Thank you everyone! We are ever grateful for the support, suggestions, advice, and warm regards from you.

We just got word today from the president of our country's MENSA that our little girl, a Brillkids product user from it's launch, is now the youngest member of MENSA Philippines.

In her Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) exam, she achieved a 99.95 percentile score.  Her oral expression at grade level 9.5 and reading level at 7.8.  She has problem areas such as listening comprehension (grade 2.2), due to her obvious hyperactivity.

She took the WPPSI for class-placement for a public school but, the directress of a school for the gifted offered us a huge discount on their home-blended program.  From there, Cammie's results were sent to the MENSA president then the international supervisory psychologist for verification.  She is now enrolled in a Grade 1 class for socialization and a home-blended program for Grades 2-3.

People, mostly relatives, who gave thoughtless criticisms just because we didn't send her to a "proper preschool" can now keep their mouths closed. LOL!

We have been firm believers of EL from the the start and now, more than ever.  We're so glad we didn't give up.

Impressive Cokers! I'm inspired to hear such progress and dedication. Will try out some of the programs you are using for my son.
Keri, Alex is just phenomenal, 4th grade math at 5!!!

Re updates on Cammie, my eldest at 5.7 yo - she recently took a WPPSI (battery of IQ tests) for school-placement purposes and got a 99.95 percentile score.  The school who admisnitered recommended her to apply to MENSA and we are awaiting verification from their Intl psychologist.  The administering psychologist said she flat-out said "I don't know" to a handful of easier math questions and would have gotten a much higher score if she had given answers.  The test took a tedious 5-hours time to complete and given her inherent impatience, I bet she was trying escape the test session.

Her reading level is at grade level 7.8 and oral expression at grade 9.5, both high-school levels.  Her math is at grade 4 level and she was noted to give careless answers.  Additionally, she has been diagnosed with hyperactivity (HA) and got a level 2.2 at listening comprehension.  Her eyes and hands would seek something to do to occupy themselves and she would just half-heartedly listen. 

She is now enrolled at a gifted school with a mix of grade 2 and 3 subjects and will take another assessment after 6 months for advancement.  This will allow her writing/motor skills to catch-up.

As for Robert, my 2.7 yo, he is spelling 2nd grade level words and reading at 3rd grade level.  He does crosswords in Montessori Crossword and spells with a bunch of other spelling games.  He would spell orally from memory-words I didn't teach.  Lastweek, he spelled the numbers one to twenty for his grand-mother, with words that has blends and silent letters such as "eight", "two", and "one".  He wasn't asked to spell these before and has no practice.  I noticed He kept looking up, which means he is accessing his visual memory of the words.

He "plays" with his piano everyday but doesn't take formal lessons.  He is in-love with a PC-based music game, Synthesia, and would sit for hours in front of it and the piano, often trying out string of notes as they "fall".  I'm happy that he has retained his perfect pitch and now can effortlessly identify 7-8 notes in succession by ear. 

He plays with math games in the iPad such as Adding Apples and Todo Math and would mostly get correct answers.  He is also currently interested with some IQ games like Quizful and would analyze the instructions and answers by himself. 

I missed this forum so much and am so glad to hear about like-minded parents.  Please keep the updates and suggestions coming!

Here's some more videos of him showing perfect pitch. Just yesterday, I tested him on the black keys of the second octave without knowing that I have incorrectly placed three of the stickers. It was only when he correctly identified the notes that I knew I misplaced the labels! It dawned on me that he doesn't rely on the stickers and has really mastered the sounds of the notes.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nuoHbgkF6PE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/nuoHbgkF6PE&rel=1</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/0yaiQtBocPU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/0yaiQtBocPU&rel=1</a>

Thank you for the kind words Corinne and juliguli. Re the custom playlists, I didn't make them from scratch. I just modified the current categories to suit Robert's preferences. For example, he likes the solfege to display as piano keys, the songs in notes, and some in note names. I pre-select his favorites using keyboard keys CTRL (hold while clicking several catergories) and set the override to auto-play. After he is done, he would just click the mouse to play them again. Hope this helps!

Corinne, I actually know how you feel! He has been anti-showmanship for a long time. Of course seeing the camera pointed at him also discourages him more. One exception is LM which he adores and shows-off without a care in the world. He actually praises himself if we fail to acknowledge his singing!

Things started to change (for reading) after he watched videos of other kids. He also gets competitive when his big sister performs. 

Wow! This new project is intruiging and exciting!

Thank you for the kind words Scruff and KL. We're planning to try Soft Mozart alongside with LM. He is playing some solfege notes on the piano now, hopefully SM would get us playing with both hands.

A huge thanks also to the many ideas we got from this forum especially from TmT. Cammie likes the colored dots on her fingers. She's now 5, has perfect pitch too but is just beginnning to play the piano.

KL, any plans on launching an tablet version for LM? That would be awesome!

Hi everyone! Here's an update on my 27-month-old Robert who's been learning on his own with Little Musician. After a couple of weeks of using LM, he has been partial to specific lessons - Solfege, