hi there.

just curious to find out if anyone is familiar with sensory processing disorder.

do you know of anyone diagnosed with this?

i noticed that my son would prefer exploring my home as to playing with his toys from year one to 2. he would always dig in the tool box so we took out all the dangerous stuff. he loved my tupperware and plasic ware cupboard si i made that more accessible. when he turned 2 he started to play with toys.

he loved his stacking cups, bricks and blocks. fantasy toys like iron , toy kitchen,  cars, firemen gear etc.

i also recommend buying only established brands that are known for quality like fischer price, chicco, leapfrog etc and to visit stores that specialise in good educational toys. u may pay less for no name brands but sooner rather than later they break. quality is important.

wooden toys are nice as well. i like those bead mazes.

a neat set of wheels is also nice! be it a scooter or bike or car. the more they need to use their legs and coordination the better.

the best toy of all is ofcourse mum to play with.

such interesting ideas to implement.

let me share some back ground info. i am a teacher. i run a preschool. the school opened when sa'ad just turned a year. i guess i have a variety of kids to compare him with. he comes with me to school. he also participates in extra murals like pottery, brix and blox, gym kidz, soccerstars and then the swimming. i guess thats why i wonder why he isnt  so physical like the other boys at school that love soccer etc. he doesnt show dislike for sports but he isnt crazy about it either. he'd rather play with his cars when my husbands initiates ball play at home. its almost like he takes himself out of the game coz he doesnt want to fail. its tricky! im not sure if its motor skill issues or he just doesnt want to fail even though we encourage him.

his first exp with a child was his cousin who is the first granchild in my husbands side and she didnt take well to another so she always tried to hit him. shes out grown that now and they do play. she tries to initiate play and he just doesnt play with her the way children would.

even at my school he is usually by himself.

i think there is a diff bet boys and girls.

i think as daddude mentioned it could just be age i shouldnt panic.


he is an amazing kid snd i should just enjoy him.

btw if u ask him his age he says he is 18 and he has a license so he can drive.

its just hard i suppose when u have a boy who should be doing boy things and playing sport who doesnt really want to . esp with his dad as its nice to bond over a game of ball.

also scary if its something that needs treatment like low muscle tone

thanks for sharing skylark. wow what an amazing daughter you have. its great to hear such positivity.

LDSMom. thanks for the advice on each of the points. i do feel that maybe its just a stage. he wont be that way forever. i guess its a matter of just being patient.

i guess regarding socializing we will have to give it time as well and find him some older friends.

its a good idea as well to find a new extra mural involving gross motor and i guess to persevere. there has to be a break through at some point.

hi there

i would like to share my experiences with early learning and some things ive noticed now that my child is older.

we started with doman around 6 months and switched to little reader when my son turned a year.

he began reading words at 16 months, even if i wrote them on paper and he began reading books at 2.
the experience was totally amazing and rewarding to watch and i get to do it again with my 3 month old daughter!

just a few personality observations, please let me know u have experienced something similar

1. my son became difficult to parent. he always wants things that are above him. things 4 year old shouldnt play with. he wants to go to work instead of school, wants to ride dads bike instead of his own which is impossible. insists that he is a big man and if a someone tells him "what a cute little boy or refers to him as little, he goes beserk.

2. he seeems to be in his own world around other kids. he wont initiate conversation with them or a game and if they start something with him he doesnt play. he does his own thing. im not sure if it bothers him that he is not in "the group" or if he even notices or cares. he loves adult conversations though and can chat for hours.

3. his gross motor skills seem to be behind his peers. i took him for OT and after 3 months they recommended sensory integration therapy. he goes for swimming but hasnt made progress or learnt anything new from day 1. its been 3 months now. it almost seems as if his mind and body are not in sync.
i dont want my child to be perfect but if he is hving difficulties in any area i would like to help him.

anyone have any thoughts or experiences toi share


will be much appreciated.

thanks

hi there

i want to transfer my LR to my new laptop.
how do i deactivate the license key in the old laptop

thanks

hi there

1. i started the doman reading method at around 6 months. he read words like mama and abba (dad) at say 9 months. he is now 2 years and 9 mnths. reads books. he has figured out that you must start from left to right and if he misses a word he goes back to the beginning. its like his mouth cant keep up with his brain.

2. i knew he could read when he was 9 months.

3. achievements well i dont remember. i guess him just paying attention was an achievement.

