I've decided to directly connect our new HDTV to a computer via cable. The HDMI cable itself was under $10 on Amazon. I also got a remote control for the computer, also on Amazon. I don't remember the model or brand of the remote of the top of my head, but it was around $30. I could check it out if anyone is interested. This way, you can display absolutely anything you want on your TV as it essentually functions as a huge monitor.

This is the most versatile and fast way I could find. I can watch absolutely anything from my computer, including free HULU shows on my TV or stream from Netflix or other services without having a TV with wireless connectivity or having to use applications that came with our TV, which are buggy. This is a relatively new technology, so there are a lot of things to work out. In the first month we had our TV, the company's server went down twice, so all the widgets on TV disappeared. 

After testing out the setup with our old laptop and liking it, I bought a media PC from Dell, Zino HD. It works great and is optimized to be a home theater PC. The cheapest configuration is $300. I can now check my email and Facebook on my TV as well as show all digital content I have on my computer. The computer is connected to my wireless network at home so that I can show any content on TV that I have on any of my home computers.

I haven't tried Netgear adapter mentioned in the previous post, so I don't know how it works, but it sounds like a good solution as well. The devices that I did look into all had limitations as to what types of files they could stream to the TV. They also had their own user interfaces, and I didn't see the point why you need it and why you can't just show the exactly the same thing as I have on my computer.

Also, I saw somewhere that Intel is coming out with a new computer chip that supposed to wirelessy connect to your TV, so that may be another way to do it.

Just wondering if the activities that can give us a lot of loyalty points mentioned in the original post have come out yet or not. In fact, any suggestions about the best way to earn loyalty points would be greatly appreciated.

My twin girls really loved Little Math trial, but they are 2 years and 4 months, and I'm a bit hesitant to take the plunge at this "advanced" age. I wish I knew about Little Math before I bought the flash cards set from Gentle Revolution since it's essentially the same program just in a different format.

I tried to find the answer myself on the web site to see what content is included in each of Little Math semesters, but since I still haven't, I thought I'd just ask. I saw the full content of LM curriculum but it wasn't broken down by semesters. Sorry if it's already answered someone.

What content is included in semester 1 and what is included in semester 2? I'm trying to figure out if I could get away with buying just semester 1 and see how we're doing and then get semester 2 or should I take the plunge and buy both semesters. We've been using Doman cards and are doing quantity (in the 50s) and some addition, so I need to make sure that equations with dots (or other symbols) are included. My twin girls are 2 years and 4 months old.

Could someone please break it down by semesters for me? Thanks you in advance In fact, any suggestions or experience with Little Reader will be much appreciated.

I must've been thinking about LR then, sorry. Please check the forum "How to Override Sound Sets for All Sessions in a LM semester". I've included below the relevant info from that forum. There is also a section in LM User Guide that they refer to. I haven't tried it myself, but this is what I was going to try myself when I get time.

"Hi,

I would like to use LM in English and 3 other languages.

Can I use the override function to change the sound sets for a full semester of lessons?
And if so, can they be saved as seperate files so that I do not have to change the language back to English when I want to use English sound sets?

Is there a "How to" on overriding the sound sets for the LM Sessions?

I thought I got it but after some trial and error I can clearly say I didn't  blush

Thanks


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Kezia
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Re: How to override sound sets for all sessions of a LM semester?
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2011, 09:57:19 AM »
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Hi Leanan,

Yes, you may use the Override function to quickly "toggle" the sound sets played along with your Little Math lessons. These sound sets, which you will need to create separately, are actually saved as individual media sets in your Little Math. The Little Math screen you'll need to work with first is the Numbers Library screen (select the "Sounds" tab).

In the Numbers Library > Sounds screen, you may edit the pre-existing sound sets if you'd like to change the recordings, or simply create new sound sets for the languages you want to teach (note that you need to record your pronunciations for the numbers via a separate software first). However, if you also have Little Reader, you may access the Easy Voice Recorder included in it from your Start menu, and use that when you record anything for Little Math.

You may read more about how you can create your own sound sets in the "How to Use the Numbers Library Screen > The Sound Set Tab" section of the Little Math manual -- just click on the HELP button in Little Math, or go to this link: http://www.brillkids.com/media/manuals/manual-little-math.pdf

Take note that since you want to teach different languages, you need to create a new Word Set for every Sound Set that you have, as these are done separately. Simply refer to the "The Word Set Tab" section (it's right after the Sound Set section) for more information.

Once you've set up your sound and word sets, the next step is to apply these via the Override settings. All you need to do (aside from turning Override on) is to enable the override settings for these sets -- the sound set options are in the "Display" settings group, while the word set option is in the "Words/Numerals" settings group for both the Numbers and Math tabs. You may read more about the Override function in the "How to Use the Playback Screen > Play Panel > Override" section of the manual.

So whenever you need to switch to a different language, you just need to update your Override settings to the sound and word sets that you want to use.

I hope this helps! Do let me know if you need further assistance. yes"

Stoit zhdat' do togo kak novaya versia LR widet ili mozhno budet potom sdelat' upgrade kogda novaya versia videt? Ili luchshe kypit' seichas else cina povicit'sa s novoi versiei LR?

