hey sansio -
Yes, my parent educator recently told me about the method you described - I have been trying it with my daughter (who had developed a funky pencil grasp) and it is working pretty well! Thanks for sharing. 

princessclem -
oh yes, oh yes!  My own use of French has almost completely gone by the wayside, but I would love to expose my children to the wonderful language! Any downloads you can get to would be most appreciated.  In addition to the suggestions already made, maybe the pronunciations for the alphabet too?

Just downloaded and played "The New Toy" complete with audio and pictures.  The illustrations (and the voice) were so wonderful!  I am so thrilled with the outcome.  To see the finished product was such a joy - it is perfect!  Thanks again for selecting my story to do- truly an honor for me - and I am inspired to write more stories!  Thanks so much!

KL - Just wanted to say thanks for posting your thoughts on this thread.  I had followed the posts, but wasn't sure how to jump in with my views.  Thanks much for sharing!

^ yes - this is the first forum I've ever been a part of (and oh, it is so addictive - yet         
             wonderful)

>   I think procrastinating is my new hobby (and I'm getting pretty good at it!)

v   What do you do when you feel you need to escape "the daily grind?"

Fantastic rafikipaka - I am excited to check them out! I'll let you know what other categories I would like to see!  Thanks again for posting here and giving us a heads up about your categories.   
Take care!

You bet  -  I will check out the voice recorder program (hadn't had time to explore that or even notice it yet to be honest with you !- sorry!!), and I will try to redo my sets.  Then I will "drop links" to them (if I can figure out how to do that!  )

Wait till our phonics features come out. It's currently under development, and we are extremely excited about it.

Glad to hear of this indeed - I must admit that I have been concerned that folks will think that the sight word exposure will be all it takes to teach their children to actually read.  There are so many words in any given language - no one could possibly simply memorize the visual structure of all of them.  Sight words are certainly important (especially in the English language when the orthography is often so far off from how a word phonetically sounds), but they will not get the entire "job" done when it comes to reading.   I am so thrilled that you are pursuing this other avenue/component within the program - fantastic!

For those of you not wanting to wait until the phonics feature is completed  , I had created a few word flash categories a while back if you want to check them out ...there are six of them total (you would have to add the pronunciations - as I didn't know how to do it back then).  Five of them flash words containing short vowels (five words for each short vowel sound) and the last one shows ten words that follow the "silent-e" rule.   My daughter (who just turned five) looked at all of them this morning and was able to sound out (that is, to say each sound of the word "b+e+d" and blend them back together to say the word) all of them on the first try!!  She had learned what sounds the letters make from the "Letter Factory" videos, but you could easily make a category that would flash the grapheme (the letter) while the phoneme (the sound) is said. 

Hope this is helpful info - feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the word flash categories - maybe I can try to add the pronunciations to all of these - and have the initial flash be the letter/sound by itself.

Thanks for reading!

Fantastic! Karma to you - my daughter is so into dinosaurs right now - she will love this!Thanks again!

Well said, Nikita -
I have been around lots of kiddos over the last 10 years (in my profession), and yes, boys are inherently different than girls!  It is amazing how anything within a 2 foot reach of a boy can be turned into a weapon (even when the parents work tremendously hard to keep the boy from being exposed to any sort of violence). Boys' play skills are also so much more "rough and tumble" than girls (as a whole of course - I've known plenty of little girls who go after rough and tumble games too - my daughter included).  Even though my own little boy is only just a year old, I certainly can tell differences in how he "views" the world.  I feel so blessed to have been given one of each gender - I am enjoying it tremendously.   

Carpe_diem is right too - it is amazing how much the older one will want to help with the younger one...and the best thing in the whole wide world is watching the love flow back and forth between my two precious babes.

To sursyot - I wish you well - the moment a new life joins us in this crazy world is truly an amazing gift  - keep us posted on his arrival! 

Could I have another extension key please??  The one I was given ran out, and we are now without our little reader!  Oh no!!  Thanks much!

[fantastic]

Thanks so much!  I had a fun time writing my story, but I had a fantastic time reading everyone's entries!      They were all so neat!  I think awarding everyone who was able to participate loyalty points was a really grand idea as well.   
Thanks again for the points - they will be put to good use!! 

too true carpe diem ( about the best toys being the ones that are free) - my kiddos always find a way to make "packaging" truly intertaining. 
I like your idea about the boxes that have dividers in them for the pouches - I can see my daughter totally filling those up with treasures! 
thanks again for the idea.

I hear you Nikita - I had lots of ideas too- just no time.  Sometimes I get really frustrated b/c I know there is no possible way to get all of the things done that I hope to accomplish with and for my kiddos while they are still young.  We'll just have to keep doing the best we can, I guess!

Sounds neat akgard.

I will also have to check out Frog in the Kitchen Sink (sounds cute!) and There's a Hair in My Dirt (sounds gross  in a good way!)