We've been watching "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego" (http://www.amazon.com/Where-Earth-Carmen-Sandiego-Complete/dp/B006WNSHUY).  One of the main characters is a polyglot, Zach, and he uses this skill to talk with people all over the world.  His older sister, shown chasing Carmen on the cover, really depends on him.  It's one of many things I really like about the series, and the kids really like it.  They watch it during their recreational viewing times.  They show maps, describe cultures, and learn about history and archeology.  When they travel, they go through a tunnel where the computer tells them facts about where they are going, with pictures.  For $6, it was a no brainer for us. 

Oh wow!  I guess I better get cracking.  That's amazing.  Honestly I didn't even know the word polyglot until this post, but I've been looking into it.  The following video was very interesting.  He talks about the 10,000 hours to mastery that we have discussed, but also introduced  the Pareto principle, which says that you can get 80% of the results in 20% of the time.  If 10,000 hours will give you a mastery of a language, like a native speaker, 2,000 hours will help you reach basic fluency, to be able to speak a language quite well.  2,000 hours is much less intimidating!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/3Kzjn7kCAtU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/3Kzjn7kCAtU&rel=1</a>

My friend recommended Kimochis.  We've decided to get them as soon as we can swing it. Apparently they are VERY effective.

http://www.kimochis.com/main.html

This is her review:  http://howtoraiseroyalty.blogspot.com/2013/05/pretty-crazy-amazing-first-day-was.html

Not that this forum is expensive or anything...   

The games on http://www.hoodamath.com/ are focused on thinking skills and my kids really like them.  Okay, fine.  I really like them too. 

While many of his ideas were new and based on his experience working with brain injured children, my understanding that Stoner's "Natural Education" and a study of other prodigies, like William Sidis of the 19th century were influential.  http://archive.org/details/naturaleducation00stoniala

Good luck with your research paper.  We would love to hear updates as applicable. 

I've heard of most of the child prodigies listed in the second, but I had no idea they were celebrities for it.  That was an interesting read, thank you for sharing. 

Why not?  Yes, I have. 

 

I was afraid someone was going to call me on this goal.      Thank you.  I haven't been keeping track lately, and frankly I haven't been as good about reading to my kids lately.  Ever since Patrick really started reading on his own, he hasn't requested it as often.  We still do a lot of reading, but when they don't beg for it, I don't do it as much, and I've put my attention on other areas.  Ruth is doing great as far as learning how to read, but since I haven't counted flashcard sessions (digital or otherwise), it doesn't contribute much to my total count.  But with 6 months left, I guess I better step up to bat and get it done.  I didn't realize how lofty this goal was when I set it!  If a book or chapter takes 10-15 minutes, it doesn't add up as fast as I thought it would.  I don't want to read lots of little board books only for the sake of reaching the 2013 goal either.  This summer we have been reading at least 20 minutes every day or the library's reading program, so I've kept track of the time instead of book count, and it really does take that long to read the books my older kids need ME to read to them.  If I kept track of all the reading they did to themselves, we wouldn't be behind, but that wasn't the purpose of my goal.  Hmm. It's time for me to re-evaluate what's important to me and reaffirm my goal to read more.

People wanted to share information in a more private setting.  We originally started the group as a proselyting mission to spread EL, and while many want to do that, they also don't feel comfortable sharing photos of their kids, and they don't want posts that could be seen as bragging showing up on their personal friend's newsfeeds.  I didn't know it would do that.  The open group is bigger and is doing well, but the closed group has EXPLODED with activity.  They both serve a useful purpose.

More on what open vs closed means here:  https://www.facebook.com/help/220336891328465/#What-are-the-privacy-options-for-groups

I want to address the illogical color scheme because I know exactly why they did it.  In fact, I did it myself.

When I was still teaching piano, I experimented with color matching.  I had a 4-year-old that wanted to play like her older siblings (this was LONG before I knew anything about EL), and I had the challenge as a teacher of making it more accessible.  I found http://www.pianoforpreschoolers.com/ and I loved the idea of putting an insert behind the keys, but I couldn't figure out WHY they had such an illogical color scheme.  So I started with the rainbow and colored the first song in her book.  Sure enough, she was able to match the colors, mostly.  But the problem for a beginner is, with no color scheme at all, they often mix up notes that are close to each other.  A "C" and a "D" are very close to each other.  Sure, one is a line note and one is a space note, but they are close and we are talking about beginners here.  Well, Red and Orange are also similar, especially in bad lighting or if the crayons you use are too similar.  I experimented a lot with my younger siblings.  I gave them a song with just the letter names and colors- no staff and notes, just to see if it was the colors that were throwing them off.  Sure enough, they too mixed the red with the orange up.  Yes, they knew thier colors, but when you have to think about so many other things, it's easy to mix them up.  They never mixed up the notes between yellow and green.  So I came up with my own color scheme so as not to infringe on any copywrite issues and because I envisioned making my own piano course someday.  Haha, still haven't done it.  Once I mixed up the colors, I had better success.  My 4-year-old student progressed faster when I gave her the new color scheme too.  While you may mix up a C and a D on the staff, you won't mix up blue and pink, or what have you.  Orange and red are still similar colors, but if they're a 5th apart on the staff, it will make little difference.  Anyway, that's why the color scheme is so erratic.

