard to know that your child has a reading vocabulary and is ready to move on to couplets when you are not supposed to test them and when you do they, supposedly, know and won't answer correctly.  which just leaves you flashing in the dark so to speak. any ideas from the more experienced parents on how to gauge knowledge?

i have tried using the ipad with my daughter and i can tell you that it's a daily battle. i mean that literally, i have to pry it from her fingers. there is always drama. if i let her see the flashcards holding the ipad, she immediately turns it off by touching the off button. so, this is something the people who haven't gotten an ipad and are thinking about it should consider. is your child easily convinced or is he or she hands on. it has gotten so bad that i have returned to manually made flashcards which were a lot easier to control.

thanks for sharing your video. how long would you say it took you to first notice that your son was capable of reading some words? i have been showing flashcards to my daughter for about a month now and have so far noticed that she can read 3 words. that's it. it doesn't seem worth the effort sometimes. how often did you show the flashcards?
thanks,
liza

maybe you could at least hint at the amount of the discount. say, if i were to get the packaged deal of little reader and little math, would the discount represented there be greater than getting the little reader and waiting for the discount to get the little math? i know this sounds a bit confusing, but really, you guys have been kind of vague about the whole thing.
liza

i too think it's amazing how people find the time to keep up with a blog. i guess that it's the same as having a diary, still it just seems too time consuming. in any case, aussie mom, you are right, it is very interesting to read other people's blogs. it can be very helpful to get some ideas from other people too. so thanks, and keep up the good work.
liza

my daughter likes anything on the ipad, i think she just likes the ipad itself. i don't know why they couldn't have included an option to lock the screen, that way i could just have her watch the flashcards (baby apps) and then allow  her to play with it, or not. the way it is now, i'd rather not use it for teaching since there's always drama after.

Wow, Arminta. It sounds just like the thing for us. I'll be checking this Alpha baby thing right away. Thanks so much for your suggestion. Hope it works since it was getting to the point that I felt I was traumatizing my child with the learning - not the desired effect at all.
Thanks,
Liza

thanks luckymummy,
i have tried to explain to my daughter that as soon as the flashcards are over, we can see something else, but she doesn't seem to want to understand that and cries every time i put them on. as soon as she has the ipad in her hands, she is happy. but when it's time to take it away - major drama. today, i went back to the pc where it is easier to control things. maybe when she is older i will try the ipad once more, hopefully then it won't cause me such a headache.
liza