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1  EARLY LEARNING / Early Learning - General Discussions / Re: 6 month old activities on: September 06, 2009, 03:03:04 PM
No it´s not, but I insist that you try to translate it, maybe via internet software, because even though when they apply these to the schools they fail to reach their goal, this document and intention plan really gives you a general well described overview of every aspect the young human encounters when starting to relate to the world.
2  EARLY LEARNING / Early Learning - General Discussions / Re: 6 month old activities on: September 06, 2009, 01:47:44 AM
Tree,
Hands on Activities (including Motricity): this link, in spanish, is what I used for activities, it´s wonderful, (Chilean Dept. of Education)
http://www.umce.cl/~cipumce/educacion/preescolar/dad/bases_curriculares_preescolar.pdf
this link is for Montessori activities
http://www.montessorimaterials.org/math.htm
Music: IAHP curriculum The Initial Music Program and IAHP guide to music composers
Good luck!
3  EARLY LEARNING / Early Learning - General Discussions / Re: 6 month old activities on: September 05, 2009, 01:40:59 AM
Hello tree,
this is what I was doing with my son when he was 6 months old, hopefully you will get ideas:
1. Physical: Swimming, baby circuit (creeping in a race for a good 45min twice a day), he was standing up for the first time (holding to a big foam cube)
2. Language: talking to him in Spanish and English, word and phrases bits
3.Math: Quantity bits
4. Hands on activities: Logical-Mathematical, Self-environment, Artistic-sensorial, Language, Nature
5.Music: music appreciation
6.Motricity: fine motor skills

The day was divided into directed activities and free activities. In the free ones sometimes I would suggest materials for him to use, for instance an empty shampoo bottle and he would exercise his concentration for quite long trying to screwwand unscrew the top part.
4  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child - Other Topics / Re: Share pictures of playrooms/learning space! on: September 04, 2009, 04:54:17 PM
Joha,
about the levels on discipline, this is something I invented based in the Civil Code program.
It works like this.
Example: make your bed alone every morning.
When he was 2 he was starting this, so I demanded putting the pijamas aside so I could take off the bedspread and he would strectch his sheets. If he did it happily and at his best capacities (eventhough it was not 100% perfect) he got a +1 (in that time I used happy faces, now I use positive/negative numerals and fractions). If he advanced a level, it would mean that he would achieve something I wasn´t asking: having it done before I got to the bedroom and surprising me, leaving the sheets straighter than before so I could see he had mastered that task (motricity), doing the sheets and taking off the bedspread as well, and so on. I made bedmaking more complex, until the time came when he did it 100% by himself and perfect (adult standard). When he has mastered this, making your bed comes off the discipline pannel to be changed for something new that he needs to mastered, and it is simply part of his dayly responsabilities but he doesn´t get points for it. So the advancing of levels in any of the pannels is left to my subjective opinion (or father´s).
About the German language, I bought the german program from IAHP, that has bits, a guide to lessons and a cassete for hearing. After this we moved on to a teacher that would come once a week only to exercise our conversation, no teaching per se. After this I made a workbook so that he would write everyday (in cursive) and read every day new phrases and sentences, and be exposed to new words. Also I bought an adult course (only book) for learning german and a german workbook which german children (who supposedly know the language) use to write (amazon.de). I also downloaded a huge story book in german, and speak daily to him throughout the day in german...that´s it.
5  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child - Other Topics / Re: Share pictures of playrooms/learning space! on: September 02, 2009, 11:52:59 PM
Joha,
I quite don´t undersatnd what you mean levels for laws and civility.
