What don't I like about the book?  I guess I expected (at least in the activity book) more like what you just showed (though, of course, he isn't that advanced yet).  That was the type of sheet he did at the Aloha school.  Dry as it was, he really enjoyed doing 20 or so problems real quick. 

I think I also thought it had too many activities that weren't "to the point", you know actual problems.  But as silly as some of them seem to be, and as much as I thought I'd skip some of them--he's actually doing and enjoying them. So, perhaps I had an unfair bias.  ...and he is still having issues with 7 and 8 (and doesn't want to just guess, but we're trying, and I keep trying to reassure him its okay if its wrong..but he'll count stil on the sly). I probably will make up some supplementary drills though.

The other think I didn't love isn't really terrible or anything, and we're still doing it: learning the spellings of the number words. It's good review for him, but I was looking more for a soroban/anzan only kind of thing. I consider number words to be a language lesson, not arithmetic. 

I'm probably being too harsh on it. I actually like it more and more as I see it in action. I do like the little visual prompts to practice visualizing numbers on the abacus. I don't know enough to know what's good or bad there, but he really enjoys those parts and it seems to help his understanding. (he's prompted to close his eyes and visualize "6" and then draw the beads on the blank beam).

He *is* still stuck on 7 and 8 though and I'm not quite sure how to proceed. If we should stop and wait for this, keep going but still work on it, or do some cross-training of some sort.

He also loves moving the beads so much and doing actual pr

You can try the free trial to see if it would work for you.

Also try readingbear.com and Starfall.com (both free).

We've used Educreations (it's one of H's favorite apps; he is making apps for the BBC, he says). Again, the trouble is that it's impractical to do that unless you do it once or twice a day at most. Doing it for everything you read, if you read 3-4 or more non-fiction selections, is just too much trouble, over the long haul.

I was thinking of doing it very simply.  The only addition would usually be just having the pictures there to flip through while I'm recording the voice anyway (so, maybe 1 extra minute to import the puctures if I save them to the gallery as we look them up, which would only take an extra 5 seconds max).  IF I did any writing, it'd take place *while* I was talking-so no extra time. Who knows, I haven't tried yet. I'll fool around with different ideas to see what we like. I'm just assuming it wouldn't take much extra time (but I'm often wrong in my assumptions .

And yes, I do read less than you, I think. My son attends school 5 hours everyday.  We read for over an hour most everyday (cummulatively), sometimes over 2, but almost never over 3.  And we usually have only 2 or 3 books going on at a time max, and I get the idea you have more going on at one time.

Also, I'm assuming you do the summaries after each reading from each book, correct? Or would you, say if you read from the same book multiple times in one day, do a summary only after the last reading of that book? Or, might you even stop and make a summary while reading the book because a particular section had concluded?  For instance, we're reading Usborne's "What's Chemistry all About?" right now (I find we go much slower with this book because it's a lot of information...also I think his retention is very low, despite really enjoying it, so I'm particularly interested in trying this idea out with this book).  There are quite a few breaks in the information. We just read about the different types of bonding, but that topic only lasted for a few pages.

I suppose that may be a silly question, and I'd need to just jump in and find our groove.  But, I am curious if there are different approaches to the way you summarize different types of books (non-fiction versus fiction, books with lots of different topics versus ones that explore a concept longer, etc.)

This is very interesting and I want to experiment with it.  Thank you for sharing!

I was also trying to add some visual elements into this, but that's primarily because *I'm* not a particularly strong auditory learner (though, of course this could help strengthen it!).  My oldest (5) is able to assimilate information acquired only aurally though so perhaps I should not dismiss it.

I've also just heard about Tony Buzan/Mind Mapping so it's interesting to hear that brought up as well.  I don't know very much about it (have not read any of his books), but I'd think it'd be more beneficial for the child who could read really well (neither of mine can read at the levels I read to them)...so if I'm reading the mind maps to them anyway...it wouldn't seem much different than just an audio only recording.  But, again, I know very little about Mind Mapping.

I do think this idea is really interesting and I want to play around with it.  I would think the skill of summarizing afterwards and/or just reviewing the most important facts would be a highly useful skill to refine. If one was in the habit of distilling and consciously assimilating all (or realistically, just more) of the information one hears, then of course that person would be much more informed! (it seems like you have a strength with this skill DadDude)

So, I'm viewing the first summary/distillation as potentially VERY useful.  But, yes, where's the tipping point? Where in this sequence (1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year) does the level of benefit drop below the benefit of doing some other activity in its place? This is interesting.

