Thanks for pointing that out. I think we need to revise that part and word it more clearly!

Basically, there are no hard and fast rules to this.  The key is to take your cue from your child, and to try to keep it fun and engaging.  Glenn Doman, for example, recommends that you should stop just before they lose interest, though in practice I personally find it difficult to do.

You can start with having these 'lessons' 2-3 times a day, each time being a short session which probably would not last much more than 5 minutes each time.

If you are not feeling in the mood, or you sense your child is not in the mood, then better to NOT have that 'lesson.'  Remember, there are no hard and fast rules to this, except that you should keep it fun!

(BTW, I put 'lesson' in inverted commas because to the child it's not a 'lesson,' it's a fun activity, especially when the child is not very mobile and doesn't have much else to do.)

KL

I felt the same way too when I first came across RSS.

Basically, this is what's called "PULL" technology, where you decide what content you want on your page.  So for example, if you use My Yahoo, you could put a little column on your home page and 'pull' this forum's content there, so you see that plus any other stuff you want from the web, all on your home page.  It's like being able to customize your daily newspaper.

So instead of visiting the forum, like you say, you would make the forum come to you.

We are actually working on an RSS-based product (not related to brillbaby/brillkids), but that's all I can tell you for now otherwise I'd have to kill you... 

KL

Excellent question, Noha.

I guess it does indeed seem like the focus is on reading and math.

Well, to a CERTAIN extent, I think it IS true that there is more focus on reading and math than other subjects, and that's for good reason.  The reason, I believe, is that reading (especially) and math are the fundamental building blocks for so many other things in life.  Reading is a TOOL for further learning.  It's like learning how to learn.  That's why there is such a big focus by governments on literacy.  And reading is also the basis for writing, and now we're getting into COMMUNICATION skills, at least one form of it.  And we all know the importance of communication!

As for Math, I think the same concept applies, but to a lesser extent. Math is the foundation for most sciences, so you could say that it's the basis for science.  I'm not sure on this, but I also believe that neurologists would also tell you that improving your math abilities also improves your brain in very fundamental ways too.  Perhaps someone knowledgeable about this can comment further.

Having said all that, of course reading and math are not the only important things children need to learn.  For example, I personally believe music and art are also highly important, not just because it allows the expression of artistic creativity but also because of certain effects it has on brain development.  Likewise, learning physical stuff is also very important, not just from a physical point of view (obviously), but also from a MENTAL point of view because of how it also affects brain development (which is why crawling, according to Glenn Doman, is so important and affects other abilities such as language).  And last but not least, and some would say most importantly, there's the "EQ" (as opposed to IQ) development.

One other reason those things aren't emphasized as much, I think, is because some are harder to teach, at least in books and certainly for companies like us doing software products.  We will have a 'Little Musician' coming up, but we're still having difficulty coming up with a compelling and attractive concept for 'Little Artist' using today's technology, and 'Little Athlete' as a software product is, um... I think you get my point.  Hmm... maybe one day we'll do it on the Wii ! (excuse me while I call up our patent lawyer...)

KL

Approved with thanks!

I'm glad to announce that we recently added a massive article on what I believe to be the biggest debate about early learning there is - Is it too early to be teaching our kids?

Here are the things you will often hear:


"Poor kid! Why are you forcing them at such an early age??"

"Just let babies be babies!"

"Teaching them so early is not natural, and you will harm them by trying to do so!"


Maddy, our BrillBaby Editor, has now written up a piece on this very subject.  We wanted to make sure that we cover both sides of the argument, so we've tried to set out all the opposing views so that those views are fairly represented.  Here is the article:

http://www.brillbaby.com/intelligence/against/index.php

Of course, because we here are all firm believers of early education, there is inevitably going to be some element of bias.  However, we would love to open up the debate and if anyone feels we have not covered anything, or certain views have not been fairly represented, then please let us know and we will have them added into the article.

I believe that ultimately, the one thing we all have in common is that we all want the best for our children, so let's all bear that in mind!

What are your views on this subject?  Have you also been hearing that from people you know?

KL

 

Hey, by the rate you're going, you'll be past my post count in no time! you're already beating on karma points (and now by even more cos I just gave you another one!  ).

