Thank you Shuki & KL.

Hello BrillKids Team,

Could you please consider creating a “More Shapes” icon set for LM.

- If you could only use one icon set, then red dots may be a good choice.  Personally speaking, however, I would suggest using at least different shapes and colors instead of just sticking with red dots.

Many months ago I reverted to using shapes instead of the various interesting icons available in LM because when I started intoducing some icons into our red dot very Doman based sessions my son sat on my lap saying “Dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs” and had no chance of hearing the names of the quantities he was shown.

The “Basic Shapes” icon set currently provided with LM includes circle, triangle, square and star. I created and added a few Other Shapes to a new icon set but find that I do not use mine a great deal. It is far easier to edit lessons and edit or create presets in LM selecting the Basic Shapes than my Other Shapes because to get 5 different colours for rectangle I had to add 5 different rectangles. Also, I am not able to set the icon colour in LM to “Mixed” for my Other Shapes.

Please create an extra shapes icon set and include the likes of rectangle, heart, hexagon and semi-circle, which is my son’s favourite shape. Semi-circle apparently belongs to his cousin Sammy.    His Daddy has a Daddy-circle, Nanny has a Nanny-circle, and on he goes. The LR Shapes categories are very fun in our house.

I hope that this request makes sense.

Good night all,

Mum.

Thank you again DadDude.

I shall read about War sometime on the weekend. I must detach myself from the computer now and head to bed as I have just noticed it is already early morning here. Flags of Europe and reef fish have kept me up late!

I recently began reading a time management type book that told me in the first few pages something I did not want to hear........"There is no more time." It goes without saying that I didn't find time to read much of that book. 

I have noticed that you have a wide range of interests. Did you hear about the amazing scenes here in Sydney on Wednesday? When my 4 year old daughter woke up at about 6:30 am she said "Mummy, is it sunset?"

Here are some links to photos of our strange storm (another appears to be brewing out west now). I love the Sydney Harbour Bridge shots and the satellite photo from NASA.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/glance/866546/dust-storm-turns-sydney-skies-red
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/skies-in-queensland-nsw-go-red-in-dust-storm/story-e6freuzr-1225778535143?from=public_rss

Good night,

Mum.

Thanks DadDude.

I recall reading a thread some time ago in which you referred to your war game. For those of us who are unfamiliar with the game, could you please explain how to play.

Mum.

Do you have suggestions for games to play with one or two big foam dice.

Every time I get our new foam dice out my 2 year son just wants drop them from above his head or throw them around the room. If he ever settles down I will try to play simple quantity recognition, matching and addition games. But I cannot come up with any games for the higher quantities. Any ideas?

Thank you,

Mum.

Thank you mother of faith. Your calendar ideas sound really easy to plan and add to our activities.

Mum.

Thank you KL.

In any case, it will show you're not online after 15 minutes of inactivity anyway (even if you never manually logged out).

I never knew that. Computers...... and the BrillKids Team are so amazing. 

My children and I (especially my 2 year old) love Little Pim. It is a vey fun way to introduce children to other languages.

I love the Pimpleur cds in French.  You just listen 30 minutes a day in car or before bed or whenever and you really learn the language and your pronunciation will be superb (unlike when you learned it in high school).  

I wonder if luckylucy or any other members who have listened to the Pimsleur CDs could tell me about the various CDs available. If we are already listening to a few language CDs and DVDs for children (such as Little Pim French, Brainy Baby French and Hop, Skip & Sing French) would the Pimsleur Basic French CDs be worth buying or would you recommend spending much more to obtain the Pimsleur French I Comprehensive CDs? I was quite surprised when I checked out the prices!

Thank you,

Mum.

There must be a little monster in my computer. Hopefully it's just the adorable little green one from the Sesame Street book my son loves so much at the moment. 

When I log out today my name still appears in the Stats list at the bottom right of the screen.

It is weird and certainly not a big deal, but maybe someone can teach me how to log out properly.

Thank you,

Mum.

Wow! That all sounds math-nificent. 

If you are using the LM Cirriculum I would love your help with the following:

1. What is your preferred combination of English voice and Auto Forward Settings (ie. speeds) and why?

I use English fast (Woman), 0.2 seconds for the auto forward delay and 1.0 second for the delay between equations simply because I think that the faster settings are what makes the program crash on my computer. I am not very good with computer know-how but this is the solution I have come up with.

2. Are you able to successfully show all 10 equations in the Math Lessons?

My son is interested in the equations but he will not watch 10 yet.

Thank you in advance for taking time to help.

I am trying to get my delivery of the LM cirriculum perfect as in the past few months I have put an enormous amount of time into making math on the computer fun and by using some of the LM cirriculum am just reaching the stage where my some will watch math on its own. Previously I had to always play math and reading lessons together. I feel math will have more of an impact with my son if it can be viewed alone. Here's hoping! 

I would also like to thank everyone who shares their ideas and experiences via this amazing forum. I cannot thank you enough for your input. I have not been able to introduce the learning concepts on the same scale as many of the dedicated parents and other carers who contribute here, but everyone in my home is having a wonderful time with the early learning games that we are playing.

Thank you,

Mum.

Thank you for your reply KL.

I particularly like your comparison to showing different pictures of dogs. I can now put some more thought into this topic with a different angle to consider.

Could you please help with the following:

Also, will Semester 2 of the LM cirriculum include teaching:

greater than and less than
equalities and inequalities
fractions, and/or

any other math concepts which are not possible for us to create in LM at this time?

Thank you.

Can anyone else shed some light on the timing of introducing numerals to my son in about one months time if I switch over to the LM cirriculum. I am keen to use the cirriculum but am also concerned about confusing him or not having quantity cemented before then.

My son is certainly showing me that he is learning quantity, but his understanding in just one months time will fall far short of what Domanmom has shown us Hunter was capable of prior to introducing numerals.

I would be very grateful for any opinions/help.

Thank you.

KL, Lappy and the BrillKids Team

Thank you for LM. My children and I love the new LM Cirriculum.

I started to show lessons from the cirriculum (not from the start as we have been doing math for a while now) 2 days ago in conjunction with my pretty much "by the book" Doman red dot numbers and math presets. My daughter was immediately impressed and said "Wow, that's different!". Tonight my son actually said "More" to math on the computer.    Now I am more confident of being able to ease him across to longer lessons and use the LM cirriculum in place of my presets.

I have noticed that the LM cirriculum's numeral lessons start on Day 96. To my thinking this is early:

seeing the Math lessons are still on subtraction,
compared to the Doman program, and
given Domanmon's explanation of the totally firm grasp children need to have on quantity to perform rapid calculations in their head.

While I understand that your cirriculum has only used the various early learning math concepts as a guide and does continue showing quantity in the lessons, I am hoping that you can share your explanation for introducing numerals at that stage.

Also, will Semester 2 of the LM cirriculum include teaching:

greater than and less than
equalities and inequalities
fractions, and/or

any other math concepts which are not possible for us to create in LM at this time?

Thank you

Mum

I am not using the course, but I have done a lot of temporarily modifying the BK English Course Categories prior to using them in the Playlists I have designed for my son.

Based on this I recommend that you use Playback - Categories - Edit to add the bk-parts-body-bellybutton word file to one of the Categories that each Session draws from.

Good luck. Please let me know if it works,

Mum.