4. i was never strict with glen domans advice. my word card werent the same size he recomended nor was the colour. i was flexi with times.

if anyone is in the same predicament like me and has come out of it please let me know. i deeply regret not focusing on maths. i have LM and havent used it the way it was meant to be used. sa'ad is now 2 years 9 months. is there any hope for that kind of thing or not. should i just make him watch it diligently and consistently anyways and see what happens or   
just leave it and try something else?     

i found the doman books by chance when my baby was 1 month old. of course my husband told me to buy something for myself and naturally i had to go to the book shop and spend on baby stuff.

i started the baby program on him soon after.

i made flash cards and then figured out that i could use powerpoint slides. at that time Little Reader wasnt around or it was just starting up. then i found brillkids and bought the software. i think i have brillkids for almost a year now.

Phonetics wasnt something i taught seperately. in fact all i used were words. little reader also has this phonics program built into the curriculum but i think Sa'ad sort of figured out the sounds of the symbols. i dont know how honestly. i think that when you teach reading by flashing, its a natural side effect that they pick up on phonics. starfall was also a great help for phonics. its a wonderful website. www.starfall.com

nhockaday, there is this shop that sells hygrometers and barometers and when we go to the mall we have to stop and look. everyone knows that Sa'ad is into measuring equipment now. he wants a scale so thats an incentive for potty training. im also going to put up six clocks on his room wall with the different timezones (hopefully that will get him out of my bed) i think the weather measurements file had everything to do with it. he goes up to anyone with a watch and asks for the time!

now, im more relaxed coz all the hard work is over. now Sa'ad appreciates stories and he gets the storyline. all worth it in the end

hi there.

i havent been on this site for a while. just an update (and a bit of bragging) about Sa'ads progress. at 2 years he mastered phonics and he now reads books. he is now 2 and a half. it has finally dawned on him that he can read and if i ask him to read a sentence, he gets it right most of the time. if its a word that is abit complex, he usually says something that sounds like the word.

its a great feeling knowing that all those days of making flash cards, powerpoint slides and then little reader paid off. when we got on to a plane he read the
"no smoking. fasten your seat belt" sign aloud which surprised some of the passengers around us.

we definitely did not teach him the word smoking

anyhow its all been a great learning experience for him and me and the people around us. his cousins find him amusing when we go to visit them (they live 4 hours away).

take care and keep up the hard work. it does pay off.

Hi there Chispa

Cancer is never an easy ordeal. its something that takes abit of time to grasp.

my mum had breast cancer. she found out when i was say 13 years. for me as her child it was a very emotional, confusing time. My mum tried to be extremely strong and i guess thats what helped her in her healing process.

She hid her feelings and was just positive. it was hard for me to see her go through chemo and not understand what was wrong. Suddenly my mum had to save her strength to recover and i was left without a guide through that teenage phase. back then chemo wasnt as advanced as it is now.

i guess what im trying to say is that keep your kids in the loop at all times. let them see your emotions. now that im older i feel angry at myself for not fully grasping and not fully being there for my mum. at that time i just didnt realise what she was going through. i just wished that she would have confided in me and would have trusted me to be there. i didnt realise what an effect that had on me till i look back. i honestly cannot remember most of those years. i find it strange as i struggle to look back. i remember brief snippets of 5 years of my life. not sure if that was a way to protect myself. till now she doesnt know how i felt.we are extremely close but i would never want her to feel that she missed a part of my life.

since her recovery she has been great. she went for a whirlwind trip to UK Canada dubai Arabia over 3 months and had a blast. She lives a full life. i think what helped heal her was her positivity. She was extremely positive and she came through.

she will be admitted next monday for a little procedure as one of her ducts are blocked. its not cancerous but just to be safe.

Chispa, visualize yourself in the process of healing and God willing you will be healed.
Be strong

hi there!

we've just had our second swimming lesson for the year.

we use to swim from when Sa'ad was 7 to about 11 months. we stopped because he was crying alot in his 11th month of swimming. we took him to the doc and it turned out that his adenoids were enlarged 100% and it was blocking the entire passage. we had an op done to remove it and we hadnt been back since now.

Sa'ad n i do evrything together as my family doesnt live near us so no babysitters. we started swimming at a place called candy bubbles. here the kids swim with the instructors and i dont go in the water.

for the first lesson he wasnt happy being away from me. the second however he absolutely loved and nagged to go back. its emotional knowing that he is growing up now and dosnt need me that much. his teacher is robin and kim.

i think the teacher found it strange that Sa'ad asked them wheres the thermometer ( he learnt from nhockadays files) and he goes on about the fire extinguisher!

ive used the doman swim book as well. very helpful for early swimming.

hi there

thank you for all the much needed advice.

only got to respond now because my hot water geyser was leaking!!!

