Oh okay! Thanks!

Thanks for your reply Skylark.

I'm a bit confused as to what you mean by using LR with Japaese interface. Could you explain this to me?

Any prospective dates of the Japanese release? I did the translation for it 15 months ago and am curious about its release.

I am selling a DOMAN crawling track from Pennsylvania.
It's the green and yellow crawling track as seen on the Doman website.
http://www.gentlerevolution.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=5129&Category_Code=EQUP
Mine is without the metal frame.

It is still in very good condition. Please PM me if interested. 

Which books are they?

I have one. It's the green and yellow crawling track on the Doman website, but mine is without the metal frame.
http://www.gentlerevolution.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=5129&Category_Code=EQUP

What is your location?

19 weeks that is awesome! Wish we had a hot tub, too..

I agree that the 'mixing' can continue for many years, but also keep in mind a parent's need to STOP the behavior when the time is ready.

Multilingual children (often also multicultural children) who speak the same languageS tend stick together because of the many things besides language that they share. When a GROUP (including a family) can understand and speak more than one language, the 'mixing' of languages tends to be excusable, especially when words simply don't translate. There is a tendency to speak the word or words that is more easily accessible (in the brain) even within a sentence of another language. For older children, it becomes even worse when it is considered somewhat 'cool' to be speaking 'mixed,' as it entitles you a position in that group. (This was the case in my growing up.) The child, so used to substituting words from other languages instead of sticking to the same language, then actually becomes handicapped when speaking to a person that can only speak one language. This can be a very serious handicap. No language is developed properly, leaving the child with not a single language that he/she can proporly speak at all!

Therefore, once you have that sense that your children are ready to start separating their languages completely--parents you'll know this when the time comes--urge your children to stricly stay in ONE language for that sentence/paragraph/incident. Although very natural for multilingual children and very expected (even beneficial) to mix languages sometimes, there comes a time when it is important that we teach them that mixing languages is wrong. (They won't like it--it's harder to stay speaking in one language only--but they will thank you later!)

My daughter had a 1/32 violin since Christmas at 14 months. It was still too big for her then, (couldn't even hold it properly) but has outgrown in by 2 years of age. She is now 3.5 yrs and I think is still a 1/16 size. Our violin teacher told us that, as a rule of thumb, the child is ready for the next violin size up if the hand (wrist) extends the end of the violin while the violin is rested on the child's shoulder.

Oops, I think the last part of my post got cut off. I wanted to say, after the balanced education part, that balanced education comes from the main culture of the house. (I want to say 'home,' but that could make it sound like 'home country,' so I'm refraining from that.) The house's/the parents' example and attitude towards the suggested approach to all challenges (be it education, hobbies, personal obstacles, etc.) largely influences the affect an education (school system) style has on the child and what they take out of it. Simply put, balanced education comes from the home.


Hmm.. in all of my years in Japan I have never come across anybody saying that children could not socialize out of school. That is, unless you have prior appointments after school (ballet/calligraphy/soroban/swimming/karate/etc. classes, doctor appointments, etc.). In fact, I got the strong impression that children were actually encouraged to socialize after school. When they become school-aged, they are socially expected to walk themselves to and from school on their own, and many times kids don't come home until the 'bell' chimes. (At 4:30 in the winter and at 5:00 during all other seasons the school rings a bell--more like a short song. This tells the kids what time it is and that it's time to be back home.) Unless otherwise specified, parents don't even expect their children to be home until this time. This is how it was for me growing up and how it still is. (And for the children whose parents were both working, the school had its own after school day care where the children were encouraged to PLAY. Some chose to do homework, but kids were encouraged to play. Socialization was a large component of the after school program.) Perhaps there were some parents who had decided to demand their children home after school as soon as possible to do homework and extra curricular activities.

Now, junior high and high school could be a different story, especially in the case of a highly prestigeous private school. OR, in the case the student goes to cram school. In this case, yes, it can be true that they don't get much time to socialize. However, it is kind of a stretch to say that in Japan children can not socialize out of school. I see teenagers hanging out all the time, prestigeous private school, cram school or not. (And with cell phones they seem to be, in that sense, socializing even more.)

If they wanted to stay at a friends house, they had to get permission from the school. We all thought this seemed incredible strict, but from what my sensei told us she said it was widely accepted without debate.

I don't think I have ever come across or heard of a scenario like this in Japan ever. I'm guessing, perhaps you've misunderstood your sensei, or what your sensei was telling you was misleading or very specific to the school/specific area? But this discouragment of socialization is NOT widely accepted in Japan at all. Just thought I'd clarify. 

I am part Japanese and part American, raised by both Japanese and American sides of the family, cultures, and countries. I can agree with the forum starter that CULTURE has a LOT to do with the approach to learning and performance.

(I'll try to be fair and unbiased here, but note that this is a personal account from my own experience. I identify with both cultures, so I am critiquing my own cultures. I am mainly speaking of public schooling systems of both countries and the general public in my point-of-view; I do not know much about private schools, and of course, there are exceptions to all cases I mention. I only speak of Japan, as though there are many similarities between China and Japan, there are also major differences that make it unreasonable for me to represent China also. The same with Korea, but I might mention Asian culture as a whole. We are different, but smiliar.)

Japanese (well, Asian, in general) culture has a strong emphasis on ambition, PERSISTENCE, and dilignece. I cannot stress this enough. A hidden trait of these qualities is loyalty (to family, to goals, to work, to school, etc.). It is the strength of Japan and also the beauty of it. No matter what you do. not. give. up. But these same values can be stressed and taken too far, like when acing standardized tests become the ultimate goal of education. In other words, stubborness and lack of problem-solving skills could be born in the name of of 'loyalty' or 'persistence.'
Japanese adults are high quality workers who work fast, thouroughly, and professionally with exceedingly high attention to detail, courtesy, and customer service. They are somewhat mechanical, very precise in their work. (Remember Japan/Asia is famous for excelling in math and science.) But compared to the US, modern arts (not the ancient arts) is a bit lacking in the artistic, figurative, and practical sense.