I want to play around this idea both with only voice recordings and some with pictures as well. I'm thinking of using a (free) iPad app, educreations to make recordings with pictures and/or written words or drawings. We frequently look up pictures when we are reading on my iPad anyway, of I just saved each one--when we finish, I could pull them into that app to be viewed as we make a recording. (it's for making khan academy like presentations, but you can also import pictures).

I'm excited to try this out, and thanks for telling us about the idea and the interesting discussion.

One thing I do with my 2 year old that might help- (sounding out isn't her favorite either, once she learned enough sight words, she knows there's an easier way so she needs more convincing than my older child who learned primarily with phonics)

I put the words we're working on (phonetically) in extra brillkids flap cards.  I flip through a few of them quickly (doman style), and then I put 3-4 out for her and ask her to find one of them. Then we sound out only the last one. After she's good at that, I'll just ask her what each is. (and I do a lot of sounding out aloud similar to what tanikit mentioned).

If she gets stuck, I pull out some letters from a letter puzzle.  All the words are grouped so each group either ends the same way or starts the same way. So I pull out the letters that make the difference. I might, "sun, what does sun start with?" and she'll say "sss" and grab the s.  Then she loves to "match" the letters to the cards.  This really pulls attention to the differences in the words.  Using the letters like this has really made it more interesting for her, I think (which means she'll do it more and longer!).

I like "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" for it's systematic phonics.  Even if it's just used for the word lists/general order.

The phonemes you mentioned above are actually all digraphs, not blends. I have (mostly) done blends first, but I don't see why it'd be a problem to do digraphs first or even at the same time. Depends on the kid, probably.

The book I mentioned above does blends ("bl"), digraphs/trigraphs ("ch" "tch") and digraph blends ("thr), and then long vowel combinations (silent e, "ea").  I'm saying this by memory (and leaving lots out) so you may want to look at it in more depth.

There is likely other books (and maybe even websites) with a thorough systematic phonics progression.  I actually thought the fleschcards were pretty systematic (I didn't get very far...maybe you've reached the end? I remember him mentioning he didn't finish).

Another thing to think about is the books your child may read.  I've run into some problems finding good readers because of the order I've taught. For instance, I'm going through all the consonant rules (blends, digraphs, etc.) before vowel combinations and the readers I've found don't tend to follow this progression. So, if your using books, you could also let that guide you.

Sounds like you guys are already doing great! Have fun!


Some really useful tools for us are the preschool prep phonics DVDs.  I'm not currently using them to teach, really.  I just play them and then when we get to something new in our phonics progression, sometimes the kids will already know that blend/digraph/rule well so it becomes much easier to use right away.

Oh, please share what you guys are doing too!!  It doesn't have to be about that particular book (which I'm not in love with anyway).  I'd love to see what's ahead!

We played "war" with some cards I made from a soroban font download. (we're still in unit 2)



(I only made numbers up to 10 right now).

I think we have at least one more day before I'm confident he's got 7 and 8. 

I have a question, he counts when the number is 7 or 8 (as in 5, 6, 7).  Do you think this is interfering with his ability to recognize it at a glance.  Is that just something that comes with time or are there other specific things I can do to nurture this?

Just to add to what's already been mentioned:

All of the brillkids product partners
Sparkabilities/Play Wisely (it'd be awesome to have a Play Wisely demo)
Lango
Reading Amigo
Preschool Prep Company
A soroban expert (as mentioned above)
A soroban school
RightStart Math
Suzuki violin/piano
Soft Mozart
A Montessori materials company (Micheal Olaf?)
Brachiation kits (someone sells those online, that guy)

Anyone?

We are in "Unit 2", almost ready for "Unit 3". (I'm actually surprised we are going straight through the book, but so far so good). Just trying to make sure he has a solid foundation of all the numbers (he's still frequently mixing up 7 and 8 ). Oh! I did really skim over the posture and fingering pages. I think his personality would rebel against too much "hold your body this way, use these fingers this way".  Instead I'm taking the approach of doing it correctly myself and waiting for the right window to show what I've found to be best. Hopefully it won't backfire. But, hey, he doesn't *have* to know the Soroban so I think we'll be okay.

We've played my UNO game I mentioned, except I'm doing the adding unless its very easy. We just add to 100, even my 2 year old played (though, for her, she was mostly just turning over the cards and saying the numbers/hording the cards , but you never know what they're picking up!).  I think that game (and others) will be more fun as his knowledge expands.

Right now he giggles a lot with it, and we're having fun.

I run Little Reader on Mac. I use boot camp and Windows.

