awesome!  we are going to go check it out : )

I can't believe Your Baby Can went out of business >

I used YBCR (along with PP, Little Reader, Readeez, Reading Bear etc) and my daughter easily learned to read.  I also like their Your Child Can Read and we listen to their Spanish CD in the car. 

My daughter just turned 4 and she still loves books.

Here is a video i posted previously of her reading when she was younger

http://youtu.be/CxmS1nQVsno

Has anyone come across an app that could be set up by a parent so that the kids would have to first do an educational app in order to  unlock a game app?  Ideally, especially for somewhat older kids, the app would require a result, e.g. 3 words spelled correctly, from a selected installed educational app before allowing access to selected installed game apps for a specified amount of time.  But if that was too difficult the app could simply require the educational app be open for a selected amount of time before allowing the game app to be played.

I often tell my kids they need to do something "educational" on the computer or iPhone before they get to randomly surf at pbskids, or, ok I'll admit it, play angry birds.  But it would be easier if it was required by the app or computer program, so it didn't sound like mom nagging them again.  I think pbskids can be educational too, but not in a specific, curriculum-based way.

When my kids sit down at their computer it would be so cool if, for example, all the icons except Little Musician were dimmed out and they had to complete the 5 minute daily curriculum before getting access to the other icons.
Many of the educational  apps, such 24 x 7 Digital's Teach Me series, are designed so that the kids complete activities to earn rewards.  This would be a similar concept except that an activity in one app would be rewarded by unlocking another app.

I'm sure that most kids won't end up playing harp, so this is a minor point.  But just btw, on a harp the C strings are red and the F strings are blue and in some of the early harp books for children the C and F notes are also colored red and blue.  Are there other instruments that have distinct color associations with notes? 

We would love to exchange postcards.  We live in Hawaii.

Thanks Brillkids Team!  Great videos everyone

Great job!

Dr. Ari Brown (lead author of the recent AAP policy statement on media use for young children) may not join our forum, however, she does read comments posted on her blog.  So if you'd like to share your experience with screen-based early learning programs with her check out:

https://windsorpeak.com/sites/baby411/2011/10/18/educational-tv-infants%e2%80%94an-oxymoron/

Here is the link to Dr. Ari Brown's blog "Baby Educational TV. An Oxymoron?" (text in my post above):

https://windsorpeak.com/sites/baby411/2011/10/18/educational-tv-infants%e2%80%94an-oxymoron/

As Dr. Ari Brown is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics I think it would be great to have a disscussion with her on early learning programs.

I'd love to have Dr. Ari Brown visit our forum.  I'll try to invite her, however, I'm not sure the best way to contact her.  Here are some of her own comments:

Today was a busy day as the lead author (I think I drew the short straw!) on a newly released American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement regarding media use in children under age two. The news reports are everywhere, but I thought it would be helpful to provide additional insight here.
 
The AAP has discouraged media use in young children since 1999 (pre-dating most forms of portable screens like iPads and smartphones). It was based on limited data, but we believed that there were more potential negatives of media than positives in this age group. And since 1999, the policy has taken flak from parents, industry, and even some pediatricians. Many ask, “Where’s the harm?” if a baby is entertained by a video so a parent can make dinner or take a shower.
 
But, the concerns raised are even more relevant today. Screens are everywhere, and 90% of 0-23 month olds watch at least an hour of televised programs a day. So we decided to take a fresh look at the scientific evidence and see if our concerns were still valid. Here are the key questions and answers we found:
 
#1. Do infant/toddler programs have any educational value for kids under 2?
 
Nope. There is a digital developmental divide. Video gets “lost in translation” for children under 1.5—2.5 years old. They can’t figure out the content or context to actually learn from televised programs. While a few 18 month olds might “get it”, the majority of kids don’t have that skill until they are at least 2. Entertaining? Yes. Educational? No. Young children learn best from real people and playing with real objects. Kids over age two can learn language and social skills from high quality shows.
 
#2. Is there any harm in children under 2 watching televised programs?
 
There are 3 concerns here.
 
1) Short-term language delays. Young children who watch televised programs may have delayed language skills. Why? We don’t know. One concern is that parents talk less to their kids when the TV is on, and that “talk time” is critical for young children to learn language. We don’t have any long-term studies to see how this plays out, but the short-term effects are concerning.
 
2) Less quality and quantity of sleep. Up to 1/3 of American kids under age 3 have a TV in their bedroom and up to 30% of parents admit to using TV as a sleep aid for their child. However, this backfires as kids go to bed later and have more disrupted sleep when they go to bed with the tube on.
 
3) Time well spent? We know you can’t play with your child 24/7 but letting your child have unplugged, unstructured, independent playtime while you cook dinner is really valuable! It fosters your child’s problem solving skills and her imagination—important life tools. That is time better spent than being entertained by a program. (Check out the tips below for what your little one can be doing while you’re busy doing something else.)
 
#3. Does secondhand TV (programs intended for adults that are on when a child is in the room) affect young children?
 
Yes. It is distracting for parents, who are talking less to their child when their shows are on. And it is distracting for the child. Even if the show is over a child’s head, he will be less focused on his activity if he is playing nearby with the TV on. And many parents say their TV is always or often on, even when no one is watching it (which begs the question, WHY?). Our advice: turn the TV off if you aren’t watching anyway, and watch your own shows later.
 

