I wasn't able to breastfeed my son and we seriously thought about making our own from the link you described...we never did, but I think it's a great idea!!

I'm sorry I'm just now reading this, but I had preeclampsia that turned into eclampsia. I had to be rushed by ambulance to a hospital 1.5 hours away and I had an emergency C-Section. No coma, though, thank goodness.

I just said a prayer for your friend--let us know what happens!

I *love* Sid the Science Kid. I can often find shows that go with our unit study, which is *perfect*!!

I remember reading some crazy SciFi book along these lines...and I knew it would happen eventually.

You're not the only person I've heard this from. Our pastor was encouraging us to take political action against this...apparently, people really are worried about this. I need to look into it more, but if this is seiously being considered we've got major problems, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm baaaack!!

Here's my advice, having just been:
1) Talk to your kid about it months in advance. Timothy knew that we would have to stand in lines. He knew that he couldn't buy everything we saw. That helped. Our whole 10 day vacation, he got a dinosaur and a glow toy and that's it (no ice creams, no giant lollipops, no $11 balloons). That helped!!
2) Take the big stroller that reclines and has a basket underneath. Forget lousy umbrella strollers...I don't think we would have made it without our big, bulky stroller (loved it).
3) Get there right when the parks open. We rode like 7 rides in 40 minutes. At midday, it was so crowded that waits were up to 60 minutes per ride.
4) If you don't want to stay on site (too much $$), stay in a vacation home. We got ours for a great price and Timothy had plenty of home to run around and play. We had a private pool to swim. It was much better than a hotel room. We could cook....
5) You will *have* to find playgrounds. Standing in line all day, riding rides, and riding in a stroller will quickly wear on your child. Go to the playground for an hour (they have them at DisneyWorld--pooh's playground, Donald's boat). Let him/her run around and get tired out. (Then Timothy would nap in his stroller while we had a nice lunch or watched a show).

Hi Judymendes, can I have a copy of your excel as well?
And Taxaslady. can I have a copy of your schedule as well?
Can u two please please email me at [email protected]
or where can I find it in this forum??? Thanks in advance!

I am trying very hard to follow the doman programme and I have a hard time following the timing. Will be getting a timer this weekend, I am sure it will be very useful.
I would like to check with all of u, can I do all the programmes back to back? Means within one session I will do English / Chinese words-25 words each, EK-5 category, Maths -1set . Will it be confusing for my son? (7mths now) As I only want to do it 3sessions a day. I had tried to break it into small sessions and I have a very hard time keeping up.

You can certainly do things back to back. I did. I'd do words then math the Bits then vestibular as a reward. 

Now, for me, the hardest part was making the Bits. Every night my son would go to sleep at 8pm and my husband and I would work until 10pm to make cards. We'd get cardstock, glue sticks, a book with great images, and our laminator and try to make at least 50 a night. We had no choice! We were going through bits SOOOOO quickly using Doman's recommendations that if we didn't make bits every night, we'd run out in a matter of two days. To be honest, though, I have such fond memories of sitting around in the living room with my husband at night, watching Survivor on tv while we made bits and talked about our day....

And now we have a couple thousand good-quality bits that we can use again if God ever blesses us with another child.

My son was hurt by his 4 month vaccinations--he was listless and nonverbal for months and months afterwards. My previously happy babbling baby stared at the wall all day and appeared to be looking through me instead of at me. It took months of work to get my child back.

I personally don't love Baby Bumblebee. It might be good for children with special needs (speech issues, etc) but it's sooooo slow that the average child will be bored by it.

I would certainly say no!

Wish we could go!

Isn't the Orlando Disneyland the largest in the world?

It's absolutely massive!! I read that the average visitor there spends 4-5 days and walks a total of 32+ miles between those days. Aaahh!!

[We did it every day like our lives depended on it!!]

I actually was working (teaching) and working full-time on my PhD at the time (still finishing up the PhD, finished teaching for now).

Timothy had some problems (specifically with speech), and we were told that he might never talk. He couldn't locate sounds in a room, etc, when we had him evaluated Doman-style through a lady trained by Family Hope Center. So when we got a program for him that involved creeping a mile a day, olfactory ten times a day, sounds ten times a day, and all the cards. We did it every day like our lives depended on it!!

I had a checklist that we went by everyday, and I wouldn't even check my email until we were 3/4 finished. We paired things together (for example, we'd do eye stimulation, vestibular, word cards, bit cards, dots, and a set of crawling at a time). I set a timer for every 15-20 minutes, and he knew when the timer when off it was time for another set of everything. We crawled all over the house and set up different stations...we'd crawl to a set of word cards and then crawl to do olfactory. It was kinda fun. Swimming was in the afternoon as a reward.

It helps that my husband is home 3-4 days a week, and when he was home we'd team off--I'd do an hour and then he'd do an hour so we didn't get worn out.

How did my son benefit?? He tested out of speech therapy at the beginning of the year and they had to do an IQ-type test as part of their concluding process (it was through the government). I don't feel comfortable sharing the exact number, but let me tell you it was extremely high. Most importantly, though, my son can (and does) talk--all the time. About everything. He's learning his 3rd language. He sings us songs. And he really, really enjoys learning. I can't say that we've been on a walk and he's said "Look! A two-spotted ladybird beetle" or anything of that sort, but I know there's so much going on in his head.

It did really wear me down, though, and I love what we do now much better. If we have another child, though, I'm sure it will be full Doman again.

I did the FULL Doman program when my LO was 4 months - 18 months (approx). I mean everything. We did 10 sets of Bits a day, math sessions, words, swimming, physical, walking, brachiation....

Of course, once he got older and started expressing his interests, we've followed them. We still do Doman, but not in the same regimented way (and I like it better  )

Wow!! That's amazing--your story sounds just like mine.

My son had normal speech patterns until he stopped babbling (and was just listless) after his 4 month vaccinations. He continued to be a quiet child afterwards.

We did buy Baby Babble--it's cute, but it never made my son babble. It's poor quality and doesn't really teach anything (maybe 3 signs total). But it's worth a try, I suppose.

We also did 1 year of speech therapy through Early Childhood Intervention--it's FREE if you're in the US and your son is at least 3 months behind in some skill.

Now, he's 2.5 years and he can sing full songs, count to 20, tell us stories...so don't worry!! 

Things have worked out rather strangely, and we'll be driving on TWO trips to Disneyworld over the next 4 months--one in March and one in July. In March we'll be taking our foreign exchange student and 2 of his friends from China, in July we're going with family.

So--talk to me about taking a toddler to Orlando. Between our two trips, we'll be doing everything (all four Disney parks, Sea World, Aquatica, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure) so any advice you have for me will be appreciated.

He knows that we're going on vacation, and he knows we're going to drive "all day long." He also says that when he gets tired he'll take a nap in his stroller. But I don't think I can truly prepare him for the hysteria that is Orlando, FL (or the 16.5 hour 1-way drive there).

Any advice? I've been several times before, but never with a child.

It probably just takes some time, because I haven't received mine yet either 

I love Little Math!!!

Honestly--I'm ready for you to release the final version of it because I'd buy it in a heartbeat!!

The dots were fine with me so I never thought I'd import icon sets, but then when I saw some of the new ones users had created (Little Einsteins and Thomas Trains) I went ahead. My son LOVED them. He talked on and on about them.

Thanks, so much, for these great products!