Hi,

I'm Cris and I leave in Frenchs Forest, I have a 2 1/2 and 5 years old girls. I would love to meet likeminded parents, however I work 5 days a week.

Please keep me informed where and when you are meeting and I will check if I can make. End of the year is a hard time to meet for me as my child is turning 5 in 2 weeks and the birthday parties are one on top of the other.... but lets hope we can make it.

cheers

Cris

Hi Hypatia,

"The idea for me is that once my daughter has a great grasp of maths for example (which i don't, and i suffer now as an adult) then 'learning' won't be a painful experience linked to failure, and her life will be facilitated."

That is exacly the reason why I started to research about early childhood education, I grew up in Sao Paulo/Brazil and only went to public primary school at 7 years of age, struggle throughout my academic life, was always behind and had a horrible memory of my father trying to teach me the alphabet and physically punishing me if I got it wrong. I didn't know what to do not to repeat history but I was sure of what not to do...

If my girls are at easy with learning, as I see them now... my goal has being achieved... it is nothing about "showing them off" is all about building their self stem, and pleasure for learning...

Cris

Hi McDume,

I'm sure 17 years ago, or even further back (while your wife was pregnant) you were thinking outside the box in terms of what would be the best approach for your children education. Am I right? I'm sure, like us, you have gone out of your way, educated yourself, researched (with the tools that were available at the time), books, videos, studies...

Certainly you have come across studies, or methodologies that you believe did not fit your way of living, or that made you uneasy and that you would not put your kids through it…

Like you we have done the same, and we arrived here… these parents/granparents/carers/ teachers that you come across here are eager to share, and learn from each other and from our kids too…

Perhaps as you suspected some people take things to the extreme, trying to force kids to “learn” in a forceful environment, and are happy to feed their egos showing off their kids reading around the playground (we cannot stop people from doing whatever they want to do at the privacy of their houses). But I can assure you that is not what this early childhood development is all about.

Glenn Doman has dedicated a lifetime promoting early education, more than 40 years now, (http://www.iahp.org/), not only to health kids but specially kids with brain injury which have been lucky enough to be stimulated early enough to repair themselves their brain injuries and grow up to live a more dignifying life (who would not what a child to be given this chance?)

When people ask me how come my kids can read… I answer: we play with written words, a lot, in fact we play with written words everywhere, at home, on the supermarket, in the car, at the beach… my girls just love playing with written words, from books, billboards, signs, catalogues, boxes… they are everywhere… and we can play our silly games, point to words, decoding them and laughing if we think they are most unusual like when my 4 years old saw ENOUGH… and would not stop pronouncing it and telling me it was funny… Who am I do disagree?

As per the results of the studies you have come across that by grade 3 the kids have lost their zeal to learn, well I cannot answer for that, but I suspect that must have something to do with the forcing you also spoke about before… Don’t know…

All I want for my kids is that they are happy and I take my cues from them, the satisfaction in my children’s eyes when they read me a book all by themselves or when they spot a word that they have never seem before and are able to read it, is undeniable, so I will keep on my path of learning and challenging the “status quo” that children will learn to read when they are ready, I say they were born ready, but unfortunately we didn’t know.

Glenn Doman actually says that we are ready to read as much as we are ready to talk, and if people only spoken to us in a very quiet voice (because we were not ready), we would not learn to talk until later… same thing with words, they have to be big and bold so the kids can clearly see each one of them and not mixed in small prints in books.

Welcome to our forum and I hope you “learn/teach” with us…

Hi Guys,

Great point about the transition period, where they will start to pick up things from videos... when would that be?

Anyway, one very interesting thing that I've done to my kids and I would like you guys to "test" with your kids just to see the reaction...

I put on a DVD that they have never seem before in a different language such as French, and they go through it without complaining... it is hillarious, I don't speak French and they are not familiarised with it... and I have also done it with DVD's that they have seem and the same thing... no reaction, I find it surprising specially from Gabi (3 years), Georgia is 20 months, so she doesn't sit still for anything, so she comes and goes from the room as per usual...

Another thing I can guarantee is that they might no learn a language, but they sure pick up new vocabulary from it as I have lots of DVD's in Portuguese and I see Gabi singing lyrics from it and I ask her what does it means and she explains it perfectly.

So, it might not be effective to teach babies under 1 years of age, but until proven wrong, it still worth a try for older ones...

Should we write a letter to Dr. Kuhl, asking if she has come accross to any evidence of the effectiveness of Language DVDs for older children?

