I have a slightly different experience - my older child is much more of a challenge to teach than the younger one!  I also feel tired and burned out - I feel very disappointed and demoralised that learning is not the enjoyable experience shared between mother and daughter that I had envisaged.  I keep wondering what I'm doing wrong.  But my younger son is only 18 months and he already is far more involved with LR and any kind of learning activity.  He has a completely different personality to his older sister and cries when I turn it off!

With my older daughter I have to work constantly to avoid a battle if I want to do any learning activities.  She can read well but is not always enthusiastic about doing so!   I do believe that different children have very different personalities.  I sometimes get hung up on needing to do everything early and whilst this is a great goal, for some kids, it doesn't work out that way.  But it doesn't mean they cannot make amazing progress at a later stage. 

My advice for your son is to try doing activities during snack or meal times.  I find that we have lot more success that way with showing a LR session or anything on the computer. For active boys it can be very hard to sit still and concentrate.  You could show flashcards showing trucks and lorriesor anything that he's interested in and teach numbers, colours, names of vehicles etc this way.  Also try to incorporate teaching games that involve moving and running around.  Maybe run to get a flash card that is hidden amongst his toys in some way.

I've used these videos:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/2nygpLfc4BA&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/2nygpLfc4BA&rel=1</a>

Also, this is the Sound of Music where Do is actually C (in many versions it is not!)

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

Hope that helps!

Thank you for clarifying Tamsyn - that makes a lot of sense 

It's good to understand the purpose of learning fingering for scales and arpeggios! In a smaller scale, I've been getting my 3-year old to play C to G and back again at the start of every lesson with each hand and both together. It's made a huge difference to her fluidity when playing.

She made a better attempt with the chord do-mi-so today    I think we will practice this and then some of the other LMs chords with both hands.

Thank you Tamsyn for posting these links - they are REALLY helpful 

I have a question about the fingering for chords.  I noticed that when playing the Do-Mi-So chord that the player used the fourth finger of the left hand rather than the little finger.  Is that the correct finger to aim for?  In little children it can be a problem for small hands, so does that make a difference?  But should adults use the fourth (e.g. me when I'm learning  )

Thanks again

Thanks for updating all this info TMT - Karma to you - the first post in this thread is really useful.

We are making steady progress with soroban.  In the family, I have probably made the most progress myself using various apps, such as Adventure abacus, Master Soroban and Fingermath.  Although I am by no means brilliant, it has really helped to develop my understanding of the approach to addition and subtraction.  I have not yet learned anything about multiplication though.  But this has at least improved my confidence to teach it using the apps.

My DD (now 3y 9m) is making steady progress with adventure abacus.  It is slow but I am happy as she continues to be willing to engage with the app which is very positive.  I like the fact that you can just do one level which takes less than five minutes.  We try to do one or two levels maybe 3-4 days a week.  She has developed a lot of confidence with manipulating the app 'beads' in the 1-9 column.  She is easily able to count to 9.  We used the Rightstart yellow is the sun song to help with understanding the 5 bead and this has worked really well (it has actually also helped as I'm now starting to teach about money and different coin values - the concept is very similar).  She is now very happy with adding and subtracting up to 9 but we have not yet started any form of re-grouping.  I'm also starting counting up to 100.  So far we have got to 20 and then do 2-ten, 3-ten, 4-ten etc.  I must say that the rightstart approach to counting also helps make sense of the columns of the soroban.

Adventure abacus includes mental arithmetic levels for progress.  I try to do this myself but with my DD I have been getting her to do the calculations on a simplified abacus (5 columns) that I bought and then enter the answer.  It's a little more fiddly than the app so we are just getting to grips with it.  But it's a good transition activity and she has to know and enter the answer so it helps me check that she really does understand what she's doing!

I've been using a song to teach number bonds to 10 based on the tune of row row row your boat:
9 and 1 are number bonds
8 and 2 are friends
7 and 3, 6 and 4
5 and 5 are twins

I made a short powerpoint presentation to go with it - I'll upload this here at the weekend.  This seems to be working!  My DD sang it through a couple of times herself!  But I'm not sure how it will be when it comes to using it to re-group for the soroban! 

I'd be interested to know if most people teach the 5 number bonds re-grouping before 10 as in adventure abacus they start with the 10 (e.g. 4 plus 8 would be add 10 and take away 2), rather than the five (e.g. 3 plus 4 would be add 5 and take away 1).  Or perhaps it doesn't matter?  Any thoughts much appreciated.