6  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child Music / Re: Suzuki Violin on: September 02, 2009, 11:49:27 PM
Yes, I don´t use the computer to teach my son, or the TV, or videos on TV or computer. Only reading, writing, talking, engaging in activities, taking workshops (we just finished an astronomy workshop that the whole family attended , since we gave him a telescope for his birthday), playing instruments, doing sports and whatever else you can think of. Sometimes for a parent it´s easier to present flashcards on the computer (and cheaper) as opposed to printing them and binding them into a book. This way the child gets exposed to more material, that in the other case wouldn´t make it through the assembling process. But, in the long run, (remember we are talking about a work of years), the quantity of the material isn´t as important as the way the material is presented. When Iñaki was 2,5 yo I was heavily into word and phrases bits in Spanish. We were reading El Quijote daily (it took us 1 year to finish it) and every day I would take a very challenging word from the book and make one bit for him. I would present this bit the next day three times, and then move on to a new word. His mind was processing quite quickly and this was enough. I mean to say that one must not loose the objective of the work: brain stimulation. If the making of the material is too much, too expensive, too emotionally draining, then you should adapt the material to your specific conditions of living. The info on bits (or whatever) and the daily life of your child isn´t separated. She is making an immediate association between the information and the logic parameters by which she will understand life. The intensity of whatever amount of stimulation you can give her is more important that the quantity of it.
At age two my son was:
1. Physical circuit every day
2. Spanish, English, German, japanese, french, Italian bits (EK)
3. Spanish, English books everyday
4. Logical- Mathematical activities every day (Hands on)
5. mathematical operations every day
6. Artistic development activities everyday
7. Violin classes
8. Important social program: the law
9. Homemaking responsabilities: he was starting to take care of our dogs, starting to make his bed alone and I started to teach him how to cook. I would make him do almost everything alone, I started to make him eat properly with real fork and real knife (I started with the fish knive that doesn´t have a blade and then moved on to the regular one)
10. Swimming
I may forget something, but every day was full of things to do, never a moment of boredom. I had a very good scheduling and programming I could relay on, and in my free time I was always researching for more, so time wouldn´t catch up with me when we moved on.
7  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child Math / Re: The Kumon Method on: September 02, 2009, 11:04:18 PM
What I mean is that when you have clear what brain development is about in early development (e.g. keep advancing, don´t expect output or at least linear output, expose them to higher level engaging, etc) you can adapt any method (or nearly any). For instance, I started with Kumon because I needed an organization in relation to the exposure to writing. I thought about Kumon for a month and lastly decided that it was easier for me to fix or not do what I thought was not right, that to come up with a whole new program from scratch. I have the kumon math worksheets as well  and I think that the first two to four  booklets are OK but from then on it is a good complimet to instant math and montessori manipulatives, if you are clear (as a mom, not as an educational method) of what you are looking for, you can adapt any method, including Kumon.
Yes, Sapna, Kumon was positive for us, because of the way we approached it.
8  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child Music / Re: Suzuki Violin on: September 02, 2009, 06:01:51 PM
Xica,
I strongly advice against computer using as a substitute, even as a help. I know right now this is unpopular since it is such a help for making bits and accesing info. For us parents it´s Ok to use it as a works media, but I don´t think it is beneficial at all for children. That includes absolutely no TV. I have no articles to share about investigations that proove this, certainly there are and there are also studies that show the contrary. BUT in the reality, if you read Shichida for instance, and research outside educational sites about ESP, the power of suggestion, speed reading or instant math, or whatever strikes you as important that you are homeschooling your child, you will see the power of the brain when it´s starts making connections to the outside world through the senses and emotions. Read Gardner´s Multiple Intelligence postulate (Amazon or even Wikipedia), and you will see that nothing substitutes reality. If you have no resources for a private teacher, buy the instrument. don´t hesitate. If you don´t have resources for a violin, buy a xylophone and practice her ear training with that. Coordination is a big one here, because playing the xylophone needs technique. I don´t want to lecture on my own stand pro reality and brain development, and against computers and TV, but I can tell you I have been researching and applying for quite some years now, and the most important thing is not how fast and early your child learns, but how he/she learns. What happens to her brain, and thus her persona, when the info goes in a different way, accesing a different area, at an age where they are still constructing their world image, building their logic patterns to function in a future world. The truth is a ten year old is small enough to learn how to play the violin well, but what we should be looking for is not a 10yo master in violin, but a 10yo master in music awareness. I hope I explained myself well. Research also Waldorf´s Eurhythmy, which is a dance. We have been doing it for years, and this is how my son learned to compose, first with his body, then with mathematical patterns, and finally with musical notes which he plays on the violin. This is what I mean, he can understand that music is everywhere (in the kinetics of the body, in the math pattern of a leaf, in the duration of a wind blow, etc).