I haven't tried it myself yet since we're pretty new here, but in LR, there is a way to export the curriculum and then import it under a different name. After that, you can modify the second one any way you want, i.e. like you described in option 1. Sorry I can't be of more help, but if you search the forums for LR, you'll find how to do the export/import thing. I think I have seen that it also applies to LM, and I believe it's in How To forum. This is what I was thinking of doing....

Totally helps, thank you! I wish they had gotten rid of background English in the animal mini-documentaries, but it's still very nice. We've been to Northern CA twice, and we saw a lot of sea lions, so it's interesting to see a film about them. This is will be the one we start with.

The girls liked Luntik, so we have more variety of things to watch because I was getting a bit tired of Kartocki Domana na DVD. I have no idea where or how you found all this stuff, but thank you

Child and Me is a wonderful site! It was the first site I found after getting YBCR, and through it I found out about Doman and BrillKids. I wish I had found it much sooner because my girls turned 2 before I came across it. I've gotten some Power Point presentations from Child and Me, and they are very good. She even has a link to a freeware program that allows you to randomize your presentation's order. Great site!

On the last site, I was able to find a presentation about plurals in Russian. Just what the doctor ordered! Thank you, FloridaMom. Karma to you, of course.

PS - I was able to get my $30 from Mamasource Mamapedia without any problems. It took them a couple of days to get back to me, but in the end, they came through. Unfortunately, Little Pim managed to cancel only one order but not the other one. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Wow, great stuff. Thank you again!!! "Govorim s pelenok" is a great stuff, but the other two may be a bit advanced for us, but will be wonderful when the girls get older. I'll show them "Luntic" tomorrow. Fun. They now want to see "Gysis" (geese in plural in Russian with an added "s" to make it double plural) cartoon all the time. We're just learning our plurals, so I think there is some confusion between Russian and English forms

Where can get the documentaries with the animals in Russian? You mentioned that there 52 translated ones. Thank you in advance..

Thank you so much for sharing! My girls LOVE "The Two Geese", and I kind of do too. I downloaded it from YouTube with Mozilla since we have an intermittent connection where we're staying so that we can play it anytime. It's a classic Thanks again.

I know! I also want pretty much everything on their web site Umnica is great! There is also "Govorim s pelenok" 2 set DVD, which has words, couplets, and then sentences. It's based on Doman as well, and they flash a word, say it, and then show a picture. It's kind of low budget and not as polished as Kartochki Domana, but it serves the purpose.

http://www.umnitsa.ru/cat/DVD_govorim_s_peljonok_2_diska/

On a separate note, I got an email from Mamasource that they have refunded my $30 for the Little Pim coupons! Yey!!! It took a couple of days for them to get back to me, but they came through. So, may be now I can get some of the umnica stuff :P

Thank you for the web site link! That looks good, and I'm going to get it Karma to you as well as MamaRoo. 

I got an email from Little Pim that they were able to cancel my order before mailing it! I'm so relieved, and they were very understanding and professional about the whole issue. Even thanked me for my "insight" I wanted to mention it to be fair.

So, instead of $100 out, I should be only $30 out, which is much better. I still haven't heard from Mamasource - Mamapedia Deals through whom I got the coupons, but I hope it will work out as well. After all, I sent them three emails already BTW, on their web site, Little Pim deail is listed as 50% off, but if you read the small print, it says that you have to make a minimal purchase of $59.95 and that only one coupon can be applied to an order, which are $15 for $30 of Little Pim products. So, in reallity, the maximum discount is up to 25%, not 50%. I trusted the 50% off message and didn't check the small print thinking that I'd get two coupons and get the Russian set for $30. When it didn't work, that when I realized that I'd have to buy two sets via two separate orders (with separate shipping charge) in order to use my coupons. I know it's my fault for not reading the small print, and I understand that this detail is easy to miss, so I am sure it's not an intentional omission. We're all busy moms here with a lot of interruptions, so I thought I'd mention this as well since you still can buy the coupon. Just bad luck all around with this order for me!

Can't believe they did it in other languages too. What a shame. Sounds like they started on the righ track and then someone had a "brilliant" idea. It's kind of funny, sort of like Dilbert, if only this laugh wasn't at my expense, literally!

Wow. I thought it was only Russian that suffered such a bad fate, but it sounds that they did it with other languages as well.

Yes! We have "Kartochki Domana na DVD", and we LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Thank you for posting about them. I think it's the best. I was looking for something similar because we're moving to disk 4, and this is the only Russian set I have. It definitely helped my girls to pick up a few words and use more Russian. And, they love watching it. Even my babysitters liked it Have you tried any other of Umitsa products? I see there are some other reading sets on their site listed. It's soooo hard to get them in US, so before I ask my mom to buy and mail something to me, I'd love to know if it's any good. I've downloaded some of their free content, such as alphabit with animals, and my twins love it as well.

This is why I was so excited about Little Pim - there are so few DVDs in Russian that you can get in US. They seemed to be at a decent price, comparatively speaking. And, there is a matching DVD in English, which would've been wonderful to help convey the idea that each object has at least two different names... What a disappointment.