Welcome, Theresa!  We're very glad to have you here!  We look forward to your sharing your extensive experience with us!

KL

For us, we purchased big batches of royalty-free images through various places, including ebay.  Some are cheap, some are more expensive.  One of our partners also supply us with many images. 

You can just do a quick search for "royalty free stock images" and you'll get many entries, though many will cost you.  (Royalty-free does not mean "free," it just means you don't have to pay license fees for it, only a one-off price.)

Probably the best site for absolutely free images is Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Actually, I think I should make a thread about this on the Little Reader board too.

KL

Hey, I'm an Infant too!!! Didn't even realize!! YAY!! 

Thank you, Nikki!

For those who haven't downloaded Nikki's Categories already, waste no time in doing so - they are brilliant!

KL

Thanks for the info and for the advice.  It's exciting that the new build is coming out that soon...I didn't realize that the turn-around would be that quick. 

We don't sleep over here!  :tongue2:

I do have a suggestion for a future update - As we are getting more and more categories available for download, it might be nice to have a folder system within the library.  If a person could add folders, he or she could better organize all of the categories (i.e., putting all of the alphabet category sets in a folder, animal sets, and so on).  I envision this being different from the playlists of course - just a way to navigate through all of the categories (as they seem to be increasing on an hourly basis).   Would this be possible?

Not only is this possible, it's been on our 'new features' list for a very long time now.  Unfortunately, because it requires quite a lot of programming and bug-testing, it won't be in 1.03.  Hoping to get it ready for 1.04!

If not, mayhaps there would be a way for the system to automatically re-alphabetize the sets in the category column whenever a new category is downloaded.  I wouldn't want for the ability to manually move a category up or down to be taken away, just thought it might be a nice time-saving feature to consider.  Thanks for listening to my thoughts!

Guess what - Ability to sort according to different fields is also in the 'new features' list!  However, this won't make it for 1.03 either.  Hope to have it before final release.

KL

That was brilliant, Nikki!

And I just checked out your upload of Flags, Drboothchiro, it was wonderful too!

You guys are doing an amazing job!! 

KL

Well, my almost 10 month old was very excited about seeing the animals on our computer screen this a.m., but he was so distracted by wanting to touch the keyboard.  I have been reading more on the website about how I can convert the files to a slideshow that he could view on the T.V. and think that will work quite well (as soon as I can figure out how to do it!).  My other question is... would there be a way for the child to advance to the next screen by touching anything on the keyboard (without navigating away from the Little Reader program? I know nothing about computer programming - so I may be asking a very naive question - if so, I apologize!)

Well, a new feature in the upcoming build (targeted for some time next week) is the (optional) deactivation of the keyboard and mouse (except for the ESC key to stop) when you put it onto Auto-forward mode, so no matter how hard your little one bangs on the keyboard, it will still carry on playing, uninterrupted.  Not sure if it's a good idea to let the child control the pace of the playback by banging on the keyboard, cos I think your lessons would end very quickly each time!

I have another question regarding the program overall... that is, how does one make decisions about whether the child is gaining awareness/knowledge of the words being presented?  Is there a certain number of times you are to present the word lists?  Do you have specific tasks that parents are supposed to do after the presentations?  This info may already be on the website, and I just haven't come across it yet...just curious. 

There really is no hard and fast rule for the frequency in showing your child.  My advice is always the same - take your cue from your child.  Typically, I myself did it twice a day, for most days.  Sometimes we would get through many categories (cos my daughter would complain when I stopped), and others I would do less as soon as I felt her attention was not there.

Glenn Doman recommends that you try to stop it BEFORE your child's attention span ends, so that he will yearn for the next session more.  We tried to do it sometimes, but more often than not we went to the point of her showing not as much enthusiasm, and we would stop immediately.  But many times, though, our daughter would devour through about 4-5 sets of words (and each set was about 10-15 words) when we would then put a stop even though she still wanted more.

I would typically repeat some categories each day, but slowly phase out one in place of another new one.  But we always had a 'favorite' that we would show our daughter more often than others, and they included "Daddy" and "Mommy."

KL

Hi Sha, welcome! Hope you have lots of fun here and therefore your daughter too!

Hi Deneen,

A very warm welcome to you! Hope you enjoy your stay here!   

KL