[htpp//appshopper.com]

Great to see everyone joining in!
Kimba, I always enjoy reading your blog.

@Mamaofwill: I use mainly my own childhood books and books from the library (although their collection is very limited, and I'm quite picky with what we read)
I must mention that I no longer follow recommendations but read the content of the book before buying it and reading it to my kid. Someone mentionned "The five chinese brothers" as a great read and I ordered this one, among other recommended books. I had to stop reading it to my kid as the book spoke about a brother having his head cut off, being drowned, burned alive and cooked in an oven.
Or you can have books on the top of the charts list which won't appeal to you. I'm not a fan of 'The Wonkey Donkey' for example.

To source English books, I download them on the appstore. (Don't forget to count digital books)
If you want free books, you can use
htpp//appshopper.com
It offers a daily list of free apps and sometimes you'll get free books.
You can also browse through their "200 Best app list" and tick the ones you're interested in but don't want to pay full price for, and when there's a price drop, you'll get an email.

You can make your own rules of course! We constantly re-read books, but that's a pattern which prevents us from trying out new ones. My aim is to read chapter books (which we don't do enough), English books and unknown French books.

Little Reader is a great help for this, as we read stories from the Chinese curriculum, the English one and, best of all, Aesops fables. Seeing the books we just read animated on a screen was a lot of fun for my daughter.

Keep up the good work everyone.

After reading about Waterdreamer's 1500 book challenge
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/our-1500-book-challenge!!/new/#new
I've decided to read 1000 different books to my daughter this year! That's 2.77 book a day. So far we read 2 at night and make up on the week-ends!

My rules are simple:
I count as one a book which lasts at least 5 mn (not a simple picture book), and chapters count as one.
We read books more than once but those extra readings don't count.
When we're finished reading at night, I simply put the books on the floor and write their titles on my litle booklet the next day or the day after.
I'll be sharing our favorite books, and am always on the lookout for suggestions. 

So far, Aangeles and Waterdreamer are on board, and NadiaD is considering it 
It'll be an added motivation to share this challenge with others :-)

Hi Hypatia,

I will take the challenge with you! 

If you are still looking for a way to keep track of the books you have read or are reading with your dd, check out the My Library app on the Ipad.
[/quote]

Hi Aangeles
This is a great suggestion!
I'd love to, but unfortunately I do not have Wi-fi, simply a dial-up connection. My Ipad is only connected to the internet when I found a wifi spot in town.
I'm sure many members will love to hear about this app!

What are your goals for 2012?

There are so many goals I have and usually turn them into weekly or monthly goals.
The ones I really want to achieve in a year's time are:

-Suceeding in the 1000 book challenge for my daughter and 52 book challenge for me.
-Run with my daughter at least 1 km a week.

[Little Pim DVDs]

I have several DVDs to sell.
I’ve purchased all my DVDs new and they are in great condition.
If you’re interested, PM me with your offered price for the ones you’d like. Some like Baby Bit French are quite expensive (I paid 58 euros-around $75 for this DVD).
I’d rather ship many at once than one by one! 
Shipping is from France.
If you’re not interested in the box, I can ship them with the jacket only, you’ll save money if I ship the DVDs as a letter rather than a parcel.

Little Pim DVDs

French :
1 Eating and drinking
2 Wake up smiling
3 Playtime

Japanese:
1 Eating and drinking
2 Wake up smiling
3 Playtime (no box)

Chinese
1 Eating and drinking (no box)
2 Wake up smiling (no box)
3 Playtime (no box)

Baby Bit French Volume 1
 (No box)

Wink to Learn Company
Speak and Read French (4 DVD set)
Sing to Learn Chinese Vol. 2
Sing to Learn Chinese Vol. 3
Amazing Rain Forest (Simplif. And Trad. Chinese)

My challenge is called the 1000 book in one year challenge :-) (because 1500 was a little ambitious), and it consists of 1000 books read only once - most will be read at least thrice but I only count individual books.
For longer books like chapter ones, I will count a reading session (at least 10mn, or two chapters) as one book.