On the shortcut front, I fully expect it to be hard work.  The shortcut I guess I'd be looking for is making less mistakes in finding the right angle, approach, tools, etc...instead of finding out when it's too late. 

I've used 3 different phonics curriculums with my 5 year old.  If I had started with the one that we ended up settling on at the beginning, we'd be done by now.  That's the kind of "shortcut" I'm looking for.  I'd rather put all the time and effort into something that was more thoughtfully fitted for us.

But if there is some kind of magic shortcut, let me know that'd be awesome. 

Oh... and Maquenzie, good points about the investigation. This is called depth of processing. If someone discovers or really has to process it, they tend to understand it better and remember it better than if it's just spoon fed. There's a whole movement in education around this, and in math also - but this cuts both ways, I don't think everything has to be discovered either... geesh, if we treated all knowledge this way, we sure wouldn't be advancing very rapidly

I actually wrote more about it, but erased it in an attempt to stay on topic (ish..).  But, that was why I qualified it with a (but does not expect) innovation.  I think there can be a happy medium.  It would absolutely take forever if all knowledge had to be completely self-constructed. In my childhood, though, I "invented" a "new" way to subtract (actually quite similar to soroban which is one reason I love it so...I used number bonds of ten and worked from left to right without needing to make marks showing "borrowing"). I couldn't for the life of me pay attention in class lectures so I always made up my own ways to solve the problems (and it was fun!).  Well, I got in loads of trouble for not showing my work and on multiple occasions, accused of cheating. So, perhaps I have personal reasons for saying innovation should be encouraged and investigated. 

HOWEVER, not everyone is that into it, and I don't think every child should have to invent it for themselves....just that when it does occur, it should be protected, investigated, nourished. I think alternate algorithms are fun, but most people do not.  I also don't think they should be a part of the average math education.

Man, that's too close for me not to go.  Cool.

Does arithmetic *have* to be creative?

I'm not saying it can't be, and I wholeheartedly believe any novel idea coming from a student should be protected and investigated (hey, some of them won't work).  But the investigation of that novel idea would be a creative endeavor that will likely deepen understanding.

For me, an ideal math program would teach the basics in a way that creates deep understanding and quick arithmetic skills (to free the student up to do the more creative work of upper level maths). And at the same time, allows (but does not expect) for innovation.

For me, I don't plan for the soroban to be the only tool we use for arithmetic. It seems to me to be a useful construct for at least rapid multi-digit mental addition and subtraction, superior to anything else I'm aware of. However, I also want my children to be exposed to other ways to represent quantity.  I think the soroban is useful for understanding place value, but that quantity is much more abstract.  And to show quantity, I like to have more available.  Also with multiplication, division, etc., I think there are other manipulatives that are perhaps easier for someone to understand and "see" the concepts than the soroban.  But it doesn't make the soroban bad at calculation.

Anyway, I really am only getting my feet wet with all of this, so take it with a grain of salt.

I know Ayesha Nicole is using this book with her girls, anyone else?

Ayesha Nicole - I think I read somewhere that your girls are in their 2nd year of Montessori (the year before kindergarten year, correct?).  My son is also in that "grade" at a Montessori school, so I'm also very curious about what you guys do and how it relates for them in school.


This is the book for anyone else interested -

http://www.nurtureminds.com/Year-1-textbook.htm


We got ours this weekend.  I'll have to say that the book is not really our "style" and my son would definitely not enjoy writing as small as he would need to for the activity book. And the abacus is probably super cheap and not awesome.  Buuut, it's what we've got, so we'll try out what we can and see how we use it and what we like.

I tend to do math with my oldest (just turned 5) at night inbetween my 2 year-old's bedtime and his.  We often do handwriting, spelling, and math.  I think we will turn all gears toward math right now and drop spelling for awhile and focus handwriting on numbers, and math on the soroban!  I've looked over the book and decided to pick and choose some things from it as we go.

I also have lots of games brewing in my mind to play thoughout the day, once we get started. . Does anyone play soroban games of any sort? Want to share?  One I had in mind was using some cards that go to higher numbers (or just picking one) and then using other cards (deck of cards, UNO cards, number flash cards?) and each person picks a card and adds it to a central soroban.  The person who gets to the number first (or passes it) wins.  Or, to become more difficult make one color (or two colors, in the case of UNO) addition and the other(s) subtraction.  Anyway, I'll probably use these games in addition to other lessons, but I think they'll add a lot. Maybe. . Anyone do this sort of thing?

How's this book going for anyone else using it? We start tonight!