Hola Paola y Carlos!

Me imagino que ya estaras usando LR, LM, y LMu. Como fue el resultado?

Saludos!

Forgot to add... It may be worthwhile to ask her what kind of doctor she wants to be, i.e. her specialty? 

One day she can be an orthopedic surgeon and the puppet patient can be called "Patella Patty" and your daughter could say "see here, Ms.Patty, your patella is broken and that's why your knee hurts," while holding up the x-ray. Then she could see Femur Fred, Tibia Tina, Mandible Manny, etc...

Every time she plays it could be a new specialty and she could remember the name of the specialty which would just add to vocabulary (lots of medical terms have Latin and Greek root words in them which may be useful in the future.

Here are some more tools that may be useful:

- http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000SJKW06/ref=pd_aw_sim_t_2?pi=SL500_SY115

- http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000FOC8EC/ref=pd_aw_sim_hpc_1?pi=SL500_SS115

- black doctor bag: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002ZU3I2U/ref=pd_aw_sim_t_6?pi=SL500_SS115 or
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003XAL9H2/ref=pd_aw_sim_t_5?pi=SL500_SS115

- http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003216EY0/ref=pd_aw_sim_t_9?pi=SL500_SS115

- otoscope: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0053UIZ2M/ref=pd_aw_sim_t_10?pi=SL500_SS115

- pink working stethoscope $5: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001CTCHZE/ref=pd_aw_sim_t_4?pi=SL500_SY115


There's also plastic models of organs that are cheap (a plastic brain, an eye, etc...)but you could probably wait for that till she gets a bit older, ditto for books on diseases (I used to love reading those as a kid).

Good luck!

What a great idea!

How about these?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000GL1BVA

Kids toy X-ray and the game can be her teaching the patients the name of the bones.

Good luck, Manda. Would be interesting to hear what the universities said.

Your daughter may be on to something. Reading and writing is about practice. Also, hypothetically speaking, if your daughter is in 4th grade, she could advance her math up to college level in about a little over a year (something mentioned in Mrs.Harding's book). For example, with Saxon Math a year of math is put together in 120 lessons (except for Calculus and Trig). The Hardings did two lessons a day. A year of math done in 60 days. So your daughter could do Saxon Math 6/5 (fifth grade), 7/6, 8/7, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Calc & Trig, and throw in some Adv. Math at the end... 60 x 7 + 84 (for Calculus), that's 504 days, about a year and four months. Hard work, but not impossible, especially if she loves learning.

Edit: Meant to say Swann's book not Harding

Hi Neptune!

3 weeks can be a short time to be on the program. For my child, at first he knew the words and didn't like to admit he knew them and didn't like to be tested on them (nobody likes to be tested). Other times he was finger happy and just wanted to press any key on the iPad. I would suggest that you consider to keep doing Little Reader until your child gives you cues that he doesn't want to do it anymore. Another thing may be to try printing out the cards and showing two while asking..."which one says..." and see if he picks out the correct one.

Good luck! Hope it works out! 

Hi okhud!

This makes perfect sense. It's wonderful that your little one is becoming more verbal thanks to Little Reader. Yay!

Actually, I have a friend who is a speech pathologist and one of her recommendations is to have your child hear the word you want to teach them over and over in as clear a tone as possible. You may notice children repeat words that a doll says after a child repeatedly presses the button to make it say something, the same goes with books that have sound buttons. I like that Little Reader is simplistic in its approach. It is what makes LR very powerful in teaching. Not too many decorations, not too much fluff that can be distracting. 

Aw that's cute that he tries to whisper the word. He may be testing it out before he starts openly saying it. My little one was like that. I would catch him trying out the word when he thought he was alone and nobody was watching, 

Oh no, of course I'm not suggesting that a D.O is inferior to an M.D. They are two different philosophies yet both have very rigorous paths. By no means am I here to start a debate on schools and/or philosophies. 

My concern comes from what I read in the book (PDF file) that Mrs. Harding's daughter was rejected by not one but several M.D. schools and was ultimately not able to get into ANY M.D. school that she applied to, thereby her choice was limited to D.O. schools by first having to spend time at a masters program. One hopes that by accelerating their child's education, one of the benefits would be to have access to a wider array of choices when it comes to career opportunities. However, in this case, I can't help to think maybe if her daughter had taken the traditional path or at least, a less accelerated path, she may still have been able to get into the M.D. school she wanted to go to.
 
Mrs. Harding's other daughter was in a similar boat... She applied to NASA but with budget cuts and all, wasn't able to get in. So here she is very young with two master's degrees and she's teaching part-time barely able to support herself (she quit because of the low pay). On the other hand, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg don't have any degrees and I'd say they did pretty well (although yes, for every one of Steve Jobs, there are other would-be Jobs without a degree that probably wish they had finished school). Ergo, having a degree early or having more degrees doesn't necessarily mean a better result.