Just a though...

Hi Krb,

Dont cut and paste things out of order, I just referred to your name because there were only 3 people in this subject...

I was just concerned that people would jump to the wrong conclusion without watching the whole video, that was all, because I didnt assume everyone would take or have the time to watch the whole video...

Sorry if that botter you... I really didnt mean.

cheers

Cris

Hi KRB, Patreiche and KL,

I'm very interested in this video, as my girls are exposed to English and Portuguese, and my eldest was always exposed to both languages and could articulate very well ahead of her pears in English, so much so that people would always ask me: -How old is she again? She speaks very well for her age. I also had her tested due to a stuttering problem she presented a 27 months (apparently quiet common in toddlers), and the Speech Pathologist results were that her speech was of a 3,5 years old (I knew she was ahead but obviously could not guess that was by that much). 

I think some of the comments you guys made about the study above were unfortunately incorrect. I’ve seen this video at least 3 times and some of the comments you made were not quite correct.

KL, you said:

"35 mins - charts show that babies who had better native speech sound perception at 7.5 months had better language abilities at 24 months (could produce more words, language complexity, length of sentences). Better perception leads to faster language growth. 

However, based on first discovery, they also found that this has the opposite effect on foreign language ability (because babies had been committing themselves earlier to the native language)"

34 mins - She also says: Unless they've being exposed to it. So it seems they have only tested babies exposed to one language, otherwise it would be presented differently.

So please, let’s not jump to the wrong conclusion, that we should not expose our kids to 2 or 3 languages (if we can).

The study did not mention that babies would have difficult learning another language, absolutely not. They just said that they loose the natural ability to differentiate the sounds as they first did at 7 months.

42 min. - They actually said that if a child were exposed to mandarin for 12 sessions, they had statistically the same capability to take the language statistics as the babies in Taiwan. Meaning they would differentiate the sounds of both languages without a problem. They did not say that they could in fact speak mandarin, all they said is that they were cappable of listening to all the +30K sounds produced by 4 different people.

Patreiche, you also said "You need a person who interacts with your child and plays with them so they want to learn the language to communicate with that person." - I could not agree more with you... why would anyone learn a language that no one else could understand? I mention how wonderful my daughter English was, but notice I said nothing about her Portuguese, yes, because although I spoken to her in Portuguese, she only answered back in English (kind of disappoint and frustrating to tell you the truth), but I kept going and once we moved to an area where she saw other kids speaking Portuguese, she just began talking and it was beautiful… it was like Xmas for me…
And I truly believe it is because she could communicate with others (not only with me) and it made sense for her to be part of that group that could also speak Portuguese (she was so proud of herself)…

I hope you guys can see the study again and we can have more information exchanged about it... so fascinating...

cheers

Cris

Hi Kimba,

Bingo! No he just made it sounds very knowledgeable... and also he mention some considerable amount of "research" used on his methodology, so I cannot wait to attend his seminar and find out first hand what he has to offer.

Mixing methodology is no different that what we do, is it? We use Doman, Shichida, YBCR, Tweedle Wink, Montessori, whatever we see fit to our kids.

Anyway, another useful information.... I'm doing a TRIPLE P - Positive Parenting Seminar which I'm very impressed with, great information for parents of kids from 0 to 12, and cheap, only $30 for 3 Seminars of 2 hours each. Highly recomended. Their hand outs were priceless.

Hi All,

I have lost count of how many times have I heard the frases
"- Just let babies be babies!  "you just don't teach a baby to read, it's just not right!" - or the even more personal, Gabi and Georgia are going to be bored at school, you are forcing them with these early learning stuff...

Anyway... I just pretend I have not heard and keep on doing what I believe is best to my family...

I believe that what we do is a family business, we are active on the business of educating our children, and in fact it takes a kind of special parent to take charge of things and not let society dictates what we should or shouldn't be teaching them, or we do not conform with the norm (because we know better) and our children deserve to be treated as supperior human beings with a brain power much bigger than ours.

The video below is great Childhood Development: Early Learning, the Brain and Society, it is long but well worth it.


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fcb8nT0QC6o&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Fcb8nT0QC6o&rel=1</a>

Very interesting for people teaching kids language and the critical period of learning...

Anyway, I just wanted to share it...

cheers

Hi Kimba,

My world is wide open on the learning process... all I need is time (working full time sucks!) I've being part of the forum for over a year, and although I don't say much... I read a lot of the stuff that is written here.