So why is my "Solfege Train" rainbow colors?  I've come full circle, .  The reason for that is that I wanted to teach my kids movable Do and having success with colors, I decided to assign colors to the solfege names.  I already had one crazy color combination for individual note names and I didn't want to introduce a new one that I would be moving all over the place.  Not only that, I now had young children that can read, and I was teaching with big color cues like staircase triangle and step-on floor circles.  I originally did these activities with my crazy color combination for C major, but I didn't want to get them stuck on C major.  So I switched to a rainbow pattern.  Before I was ready to publish, Little Musician came out and had the exact same colors!  Now I realize that many music programs do- Boomwhackers are mostly the same, and Your Baby Can Discover is also very similar.  So I threw in the towel and we went with the rainbow idea.  When I color notes in my children's songbooks, I just make sure to use a light pink, a bold red, and a vibrant orange to make it easier to tell them apart.  Like I said, my kids can read, so having notes labeled "Do, Re, Mi" makes a big difference too.  With my own children, I color the notes based on what key it is in.  If a song is in F major, I color all the F's red, and we move our movable do piano insert around with it.  (http://www.professional-mothering.com/2012/10/movable-piano-insert.html)

Coming back to piano wizard, their color scheme makes a lot of sense to me.  Based on my own experience, I wouldn't suggest you let that be the deal breaker for you.  The other points that have been brought up perhaps would be.  The busy backgrounds could be a good thing or a bad thing- they can distract from what you need to focus on, but they can also give a "cool" factor that older kids might respond better to.  My 4-year-old especially responds well to "video game" teaching environments, and I think she would LOVE to play in the dinosaur level or the horse level, or whatever their pictures are.  I do plan on getting it myself, not sure which package I'll get, but I don't think it will throw my kids off.  They associate the rainbow with solfege only, so figuring out a new color scheme for fixed pitches is something I don't think will be a problem.  At least I hope not.   

On the other hand, Soft Mozart's graphics are specific to the notes, and I really like that.  If they play a note wrong, they get a spider.  If they are holding it too long they see a butterfly.  If it isn't long enough, they see Mr. Oops.  They get really excited over these pictures.  Like I said, Soft Mozart is simply the best I have seen for toddlers.  Older kids may do better with a different program.  For an adult, http://www.playgroundsessions.com/ is the one I want to convince my husband to try.  (found from this list, which I have also looked through:  http://piano-lesson-software-review.toptenreviews.com/)  If you can only get one music program for a 3-and-under child, my recommendation is neither SM or PW, but Little Musician. 

At the end of the day, I'm not trying to prove one is better than the other, I just want my kids to learn to play piano and be musically literate.  Little Reader, for example, is my favorite reading program out there.  Still, they don't get 100% of the credit for teaching my kids to read.  Your Baby Can Read, Monki See, Starfall, and "Meet the Sight Words", and involved parents also played very important roles.  While I know these companies may see each other as competition, in my home they are all tools I use, all companies I love, and they form a symbiotic relationship that all help me reach the common goal of giving my children early literacy.  The fact that Krista (MonkiSee creator) is so active on the BrillKids forum speaks very highly of her and her understanding of how we don't have to compete but we can work together towards a mutual goal. I admire her for that.  Anyway, I suggest that you use the tools that are available to you, that fit your budget, and your family's lifestyle.  There's no right or wrong answer.  Good luck!

Mo Williams IS great literature for my toddler!  They're the first books my son wanted to read independently.  They're funny.  I think they'll be a classic 20+ years from now.

I guess it depends on how you classify great literature.  Still, I think the elephant and piggy books are a must read.  They're very popular, so if anything, read it for the cultural benefits.  I love to read the new ones myself. 

I don't think you will be able to get a review on Soft Mozart from anybody using it that isn't an affiliate- we'd be crazy not to

lzp11, I'm eating my words, and I don't think you're crazy.  Sorry about that, everyone, I wasn't thinking.   

WTB- Want To Buy.  I finally stopped to think about it so I'm adding it to the list.

There is a need for a closed facebook group so we have started one, in addition to the open group.  You are all invited.

Closed Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/386335411472271/

Open Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/354875557944414/

I'm sorry the openness of the group has been a limiting factor for you two- and probably more.      Well, there's no reason that we can't have a closed group also.  Done!  You are all invited.  I don't want to make the first one a closed group because I feel that the open group is serving a purpose as well.  There may end up being some overlapping of content, but that's okay.  I can see there is a need and we want to help everyone meet it.

Closed Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/386335411472271/

Open Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/354875557944414/

Ashly and I met because she found my blog and sent me a personal message that resulted in a phone call. The rest is history! She's the only one on the forum I have met in person- but we're a couple states apart so that doesn't happen as often as we would like. I can't wait for her family reunion next month!  There are a few BK members that live close and we just haven't coordinated a meetup yet.  I have a few family members and local friends who are interested in EL but I wouldn't call them EL buddies. 

The yahoo group is where I met my first EL friends, and I miss the activity there sometimes.  I really appreciate the connections I made there.     I can't say I miss the people that much because most of them migrated to this forum with me.
Since we started the facebook group, I have become facebook friends with many on this group and it has really helped make our friendships more personal.  I'm always happy to "friend" EL people once I know that's who you are. I also think it helps spread the EL message when you make an EL post and you have people to like it and back you up, and it's fun to give that support too. I invite anyone interested to join us on facebook too. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/354875557944414/