This is such great news! I haven't read Shichida's book but I can attest that LOVE really opens up the right brain! Holding your child in the highest esteem and not anticipating the results is the key. We salute you Mom and Lily and Owen too!  

PS
I can't watch the video. Error message says "Video is private."?

Thanks Elys and Tom!

@ Tom:

At school they use "less". At home, even before she started school, I say "minus" and "remove" when I dictate to her. Is there a standard?

Also, I remembered your post that mixing addition and subtraction is detrimental or might be confusing to students. Cammie's school teaches these operations at the same time. Should I be worried? Many thanks to your input!

We're blessed to have enrolled in an abacus school (though it's 2-hrs of total travel for us). Yesterday was Cammie's 4th session but I felt she's ready to do anzan. The school has several levels (Foundation, Junior, Level 1 til 7). They introduce mental imaging on Level1 for ages 7-up. Cammie, being on the lowest level (foundation) is just starting one digit addition & subtraction but at home, I'm letting her choose to answer by "imagination" or use her abacus when doing her home-work.

Today, at almost 3 years & 5 months old, she answers six-string addition and subtraction. She's not that fast yet and only uses 1-digit numbers but I'm super happy that she can picture the abacus in her head! Thank you for all the inspiration we got from this forum, if it wasn't for all of your posts, we wouldn't have plunged into this wonderful world of abacus. She was not a big fan of math (me too) but with abacus, it's like playtime to her.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/vD6MXc3219Q&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/vD6MXc3219Q&rel=1</a>

Hi Keri! Your DD is so creative, it's her way of turning a rather "uninteresting" situation into something she can enjoy. I think it's ok for you to turn off the sounds but not everytime. The clear pronunciation is helpful for her reading. If you're going to flash it fast, then the only way to go is no audio as it will get cut-off before the words are pronounced. I didn't have the same problem with Cammie before. In fact just the opposite, it's her favorite part (no kidding!). For my second child, he looks away. He likes anything with music and not so much with words.

If you want to focus on speed-reading, single words are not the best way to go. Well intially, it's single words but the eyes should be trained to move and track fast. Rapid flashing of phrases and sentences should follow (ala Tweedlewink). I'm not an expert in this but it's from my observation with my child.

Hi Zann! I wonder why some relatives are like that? I mean, don't they see that baby is obviously enjoying and craving to learn? Sometimes it's useless to explain to them, but just wait and see after they see the fruits of your efforts. It's not for them anyway, it's for our children!

The icons for Little Math can be downloaded for free

click the FORUM tab > LITTLE MATH LIBRARY tab > and scroll down to ICON SETS.

I too have that problem when I put intervals to a minimum. What I did was just turn the pronunciation off and say the words myself. I think there's no other way... It's easy enough to do and the subtitles are there to cue you what the next word is.

That's amazing mybabyian! I feel your excitement! Babies are sooo precious! They are really born genuises. I'll post the video again, I forgot I lost my old youtube account 

Here they are

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ei6BUazF-9Y&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Ei6BUazF-9Y&rel=1</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/APg8iZib-Ew&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/APg8iZib-Ew&rel=1</a>

**Update!!!
Just now, we we're reminiscing and watching her "dots1" video after I uploaded it. Just for fun, I asked Cammie which one is "8" and quickly covered the video so that she won't be able to count. She said "the one on the right!" immediately! And asked her again which one is "7" and she answered "it's on the left!" without so much of a pause. I never would have believed she still could recognize quantities. This is such a pleasant surprise! Doman said the skill would be gone when they are 2.5 yo?

Hi seastar! You're welcome She's 3yrs 4mos old.

I just LOVE your energy and enthusiasm Keri! Reminds me that we could have FUN FUN FUN when doing math! I have been stressed and edgy the past months after giving birth and reading your posts re your math activities with Alex is like a welcome splash of water on my hot head Thanks for the bright ideas!

They do learn! Especially when a parent or a loving relative is watching, gesturing, or explaining to them. TV is not all bad, it's just a matter of choosing the right materials and not using them as a stand-alone teaching substitute. We love Baby Signing Time too and all the Signing Time series! DD is still going over them especially that she can now sign accurately with her fingers. It's a challenge for her and she makes sure she got the hand/finger placement right on the dot. It's one of the few videos that she still watches (we started at around 4mos old).

Hi Zann,

You can customize LR so it can be more on the right-brain approach. What I do is to put the interval between words to a minimum. You can adjust this in "Auto Forward" menu in the lower right corner of the main LR screen. This way, it will be like rapid flashing which is a right-brain approach. In addition to your activities with your son, you can start incorporating more right-brain activities with him. In the Tweedlewink chart, 2yo should be taught 80% right-brain and 20% left-brain. Doing left-brained activities might make them bridge-over more quickly to the left-brain. I've attached the Tweedlewink chart here in this post so you can download it and see which activities you should be doing with your son per stage of development.

Hope this helps

Hi mybabyian! I say do what he will enjoy more. My child doesn't like to do both (Doman math and counting) but she got to a point that she can recognize quantities. See link below:

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/big-surprise!-quantity-recognition!/

While doing Doman math, I also introduced numerals to her and she seemed more interested in it. I personally think it won't hurt if you introduce counting for him to have a basic grasp of math but it could be counter-productive if you are really focused for him to learn Doman math. If you want a combination of both, you may want to try Jones Genuises as it uses dots on numerals to introduce addition, etc.

Happy teaching!

Based on the positive results we got from rapid flashing games and videos, (Memory Magic, Babybit, LR), I tried to flash images of soroban quantities to Cammie. At first she tried to count the beads in her head but then I told her that her eyes are like a camera and she has the image stored in the "memory card" of her brain already.

Soon enough, she's recalling the quantities accurately with a smile in her face. It's so exciting for us because we have absolutely no previous knowledge of the abacus. We haven't enrolled her in a school yet but we've learned so much in a couple of weeks already through this method. She now knows the number bonds of 10 and 5 (for addition, subtraction, etc) and can visually identify all two-digit quantities. This week, we're going to try three-digit ones. Attached in this post are some of the soroban flashcards that we've used. Feel free to download them

Hi Kimba15!

You're right, changing dvd's can be annoying! We're not doing the Wink program yet but we have tried it 2-3 times. While this is not a solution, you might find this device useful because it eliminates the need to change dvd's (because you won't need the dvd's). It's an omni-player for all types of videos, audio, and pictures. This also serves as a hard-drive so you can make back-ups of all your important teaching materials. It hooks up to any TV with a HDMI or RGB port. After digitizing your materials, you can just browse and play the dvd/title you want.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Live-Media-Center/dp/B004GK0GKO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330278575&sr=8-1


Hope this helps!

Available for sale:

Learning Mathematics with the Abacus YEAR 1 Textbook
Learning Mathematics with the Abacus YEAR 1 Student Activity Book
Learning Mathematics with the Abacus YEAR 2 Textbook
Learning Mathematics with the Abacus YEAR 2 Student Activity Book

PM me if interested. Thanks!