Hi,

After much consideration, I have decided to combine JG with Numicon as my gut feeling is that my son ( who is mildly autistic) would potentially enjoy the tactile/ sensorial activities that Numicon offers, and the fact that I've already ordered the JG Early Learning Kit, I'd like to give it a fair chance to experience the system. I'm hopeful that my daughter will enjoy and benefit from this brilliant system albeit the quality of the product. ( too late to cancel anyway). Below is the email I sent to JG regarding mixing these two brilliant systems and the reply from Dr Jones. ( Oh and btw, I also asked about the difference between JG and Touch Math and below is the reply from Chris for those who might be interested to know more)

Touch Math and Matrix Math are significantly different.  Matrix Math is superior to Touch Math in a couple of critical ways.  If I thought Touch Math was the best early learning math on the market I would advise you to go there
and do that.

Number One:  Touch Math uses double dots which saves space but is a significant conceptual hurdle for a young mind to grasp.  One needs to keep concepts as simple as possible for the youngest learners.  Teaching them there are two types of dots, one that stands for one, and one that stands for two is not simple, especially when we are just introducing the child to the quantities of 1, 2, 3 ... etc.

Number Two:  Matrix Math incorporates all the numeration concepts the youngster needs for initial competency with digits.  We flash the digit with the dots and teach the name.  The child counts the dots and practices placing them until they master the quantity. They practice connecting the dots to form the number.  These concepts are not conveyed nearly as well with the Touch Math schemata.

Number Three:  Acceleration of Learning, Matrix Math ties into a system of Jones Geniuses Accelerated Mathematics so children are seamlessly taken on to the next level which is often quickly mastered because their foundation skills are firm.  For example, many students of first grade age will complete Matrix Math in two weeks if applied diligently & daily.  They will then be able to do a 100 problem factsheet in either addition or subtraction with proficient mastery.  Proficient mastery means they are nearing perfection in both timing and accuracy.  Perfect mastery means they have 5 minutes to achieve a 100.  Younger students will take longer, of course, but generally we are talking months not years.

Number Four:  The ability of the cerebral cortex to utilize symbols is crucial to both math and reading.  We recommend they be done together because they synergize each other.  The mastery of digit-quantities and letter-sounds go hand in hand.  Jones Geniuses offers a Threshold to Reading program that uses similarly effective mnemonics to teach early reading at the same time basic mathematics is being mastered.  An effective unified approach to math and reading is superior to piecemeal efforts.

and the reply from Dr Jones

Using two systems might be confusing to a youngster even if they are both good ones.
Although I don't recommend it, I do not think it would have a debilitating effect if that is what you want to do
.
We have experimented a lot with the use of patterns.  It is a fascinating area.  There
is a cerebral capacity for rapid recognition of numbers of that sort, items in a random pattern for example.  That skill, called "estimation", is much less important at the pre-school level
than the ability to recognize digits and their quantities and how to manipulate them.
We have found it much more effective to arrange the dots in the shape of the digit.  It leads
our students to master the fundamentals of math operations in a matter of days or weeks.

I will have Chris check on where we have the recordings to make them available to you.
Feel free to call or email me with any further questions you may have.
Dr Jones

Regarding Numicon, I emailed them to seek advice which kit to buy in order to best suit my son's need and at the same time not bore my normalised daughter hopefully and below is the email they replied.

Thank you for your query. I just want to give you a bit more info on the Closing the Gap and Firm Foundations Kits, which I hope will help you to decide which may be best to support your children's learning.

Closing the Gap

This kit has been designed specifically for pupils of any age who are experiencing significantly greater difficulty learning mathematics than the majority of pupils of their age. The aim of the Kit is to enable all pupils to have a positive experience of learning mathematics and to develop the sound foundation of basic number understanding that is essential if they are to achieve their individual potential.

This Kit is suitable for use as a Learning Intervention Programme and also for pupils who have special needs. It is well documented that pupils with SENs learn most effectively through multi-sensory teaching; Numicon’s emphasis on doing and seeing, alongside speaking and listening, capitalises on pupils’ visual and kinaesthetic strengths throughout the teaching activities.

Firm Foundations Kit

Designed for all early years settings, the Firm Foundations Kit gives teachers lots of practical ideas for helping children to develop understanding of numbers and number relationships. The Kit includes a series of multi-sensory games and activities where pupils are taught the colours and patterns of Numicon, to order the Numicon Maths Shapes and to learn their number values. They move on to ordering numerals and shapes together and then begin practical addition and subtraction within 10.

Suitable for pupils working at P level 4 to National Curriculum level 1B.

Please see this link for an excerpt from the Firm Foundations Teaching Materials. Plus this link for further advice on the use of the Numicon resoruces for Early Years maths.