Isa your advice is so sensible. i put it to practice at lunch. i asked him do you want to sit on mamas chair or Abba(dad)s chair. he chose his dads chair (after all i do for the little guy he still picks dads chair instead of mine!!) he sat and ate all his egg. he wanted rice krispies for lunch n i told him i dont have any but i have a tasty egg. he ate all the egg n asked for more. it was great havin a stress free feeding session. i have also resolved to stick to a time for food. lunch at 12:30 and supper at 4:30. i would like him to eat supper together with us as i read somewhere that kids that eat a family meal together with parents have a great sense of whats going on in the world and have a greater general knowledge due to conversations taking place (the people conducting the study obviously dont know about the general knowledge doman/brillkids stuff.) the problem is that he is so fascinated with us and the table that he is too busy talking to us to eat and shaking the pepper and drinking our water and hiding the sauce. so now i feed him at 4:30 and he can nibble from us if he wants. i know that having a set food time is important, think coz kids like routine.

i think he does want to assert his independence.

hypatia, i understand what its like to have a child that is sensitive. i noticed that one day when my son broke a bowl and it shattered to pieces he felt bad about it. he was 2 years n 2months. i kept telling him its fine n whats important that he was safe n didnt get cut and that the bowl is something i didnt even like in the first place. it took him a while to come around he was so sad for a while. i think that as parents we have to be sensitive to them as well. no child intends to be naughty or for an accident to happen but sometimes these things just do. think they need love love and love with those necessary boundaries.

autumn, my son sleeps in my room. if he wakes in the night he climbs in my bed! ill try arranging activities n see how he reacts.

i wanted to do this for a while but never got down to it. wanted to gift wrap a whole lot of little inexpensive rewards like a tiny car, or snack like smarties (i give my child chocolate but now they make smarties with no artificial colourants so that eases my guilt) as rewards for good behaviour. opening the wrapper would make it fun.

Isa I dont know how you can stop the older one from being so affectionate. think it will pass. its wonderful that he isnt jealous though.

i am resolving from this moment to not scream



 

hi there.

i feel like im missing something which is probably something simple with regards to discipline.
how do i stop screaming. i never use to scream at my son and now i scold him when i tell him not to do something and he still does it.

eg. dont put your feet on the laptop. dont bang your hands on the keyboard.
then i scream. "what did i just say. didnt i tell you not to put your feet on the laptop!!!!"

another thing i have a problem with.
i ask my son.
"do you want to eat?"  he says NO! EMPHATICALLY which annoys me intensly. maybe i should tell him to say "no thank you" thats a more polite response which wouldnt annoy me.

when he wakes in the morning he doesnt let us sleep in a little. he asks 4 milk. i tell him just now and he says " dow want just now! whaaa" then after i make it he yells me "dow want mama to sleep in bed" at half 5 in the morn im still tired.

im sure ill find solutions. he is a good child. well behaved most of the time. he just wont do something by himself while i sleep a little later.

may be this is life being a parent. he is my one and only child. i just need to stop screaming.
even though its twice or thrice a day. when i lose it i feel so out of touch with myself and my child.

hi there

I've noticed that my son isnt able to jump yet with both feet of the ground. i find that interesting and wonder why?

he is 2 years and 3 months.

he doesnt show an inclination towards riding a scooter which some 18 month olds can do.

we use to swim when he was 6 months and stopped coz we had to remove adenoids. now he asks me to swim so i want to resume swim lessons.

he loves to run.

its so amazing how all kids are different. it amazes me how strong his personality is. i bought this threading toy which had the things to thread in the shape of workmen and everything to do with road works. its wooden and expensive and he refused to play with it. this was say 3 months ago. today he brought it to me and tried to thread.

go figure!

i am now able to appreciate the differences in my child and really love him for who he is. there are so many personality types out there. im just glad he is who he is. even if he doesnt want to slide and would rather inspect the label on the slide and how its made.
nowi just watch in amazement instead of analyzing.

children are truly a gift and so is motherhood. i feel so much wiser with regards to parenting now than a year ago.

tanikit, have you heard of a school called Radford House? its a school for gifted kids in SA. its in jhb and they center lessons around the childs interests. i havent been there as i want to homeschool so not sure if its appropriate for the type of school we need for our kids but worth looking into.