Dear all,

In the last few weeks I read a lot about Vitamin D, as my husband and I are both deficient in this vitamin and it is said to cause a lot of health problems.

So, I was reading today and came across a really interesting article on Autism and Vitamin D deficiency. Do you think autism could be cured or the symptoms reduced by taking Vitamin D? It sounds too good to be true... but I believe, this is really worth to give it a try.

Here is the blog entry and different links, please read as it may be the most important information you read about autism cure!

http://pandemicsurvivor.com/2010/10/06/frustration-and-hope-for-autism/

Hello everybody,

Thank you for your answers, wow, so many interesting ideas! I love to hear about your everyday life, how you integrate reading in it.

We read together in the morning, when she eats breakfast and before she sleeps in the evening, usually about 30 min a day. Sometimes more and sometimes, when she is tired in the evening, less.

So, yesterday I asked her, if she wants to learn to read as good as me. She said yes and I told her, that for that she has to practice every day a bit. (I've read this idea from someone here in the thread) So since yesterday we practiced reading and it went very GOOD. I didn't have to force her or so, just motivate her. I'm so happy now. Yesterday she read about 15 minutes, today about 30 min. Wow!

Also now I make the piano lesson (we use Soft Mozart) a part of our daily routine, I hope, it will work well. She plays now since almost 1.5 years and doesn't make much Progress.

I think, my problem was, that I thought, I shouldn't request from her things like reading and practising piano, or she won't like it.

regards

Hi Mandabplus,

How old are your children? How old were they, when they started to read regularly for themselves?

And one more question: You wrote, you make your son read to you aloud every day. Does he always like that? What do you do, if he doesn't want to?

Thanks again for sharing!

Lolobride

HI everybody,

My older DD can read since she is 3 years old, but unfortunately doesn't read yet for pleasure (she is 4.5 now). I don't want to force her, but would love for her, if she practiced a bit every day. She reads once or twice a week for 10 minutes, often after I asked her to read a bit.

What would you do?

If I read to her (she loves that), I often motivate her to read the first 2-3 sentences of the chapter or so. That she does but she is happy to stop after that.

How much do your little children read for pleasure?

Dear Mom2Bee,

Thank you so much for your answer. Today I told her to read a bit more slow (she has difficulties doing that, she reads slow for 1 sentence, then she accelerates again). OK, she read for about 10 minutes. And there were about 5 words, that she didn't read well. These were long words, that she doesn't know yet or doesn't hear often. When I told her to read those words slowly, she could do it, but it wasn't easy for her.

Yes, I think it is a good idea to do more phonics exercices. Thank you for this suggestion.

You wrote: "For example if she looks at the words "Look at the beautiful woman" but says "Look its a pretty girl" or anything close to that, I would begin doing phonics more extensively and correcting more because while it may mean essentially the same thing, that's not what the writing says."

No, we fortunately don't have such a problem.

Best regards,
Lolobride

Hi everybody,

I began to teach my DD to read with LR, when she was 11 months old. At almost 2 years she read her first word and then it went very quickly. After a few months she could read over 700 words by sight and also knew the Alphabet.

At 3 years old she began to read books. First, books with many Pictures and few words, but by now, with 4.5 years she also reads longer passages.

Ok, BUT: she reads aloud and very very quickly. She often skips words, but that's not the Problem. If she doesn't know a word by sight, she just sais another one, that is similar or reads something else (a word for example, that doesn't even exist!). Until now, I didn't correct her often, because she really likes to read and I don't want to take her joy away. In the last few weeks I said to her sometimes "Please read that word again, but slowly" and then it's ok, she can read it.

So, my questions:

Do you have similar problems?
What should I do? Always correct, never correct? Tell her to read slower?

Thanks,
Lolobride

Wow, thank you so much for the good ideas and links. I will check them out!

Yes, I also thought, flashcards are not the best way. She doesn't like them at all!

Forgot to mention: she is 4.5 years old.

Hi,

I wonder, how do you teach your children math facts? Like addition and substraction up to 10 by heart?

My older DD can count to 100, skip count 2s, 5s, 10s, do simple additions and substractions up to 10 with her fingers or with other things. But she doesn't remember the facts, unfortunately, even though, we do it often.

I have Flash Cards for teaching these facts, but she just doesn't like them.

How did you do it?

Thank you for your answer :-)

Best regards,
Lolobride

Dear all,

Thank you so much for your replies! We hadn't had internet until today, so I couldn't answer earlier.

