I recently received the Little Reader Deluxe - and love love love the curriculum outline so that you can show the words along side with the computer program.  I'm wondering if you will be coming out with the same sort of thing for LM?  Right now my 4 month old is much more interested in the cards than the computer program.  I'd like to be able to do the dot cards along side with the LM computer program.

Also is there a way in the LM program to see the math sets/equations in advance?

Thank you,
Kristina

"I'm thinking of trying Saxon math, which is the other one that's been recommended.  And then I'm also thinking about trying something more creative Doman-style but for an older child..."

Hi Daddude,

Our school district has been using Saxon Math for a while now and not seeing much progress with the students so we are switching over to Everyday Math which I'm not so sure about yet.  (I'm a second grade teacher).

Recently I ran across this accelerated math curriculum.  I've contacted the creator and he says his program is based on the ideas of Doman.  Anyhow, I haven't had a chance to review his stuff yet but it looks very interesting.  Here's the link:

 http://jonesgeniuses.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=58&vmcchk=1&Itemid=58

I found that Dr. Jones wrote back to me right away and was willing to answer all my questions and so I"m sure he'd answer yours.

If you do end up trying it let me know what you think.

Thank you for sharing ShenLi.  I live in a remote part of Alaska and we don't even have a doctor in our village.  The nearest Dr. is 400 miles away.  I plan on taking Olivia mid-May for her first check up since Feb.  She was 7 lbs when she was born and now she's 3 months old and only weighs 9.5 lbs.  She sleeps so much more than my son ever did and is gaining weight very slowly - although we do have petite people on both sides of the family.  Anyhow, she isn't very strong because she spends so much time sleeping.  She's lucky to get about 15 minutes of tummy time a day.  And I still can't get her to grasp my thumbs.  She seems startled when I do any balance activities.  Etc.   So I'm starting to feel worried.  However, I have started Doman Math and Little Reader.  She really is interested in the Doman Math and Little Math - not so much the Little Reader.  Anyhow, I'm curious to see what the Dr. will say about her weight gain and her physical abilities.

Thanks Plarka,

I think I read in the book that the balance activities help develop that part of the brain so that later when they do different types of sports they have that added advantage.

Yes, my daughter hasn't really done the grasping at all either but I see she can open and close her hands at will. 

Don't know about the tummy time her protesting is getting louder and louder and now she won't even do 1 minute.  UGH.  For me the tummy time is really the most important because that cross pattern crawling is directly linked with reading.  But my son didn't really do much tummy time either but he started reading on his own at 18 months before I ever knew about YBCR Or Doman so I guess I don't have to stress too much.  The Joyousness Doman talks about is key I believe.

You know my family has a trait for nurse-maid elbow where the elbow will dislocate when too much pressure is placed on it.  I was sort of hesitant to do the manual program but also thought it might help build up those muscles.  Maybe since she lets go - maybe it's her way of saying it hurts?  But I'd still like her to do the grasping even if it is without bearing weight.  I'm not sure......

My 2 year old son is now able to use the laptop mouse pad to move the arrow to things he wants to click on.  I only showed him twice and he can really do it now.  He also got some sort of Leapfrog toy for Christmas that is like a blackberry.  I wasn't thrilled with it because here in Alaska we never text or use cellphones.  But he really tuned into the letters which are the same as on a keyboard.  I had never taught him the names of the letters because we were doing the Doman method.  But he played around with this toy briefly and when he pressed on a letter it would tell him the name and it's sounds.  The other day a friend who is a special ed teacher was over at our house and was asking him what the letters were.  He knew them all!  I was shocked.  Anyhow, now I can ask him to spell his name on the leapfrog thing and he can do it.  So..... I think he will have no problem typing and that the keyboard isn't too confusing.  The manual dexterity is a bit of a thing for now but he can one finger it.

But I am letting him explore with pencils - and play dough is really important for developing the muscles in the hand to be able to write with a pencil.  So at age 2 I would emphasize playing with dough or clay more than holding the pencil.  I see a lot of kids at age 8 who just have horrible handwriting because they never developed those muscles.  (I'm a 2nd grade teacher)  But like someone else said - we now write more on computer than on paper.  But it still is an important skill to have.

