Awesome, thanks for the info - can't wait will have to buy now

Hey GroovyGirl,

Stick in there, it seems like it will never end, but my son self-weaned at 28 months. We were on two night feeds for what seemed an eternity and then one day that was it he just didn't need/want it anymore and hasn't asked for it since.

The beauty of this was no tears or anxiety.

I'm with you on the nipple shield, Sabian nearly chewed one of my nipples to pieces in the first two days, it was so sore I stopped feeding him on it and then of course got engorged. The midwife gave me a nipple shield I was able to heal and he got his latch position right. It was a life saver.

I found a cheap CD rom for $10 called "Learn Japanese" they have a whole range of them. It's for Adults but it has the Japanese alphabet and pronunciations I used that to make the flashcards for the alphabet and learn the sounds myself - that's as far as I've got the rest of the time we use a sing along cd call "teach me Japanese" and the picture dictionaries for IAHP

Definitely go kanji, what an opportunity!

I cannot imagine any benefit to only training one side of the brain.

I am completely supportive of, and use frequently, right brain training methods.

I also, however, incorporate a lot of daily left brain activities.

My son came out of the womb left brain dominant. I guess almost all of us are going to be dominant one way or the other.

Over many years of training children in many different skills I have observed that if we only teach one side not only will the other side not develop as time goes on it becomes worse. Eg beginner training cartwheel. Children mostly have a preferred side, especially once they have set handedness.

If at this point I train both sides of the cartwheel, they develop almost evenly, the dominant side will be the side the child chooses when asked to perform without being specifically told which side but to an outsider both look equal.

If however I choose to train only the dominant side down the track not only is the sub dominant side more difficult to train the children feel very uncomfortable trying it and will often mid way through the skill attempt to swap sides and their body and subconscious will fight the learning process the whole way.

But if I was to train the sub- dominant side at this point (as many teachers will - let's say we all want right handed cartwheels - bit like only training the right hand to write back in the old days) I can actually develop this to be the preferred side, though it is still easy for me later to teach the dominant side.

I have observed this phenomenon more so in teaching children to spin or pirouette and trying to retrain this skill is very very difficult indeed.

As a result I train my son to use both sides of his brain to the best of his ability and both sides of his body equally. Only time will tell if my hunches and observations will prove true.

I got mine next working day - just send them an email if you're worried. They're pretty good there.

My understanding of the process is that by starting them now you ensure "a good ear" for the individual sounds of each language and develop the pathways for understanding the individual syntaxes of each language. This means that should they take a break or stop that those pathways are in place for later.

Having said that it would be more ideal to keep the languages progressing....not sure myself how I intend to keep all the languages up but I'm sure it will come to me. With the internet things are much easier than they were for previous generations.

much simpler than the reading and writing programs. More in line with the EK programs.

Starting it tomorrow (assuming I finish making all the cards) will let you know how it goes.

We started our boy on a heap of languages all at once and it was fine.

We only speak English so our only choice has been to use DVDs and CDs

I recommend -

• Picture Dictionaries from the IAHP
• Teach Me Tapes - we used Chines and Japanese but they have heaps
• Lyric Language - we used the French and German, they're great
• Wink to Learn - absolutely brilliant, used their Chinese and he was reading along in no time they have other languages now too
• Leap Frog - Little Leaps console - you'll have to find a second hand one as they don't make it anymore
• Favourite movies - change the language on favourite movies/shows if you can

I'm thinking of hiring a young adult who is a native speaker of one of the many languages he talks and getting them to just come and play with him.....when I can fit it in - bit hard in a rural area too.

As usual with Doman it starts earlier than you would expect.

Once the child can talk you start on the creative writing, once they can read you start on the spelling you then move onto the manual tasks.

I would recommend getting it sooner rather than later.

Hi all,

Just purchased the Doman how to teach your baby to write.

Wish I had bought it much earlier as it is about so much more than the manual task of writing (it covers creative writing and spelling)

It has lovely concepts and we are really excited about the program. Sabian has taken to it instantly. It's a great way to transition into spelling too, in fact it handles this before it expects a child to pick up a pen or pencil.

As usual they have managed to break the task down into steps that are suited to the development of little ones.

It's a PDF $15 they email it to you the day after purchase.

Couldn't be happier.

Thanks for the quick reply. Sorry I should have been more specific...I want to know like a milestone outline.

When do they begin to make complex buildings and shapes? He built a "shed" for Thomas yesterday that used all 100 blocks and had spires, is this where he should be at, is it average, is it advanced - I've no idea.

Same with jigsaws I just don't seem to be able to find any indication of what's normal as far as inset boards and transferring to jigsaws he did a 12 piece jigsaw by himself and has been thoroughly bored with inset boards for ages but I can't find anything to tell me if these problem solving skills are at the right level or not.

Thanks again

Hi All,

I'm trying to find some information about children and lego building, block building and jigsaws.

Does any one know what is normal?  I can't find anything in order to a) work out where he's at and b) work out where to go to next.

I feel completely in limbo. 

Chur chur

The thing is that people in general are an unimaginative lot.

If a person grew up with the understanding that learning = pressure = misery they simply cannot understand that there are other methods of learning.

It is sad that we live in a world in which the majority of people see extending yourself through learning as a chore that we must force upon people than as a joy that anyone can experience.

It does not apply only to early education either - people often question the way I raise my son and give me horror stories of what he will turn out like as a result (despite all the evidence to the contrary). They look at him like a ticking time bomb - you know any time now this happy little boy who is an angel is going to become the devil incarnate because his parents don't smack him or because his parents teach him so the pressure is going to mount up or because they lead by example instead of force....... and so on and so forth.

Those of us who have had the imagination to break away from what we knew and what our parents and the rest of their generation did are breaking new ground. We all know that people in general are fearful of change.

It is hard to not take it personally (I for one usually do, even though I logically know it is not) but we must remember that one day what we do will be the norm - that's evolution for you, we just have to wait for the rest of the species to catch up!

Hopefully we can expose them to the reality a little at a time and open their minds to a different world.

Behavioral changes can be bought on by many things...

Without any more details it is very hard to have an idea of what he's really doing and where it could be coming from.

For instance are these "rude" behaviors things he could have learned from his environment? Does he attend child care or creche or playgroup or hang out with older cousins?

Is it possible he is experimenting to get reactions?

He may simply be maturing and coming to the realisation that he has thoughts and ideas of his own and may be starting to attempt to give himself a sense of power of choice by reacting to things he doesn't like.

As I said it is hard without many details....