9  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child Math / Re: The Kumon Method on: September 02, 2009, 05:45:51 PM
My son 4yo is using Kumon language since he was 2,5 years old. He already knew how to read by the Doman method and recognized all of the letters. But he needed to continue and start writing, and Kumon was good for this. I don´t agree with the method in the structure or timing, since for little kids who are developing their right hemisphere it won´t boost their potential. But we had a very good guide at our center and she gave me the material and total freedom. We would just advance and advance when my son was ready, not necessarilly dominating every worksheet. At first I would time him but for him it meant nothing so I stopped that. I was not interested in his speed, but rather in his development of the language secrets. When we felt it was needed, we would repeat the worksheets again. We worked Mon thru Sun and then I stopped that, because I needed time on weekends for other things. We started working Mon thru Fri and haven´t stopped everesince. We are in level B2 in Spanish, learning grammatic rules. He is doing the worksheets on his own and writing on his own since a long time now. In Kumon worksheets he prints and in other languages which I make the workbooks he writes in cursive. All in all Kumon gave me a solid base to develop my child´s language, learn new words, etc.
Any questions just ask.
10  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child - Other Topics / Re: Share pictures of playrooms/learning space! on: September 02, 2009, 02:24:51 AM
Joha,
the scores on the discipline pannel go like this:
+2 did it well, happily and advanced a level
+1 did it well and happily
+1/2 did it well
0 didn´t do it upon request
-1 didn´t do it upon request, and was rude
-2 didn´t do it upon request, and was rude and didn´t apologize.
We are studying six languages:
1. Spanish
2. English
3. German
4. Japanese
5. Latin
6. Greek
We read every day, we speak everyday, we write everyday on these languages, and everyday we learn something new, at least one word, one phonogram, one grammatic rule, whatever. I teach everything. When Iñaki was 2 yo he already started reading so right now I had to move on: grammar, printing, cursive, etc.
I don´t know all the languages, so I prepare each class, at this point I have a method, but I NEVER translate, and he is starting to THINK in this languages because he uses mixed phrases, part in spanish, part in german, for instance, and that was what I was aiming for.
11  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child Music / Suzuki Violin on: September 02, 2009, 02:12:17 AM
I was asked to share my experience with my son and suzuki violin classes, so here it goes:
When Iñaki was 18 months old I had the feeling he needed to experience music in a new way. I had gone to Philadelphia to take the Doman course, and had been applying music appreciation with him for a long time. eventhough his age was not suggested in IAHP as proper for starting, I followed my instinct. I searched and found fairly easily a teacher, considering I live in Chile, South America, where we don´t have half of what you guys have in USA for early child development. The teacher had his doubts but I told him I didn´t expect results, I just needed my child to be exposed to the instrument at a high level of technique. I guess this took the load off and he agreed. My son loved the violin, carrying it to the academy, playing for others (no fingering at that time) and he was invited to form part in a recital at the age of 2. After the recital he was no longer interested in the instrument. We tried for one month and nothing. His classes were always solo because I was never able to find an age appropiate group that would fit him (eventhough I would consider even 6 yo age appropiate). So I started taking the class and he would accompany me. He wanted to bring his violin on his own account and follow the directions that the teacher gave to me. It has been two years since that and we have never stopped taking the class together, playing together in the recitals, and practicing together everyday. It is our thing. It bonded us in a particular way, and made me research new ways, more "Doman" ways if you will, of exposing a young child into a technique that is physically and emotionally demanding. I have come up with ways of stretching his class until he has been working for an hour, happily, concentrated on the "violin project".
