[one]

1) You will have to be the judge of the effectiveness of the programs for your daughter, but my understanding is that LR is not meant for and not most effective for children your daughters age. I could be wrong (someone, please correct me if I am), but at your daughters stage of development, LR is probably a helpful supplement
to another program.

Before you began EL with your daughter a few months ago, what was her exposure to books, reading, math, phonics, etc? My daughters previous experiences with such materials and concepts would've guided my preschool choices for her.

Can your girl speak English and Chinese? What 3rd language are you thinking of introducing and what is the reason that you are introducing it?

I am assuming that yours daughter is fluent in English (to an age appropriate level) and that her only exposure to Chinese is LR Chinese, because I don't know your case. Nevermind, I just checked and see that you do speak Chinese with your daughter. If I were you, I would build up her Chinese, and wait to introduce a 3rd language, just because you say she is leaning toward English more than Chinese yet Chinese is her heritage, a beautiful language and it will be infinitely easier for her to grow up with the language than re-learn it later. I would prioritize Chinese over her other languages, since you live in an English speaking community and she will be in French Kindergarten, Chinese would take precedent if I were you.

Your daughter can definitely handle 3 languages, all normal 4yos can. But there needs to be a frame of reference to her exposure. If she isn't familiar with Chinese and English already, I would probably work on building up her reading skills in English and her passive understanding/conversational skills in Chinese. I would introduce reading in English through more phonetic means, but I would really try to pump up her Chinese speaking abilities.

For reading, I might alter her reading program. I would use a phonics driven, literature rich approach.

I would look into the following 3 books:
The Reading Lesson
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

I would pick one of those books and begin working through it with my daughter and use other things to supplement our main program.

DVD's are great, but we teach kids to read so that they can read pages, so while I would invest some time in quality reading/phonics DVD's, and bookmark ReadingBear.org I would also get some readers (Bob Books, Now I'm Reading, Progressive Phonics, I See Sam, Ladybird Readers, etc...) and make a habit of reading some simple books together daily.

And right around 3 we discovered the Peter and Jane books, which I have found are amazing, too bad we didn't know about them with our elder son.

Its great to see his progression. He seems like he's on track to be reading as well as Blaise was by around 4, doesn't he?


Just curious, how would you have used Peter and Janes books with Blaise if you had known about them?
Just as additional readers or is there some other component to them besides just the books? Or are they a series that progresses in reading level evenly which would've thus made it easier for you to "step up" Blaises reading material as he was maturing. If I recall, your older son was using Bob books at 3 and reading from "Kidnapped" with fluency and comprehension by 4yo, yeah?

Would Peter and Jane readers really have made a difference in his progression or do you just think that they are just good childrens books you would've liked to share?

Mason is so cute. Great job Linzy. He does have a quiet voice, but I love how he uses his finger to aid him.

(Is he wearing a Batman suit replete with ears?)

[I'm not]

All my thoughts on this are still quite theoretical because I don't have any kids yet. However, I have thought about this a good bit, since I plan to raise a child in my non-native languages (Arabic and Spanish). Arabic will have religious significance to my children. They will use it daily in prayers and reading Quran, while Spanish has sentimental value to me for strictly personal reasons, my goal is for my children to be trilingual and triliterate.

I know a good deal of Arab culture and as Muslims, we have a few holidays and traditions that I am excited to share with my kids, but still I want a good grasp on the topic for them. I want the to know Islamic History and be familiar with Arab traditions, culture, etc...

I wouldn't celebrate a holiday or festival with a very small baby, because I'm not a festive person and a baby tends not to care too much if they don't get presents or do crafts on any particular day. I dislike hooplah and such, myself and like to make as little of a fuss as possible about holidays and events, but I want my kids to have a lot of enjoyment and excitement about special days so maybe when I have kids, I will feel differently.

As a child gets older, possibly around 2 or 3, then the celebration will have more meaning to them and they will have reason to appreciate the event (typically something fun is happening, even if they don't fully understand why). I want them to celebrate Eid, observe holy days and know the stories associated with many Islamic practices so even though I was born and raised Muslim, I will be doing formal Islamic Studies with my kids from very early on.

I am trying to learn more Latin Culture and decide which types of practices I'd be willing and able to incorporate into my life so far I have: siesta, large family lunches, light dinners, delicious recipes made with fresh foods, an appreciation for art and literature, the role that Latin Americans have played in the US, the family centric life style in the early years and --all things that seem to be embedded in life for many Latin Americans. I also intend to get a respectable library of Spanish books written by Spanish speakers, in Spanish for Spanish speakers.

I am a long way from actually having to do these things, since I haven't got a little one of my own just yet, but I am thinking about it a lot. I intend to be well armed with knowledge and ideas when I do have a child of my own. I'm alaready keeping my eye open for curriculum available in Spanish for grades PreK-12 as I would like to homeschool my kids in Spanish, Arabic and English.

[was]

I suppose the topic should have been "Why was he speech delayed?" then, eh?

Time tables are just basic rules of thumb and are far from conclusive or universal. He was just doing his own thing, many children are late talkers, I think it is especially common with boys that they speak later but when they get around to speaking, they speak on a more advanced level and progress much, much faster than babies who learn things "on time".