This page has some great videos which explain each kit in detail: http://www.numicon.com/getting_started_videos.html

At this early stage, I think Firm Foundations would be of benefit to your twins as it covers very basic concepts, as with Closing the Gap. The Closing the Gap kit is usually recommended for older children that are severly struggling with basic maths concepts. The use of the structured imagery and visual approach to maths will work well with an autistic child and as this forms the basis of our approach, it's used across all kits.

Feel free to contact me for further advice once you've had a look at the above.

Best wishes,

Alexis


Hope the above helps.

Hi Waterdreamer,

Thank you for the detail review. I have recently emailed Chris too to ask questions regarding the difference between JG and TM. As I saw many parents on the BK forum ordered the program and almost none was interested in TM or Numicon, so I placed an order for the early learning kit. I did wonder if the TM materials would attract my kids attention more as my son is mildly autistic, it's been very challenging teaching him in the last 1 1/2 years. I'm still waiting for my kit to arrive and I hope it'll work out for us, otherwise I'll really kick myself for not following my instinct.

By the way, have you had a chance to look and consider Numicon? I'm thinking of combining JG with Numicon for my son as Numicon offers lots of opportunities to manipulate with the shapes, pegs etc while learning which I think might interest him more. As I mentioned, the last 1 1/2 year has been so challenging teaching him but I can see that he's more keen to work with the Montessori Sensorial Materials.

Great idea, remember to dilute it with warm water in case baby's tummy gets sick. Give small amount though.

[" what are you going to buy for daddy when you grow up?"]

Hi all,

I just thought of sharing this amusing incident happened this morning.

My twins were playing on my bed, my son with his red Ferrari toy car and my daughter jumping on the bed. I asked my son,

" what are you going to buy for daddy when you grow up?" without a thought he muttered " carrrrrrr...."

I was not surprised

Then I turned to my daughter and asked her " What are you going to buy for mummy when you grow up?"

She stopped jumping and shouted " ice-cream!!!!"

Hi Ayesha,

I'm facing the same issue with my twins. My daughter pulls her pants when she feels like peeing. Sometimes she even says pee pee or poo poo. The problem is when I take her to the potty, she starts to cry. She seems very afraid of the potty. So at times she rather hold on to the pee or poo than doing it sitting on the potty. I felt so frustrated and bought a potty training DVD i.e Potty Power to watch with her. The first time we watched the video, I asked if she would like to try sitting on the potty just like the little princess in the story. She agreed and sat on it ( with her pants on). I clapped and cheered for her. My sister happened to be in the room so she clapped too. My daughter immediately broke out crying and threw a tantrum. Since then she just refused to sit on the potty at all. However she loves the video so much she asks to watch it everyday. I've tried reading, offering sticker and juice...it just wont work with her. She cries so loud no matter what I say to her she's not listening. My son on the other hand, pees when we remove his pants and diaper in the bath tub, but when we offer him to pee into the potty or sit on the potty to poo, he'll cry. sigh...

Dear everyone,

Has anyone used the Crayola crayons that are said to be edible? What about the other range of products like water colour, colour pencils, clay etc...are they really edible? What is your experience using this brand of products?

Dear Ilima,

Maybe you could flash the math cards when your son is having his milk. That way he wont be moving around and flashing just 5 cards each session will take less than 2 minutes.

Only flash the math cards when he's having his milk.While he concentrates on drinking his milk he would passively take in the information you flash in front of his eyes. After a while, your son will get use to it and may even start to participate if you try this:

Flash the 5 cards as usual, when you stop at the 5th card, turn it downwards and turn it upwards again and make a sound as if he is taking a photo with a camera. Repeat turning it down and up 2 times and now bring out another card, could be the 4th card or the 1st card and show him that card and the 5th card side by side, ask him to choose which is the number that represents the 5th card he just took a photo of. If he points at the correct one, cheer, clap and celebrate a little so he feels good and excited and want more. I do this with my son sometimes. It is so cute to see him roll his eyes and then point to the correct card accompanied with a smile. He's also not interested in the math program so I'm taking it really slowly, stopping if necessary and starting again after a while to try my luck.

Hi Milovelu,

Thank you so much for sharing such important information. I have since taken the advantage of the discount and ordered 6 DVDs from Signing Time website. I was going to make use of my loyalty points accumulated here to exchange for discount coupon, now I could save them for other products!! Karma to you

HI waterdreamer,

Thank you for introducing those books, i'll certainly check them out. By the way, you mentioned that your son went through some detox therapies, do you mean detoxing from the various childhood vaccinations that supposedly shocked the body system?

