Hi there. 2.5 definitely is a difficult age.  My daughter wouldn't show me anything at all.  She is now 3.5 and a lot happier to show us things.  So, I think it is just a matter of time.
Exactly the points that you mentioned, she is trying to exert her control.  The recommendations that I have read is to take a step back.  Leave the Early Learning for a few days/weeks then try again.  Some other things to try, is to "teach" her teddies etc, or just read her books yourself.  The secret is to try still have fun.  As soon as it becomes  fight or a chore, they start to lose interest.
Looking forward to reading some other responses too.

Hi there and welcome. Have a look at one of the Mom's sites.


Http:://dsdaytoday.blogspot.com/p/start-here.html?m=1



She had great success with her little boy.

Hi Tanikit.  How old are your girls now?  They are making fantastic progress.  Well done!

Where did you buy the "I see Sam" books from?

Have a look at www.cmaths.co.za (They were semas.co.za until very recently).  They offer classes in South Africa.  As far as I know, you can't order the abacus from them unless you sign up for the classes.  Mini Soroban starts off with a little ababus that counts up to 10. (Single line).
How old is your little one KS3579?

Wow. He's phenomenal! I don't have any musical background either but that is very impressive! What a brilliant job! Can't wait to see more of his progress.

Hi Anneri
Welcome to the forum :-) Are both your husband and yourself Afrikaans?

I speak English to my little girl and my husband speaks Afrikaans.  (Those our are first languages).  My little girl is 26 months old and speaks English predominantly.  She repeats some Afrikaans words if you ask her to but comprehends Afrikaans 100%.

With regards to teaching, I show her English things because I do most of the Early Learning but my husband reads to her in Afrikaans.  (He reads in English to her too when she chooses those books).  In general, "They say" you should let each adult speak a language to a child as opposed to say you both speaking English and Afrikaans.  Kids are amazing, they know and understand when you speak to them.

To answer your question, I don't think your little one will be confused. Is there someone who can predominantly speak English to her?

Eg:  I have showed my little one Little Read French, not consistently enough though and after a few lessons she could repeat some of the words but I can't speak a word and she hasn't been exposed to anyone else who can unfortunately.

Enjoy your early learning journey.

I wholeheartedly recommend Little Reader.

Definitely Little Reader Touch.  You need to buy Little Reader software for your computer for the curriculum to work.  We use it all the time.
There are lots of great other apps too but LR Touch is our favourite for reading.

Hello there.

My little girl is also 21 months old and we do a lot of what Annieko mentioned.
She loves to be outside. Enjoys going for walks, climbing a jungle gym, bouncing on a trampoline, riding her push bike, pushing her pram or trolley.  She really enjoys bouncing around on an inflatable cow that we have.
She's also very into jigsaw puzzles, loves Counting Bears, pouring, play dough etc.
A website that I really like is www.1plus1plus1eqauls1.net I subscribe to her blog and website and receive emails of her posts.  Her children are older but you can search for posts when they were younger and there are a lot of pictures which give you great ideas.
She enjoys Little Reader & Little Musician software, Monkisee DVDs and flash cards and Starfall.com
Enjoy your little ones!

That's fantastic.  I'm definitely going to buy it during the next sale.
Kezia, perhaps advertise that LR French is now available on LR Touch because I'm sure some others were waiting for it to be available on Ipad :-)

So nice to see there is a FB group. Looking forward to joining. I do spend a lot of time on there :-)

I would love to participate too. What a super idea MamaofWill. Looking forward to seeing everything.

My little girl loves 'The Gigglebellies'. You can watch a few previews on Youtube but we ended up buying most of the songs on our Ipad because she enjoyed it so much. (She's 18 months old now & has watched from about 12 months old). They have a few traditional songs but a lot of their own too. Great animation and catchy songs :-)

Fantastic! Thanks for all the work.  We love using Little Reader Touch.

I also have an original Ergobaby carrier and we love it.  When my little girl was small, we used the infant insert.  She is almost 17 months old now and we still use it if she needs to nap when I need to go to the shops.

I'm very happy with mine but if you can afford $20 extra, I'd recommend the Performance model.  I borrowed my friend's the other day and it's lighter and less bulky material.  It is easier to fold up for travelling too.  I see there is a travel version now too.

The main selling point is that it supports the baby's hips correctly.  (Baby doesn't hang). The only draw back is that baby can't face out wards.  Only towards you, on your hip or back.  This was part of the design because the baby can't turn away from too much stimulation.  I think that's a factor when they are small but might not be such a big thing when they are older.

My little one sleeps nicely in it and it is a real win in airports where they don't bring the stroller to the gate.  I also used it to help get her to sleep on board.

Personally, I used the IPad far more than my laptop.  We started off on the laptop when my little girl was small but when she got to the "banging the keyboard stage" and rotating my screen, and doing other shortcuts, where I had to wait for my husband to come home to fix it, I reverted to the Ipad :-)
She did learn how to close the apps and select other things on the Ipad rather quickly.

I like the fact that the Ipad doesn't take long to start up etc. It was also easier to plug into our television if I wanted to show her Little Reader while she was in her high chair.  I haven't had time to show her lessons every day, so I just found the Ipad more convenient when we did.

The Ipad was essential for us while travelling on flights and long trips in the car.

Now that she is older (16 months now),  I am making an effort to make a few personalised lessons so we are using the laptop again as well.
To be honest with you, we went through a few months around 10-13 months where we didn't have that much time for lessons at all mainly because she was a lot more interested in being mobile than anything else.

See what works for you but I don't think you'll regret buying an Ipad.