So glad to run across this post..... My daughter is going on 10 weeks MOnday.  We have been placing her on tummy since birth but she still hates it.  Good to hear other moms have the same experience.  I too am trying to figure out the whole thing between tummytime - attachement parenting - her desire to be swaddled an on her back to sleep, etc.

Also have questions on the manual program.  She seldom will hold on to my thumbs - only about 2 times - all the other times she protests and opens her hands.  Which I think the book said was important that their brain had to develop enough to learn to let go.  How are other moms doing the manual program and has anyone run across the letting go and how do you encourage them to hold on.

Also the balance activities - I've slowed down a lot but she gets fussy with them too.

She basically is a content baby who eats and sleeps mostly.  She seems to get fussy over the Doman exercises.  I know Doman emphasizes joyousness - so not sure if I need to let her fuss on her tummy so she learns to like it - or if I should pick her up because she doesn't like it and is clearly protesting?

I have had good success with the infant stimulation cards here on Brillkids.  I'm wanting to start Doman Math as soon as she is 3 months. 

Anyone with similar experiences or have comments on the physical program?

Hi Everyone,

First question - does anyone have a crawling track you'd like to sell?

Second question - my daughter is 9 weeks old. We've been putting her on her tummy since she was born and she was ok with it the first month but this second month she just cries until we pick her up - which we try to wait to do.  Additionally, We've been putting her on a blanket so I guess she can't really crawl that way (needs a smooth surface ) but she has rolled over a few times on her own, has turned herself to the left or the right and has scooted backwards - so I guess some progress despite the constant crying. We try to make it fun but she just cries and cries. I know Doman says do everything with joy or don't do it.  Is there something about the second month - you'd think she'd be used to tummy time by now since we started at birth?

Third Question - the first level with the hands gripping.... . The first time she gripped my thumbs and let me pull her up gently. Since then she automatically lets go of my thumbs once I get them into her grip and she fusses. I know the book said that one of the goals is for her to hang on for 10 seconds but also for them to learn to let go. So since she seems to know how to let go - does that mean she has finished this stage? But the next stage is for them to hold on with all of their own weight. So how do I get her to hold on when she keeps releasing her grip?

Fourth Question - She doesn't seem to like the balance activities much. She seems to startle easy and acts like she is afraid to fall even though she has never fallen.  I know Doman says go slow - I guess I need to go really slow?

Actually my daughter is so different from my son. He never slept and cried all the time but he was also very alert and tried to communicate with us from the start and before 8 weeks was smiling. My daughter sleeps all the time and is barely awake 2 -4 hours a day. She doesn't cry much unless we try to physically stimulate her.  She doesn't get much physical stimulation because she wants to sleep all the time and she seems to be disturbed by any physical stimulation. She isn't smiling yet but she does try to "talk" when you ask her a question.  Actually she is trying to "talk" more and more these days.

Any Doman parents with some help on the physical program - I'd appreciate.

Kristina

Does anyone have a crawling track they might like to sell?  Please send me a message.

Kristina

Hi Helene,

My son is almost 2 - he'll be 2 next month in July.  I'm having a hard time helping him play the Hanon #1 exercises.  I tried to follow as you did but he seems uncomfortable "stretching" his fingers.  And it seems quite often taht he's pressing 2 keys at the same time with one finger.  Is he still a little young for this exercise or is there a trick or do I just keep trying?  I've been trying to just also let him watch hoping that observing might also lead to him wanting to try?  What do you think?

Right now the only thing he seems really interested in is doing "Hot Cross Buns" or "Twinkle Twinkly Little Star".  He seems motivated to play songs.  But he has no interest in the middle of the piano.  He'll try doing it up top or down low.  And he doesn't seem too in tune to the computer as much as he is just pressing keys and hearing the sounds they make.  Any advice?

I love what you have done so far.  I've just been reviewing the list of what you have included in the 12-month curriculum.  I did see that there were 2 categories of couplets.  However, I didn't see anything exactly that fits "phrases" or "sentences".  Have you included anything like that in your curriculum?

I've been using the Doman method with my son for 7 months now (mainly by using LR as my platform).  For the past 3 months I have found him capable of doing phrases and sentences.  However, I found that the LR Library didn't have much that helped me get from words to couplets to phrases to sentences in an organized way.  I have created a few LR Categories myself but found it a bit time consuming.

