I think the right brain teaching along with left brain teaching is the best way to go.  Remember, as children get older, they don't use their right brain as much. But you want to keep doing things w/ them to encourage the right side of brain. It will help w/ their memory and so many other things. I bought some computer games that helps w/ "waking up" the right side of the brain. I now have all my children doing them.( I just got these games).  I have 3 boys 5, 9, and 12, and I have all of them doing these games. I, myself, have a horrible memory and I hate it. Anything I can do to help the boys make school and learning for them easier I will do.
  Just google "right brain learning" and you will see a lot of info come up including the website that sells the computer games. "I can't remember the site offhand). Also, I play a game w/ my 5 yr old. It's super good for his phonics.

I only do this w/ 3 letter words. I say, "Guess what word this is", and then I make the sounds of each letter. Like for cat, I say the sounds   C  A   T, with a short pause between each sound. Other words: mom, dad, car, pen, etc. At first he wasn't too good at it, but now he's awsome. Now, when we are reading a book and we come to the word "cat" we sound it out together, even kind of slowly, and he says, "cat!"  right away.

Good luck

My 3 1/2 year old son, Nicolas, absolutely hates tweedlewink. When I try to show him the videos, he purposely turns his head away so he doesnt have to watch it. I even gave him a month off. I'm very discouraged, as these videos did cost a lot of money for us, but really because I want my Nicolas to absorb as much as he can. Any suggestions?

Robine

I bought tweedle wink for my 3 yr old. We also did all the your baby can read books. But my little Nicolas is not interested in watching the tweedle wink videos, even w/ how short they are. He keeps goofing around during it, lying down ( which i read on your baby can read that they have to sit upright to learn the words correctly). I try to make no big deal about his behavior during the videos, but I am getting frustrated, esp since they were so expensive and I am not getting the response from him that I want. He also does the same thing when I try to do the LM program. He just wants to hit all the keys on the computer, and even knows that you hit the escape button to exit out of a lesson. How will I ever teach him anything when he keeps doing this? I always keep it short and lighthearted ( when i'm doing flashcards), but he just grabs the cards from me and wants to bend them and throw them. If he isn't interested, I give him the option to do it at a later time, but sure enough, when it is later and I attempt again, he does the same thing. What do I do? I am so disheartened. I want to teach him so badly.! HELP.
Please anyone w/b fast.
thanks, Robine

I am definitely going to purchase this for my 3 boys. Ages 9, 7, and 3. I think anything that can help them w/ their memory, right brain learning, etc, etc, is worth it to me. My own memory is absolutely horrible, so I should probably do the activities too, although I don't think i could ever remember 100 things in a row like they claim. Maybe I could do 5! Ha Ha, soon as holiday stuff calms down to normalcy, I will order them. I'm very sad though because they had a coupon for like $30 off if you bought before Dec. 31st? I just missed the boat, but don't have the patience to sit around and wait for another sale.

Thanks for the advice.

Regarding doing flashcards that show the quantity ( grid pattern) and also the word (one, two, three), should I do that first or teach him the actual number, like show the quantity and then show 1,2,3, etc?
Lastly, I have absolutely NO CREATIVITY and really rely on specific products, websites. Or even reading/math workbooks geared for 3 yr olds.
Thank you again for all your support. You know, when I tell people that I'm teaching my son to read/and do math, they look at me like I'm crazy. Even my babysitter told me that he is too young to teach him. It's so frustrating trying to "teach" these people why it's exactly the opposite. All I can say is that I wish I had done this w/ my 2 older children (9 and 7). If only I had seen the infomercial for Teach Your Baby to Read 9 yrs ago!. I'm glad I'm at least doing this w/ my Nicolas now.

I started my son( now 3yrs and 2 months) on Your baby can read videos last March. Since then, I do word flashcards and math flashcards. I am using the trial here for teaching your baby math, but he refuses to look at the screen for more than a few seconds. (We've already explored all the different settings, colors, icons, etc.) It seems like he ignores me on purpose. I keep our time brief, fun and light hearted. I have made math cards (w/ block icons), so that I just don't do the computer. We work on his numbers a good amt, but he still does not seem to know them. We play a game where I hide a small piece of candy under 1 of 3 number cards. He has to find the number card that I tell him the piece of candy is. But he never gets it right. He just starts looking under all the cards until he finds the candy. Currently we are working on numbers 35-45. I feel I have been wasting all my time.
It is very discouraging to hear and read about all these same age children learning to read books and my son is not showing any signs of retaining. I feel like the whole "their brains are like sponges at this age and learning is so easy for them" is not true, even though I know that it is.
Please anyone help me help my Nicolas.

Hi,
I am a full time working mother (about 3-4 days/week). Married w/ 3 boys. Nicolas just turned 3. He's the one I started about 6 months ago on the program Teach Your Baby To Read. I liked it but he eventually grew tired of the videos and books too. He loves to work w/ word flashcards, but i cannot keep up w/ that plus the math. I bought the LM by Glenn Domain. Then realized Nicolas is already too old to learn all the dots, although i have already started him on the addition problems. I don't have enough time to do all this myself, so i am trialing the learn math program. Seems good. Still a little intimidated but i know it will get better.