At the moment, I'm happy with apps and my own limited knowledge to teach.  I hope this will be sufficient for a while, but it sure is cost effective! 

Having looked at Singapore math it seems to be a good fit with Rightstart and Soroban so it is my plan to continue RS level A and move onto Singapore.  I don't think saxon would be a great fit for us, too much drill, although keeping a very open mind following the kids personality and interests over the next few years.

I must admit I was very excited to see that online Singapore site - this may be perfect for us!  Workbooks are not particularly popular in our house, but the computer is a much bigger hit.  There are some Singapore apps I think, but i haven't found any for the younger years yet. 

I am teaching place value to my 3.5 year old using place value cards and a rightstart abacus and she seems to be getting on with it quite well.  We just bought some cheap cards from ebay and they are working for us.

If you are not familiar with Rightstart, they suggest teaching a different way of counting to help understand large numbers -
11 becomes ten-one
20 is two-ten, 21 is two-ten-one
84 is eight-ten-four etc

We use the abacus to make sense of these numbers.  We are practicing skip counting in 10s using both the 'normal' and the 'rightstart' way of counting (I just ask - what is the other name for this number?).  Then I ask her to find "eight-ten" by pushing across eight of the rows of ten and then add however many additional beads are needed. 

We are not yet doing addition with larger numbers but I think this will provide a really good basis for it.  Using the abacus has been a very good visual method for teaching addition up to 10 as well, without counting, as she can subsitize the answer by looking at the abacus.

Oooh some great ideas, thank you!

So far my only approach has been the Cheerio method which I guess is a form of bribery but I have found encourages participation in all sorts of activities 

I really like the idea of a treasure hunt - I will definitely try that.  I may use it as an adaptation for the IQ fun park game which I have finally purchased!!

We love letter school in the iPad too, we also really like Little Writer

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/little-writer-tracing-letters/id515890480?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

This is free and good for quick practice as it moves between letters a bit quicker than Letter School so they work well together.

We were using a finger to practice writing on the iPad but I have now adapted a cheap stylus as she did not seem to be transferring her learning with a finger to actually writing letters with a pen or pencil.  I was worried that the screen might get scratched by the metal stylus if she pressed too hard or turned it too far sideways, so I put on a rubber pencil grip, which not only makes it much easier to hold, the rubber also covers any metal and protects the screen.  This is working really well for us.

I've had to be off work this morning as DD aged 3.5 had a sore tummy.  I've been trying to do some phonecalls from home but she's obviously feeling much better and quickly got bored with lying on the sofa watching a DVD.  She obviously starts thinking of ways to get me to come and interact with her...

"Mummy, I'm feeling better.  Can we do Rightstart with cheerios please?"!!!

I go down and the abacus is lined up and ready to go!!

Well, she obviously knows which buttons to press - how could I resist that request?!?!   

  
Keri - that is so funny!
Beware the hazards of poetry!!

I am amazed how popular our poetry reading session has become already. I read a few poems at lunchtime and E is loving it! We have some little books called Read Me Poetry with a range of fun kids poems.  I've also ordered Now We Are Six and can't wait for that to arrive.

No I got the same as you - one month and the game with shipping to UK !!  I am just the same - always worried I didn't get the best deal. Except I'm feeling a bit chicken to buy it now! 

Hi Evad

Try not to feel too discouraged!  All children are different and many just don't like to show off their knowledge for a long time. I was in a very similar situation except my DD was even older - see this thread here:  http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-to-read/teaching-2-5-year-old-to-read-feeling-stuck-and-demoralised/

Anyway, I kept at it, just kept showing the LR lessons, used Starfall, Reading Bear and Powerpoints and tried to keep it fun.  I tried hard to just enjoy the process of spending time with my child.  That is the most important part of this whole EL for me anyway. The best advice I have ever been given is to focus on INPUT not on output.  I know it can be tough not to see any obvious change but one day your little one will amaze you. 

We are now over a year on from that point (how time flies!).  'From refusing to show she could read at all, my 3.5 year old is happily reading, spelling, and really enjoying it.  Sometimes she gets tired and doesn't want to 'perform' even now.  I just pick up and read it along with her - she loves being read to.  We discuss everything that we read and have some wonderful inspired conversations.  This will all come with time.  If there are particular topics that he's interested in then maybe make some presentations on those.  For example, my DD loved In the Night Garden so I made some stories using images from Google and she really liked those.  But overall, try not to worry .  You are doing a great job.  It is not that you are doing something wrong.  Good luck and hang on in there. 

