Hey Daddude,

It's Tobias8 again.  I again am grateful for your suggestions.  One other question, (which I guess comes from my scientific background and the need to look at primary sources), has to do with the Flesch text.  I went ahead and ordered it to review.  It sounds like you have minor differences in your opinion regarding the performance of the exercises in the book, (based solely on your "how to use the flashcards" instructions).  First, am I correct in my assumptions, and second are there other areas you also disagree with as I peruse through the book, or are there areas to which I should place more attention?

Finally, it does not appear that this method is useful for younger children who have not yet developed the motor skills to speak or make phonetic sounds.  Would you agree that the Titzer method remains a good starting point until then? 

Gloria D,
Your post has been very helpful.  I'm going to model my little one's speed reading education after yours, as it seems to be very successful.  Thank you for your insights and please keep us updated on Leena's wonderful progress.

Wow, that's great to hear!  It sounds like an amazing skill to possess. If you would permit me to ask a few of questions:

1) Of the speed reading programs available, why did you pick EyeQ?  Is it tailored for kids? 
2) at what age did you introduce the speed reading course and how frequently did you schedule your learning time?
3) have you measured your little one's reading speed, if so, may I ask what it is?

Thank you so much for the initial feedback.

Hello parents,
I know that the Doman method and Tweedlewink's Right Brain strategy are suppose to help children develop speed reading skills.  But I have not yet seen anyone comment on actual speed reading programs for kids.  Obviously many of us are now only taking the preliminary step to teach our young ones to read.  But I believe there may be another step beyond simple reading up to speed reading.  Any other opinions or experiences?

Hi Tobias,
I think your little ones will enjoy the video.  Play it every day.  If you do not have time for the full run, which I think is 30 min, just put it on "Animated clips" and the music lessons will play, I believe just the animated play is a little over 10 minutes.

That is a great suggestion to play just the "animated clips" depending on time/interest.  There is so much for our children to learn and see!

My schedule for teaching language is evolving.  I'm teaching French through Little Pim, and a French sing-a-long DVD on Monday and Wednesdays; Spanish with Little Pim and Tagalog (with other DVD) (trying to take advantage of the related languages) on Tuesdays and Thursdays; and Chinese with Wink to Learn on Friday and either Saturday or Sunday.  I'm encouraged at this point by the interest that Tobias has in paying attention to the language education.  When I notice that he seems bored or distracted though, I'll move on to teaching or playing something else.  My thought is to blend all the languages through the week as I am observing overlap in the materials and objects used, for example with the Little Pim Spanish and French DVD's, that may make it easier for Tobias to make an association with each language.  It also allows me to point objects out in 3-4 different languages at the same time when we are "outside learning".  For instance, if we see a dog, I can describe the animal in four languages: dog, perro, chein, asso, etc 

I love the globe idea as well!  There is also a toy out there, not sure who makes it, that let's kids explore the globe via an "airplane handle" and "airplane sounds" which allow them to land on an area with a magnifying glass and find out some tidbit about where they landed.  This could then be expanded as above.

Dear friends from the forum,

Thank you very much for your kind feedback about our Speak & Read Chinese 6-DVDs program. We had noted that some of the customers are unhappy with the children's pronunciation in some of the lessons in Level 5 & 6. Rest assured that we are reviewing this matter seriously and will include these corrections in the new version up and coming. At the same time, we had submitted our SING to LEARN Chinese DVDs for external review as well. The pronunciations of the words and songs are very accurate and we are very happy to inform you about it.

However, rest assured that the adult pronunciation which is the key voice-over for the entire program (more than 95%) is extremely accurate. The speaker that we had engaged is a Chinese teacher, from a reputable school in Singapore, is trained and specialized in Beijing pronunciation. This is why we do have a number of Chinese school teachers in Singapore feedback to us that they thought that the voice-over was done by a teacher from Beijing.

Again, I thank you so much for your kind feedback. Without your precious feedback, we are unable to perfect our programs to help more young children in learning English and Chinese from young.

Last but not least, we do like to offer you a free upgrade to our revised version to be launched at the end of the year in the event that you decide to purchase the Speak & Read Chinese 6-DVDs program earlier.

Your sincerely,
Hazel
www.WINKtoLEARN.com

Hello Hazel,
I have recently purchased the WinktoLearn DVD's.  How will you be notifying us when the free upgrade is available.  This certainly gives me more confidence in my purchase.  Thank you.

thank you so much for all the guidelines.  I am struggling with introducing another language to my son.  I want him to learn Chinese, of which no one speaks in the household.  But, we are also introducing French (my wife speaks, as well as her parents), Spanish (I can speak) and Tagalog ( I can speak, as well as my parents.).  It's exciting to see others attempt to expose their children to languages that the parents are not familiar with.  I am curious, however, if everyone agrees with the comment made that Wink to learn Chinese has poor pronunciation.

Thanks

Hi Tobias,

How are you introducing Tagalog to your son? We live in the US and my daughter's only exposure to Tagalog is from her dad. We want her to grow up knowing her Filipino heritage but it is difficult to get Tagalog educational materials here. We are kind of in the same situation as you are. Her dad speaks Tagalog to her, I speak Mandarin Chinese to her, and she gets English from daycare. We are also introducing French and Spanish to her via Little Pim and music CDs. Regarding Wink to Learn, I agree with the previous comment that the speakers in the DVD have an accent from the southern provinces of China. The pronunciation is not that clear, unlike Baby Learns Chinese. So I am not letting her watch Wink to Learn because I want her to develop proper pronunciation. I heard Little Pim Chinese is not bad but I haven't checked it out yet.

AAngeles

Hi AAngeles,
I have some tagalog educational dvds which are geared more for adults, but there really aren't a lot of other options out there that i know of.  I also try to "superimpose" some tagalog translation when I review spanish or when my wife reviews french. 

Overall, he seems to respond most to the musical themes.  Our goal is to take advantage of this "language window" which is only open for these precious early years.

I'm interested in learning more.  Do you have any links or resources to explore?  How did you find out about this topic?

Yes, the clips are good, but the actual DVD's have sooo much more information and are of a better picture quality.  My son loves the way they are presented (specifically "simple science and more simple science DVD's)  I'm even learning from them!

Thanks

Thank you so much for sharing your insights and schedule.  As I think you have said in the past, there is very little scientifically that we can model from when we teach very young children.  All we have is the empirical data and stories that we share.  Nevertheless, to hear about others' successes does shed some light into what we do and what we try.  Thank you again for your perspective.

daddude, how long have you been teaching your son to read?  Did you use YBCR?  Give us some insights on your educational strategy.  I also noticed the great collection of power point slides you created for the Brillkids forum.  They are extremely well made and informative.  May I ask how often you view these slides with your son and do you think he is absorbing most of your work?

Thanks.

Thank you for posting your results with Trebellina.  I recently purchased the DVD for my young ones.  They are not yet starting to sing, but it definitely helps in our motivation to know that good results can come from the DVD.  We'll keep going and thanks again for letting us in on your results.  By the way, how often would you view Trebellina in those first two months?

thank you so much for all the guidelines.  I am struggling with introducing another language to my son.  I want him to learn Chinese, of which no one speaks in the household.  But, we are also introducing French (my wife speaks, as well as her parents), Spanish (I can speak) and Tagalog ( I can speak, as well as my parents.).  It's exciting to see others attempt to expose their children to languages that the parents are not familiar with.  I am curious, however, if everyone agrees with the comment made that Wink to learn Chinese has poor pronunciation.

Thanks