I was asked about the violin pannel that is on the web album. It is very simple: his part of the class is now divided into five (the pictures on the web are outdated): playing, fingering exercises, bowing exercises, rhythm exercises (he composes a musical verse with material I made for him and he plays it on percussion instruments, the musical triangle, and lately on the violin), and finally the repertoire part of the class: each week we learn and practice a new thing: pizzicatto, staccato, etc.
I made a photgraph representing each one and the teacher grades him after each class:
+2 did it well, happily and advanced a level
+1 did it well and happily
+1/2 did it well
0 didn´t do it upon request
-1 didn´t do it upon request, and was rude
-2 didn´t do it upon request, and was rude and didn´t apologize.
At the end of the week, when we add up all of the points in the Discipline Pannel, we add this as well.
I have to say that one thing that made it good for him, although it was challenging for me, was that every practice we had during the week was a music research instead of merely a violin practice: hearing music, composing music, playing music (violin) and dancing music (eurhythmy).
Hope this post gives ideas and thanks for asking.
12  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child - Other Topics / Re: Share pictures of playrooms/learning space! on: September 01, 2009, 02:36:49 PM
Reei, I will respond to you in a new thread with the title: Suzuiki violin, so other parents thar are interested benefit from this conversation.
13  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child - Other Topics / Re: Share pictures of playrooms/learning space! on: August 30, 2009, 08:44:39 PM
Thanks ZaJa;
I homeschool Iñaki 100%, my husband is the golf teacher and my mother is the practical and sensorial teacher. I use a variety of methods, here is a summary (somewhat ) of what I use as a guideline, but this is not literal:
1. Doman: heavily on the physical development and brain speed
2. Shichida: I recently studied him on line, don´t have the books yet, but I saw that I did some of the things he develops: memory linking and ESP.
3. Classical: Classic Languages, Logic, Astronomy
4. Charlotte Mason: Nature Study, Art Appreciation and Music appreciation, Narration
5. Montessori: Mathematics, Geography and Culture, Sensorial and Practical
6. Waldorf: Eurhythmy
7. Suzuki: Violin since he was 18 months
8. Multiple Intelligences
9. Religion and Spirituality: we study the teachings of the world´s major religions starting with Zoroaster.
It took me years to choose what I thought was worth of each method, and it´s hard to share in a post because I don´t know how to synthetize it, since some things overlap or are much more that they seem on paper (I mean written down), but I have to say that overall I apply an environment of radical brain development, always giving him independence and the opportunity to engage in things that are beyond his capacities, so he develops his capacities by doing.
Hope this helps.

14  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child - Other Topics / Re: Share pictures of playrooms/learning space! on: August 29, 2009, 01:16:44 PM
Hello everyone,
sorry for taking so long to reply, but I had a trojan in my computer and couldn´t use it for a few days. About learning spaces; I have to say that until my son was 1,5yo we lived in a very small apartment. He had his own room, where I kept only his crib and a chair, so he could have a lot of free space. I had the pannels in his room put on when he was 1yo and bought the chair and desk for him to work on. We stored away our whole dining room so we made that his activities room. When we moved to our house, the winter garden was there, and eventhough I firmly believe he should use our whole house as a learning space, I equipped it for him.
About the room: the photos are a bit outdated, but the idea is the same:
1. The pannels beside the brachiation ladder are his to use, but the discipline pannels are mine, which means only I can write down the points and the weekly priviliges.
We are in winter now (South America) so there´s a balance beam by the brachiation ladder. In spring (in a few days) it will go out again, to the garden for the whole summer.
2. Exploration wall: I use this name because it is strictly that: my son is constantly working and investigating with all the materials in the baskets. Nowadays it is better organized (through experience one gets better at knowing that the better laid out the material, the better independent investigation goes  for him). I change the materials in the baskets every now and then, specially when he outgrows them. He nearly doesn´t use toys, only "materials", all the stuffed animals you see there are mine!
The materials all have rules, and every time he wants to use a material for a new purpose, he asks: montessori geometric solids cannot be used as balls because they can get ruined (wood) but they can be used to construct,for example.