I have been in touch with Karen Quinn and she's offered me a similarly good deal on IQ fun park and a month membership to see how we get on with it (I'm thinking I will just print off lots of questions and unsubscribe after a month!)

I'm just about to send the payment by paypal - but it's quite a lot of money!  Now I'm feeling a bit scared - I think we will really benefit from a game format but it is very expensive.  Does anyone have it already?  Do you love it?  Are there any downsides to be aware of?

Thanks very much

I find this a really interesting topic and I've been thinking a lot about it over the past few days.

I would certainly say that I do not have a child who is gifted at maths!  Some may remember my regular posts about how to motivate a reluctant toddler to get involved in maths!  I think it's interesting to try to work out what "EL" in maths means - from reading this forum it does seem to vary quite widely, probably more than teaching reading.  Perhaps this is because there is less consensus about what and how to teach young children.  I did LM with my oldest from when she was about 6 months until she refused to watch it any longer at just under 2.  I'm not sure she ever learned to subsitize large numbers but she certainly developed a familiarity with the concept of numbers and learned to read numbers very early.  We also counted regularly to 20 up and down when brushing her teeth and lots of other counting games.  Now she can subsitize to 5 (although 4 and 5 are harder if not arranged in a helpful pattern) and to 10 if using a RS abacus or some other format using 5 plus another number (the RS yellow is the sun worked wonders!)

So from the Doman perspective, I'm not sure how much we gained, but it certainly started me on the path to being interested in maths. It probably also gave her an initial confidence and understanding of the concept of number at the very least.  And EL doesn't just mean babies and flashcards does it?  With all the discussions in the toddler maths threads, I still think that teaching 2 and 3 year olds is quite early compared to standard.  I have learned A LOT about maths in the past 6 months - reading Marshmallow math, Kitchen table math and Jump math has really helped me understand some of the steps involved in learning math.  For teachers this is old news, but for me it's been a very interesting journey.  I think I'll do much better with my younger son - I must remember to get him started early though!

My personal perspective is that in terms of progress in maths, Keri has hit the nail on the head, I'm not sure that being gifted is anything like as important as how much time, energy and enthusiasm is devoted to the subject.  My DD's enthusiasm has never been great, but I've maintained a very positive approach and she's now quite enthusiastic to re-start RSA (we have currently re-named it "Cheerio Rightstart"!)  again after a month or so break when we did other maths approaches, mainly using the ipad.  I emphasize it's' importance everyday, perhaps even more than reading as she will do this very naturally and easily.  When you read the Mindset and the Moshe Kai threads, it convinces me that it's really the time and effort dedicated to any subject that's more important than anything else.  I have observed that many of the children who are excelling in math and other subjects seem to have a real enthusiasm and concentration ability that must be so important for developing these skills.  Other kids (like mine) have lower enthusiasm and concentration but I do believe can still do great things if we work on fostering this - it may take a little longer but that does not mean that we cannot still make great progress.  Certainly when I compare my reluctant mathematician at 3.5 years to most of her peers at nursery, she is way ahead.  They were amazed that she was subsitizing the answer in a dice game last week!  My expectations for what is even possible far outreach other parents that I know and this in itself I think is important (as long as it doesn't turn into pressure in a negative way).  My younger son at 17 months is also showing enthusiasm for maths - he's been counting at nursery much to their amazement.

I didn't do this last year and felt sorry afterwards!  I am going to try to reach this aim too although I only have 4 full days per week as I work on 3 days.  Even on my work days, I try to get my oldest to read one book at breakfast and both kids still get one or two books at bedtime after nursery and probably do a fair bit of reading at nursery too, but I will not count those.  But this does give me a bit of leeway if we have a bad few days.  I will aim for my 3-year old to read 1-2 books to me and I will read 3-4 to her.  All these books will count!

I will aim for 5 books per child (i have two kids) per day on 4 days a week so that reaches the target of 2013 books as a family.  There may well be some crossover and each will often hear the other's books but it's simpler for me to do it this way.  If we get to chapter books or story books with multiple short stories then each chapter will count as a book.  I am happy to count a reading of any book - they don't all have to be different ones as we would never achieve this, plus my kids love repetition.  I'll also aim for a poem a day (but probably only changing the poem once a week so that we start to learn it). 

I'm sure I won't keep a record of all the books read, but it will be motivating to know that everyone here is reading lots with their children and hopefully that will help keep us on track.