Wow TeachingMyToddlers, that's a fantastic idea. I am going to try to make her a giant floor staff out of poster board. My kids are rough with things so I'm just trying to figure out how to laminate something so big. I am going to have to buy Suzie's Piano Dvd, it sounds like something the kids would enjoy.

When we were using the beta version of LMs and they announced they were going to use rainbow colors, I made ping pong balls to match the colors. They were a BIG hit. My two little ones (almost 3 year old and just turned 4 year old) loved them so much. We use every time we do LMs. So I think they will love it too.

Now I am so excited because I have a new project to work on! 

This is my 2 year old Lola singing solfege with Little Musician. She loves the program so much, she asks me for it every morning. We go through the full lesson and then she loves to sing the nursery rhymes. She asks for the nursery rhymes again and again until I finally say ok we are all done, then she cries... 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ImVO4jJq-X4&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ImVO4jJq-X4&rel=1</a>

Thank you so much.

When you print it, make sure that before you click [ok] on the print menu, under print scaling [none] is selected. Otherwise, most printers will automatically scale the page down to 95% or 96%.

My husband does play the violin he said he thinks its correct, but he is color blind and never learned solfege, so I felt like I needed others opinions before I go ahead with using this method on my daughter.

Can anyone who plays the violin help me out? My daughter can sing many of the nursery rhymes in solfege.  She has the bow hand and stance ok and she knows the letter names and solfege names of the strings. But she is frustrated because she wants to be able to play the songs on the violin. Since she can remember the songs in solfege but not in letter names(she can't sight read unless I color code the notes) I am trying to make this finger guide so she can remember where to place her fingers for the correct note. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if this actually works, is there going to be a Little Musician Library so I can put it on the forum for other parents to print out?

I am designing a finger guide for the violin for my daughter who just turned four and is just starting formal lessons. She has been using Little Musician with great success since the Beta version came out. I am trying to use the colors and solfege that little musician program is using so that she does not get confused. I am going to cut out the finger guide, laminate it, and use tape to keep it on the violin. I am attaching two files the first shows how the notes correspond to the staff and the second shows several different versions of the finger guide scaled down to a 1/16 size violin. The last version has tabs to tape behind the neck of the violin. I haven't chosen which version I will actually use because I still think it needs a little work. I have already cut it out and fit one on her violin, it fits perfect but I have no training in music so I am not sure if it is correct, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My daughter started when she was 31/2 and uses a 1/16 sized violin. She just turned 4 and is small for her age 35" and 30lbs. It worked out fine. Her dad is teaching her how to play and she is almost ready to move up to a 1/8. We had her try a 1/8 sized violin recently, but her dad thought it would be better for her to stay with this size for a little longer.

Hmmm... You described my daughter exactly. I actually had to take her to see the doctor because her sensitivity was interfering with normal daily activities. She ended up being diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder. I really didn't understand what that meant at first. I had to do a lot of research. It basically means she is much more sensitive to sound, sight, touch, and even other senses we don't generally think of like temperature and movement.

 I am really glad she got the diagnosis early because she qualified for occupational therapy and it really helped her. She is still sensitive but not as sensitive as she was. And I her therapist and I came up with a sensory diet(it has nothing to do with food, not sure why they call it a diet) that allows me to get her to the level of sensitivity that is appropriate for whatever activity we are doing.  An example would be, if my daughter is scared because they are doing construction by my house(loud noise can be extremely overwhelming to her), I can layer extra clothes on her and let her listen to soft music with my ipod with headphones on. Or I can rub this special brush they gave me up and down her arms and legs. Sometimes she will come up to me when she is feeling particularly sensitive and will ask me to do one of our calming activities.

It's not something she will ever grow out of, she will always be more sensitive than most people. But, at least now I am able to help her cope with it and she is able to live a more normal life even with her sensitivities.

I'm trying to connect from my home wifi. I have not been able to log on from safari into the forum. However, I have no problem logging onto my Little Reader Touch or iaccess. I have no idea why that is, but hopefully someone can help us resolve this issue.

Hmmm... That is a really tough decision. As long as you are confident they will accommodate her learning needs, and are willing to spend the money, then I say go for it. If it doesn't work out you always have the option of pulling her out and homeschooling. If, however, you are not sure  about their ability to sustain her attention and work at her level, then I would advise you to save your money. You could buy a ton of great homeschooling materials for a fraction of the cost of private school and your DD won't have to go through the stress of not being academically challenged.

I made the mistake of putting my oldest DD age 9, in a school that made her stick with their curriculum and would not work at her level (she was doing 2nd grade work by then). It seriously traumatized her and at the end of Kindergarten she hated reading and anything to do with learning. I had to pull her out. She is ok with learning now but it took a long time to get over it.

I have applied my 3 year old to 3 public Montessori schools(it is a lottery to get in) because they start off at preschool and go straight into kindergarten. Right now she is doing kindergarten work so I am worried about what level she will be at when she reaches kindergarten age. They say they can to work with advanced kids because of the multi-age classrooms. If she doesn't get into any of the Montessori schools I will definitely be homeschooling her, because I refuse to put my children in any of our neighborhood schools. We live in Chicago, they are horrific!   And private school is out of the question because it cost anywhere from $10,000+ per year here. I have 3 children so that would be way too much $$$.

Hi JamisJS,

I would suggest researching your zoned school first. Try to see what kind of accommodations (if any) they make for children who are above their grade level in any subject. You have plenty of time so do as much homework as you can. See if there are any other options besides your zoned school just in case they are unable to meet your child's needs.