Now I will speak every day for 2-3 hours of german with her. If I just speak german the whole day and no hungarian anymore for the next 3 months, I can't do any of the EL we make at home. Like practising reading, maths, etc. But I hope 2-3 hours will be enough for her to understand much more than now and don't feel so left out. What do you think? Kindergarden starts in August, in 3 months.

I already made this once, when she was 2 years old. We spoke every day for at least 1 hour german, but unfortunately I stopped, when she began the pre-kindergarden (where she was only once a week, so that wasn't enough). Now I regret very much to have stopped...

@Frukc: I've never heard of HSC, would you recomend the book? For our DD it is sometimes very hard to open up. For instance she knows my brother since birth, but didn't have much contact with him, but saw him 5-6 times a year. Until this day (and she is 4 years old) she is very shy, when she meets him and doesn't talk to him).

Regards,
Lolobride

Hi everybody,

We live in a german speaking Country, but our native language is hungarian. So we speak hungarian at home with our daughter since birth. I also taught her to read and write hungarian. She is now 4 years old.

Since she was 1.5 years old, I took her to Swimming and dancing classes and made up with german speaking friends, so she hears the language. But now we noticed, that this wasn't enough unfortunately. In August she will begin the kindergarden and she doesn't understand good german (I myself speak perfectly, as I grew up here). She is also very shy, and now I think, I made a big mistake by not speaking to her more german. I don't want her to be left out in kindergare, but that is exactly what will happen. Ok, she speaks and reads hungarian, but is this really so important for her future? I'm not sure anymore.

What is your opinion? Do some of you have children, who also couldn't speak the country language, when entering kindergarden?

Regards,
Anna

Hello everybody,

Nice to read such stories from older kids! I'm still reading the forum every week and looking for new ideas what to teach.

My daughter is almost 4 years old now, we startet with LR when she was 11 months old. At 3 she began reading easier books and now at 4 she reads quite good. Books with up to 10 sentences per picture. I don't know, which reading level this might correspond to, as we are reading hungarian books.

With LR we began teaching english to her, and I also read to her sometimes in german. She understands german (as we live in Switzerland), but doesn't speak yet. This summer she goes to kindergarden, so I think she will learn the language very quickly.

In math we do the marsmallow math, she likes to count up to 20, count different things. She can count also backwards and knows the colors and the basic shapes.

In science we didn't do a lot... but I will begin with her now more intensely. Right now we are learning about the solar system, the stars and planets and I plan to make a few presentation to her on this issue. Before we used to read about different animals. But else... we unfortunately didn't do much.

I read to her every day at minimum 30 minutes, often even one hour. We read almost only fiction until now, recently we began reading non-fiction. She likes that also. She has many-many books, 3 bookshelves full of them. Not all are suitable for her right now (I still have a lot of books I read as child / teen). Every day she is also reading at least one book to me or to herself.

In music we began about a year ago with soft Mozart, but at the end she didn't like to play, so 2 months ago we stopped. I would like to begin again in march, and I hope, she likes it more now. We do LMs, she really likes that, we are on lesson 72 at the moment.

Yes, that's what we do. When I read the forum, I often think, we could / should be doing much-much more... but I hardly find the time, because I'm also a working mom. Our second daughter will be born in april and I hope, I can continue everything with my first daughter and also do the program with my 2. Well, it will be an interesting journey :-)

I

Hi and many thanks for your answers! So that's something, that's going to be solved with time. Good to know! 

I will not worry anymore about this issue. In fact, I like, when she reads loudly, so I hear, if she has problems reading out a word or so... I was just not sure, if this doesn't slow her down.

Hello everybody!

My little daughter is almost 4 years old and reading easier little books with pictures. She likes very much to read and often reads to her toys or to me. Like in the beginning (she began reading a year ago) she still sounds out the words loudly. I told her to try to read silently, just to herself, but that doesn't work...

Should she read silently or is it no problem, if she reads loud? I always think, this is slowing her down.

Any advices?

Regards,
Lolomama

Hi everybody,

my daughter is 3 years old, and we didn't do a lot of math until now. She can count to 20, that's it.

Now I've read a lot in this forum and would like to try Touch Math. I saw different packages on their site. The Pre-K Complete Program costs USD 799.- and this is too expensive for us at the moment. Is the Pre-K Unit also good? Does it have everything to start with?

Which sets did you buy?

Thanks a lot for your answer!