When we're finished reading at night, I simply put the books on the floor and write their titles on my litle booklet the next day. I'd rather not do it electronically after what happened to waterdreamer 

Oh, and at the back of the textbook I write down my own books: My own challenge is simple: 52 books! :-)

Anyone wants to start the challenge with me and their children?

Hi Aangeles!
I had just finished watching a youtube video of Ella sounding out words on the Ipad when I saw your message 

I don't have much to suggest for teaching phonics in French. At school teachers use their own curriculum, when children start CP (I think it's grade 1?), at 6 years old. They have textbooks.

I've searched for a method and found one called La planète des alphas. All letters are characters doing things, like 'Mister a who holds his cane', Mister O who is very surprised and blowing bubbles, and for consonants they have the name of objects, like the J is Jet d'eau (water sprinkle). They live on a planet and are very friendly.
I only bought the basic kit which consists of the characters (you can play along with them), the dvd of their story and a book without text which shows what's in the dvd. It's only to get kids interested in the characters, but I'd like to purchase the next step, like textbooks, which are usually purchased by schools, but can be ordered on their website.
All I know from the method is that you don't say the letter, just its sound, however I don't know how they start combining letters and forming sounds.
If you're interested I can browse around for you to see what else they have available?

Otherwise we use the Ipad and the same program you are using to sound out words and spell them (Montessori dictation?). There's very little to teach phonics in French, I look for good programs everyday on the appstore.

You can also have a look at the website I had suggested www.genikids.fr and the 'lecture' section.

Hi Iwini
I source my books from my own childhood collection, my town's library and bookdepository.co.uk, which offers free shipping in most countries worlwide.
The challenge for me is to read as many books in English as in French (our mother language), and it adds up quickly to buy new English ones. It would be great to have an online website selling second-hand books with free shipping :-)  

Thanks waterdreamer for your reply. I've been using a simple notebook instead of printing out paper :-)

Hi Peak12!
Welcome to Brillkids!
My daughter was exactly 6 months when I discovered this forum. It is the best time to start!
Hope you'll find many answers on the forum!

Sorry to bring an old post up but I'm about to start the project with my 3 yo. I've put aside many new French and English books and I'd like to keep track of what we read. We only read in bed for nap and night time so I'd like a piece of paper to write the titles and day on, we would keep this on the bedside tale. Is anyone aware whether such a document exists? It doesn't need to be too fancy...

I would like to start introducing French to her now, as she will start a French immersion school at age 5. Can anyone recommend programs for this? DVD's software, etc. Her mother is fairly proficient in French, but chooses to

How about Speak and Read French, a set of 4 DVDs by Wink to Learn. I've purchased it and I'm considering selling it.

[Different abilities:]

All these apps cost at least 1 or 2 euros.
I hope this helps!

Different abilities:
Nathan Maternelle: petite section : what children learn in kindergarten (3-4 y)
Joue avec Emilie
Lola flag aventures different languages available

Words:
Apprendre l'alphabet en s'amusant : to learn letters and words
Je parle..mots : the best app ever! put letters together to create words. It exists in other languages.
Mes mots à moi

Animals:
Chamboul'tout, la ferme : animals are cut in three pieces and you need to 'reconstruct' the animal
La ferme
Livre promenade magique: mes animaux
La coccinelle to learn about  ladybugs

Numbers
1,2,3 Rigolo j'apprends les nombres

Stories:
Winnie l'ourson
Rye book: Le petit escargot. Worth the price.
La souris qui voulait manger un chat
Lis et joue avec les copains de la forêt   A real cartoon!
Je suis qui moi?    Cute story of a rabbit who wants to find out who he is. With nice pictures and animations
Les nouvelles histoires de Marlène Jobert. Paying app. For order children who can read.

Glitterusagi, karma to you!
I've done this and am able to see the other comments, but can't purchase in US dollars. With the conversion rates, paying apps in Euro is more expensive than US$.

Does anyone know how to 'copy-paste' apps icons on the forum?

Hi all,
Are you aware of a website with some sort of quiz which would tell me what kind of learner is my child?