I'm not sure what "Failure to Thrive" means, but as most labels, both those that are considered positive and negative, I tend to be ignore. Especially if they seem premature and judgemental.

Doing more screen time when he was younger is not likely to have influenced him much, one way or the other, babies do not know that they are supposed to be growing and maturing on the adults time tables, they just do their own thing without feeling self conscious or anything like that.

But asking yourself, "Why is he speech delayed?" when he is speaking so well now will not really serve you or him.

Instead ask yourself, "How can I encourage and stimulate my baby to their happiest and healthiest state today, tomorrow and going forward?" Much more creative and positive answer.

I don't know of any Dvorak keyboard programs for kids. Why not just use the adult one and call it a day?

http://www.typingweb.com/tutor/language/ <--This site may be your best bet to find Kiddish Dvorak lessons. They have several lessons, some games and you can put the layout on Dvorak.

Absolutely. At this point, LR makes use of what they call pattern phonics. They are getting babies used to and fluent at seeing the pattern and understanding that "at" makes the /at/ sound. Its very beneficial and I would go through each lesson exactly as it was prepared. But there are many others who have more experience with the software than I do. Hopefully they will chime in and give your great feedback.

Welcome to the club .

Two years ago, there were tons of parents on this forum with kids that were between 12-30 months. Those kids ought to be between 36 and 56 months now. That's 3 and 4.5 years of age. (or even older) Where have all those parents and kids gone? Ella (I believe Aangles was pregnant, yeah? How is she doing, anyone know?), Cammie, Blaise, Henry, Lily (and Owen) and others whose names escape me at this moment....

What are the kids up to now? Where are they academically?

Not familiar with Saxon Math Workbook Master. If you want a math program in Spanish, both MEP and Math Mammoth are available in Spanish.

Rod and Staff is a Homeschool curriculum publisher and I do believe their math program is available in Spanish also.

Would anyone like to share their EL goals for this New Year that is 2013? Please everyone post to share some inspiration and advise with the community.

Someone should ask aangeles (Ella's mom) to reply. I don't know if they did math or not, but Ella is like a golden standard amongst all the families on the board. She is, I think, a child that would've been precocious, with or without EL. She is such an inspiration to me and probably many other parents on this board.
Ella, if I recall correctly, can do mental math (anzan) soroban, and arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply and divide) math on about a 3rd or 4th grade level. She may or may not have started Algebra already. I know that her mom was going to order her some books (Hands on Equations, I think) and they looked into Beast Academy, which is an elementary math curriculum for advanced 3rd graders.

Thanks so much for this update, your boys progress is really inspiring. When you say reading level, what exactly do you mean? (Do you take into account comprehension of vocabulary and story line, respect for and understanding of punctuation, accuracy of decoding as well as speed, fluency and retention of what they've read, or how is reading level measured. I remember being VERY impressed with your older boys reading a chapter "Kidnapped" I think from an older novel....) I can only imagine the progress he's made since then, but how do you determine his reading level?

If you have that book list your older boy is reading through typed up somewhere, I know that I can't be the only brillkids member interested in seeing it. Please link or post it here if it is already typed up.

I love that your family is doing so strongly in Math, this is what I love to see. EL kids thriving and excelling in math and reading very early on...
Have you looked at Hands on Equations, now might be the perfect time to introduce it to your son...He seems like he's at the right level for basic algebra...

Do you do anything specific for science, history, literature etc, or are those subjects still informal at this time?

About how long do you spend on Math each week vs the other subjects?

Do you guys have interest in music? I'm constantly debating whether or not I should teach music and if so, what to teach (perfect pitch, an instrument, more than one instrument, composer study, etc...)

I don't really need help deciding what to do with my kids just yet, I'm a mom to be, still, ...*sigh*
However I am curious what parents are planning to do or even what they are doing as their kids reach a more traditional school age, especially if there child is significantly advanced beyond the typical preschool-grade 1 scope.

I was homeschooled and I plan to homeschool, whether I do EL or not. I would really love to do a rich EL program and continue that trend until they are older and can make wiser, more informed choices about their own educations.

If I have to send my kids to a brick and mortar school than I would prefer some "non-traditional" or "non-mainstream" education for them such as Montessori for the 0-6 years and then an international, multilingual school.

If your toddler is already on a 1st grade level or beyond, what are you planning to do for their elementary education years and beyond?

I feel your pain! And your joy! I have a 3 year old that only likes to show me what he is capable of when he is ready. I get a lot of "No!"s followed by an eyeroll (from mommy ). I have to sneak around to see what he is really learning until he is ready to show me himself. Like today he walked up to me with a golf ball and a hair pin. He held out the ball, and said "This is an egg". "Well then, what is that?" I asked pointing to the hairpin. "This is a sperm." he replied matter of factly as he put them together to show me the egg was being fertilized. I can honestly say that I did not see that coming!!! But he was ready to tell me he understood!

This is great. I wan't to include a lot of biology and human life cycles and some reproductive education (I don't know if "sex ed" is the right word) in my EL regiment. What did you use to teach him about reproductive methods? Please share.