We know you can’t keep your child away from screens 100% of the time, and we know you can’t play with your child 24/7, but this updated statement is meant to make parents more aware of the impact of media on young children so that they will thoughtfully consider the whole family’s media use and make a plan how to manage it!
 
As promised, here are some ideas for simple, inexpensive activities that your infant or young child can do without your participation.  Remember that as your baby starts to crawl, use a portable playpen or safety gates to keep your child in a safe area if your eyes are distracted. And make sure all toys are too large and impossible to swallow or chew.
 
Sensory Activities
 ■For young infants, offer interesting items like colorful or high-contrast toys or mobiles to look or follow with their eyes.
 ■Let your baby listen to music. Let your older baby or young child play with rattles, or child-friendly music boxes.
 ■Offer safe objects or toys that are touchable with different textures.
 ■Offer large plastic toys, wood, or plush toys without small removable pieces to grab, manipulate, and mouth.
 
Cognitive/Language
 ■Let your baby explore hard cardboard books that are bite and rip-proof.
 ■Offer “cause and effect” toys. Let your baby figure out how to make an object light up or make noise or move.
 ■Toys that can be filled and dumped are also popular with young children.
 


Social
 ■Let your baby play with a plastic mirror to look at herself.
 ■Offer pretend play props to children over age one (pretend food, picnicware, teacups, a grocery cart, baby doll, or baby carriage).
 ■Let your child participate in activities of daily living. While you are cooking, let your baby “cook” his own meal on the floor with pots and pans. While you are cleaning up, let him “clean up” with his own towel.
 
Large and small muscles
 ■Infants as young as three months can play with an activity gym to bat/grab objects.
 ■Offer old measuring cups, plastic food containers, pots, pans, wooden spatulas to explore.
 ■Let your older baby play with a big ball to roll, kick, or throw.
 ■Stacking cups or “nesting cups” are good for using small muscles and figuring out how to stack. Shape sorters (cylinders with plastic shapes and matching holes in the top) are another classic toy for toddlers to encourage eye-hand coordination.
 
Comments by Dr. Ari Brown

I was curious about your power point presentations in addition to YBCR because my own impression, which could be wrong as I don't have any evidence, is that a high percentage of babies using YBCR are able to read sight words (which is awesome in itself), but not a high percentage of YBCR users are reading phonetically. 

It is great that Juju  likes to read and be read to.   Clearly an early reading program won't work for a  baby if the baby doesn't want to watch it.  It wouldn't be surprising if the babies that especially enjoy programs like YBCR, LR, Reading Bear etc  will have the most success with them.  I also wonder if some babies are "wired" (I don't know anything about how brains work) to "get it" easier than others and because they are "getting it, " even before they can talk or sign,  the reading program is more engaging for them ,so they enjoy it more, which leads to more time watching the program and again increases the chance of success.

That is awesome!  How many additional words beyond YBCR did she learn with PP etc before she started to read words she hadn't seen before?  Did you do PP in a word families, like cat, fat mat?  Or related words like animals etc?  Did you specifically teach letter sounds?  A says a etc? 

There was an recent post about scanning baby brains.  I'm not sure I'd want my kids' scanned without knowing more about the method.  But it would sure be interesting to see what the brain of a phonetically reading one year old looks like!

I did whole word ( YBCR & PP) with my son because I wasn’t aware of other methods.  When my daughter was around one I heard that schools usually teach phonics, but I still hadn’t heard of any established methods for teaching babies phonics so,  along with whole words, I showed my daughter phonics songs on YouTube.  This happened to work for her and she readily picked up phonics. So based on my extremely limited experience, I can’t help but recommend phonics songs (some like Silent E can be very helpful).  Though honestly, I don’t know if phonics songs would have made a huge difference for my son or a significant percentage of other very young children.  Phonics songs may work well for children who are not interested in other phonics methods, such as flash or sounding out, e.g., c-a-t. 

I probably would have tried other methods sooner if I’d known about them sooner.  I think sounding out words may produce readers that are more careful and accurate?  My impression, which may be incorrect, is that when children sound out words, c-a-t, they are somehow more conscious or actually thinking about what the word says.  Left brained?  I’ve seen videos of kids doing this and having a great time, so I’m not saying it isn’t fun, but that it can look like they are making a conscious effort. When very young children learn sight words I don’t get the impression that they are, in general, consciously trying to memorize the words, so there doesn’t seem to be much conscious effort or work in the process.  Likewise, if very young children can pick up phonics without the slowly sounded out phase it can appear to involve less conscious effort.  Though again, perhaps at the expense of accuracy.
 
I like that Reading Bear supports a variety of methods, such as sounding out slowly, quickly, flash, sentences etc.  Since most people in the poll favor using phonics and whole word, I wonder what other people would think about  Reading Bear having a specific Sight Word/Whole Word setting?   This could be done by using some of the existing word files but just regrouping them so they aren’t in the same word families etc.  I think (based on my limited experience) that for very young children learning whole words it is best to show groups of words that look substantially different from each other.  For example, instead of showing  cat, mat, sat together, show words like giraffe  and hippopotamus and include words like body parts or words that commonly go with baby signs for little ones not talking yet.  Just a thought ….that may have to be another “post-launch” feature.

Great job Baby E.

What is the latest version - I've got 1.0.430.  Do I need to reinstall?  I am having problems with notes not being centered correctly, they are too low on the staff.  For example, the A is partially on the G line.  Under 8. Teach NOTE NAMES I edited it to use a song file and show note names.