The reason I say this is because my oldest is 9, I taught her to read before she turned 4. This was before LR. I used flash cards and various other methods. She was tested at the beginning of kindergarten and was reading at the second grade level. Unfortunately I live in Chicago and most of the CPS (Chicago Public Schools) schools are horrific. I can't afford the over $12,000 a year or more that most of the good private schools wanted. There are a few good CPS Magnet schools but the only way to get in is through lottery. I applied my daughter to 20 different schools and she did not win the lottery for any of them. So my only other option was to try a charter school(which is a public school just not controlled by CPS).

The problem we had was that the Charter School she was in was not willing to accommodate her. At the beginning of the year the teacher didn't even believe she could read.  The school year starts at the end of August for Charter Schools here, and by October the teacher expressed concerns that she was unable to read. She said she didn't know any of the sight words and would be in danger of failing Kindergarten if she didn't pass the reading test at the end of the year.

When I asked my daughter why she wasn't reading for her teacher she said it was too boring. So I scheduled a parent teacher conference. I brought my own materials and bribed my daughter with two brand new toys if she fully cooperated and read whatever I or the teacher asked her to.(I know it's not the best thing to do, but I really needed her teacher to see what she was capable of.)
Long story short, she read everything the teacher put in front of her. Including all of the sight words they had to learn for the whole year(most of which they hadn't covered yet) and second grade material from another class. The teacher was stunned.

 I offered to send some of the material we were working on at home(I was afterschooling at that point) so that when she finished her "easy" classwork(her words not mine),  she could work on something more at her level. The teacher said no she had to stick with their curriculum. The teacher just wanted her to read the books that were at kindergarten level when she finished work early. Of course my daughter thought these books were boring as well. And refused to read them.

So then when she finished her work early she would goof around and get in trouble. She started to refuse to read the sight words for her teacher again. Her teacher finally told me to stop reading with her at home because it was making the teachers stuff seem boring. And if I stopped reading with her completely she would be more interested in the books and sight words at school. Yes that's right I could not even read stories To Her!   She said she would fail unless I complied because she would not pass the test at the end of the school year. I told her "But that doesn't make sense, you know she can read!" She said it didn't matter if the teacher knew she could read. What mattered was her passing the test. Well of course I got scared and foolishly stopped reading with my daughter. I did not want her to fail kindergarten for reading when I knew she could read at a second grade level.

At the end of the school year I started to teach her again and she actually fell behind. She struggled to read things that were extremely easy for her at the beginning of the school year. Worst of all was that she now Hated Reading or anything to do with learning. I immediately pulled her out of school and started homeschooling her. It took a year and a half just to get her to be okay with learning and tolerate reading.

She is now 9 and still doesn't love reading the way she used to. I feel really bad and if I could do it over again I would have probably waited until she was in first grade to try school or just kept her at home and homeschooled her.

Yes! I am so excited to hear that we will be able to split the audio and child profiles because I have 3 kids who use LR. I am working on phonics skills with my 3 year old and I would like to test it for you. I am a stay at home mom so I have lots of free time to make my own files.

OMG I went through this with my first daughter who is now 8, and am now going through this with my 3 year old. She started preschool a month ago and has picked up whining, crying, the mommy daddy thing, and melt downs. When my oldest started preschool and learned to whine I would just tell her that my ears could not hear whining. As soon as she started whining I would tell her "Uh oh, is that whining? My ears are starting to turn off because they can't hear whining."  And then I would flat out ignore anything that was said in a whining voice. Then I would say something like, "My ears will turn back on when they hear a nice normal voice." After a couple of times of this she finally gave up the whining. Every now and then she would try and test me with the whining to see if I would give in. But I just stuck with same story every time. As soon as she would start to whine I would say, "Uh do my ears hear whining?" And She would usually sigh and say no, then ask for what she wanted in a normal voice. Since my 3 year old just started with the whining I am trying the same method. Hopefully it will work like it did for her sister.

I bought four of the collections of Bob Books for my kids from Costco. They were $10  for each collection and like km276 I didn't think they were all that great looking. My kids really loved them though and it was one of the first books my then 2 year old(she just turned 3) could read. The Bob Books words and pictures may be simple but it made a huge impact on my daughter because was so proud of the fact that she could read it all on her own. It made a Big difference for her. After that she wanted to read all the time. My kids really enjoy reading all of the Bob books now and they're short, easy, and fun, so I would recommend them to anyone.  This is a video of my daughter reading the first Bob Book Mat.

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I agree with TeachingMyToddlers the monthly plan is amazing. I would not be able to afford LR without it. They also have a free ebook download that explains the program and early learning. Little Reader tries to use a little bit of everything. In each lesson they use right brain methods, multi-sensory methods, phonics and more. The best thing about this program is it's versatility and amazing tech support. Many people on this forum make their own lessons and share them with everyone here. Meaning you can teach your baby not only reading but science, math, art, a foreign language or just about anything.

Also if you ever have a problem with the software or need help in anything related to early learning. The tech support is the best I have ever encountered. They will get back to you in a timely manner and they really will work with you till your problem is solved(which is pretty quick). The people on the forum are great too. Everyone here is very supportive and you will get plenty of good advice.

The best way to tell if it is worth purchasing though is to download the free trial and see if you like it.

Thank you so much. I thought I was doing something wrong. I am glad to hear you guys are working on it.