Here is another map I created for Eaton:Australia + flashcards of Australia territories.
Map is created based on Montessori puzzle map I bought few months ago. Names of territories I provide below in word doc (if someone is interested)

Flashcards: I printed out this map http://d-maps.com/m/australie/australie12.gif  8 times (black and white) and color outlined each territory in red. I laminated them and wrote down names on the back of cards.

I included New Guinea and New Zealand even though they don't belong to Australia continent. They are separated Island. But that will give me a chance to talk with Eaton about them later.

Whole project took me 2 hours.

Mom2ross,

I was showing flashcards between LR sessions. I don't have specific schedule. If I have something new to show to Eaton I do it for a week twice a day. Most of the time I do flashcard and LR in the morning than he has a nap, lunch and after that a lot of outside physical activity.

I think that the most influence on Eaton's knowledge of words at this point had this type of teaching: whenever I was showing him new word in a book (a word under the picture on one page only) I pointed to the beginning  sound.
If there was a picture of the boat with a word boat underneath I pointed to the B and said /b/ .Then I shown the whole word. Each word I did the same way. I still do that with new words. This is a great way to teach baby. The baby see the word and the sound of the first letter (phonics)

Another tip:

I talk constantly to a baby. Example: Eaton says some word like "dog". I say ooo you said dog. What is the beginning sound of the dog? I wait a little bit but I know that he can't answer that yet. I answer:/d/. What is the ending sound of the word dog? Wait a little bit and then say /g/. Or I say what is the first letter of the word dog? And then answer.

This way he picked up already words like first,  second and third so far.

This is the beginning of teaching phonemic awareness(sounds in spoken words)

Thank you Zaja

Mom2ross
I've got flashcards from Hooked on Phonics book "Beginning Words" ages 4-6.
That is Kindergarten level. Funny ha? !:)
I bought that book because of flashcards but my baby already new most of them from LR and books. There are 50 cards in the book. I love book also. Once Eaton will write he will finish the rest of the book.

Eaton knows his alphabet . All sounds of 26 letters. He doesn't know the name of the letters yet as I want him to know how to read first. I plan to introduce spelling at 2 years old. (That system is confirmed with Doman philosophy) Eaton reads new words wherever we go so I know that system works.

Authors of books? hm...I was just buying books with big fonts. Any books.

Roger Priddy books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=roger+priddy&sprefix=roger+prid for first words
I buy a lot of books from Borders on clearance. They don't have authors. They are just first words for babies. I buy books from Costco and Ross. They all don't have authors.

Frida Bing http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=frida+bing&x=0&y=0  I love these books, cause they are lift the flap. One sentence with big font written on left side and an answer on the right side with a flip. Very interactive books. Eaton loves them.

At this point when Eaton is almost  18 months I like to buy Susan Canizares and Betsey Chessen books  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Betsey+Chessen&x=0&y=0  I like them cause they have big fonts below the picture but also give a  knowledge about specific subject. These are very simple books.

I usually buy Scholastic company books. This company is putting his logo on educational books and I love a lot of them. Thrift stores are great source to buy them for 25c each.

I hope that post helped a little

Mum,
The method you described is the one I used. I need to add that I  taped  black and white map to color map. It started to move at one point. I couldn't think about other method. It's time consuming, but when you cut first continent it looks so nice that you don't mind doing the rest

How did I teach him the map?
I put the map of the world on my baby's room wall. There is a song on youtube about continents <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Lf--PQNDn7g&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Lf--PQNDn7g&rel=1</a> I used to sing to my baby that song with showing him the continents on regular map. But then I realized that he can't see the outlines of continents. Montessori idea with colors was the solution. There are ocean songs too I will be using for teaching.
That was enough for my baby. He picked up from the song. 

No problem,
I bought Muzzy for Spanish language as I don't speak that language, neighter my husband. I speak Polish and I teach my baby that language, but in the house we speak English. I don''t really recommend Muzzy for babies. Eaton is not interested in these dvd's at all. I should sell it. :)The movie is too slow and doesn't keep interest of my baby.

This is another idea from the well known website

http://www.childcareland.com/videos.html

Matching sight words is so much fun. Eaton is doing it very easy and know all of them. It just a reminder game for him. He also says them all each time he is matching words.

I would like to start a new topic about ideas for teaching words.
I found that sticky notes by accident. I was looking for something else in Office depot and found that cool sight words sticky notes package. This is very awesome idea for my baby to read new words or words he learned from sight word educational dvd. Eaton loves these sticky words. The package comes with other green blank sticky notes I'm using to write down only Polish words. And it's a lot of fun for a baby to take it down from one place and put it in another. Now Eaton 17 months doesn't misplaced them so much. He get used to them. And he always sees new words, like he is waiting for them every day. The website has other great ideas. The only thing is I need to figure out how to buy them online.

www.kid2020.com
http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/kids/sight-word-notes.html

Arnie2009

These are Golf Tees I bought in Walmart: sport section for about $3. There were 90 of them ( hardwood), plenty to create many of these activities!
I introduce that activity at 17 months but I think he was ready about 16. He was always banging on something with wooden hammer. But at that time I would probably need to hold a golf tee for him. At 17 he is totally enjoying it independently.

Thank you Rugrat,
And I have a great idea from you! Thanks so much for sharing.

The dots are velcro. I bought them in Walmart in sawing section. You can buy circles or squares. I prefer circles as they are smaller. I hope that help.

Hi,
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps/print-world-maps.html Here is the link. I used 2x2 maps (4 pages). There other few sites with maps. You can google: outline continents maps

I've started collecting some stuff like: boxes, bottles, scraps of color papers etc few months ago. That big foam came with a joystick my husband bought for himself and I kept that. But you can buy alternative in craft store.  They are foams for flower arrangments that work pretty good too.

And yes, I cut these Islands by myself. It's very easy project but time consuming. It took me about 3.5 hours with printing, cutting laminating and gluing.

Hi,
My 17 old months baby is always walking with some book in his hands around the house. He uses his finger to point to a word and say at loud it if he knows how. Is he reading books from cover to cover? Some yes, some no. Most of the time he brings the book to me, sit on my laps and opens the book and start to read. If he has a trouble with some word he says "This!" that means I need to read that to him. I see him many times during the day looking through different books and reading at loud and using finger.

Many times he grabs adult books with no picture at all. He opens them and he is looking for words he knows. He reads bigger titles, magazines advertisings etc.

He loves books! That's for sure

I'm glad that other kids are doing similar things, that means we as a parents are doing great job!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is another great motor skill activity for a baby! He loves that hammer

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/kid_1-3Q9ZU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/kid_1-3Q9ZU&rel=1</a>

I've created that map based on Montessori websites for my 17 old months baby. He reads continents (not so clearly yet:). This is great activity for a baby. Eaton is enjoying putting names of the continents on the board. First simple map with outlines only. We will use that board for teaching oceans, animals of different lands etc..

I plan to create more of these maps for each continent. This way is more affordable than buying maps from montessori websites. I  did consider doing that before but I changed my mind. Eaton likes that sound when he is pulling cards from the board and he has a lot of different nobs puzzles he enjoys.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6sexTTVzfXE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/6sexTTVzfXE&rel=1</a>

This is just awesome !!!!