Everyone's measure of success is different. I believe there are many other stories of families who have children who did finish college early and their kids did remarkably well.  As for us, with our youngster, we're looking out for every opportunity available including that of finishing college earlier than usual. I'm thankful to queriquita for bringing up the Harding's story. 

Awesome! Thanks for the info....

 I too am interested in seeing a video on how IQ fun park works. I've been reading Karen's books and been receiving her emails for a few years now. However, I'm not sure if my kids will benefit from her products at their ages. We have a 10-year-old and a young toddler. The 10-year-old has access to Brain Pop, Study Island, and other online learning programs for free via his virtual school. So my interest in IQ fun park is mostly for my toddler.

Wow, I missed quite a bit.  I was away for the past few weeks,  kids and hubby sick and all.

Thanks for posting this! I looked up some of the information and even bought Mrs. Harding's book. They seem to have a lovely and inspirational family. I also love that they tell the whole truth and bring to light what she said others refer to as  "loop holes" in the ability to by-pass highschool to get ahead to college earlier than usual and in some cases, cheaper than traditional paths. Apparently, there are some pretty good loop holes/opportunities in the US to achieve this but rarely is it talked about.

The one thing that concerns me, however, is that starting college early may limit the choice of colleges. For example, an average kid can get college credits early and even go to the local community college or less-well-known university or even transfer over to a decent state college....but then, they missed their chance to attend an Ivy, i.e. Harvard, Yale, etc... or even a decent bigger name school. So even though they finished early and getting the degree was probably cheaper, will it be useful in the long run? What happens next in terms of career and prospects?

My concerns stem from Mrs. Harding's book where she mentions that one daughter with two Masters degrees ended up working part-time as a teacher for a Christian private school only to leave because the pay was terrible and wound up having to leave home and find a job in California as a quality assurance tech (this is the one with the hopes for NASA). The daughter who went to medical school, was rejected by several M.D. schools after receiving her bachelors and was finally able to get into a D.O school after going through a masters program. So in essence she's not an M.D. but a D.O. still a doctor though. However, does that make it harder to go through a residency program? 

Also, once you fully enroll into a college (even at 12, 13, etc...) you will no longer be able to apply as a freshman anywhere else. You'll be a transfer student and in many top schools, there is an even less chance of getting in. Stanford's freshman acceptance rate is 6.6% Their transfer student acceptance rate is 1.5% The loophole to that is having your kid be a "Dual enrollment" student while in "highschool" and/or achieving college credits through CLEPs (testing out and getting credit, although many top schools are picky when it comes to accepting transfer credits). Then you can still be considered a freshman in case later your child wants to apply to an Ivy or better known school. Which then brings up the question.... does big name vs. lesser known college matter? Interestingly, a few days ago there was an article on the NY Times that talked about this. Also Time had an article on April 2 about how this year the Ivies had record low acceptance rates.

Finally, what about IB and Gifted programs? Such as Stanford University's EPGY in California or The Mirman school or Stuveysant in NY or even boarding schools (they have a high number of acceptance rates to Ivies)?

We have a 10-year-old son and are finding tons of information on this. We have to figure out what our priorities are (finish early vs. maintaining quality of outcome, if possible both) but most importantly, what our son wants to do

P.S. I just want to add how I totally love this community. You guys have many interesting topics and are so supportive. 



 

I think, at 4, they can handle a pillow. However, the best way to know is to simply ask your child. Ask him to try what it feels like with a pillow and without a pillow. Then, which one feels better? He may say with and then decide to change his mind in the middle of the night, then you'll have your answer. Ideally, one would position something behind the neck to provide support and prevent straining and sore muscles the next day. However, this all depends on the person, typical sleeping position, and overall preference among other factors. Not everyone has to have a pillow to feel comfortable.

You said " I want the best for him," and that by far is the best custom to follow  The best for him is whatever makes your son feel comfortable.

Awesome, I signed up via your link. Thanks for sharing. 

Chiming in a little over a month later....but just wanted to add my 2 cents...pleeease make a little reader in Spanish 

Also, just for clarification, how much is a bit later? Less or more than 12 months? Thanks in advance for anyone responding to my questions. 

Yesss!  Thanks for posting. Couldn't agree more with that article. I travel often so I put my oldest in virtual school. I had my eyes on the possibility for years but didn't really pull the trigger on it till last year because we had some major travelling scheduled this year and by far, it's the best thing we have done. We were so apprehensive (mostly my family) and had so many doubts just like the ones mentioned in the article but I'm relieved to say it worked out for us.

That's great, Seastar!!! It's beautiful watching your own kid flourish. Take video! They grow up so fast! :-)

JMG, YBCR stands for "Your Baby Can Read" by Robert Titzer, Ph.D.

Still need a native Spanish speaker? Perhaps I can help (by the way, it would be nice if little reader came in Spanish too).