3. Ariel, we have our activities planned out throughout the whole day, and in between free slots (1 to 2 hours). I have found that this serves us better, because generally after having a two hour session he needs one of these: disconnect and go work with sand for a good two hours, or keep on in the topic we were working, but now in an independent way. So, he does always use the materials by himself, except when we are together already making use of one of them.
4. The water and sand table is a Waldorf idea that I developed and added the table cover that opened and could stand as a drawingstand. I had it built in a workshop, and I made this album for the IAHP forum, and took the closeup pictures so other parents could see the building details and have it made. The wood is the cheapest that there is here in Chile, pine and the cover is white melamine. I thought of applying a special barnish aganst humidity for the sand and water area, but it wasn´t necessary. This is a huge success because of its dimensions it really has multiple uses. Nowadays Iñaki is into carpentry and we do all of our carpentry there, it is comfortable and the surface is sturdy.

Anyone that has a basement or a free space they can designate for their child´s work inside the house, should have this into consideration: make good use of the walls for storage and holding materials, open shelves are the best. Liberate the floor area and put only one focus point in the middle: a working table if you have the space, mats on the floor if you are restricted spacewise.
Hope this helps, and thanks for the positive comments.
15  EARLY LEARNING / Teaching Your Child - Other Topics / Re: Anybody teaching their child to be "physicallly superb"? on: August 25, 2009, 06:08:21 PM
Waterdreamer,
the booklets are sold in the alumni forum site. You should contact IAHP by mail so they can send you a catalogue with prices.
About your question on how much and how long to walk and run, there´s a schedule in the book, BUT I never followd it. I did my own schedule, based on the program, because for me the physical part had to be more intense.
When my son was 6 months old we would do baby circuit, where he would creep 45 minutes to an hour straight, twice a day, in a race. He loved it for me to chase him so I pushed him hard to go fast and not stop.
At 6 months he stood up, and I made him walk holding onto furniture the whole day, I never passed him anything, e.g. ball, but I put it close to his reach.
At 2 yo we would walk Mon thru Fri 2 hours daily. If I could not achieve it, my minimum was 3 times a week.
We also started running at this age.
Now that he is 4 yo, running 1 hour non stop, and walking 18 holes nonstop in the golf course, carrying his own bag AND playing the course.
We don´t walk every day and we don´t run every day, because now we are focused to PHD and golfing exercises every day. So golfing (walking) is twice a week and running is once a week. Lately we have started hiking (something that I use to do) with him, on relatively easy hills and mountains, and that would be once every 10 days.
So, when you are doing a specific exercise (e.g. running) it has to be every day. When you are ready to move on to something new, that exercise you do it once a week or freely, without scheduling, and the new exercise you do every day.
At 4 yo your son should focus on developing laterality.  Choose a place to run (I have to do it on the street or in a park). Test him on how much endurance he has, and set that as the minimum. (500 meters?) Make sure he runs that distance well, which means correct arm movement, leg movement, and breathing. Make him discover his own tempo, and respect his pace from beginning to end. Do it for a week. When you see he is about to achieve comfort in that distance, increase it. DO IT WITH HIM!
Walking is much easier for him, but he should too do it physically correct. At that age, I think he should be able to achieve walking 1 hour non stop in short time. Then 1,5 hrs to 2 hrs.
Brachiation is OK to hang. Make the goal 2 minutes and then move to 5 minutes. It´s hard! Also make him swing (like primates do) so he starts practicing the movement.
Don´t be afraid to push him, but you will need to explain carefully what is required of him. Be sensible to off days, sickness, tiredness and laziness. You will have to learn to differenciate. Also, let him choose things (abiding by the rules) e.g. where to run to, run or walk first, what clothes to wear, etc. This will start making him responsible for his own program. give him rewards for his achievements (not toys, candy, or buying something) but giving him more independence: cooking the family Sunday lunch, becoming responsible of the dishwasher, taking care 100% if his closet, whatever is really needed inside the house.
It will start turning into a way of living, rather than just a physical program.

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