American (Western) culture has a strong emphasis on creativity. I notice this difference from the very beginning of 'standard' early education, i.e. preschools, day cares, kindergartens. Many child centers in Western culture have what's called a Creative Curriculum--very child centered, child oriented, child initiated. (Of course, that's not to say that there is non of these in a typical Japanese child center, but there are just more teacher directed, aim specific activities there.) A subtle difference of stressing a skillful mastering of a challenge (Eastern) and a creative mastering of a challenge (Western). From my point of view, I almost find myself in the US asking, "where is the structure in the classroom here?" (Of course there is structure, it's just so different from what I see in Japan.) And when lots of freedom, creativity/individuality is taken too far, there is more potential for one to confuse these qualities as an excuse to be somewhat selfish, arrogant, and less mindful of others in general.
American adults are generally very practical, skilled thinkers and figurative artists. They are high functioning individuals (as opposed to high functioning team members.). They are very outspoken, sure of themselves, and excellent at coming up with innovative ideas. However they are generally very poor at customer service (compared to Japanese service!) and attention to quality and detail.

For me personally, I feel that Japanese education (as a whole) lacks creative thinking, and American education (as a whole) lacks self-discipline and attention to detail. I think the solution is simply, BALANCED education: not too left-brained (mathematical, technical, etc.), not too right-brained (artistic, creative).

Personally, I wouldn't mind sending my children to a Japanese kindergarten (Kindergartens there serve 3-5 year olds) or to part of or all of elementary school (also keeping in mind, in our case the Japanese language is a necessity for my children because of our background), but I do mind sending them to junior high school and high school in Japan. The kids there just are not taught to think on their own as an individual, and the school system basically produces smart but immature, highly group(peer)-dependent beings who 'explode' in college from not knowing what to do with sudden freedom.

On the other hand, though I don't mind sending my children to a Western child center, I do mind sending them to an all Western education ALL throughout mandatory education. In my opinion there is just too much potential for arrogance to be nurtured. (Again, this is just my opinion coming from and being raised from two different cultures.) What I see in the US is the production of self-minded, self-serving students accustomed to the 'I'm the best' type of thinking. I am, though, very much for encouraging the development of the thinking involved with decision making that the Western curriculum offers.

I agree with an earlier comment about attending an international school. After Japnese kindergarten and a few years of Japanese public elementary school that's what I went through. The international school not only offered respect for and influence from all cultures, it offered a more balanced type of education.

Of course, international school is not an option to every family, nor is every international school the same. But again the key, I think, is to ambition for a well-rounded, BALANCED education for our kids. Take the good bits and pieces of all types of education and give it to your children. This will ultimately produce well-rounded, balanced, happy children and of course, eventually adults.. and a whole cultural generation in society, too.

I've been having the same problem as lois1 ever since the original open beta testing launch. I've done and redone the downloading steps again, and deleting files, starting over from Step 3 does not help anything at all.

Where do we find the diagnostic reports to send to you via email?

P.S..

This is probably just a preference thing, but I'll mention my suggestion anyway..

I would much rather see our clapping Brill KIDS mascots to be fully clothed, and not in diapers. (This is for LR and LMs.) Even babies have their diapers most often covered, and some are even potty trained at a very young age. When my daughter (3.5years, potty trained at 9mo) sees the diapered girl or boy in LR or LMs, she makes a sort of disgusted face, and I wonder what older kids who'll be using the programs will think when encouraged to copy the diapered baby. My daughter, thankfully, enjoys LR and LMs so much that the look doesn't stop her from participating. I just think there's less risk for participation withdrawl without the visible diaper.

(And for future LR upgrades, I would recommend the voices to say something other than "Where's your crib?"  etc., for the 'Baby Things' section, as there are older children also using LR--especially now with the Early Education for Every Children Foundation.)

Hopefully you'll find these suggestions constructive and supportive, as there is no question that we DO LOVE BrillKids products and everything you do!

Great job so far!

I've read an earlier reply by Kezia about downloading LMs successfully..

I am STILL (after several weeks) having problems downloading Semester 1 and 2.

We normally use Internet Explorer, but since that brought us to a naming error demaning a passpord, we tried downloading through Google Chrome instead. In Chrome, we started from Step 4, then encounted and error. So we tried again from Step 3, and encounted and error again.

Please help.

I forgot to mention:

During the Clap-Along, for example during Itsy Bitsy Spider, the "clap" icon moves down the screen for verses 1 and 2, but not during the bridge. The baby animation stops clapping also. This could suggest the wrong message that the first beat (or any beat you're trying to teach through clapping) in every bridge is nonexistant or is to be ignored. However, I understand the value in not clapping the whole time. For younger learners it could be too long or difficult to keep up with; also it could get boring. So maybe an entirely different image can come up during the bridge (hiding the non-moving left clap-signal and maybe the baby), like, maybe a spider, in this case, can be moving up the spout. The learner can still rest, but the wrong message is not sent as if to say, "Now, there is no first beat." Gives more eye candy, too.

Also, I continually get an error message when I click to continue from the String Instruments 1-3 to the second Chord Recognition of the day: "Little Musician has encountered a problem and needs to shut down." However, when I select the second Chord Recognition of the day and start from there, I do not get the error message. This has been the hase every time I am on Day 5, and occasionally the case when I am on other days of the trial curriculum.