Hi Waterdreamer,

Following your last advice for me to take my son for a screening for autism, I have done some surveys and research and have ordered some books to educate myself. They are the following:

1. A Work in Progress: Behavior Management Strategies & A Curriculum for Intensive Behavioral Treatment of Autism

2. The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children With Autism and Related Disorders

3. The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child (Sears Parenting Library)

4. Autism: The Journey Back, Recovering the Self Through Heilkunst

I have only received no.4 which I'm reading currently. I'm really looking forward to receiving no.1 (ABA) and no.2 so I could start implementing some of the strategies with my son. My pediatrician didnt take me seriously so I've decided to take matters into my own hands.

Have you ever considered " homeopathy" to treat your son?

Hi aangeles,

I have not heard of Softway to Mozart until this post of yours so I wasnt considering it until now. I've always thought I'll send my kids to Music Kids and Junior Music School at Yamaha music school as that's where I went as a child. There are not many good music courses for toddlers in Malaysia. Yamaha only takes toddlers 3 years and above. I've checked with them a few times but they keep telling me that toddlers younger than 3 learn nothing and it'll be a waste of time to start music lessons this young.

I'm open to exploring as many options as possible. My objective is to cultivate interest in music in my kids for pleasure rather for qualifications.

Hi aangeles,

Thanks for sharing how you teach your baby music. Using a Glockenspiel certainly makes teaching notes more fun. We currently use the tuning forks in class to teach perfect pitch. The children love it, parents enjoy the simple process too. Oh and Softway to Mozart is really interesting. When do you plan to start your baby on Softway to Mozart? As a piano player yourself ( I believe you must have been educated in the traditional way as I was), do you think introducing toddlers to piano playing through the Softway to Mozart system is more effective in comparison with the traditional lessons?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

Hi Nikolett,

Sure, I'm happy to share what I know but do note my kids are in the 2-yr old class hence the technique we use now is of the basic level.

What we do in class for speed reading is like this:

Each child is given a 5-6 pages booklet, each page with a one-liner sentence. The teacher will play the recorded reading of the book at normal speed while we guide our child to point at the words and flip the pages at normal speed. After the entire book has been read at normal speed, we'll repeat the process, this time listening to a speedier version of the recording and not pointing at the words as it's simply too fast for us to flip the pages let alone pointing at the words.

What I do at home is the same using LR to record myself reading simple books.

Other than the abovementioned, we also do eye training  ( currently basic level) to increase the visual field acuity by moving our eyeballs in an Up/down movement, Left/right movement, Up/down diagonals (1) and Up/down diagonals (2) start with Wind, clouds, rain, Sea, Earth as the attached picture.

It is important to keep your head still and just move your eyeballs during such exercises.

When working with infants and toddlers, use colourful cut out pictures such as a big colourful butterfly and stick a small bell behind the picture while you wave the picture in front of the child's eyes in the directions mentioned above. The colourful picture and the sound of the bell will attract the attention of the small child. Encourage the child to try to catch the butterfly so the child is interested to follow the object. ( I use Tweedlewink DVD eye training " follow the flower" exercise at home. My kids are not interested at all. If you have time, make your own eye training materials such as the abovementioned if working with children under 3 years old.)

For more advance teqniques, you might want to check out the EyeQ website, there is a free online demo and trial if I remember correctly.

https://www.geteyeq.tv/?page=index

I understand that GloriaD is using this program with success, I've only tried the demo early this year and have not used the full version.

I've ordered the Quantum Speed Reading book and if you're interested to find out more, I'll share my review of the book here after I received it from Amazon and finished reading it. Otherwise, check out

http://www.quantumspeedreading.com/basic_method.html

( click on Basic methods and Basic techniques, these are summaries of some trainings you could do to develop speed reading skills.

Enjoy!

Dear Teoh,

Thank you for your kind words. Yes it is hard to be parents bur extremely rewarding too. I have had many depressed occasions, not getting the support from my family on my quest to provide my children early education such as the ones we subscribe to. This forum has given me much inspiration and motivation to keep up my work. Many from this forum community do much much more and I simply couldnt imagine keeping up but i've come to a point to realise that IT IS OKAY if we slack a bit sometimes as long as we dont give up.

I'm happy to share with you some of the flash files ( songs, nursery rhymes, power point presentations) I have (PM me your email add), they may interest your elder son more than flash cards. There are many free resources on this website which you could download and many links contributed by members of this forum with loads and loads of materials you'll find interesting. Just poke around and try them out!

Dear Chispa,

I'm really sorry to know of your condition. A close family member of mine recently went for an operation to remove a tumor in his bladder and is under close observation now. Since then I have read up and research some. If you're interested, the following are some suggestions:


http://www.cancersolutions.org/2008/06/chlorophyll-can-help-treat-cancer.html


http://www.quantumtouch.com/