[]Has anyone heard about startSMART Education Pty Ltd, I've received a panflet ages ago, went on their website and requested some information, yesterday I finally got a reply (months latter - no joke)... I've asked what approch did they use, and what was their research based on... I will post the email I have received as most of the sources he mention I'm not familiar with (so much to learn, so little time...)[/color]

Also another question, has anyone in Melborne taken their kids to the Shichida School that has opened there?

Dear Cristiane,

Our courses are informed by a range of contemporary and reputable sources
from Australia, New Zealand, USA and UK.  We have sourced the best, as
shown not only through research, but also by the experience of our tutors.
Our research is eclectic, taking the best of many and applying it in a
practical Australia setting and approached in play-based ways.

Specifically, our research includes some (but is not restricted to) the
following:

the brain research of Fraser Mustard (2006),
the Harvard Family Research Project,
the Early Years work from Scotland,
the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth,
Research linking Brain/Mind principles to Conditions for Learning (Rushton,
Eitelgeorge & Zickafoose, Cambourne),
Surestart Program from Britain,
Mem Fox's research  and
the work of Dame Marie Clay (New Zealand)

Our approach is designed to fit in with a range of educational approaches
to early learning including Montesorri, Reggio Emilia and the Australian
Early Learning Framework.  Our content and philosophy is complimentary to
the NSW Board of Studies Foundation Statements and English Syllabus.

We hope the above  answers your queries and look forward seeing you at our
seminar and Parent Course soon to be announced on our web site.

Kind regards, Richard Wolf
Director

startSMART Education Pty Ltd
92 Ryde Rd
Pymble NSW 2073
Australia
p         02-9499 3254
f          02-9498 8642
m        0408 276 166

[email protected]

www.startsmartedu.com.au

Educating for success

Thanks for this post, I was looking for advanced Phonics.

Great!

Hi Guys,

I'm in Sydney (Frenchs Forest), have to girls 20 months and a nearly 4 (3 weeks to go) years old, both born here. I'm from Brazil and my husband is a Kiwi.

My older girl does lots of sight reading but is not reading independently yet... the little one is also sight reading. I work full time and drive to and from work with the girls, we use this precius time to whatch YBCR, Tweedly Wink and other DVD's too...

Anyone around my area?

Wow!

Great review guys, I've now include this product on my wish list, and will check the partnership discounts that we have available.

We so need to let each other know about good products in the market, specially because we are trying to provide the best for our kids and sometimes get sucked into buying low quality products because they have spend more in their Marketing than in developing a quality product.

Bless you all for sharing, and LR for providing the channel.

thanks

 
Hi Guys,
I'm about to purchase the TweedleWink package w/ 9 DVD's + Intro, and would like to know if anyone has purchase it before and what did you think about it?
Unfortunately I drive a lot with my girls (3 and 1 years old) and I use the DVD player in the car, generally with portuguese DVD's (to help them with my language), or any other good DVD I came across.
I was wondering if it is worth the investiment on TweedleWink, please help, if you can.
Thank you so much.

 

Timmy, nao se preocupe em traduzir estes materiais para o Portugues, usando o LR q voce pode montar as tuas proprias apresentacoes pro teu filho, e usando o metodo Doman, voce tranquilamente conseguira ensina-lo a ler em Portugues.

Eu tenho duas meninas, como disse acima, e eu so falo em Portugues com elas, e faco a alfabelizacao em Ingles (pq moramos na Australia), e tbm pq nao tenho tempo pra fazer nos dois idiomas, a Gabriella 3 anos e 1/2 le em Ingles bem, e tem fluencia verbal em Ingles e Portugues, eu usei YBCR, DOMAN e LR, use tudo o q estiver ao teu alcance, mas nao fique preocupado em traduzir os videos do YBCR, faca o teus proprios videos, q os teus filhos vao adorar. Eu tenho um MacBook, o q me facilita fazer os meus proprios videos... mas sei q vc tbm pode usar um PC pra faze-los.

Boa sorte e muita perseveranca...

ate mais

Hi Adriane,

Eu moro na Australia, tem gente da comunidade Como ensinar o seu bebe a ler (do Orkut) q 'e de Sao Paulo, e estavam procurando se juntar pra formar um grupo de apoio.
Entra no meu orkut se voce puder, procure por Cristiane Andrade Wood, q a gente conversa melhor, vamos continuar jogando umas conversas fora aqui pra ganhar mais pontos...

beijinhos

Cris