Anyhow, I'm hoping that your new curriculum will help me get from words to sentences (and all the steps in between) in a systematic way.    I'm thinking that 12 months of individual words, while being useful at developing vocabulary, won't quite get our children to the end goal of independent reading.

Thank you for these posts Helene.  Today's was especially helpful.

I started the "lessons" yesterday with my 2 year old (actually he'll be 2 next month).  His name is Mason.  Yesterday he had no interest and I think I got him at a bad time.  So after reading today's post - I felt much more energized to say, "Come on Mason it's piano time."  And we delved in.

I used your week 1 lesson plan.  We don't have the flashcards but I pointed to the stickers on the keys and we did "Do Re Mi" up and down the scale.  He pointed to several of them and asked me "What's that?"  We did that for a few minutes.

THen I tried taking his pointer finger and go up and down the scale, but he wasn't really interested.  So I did the finger exercises a couple of times by myself singing Do Re Mi with it. 

But the real fun began with the Guess Key Game.  At first he wanted to make the spider come but then when I cheered when the elf came on - he got the idea.  At first I was calling out the names of the apples as they fell and used his pointer finger to find the correct key.  But then after about 30 seconds he wanted to do it himself and so he tried and some of them he got right and he was so excited.  We did it for 1 minute 30 seconds of game time - but the game was really slowing down - which was good for him to find the key but then it took a really long time for an apple to drop and he started losing interest.  Is this because he was so slow the game was getting so slow?  I understand about the apples dropping slowly but maybe they needed to have less time between apples dropping from the tree..

Finally we tried the "Hot Cross Buns" but by then we had already done about 20 minutes and was losing his attention.  But he wanted to hear me sing the song while I was pressing the notes.  And then he started to sing "Hot Cross Buns" while pressing a key for each word but it was the wrong keys but he was getting the idea that one key corresponded to one note or word in this case.  I tried again using his pointer finger but he was losing interest so we stopped. 

But he was GREAT overall!  And I could tell he was genuinely interested.  My only question is:  "Is it ok for me to use his pointer finger to press the correct keys the first few times until he gets the idea?  Or should I just be modeling it for him with my own playing or a little bit of both?"

Thanks again for this forum Helene.

Also, all the members of the forum would be provided with 1 year of lesson plan and I will personally conduct your home practice with your children on this forum from June 7th 2009.

Hi Hellene,

I recieved the SM package and have it fully installed in my computer and am ready to go.  Will you still be conducting the home practice on this forum?  I haven't seen a thread yet?  I can't wait to follow along with other parents.  I played  a few of the games myself last night.  Since I don't have any background in music I found them fun and a bit challenging.  I'm not sure how to begin with my son.  So can't wait to learn from you!

I also just got memory magic and have been using it with my 22 month old son.  I think my observations are much like yours.  But I did want to add....

1)  Follow the Dot - I don't use this game, because it is more suitable for older children (my son is only 2).  But when he gets older, I will look forward to using it with him and see how it goes.

I did play this game with him sitting on my lap.  I know he was following the dot which is like the photoeyeplay exercises.  Of course he's too little to choose the correct symbol after watching the dot - but I bet he knows!  Anyhow, I just play it with him watching.  Sometimes he giggles when I get it wrong - so I think he knows.  I figured even if he was just observing and not doing the choosing of the correct symbol he'd gain from it.   I know that with another program "www.starfall.com"  for a while I was doing the puzzle problems myself with him watching.  Now he tells me which shapes to choose to complete the puzzle. 

So, I guess what I wanted to say is even with the flash games or the follow the dot games, even if you think your child can't do it himself just let him observe you doing it so that he can learn from you that way.

And to the mom who asked if she should buy the deluxe or just the individual games as she needed them.  I'd buy the deluxe again.  Not only does the deluxe have the print out flash cards but it also has progress charts and award certificates.

Wow HH,

Thanks so much.  I just purchased Soft Mozart earlier this week and had put my forum name and request for your lesson plans in the comments section.  Did I get the discount?  And how will I know when my product has shipped?  I only received a confirmation of my order in my email. 

I can't wait to see how you are going to conduct the home practice.  I am ready - I hope I get the software by then!
It will be neat to be following along with other parents in this forum on how their child is progressing with Soft Mozart!  We are so excited.

Jaluitgirl (Kristina)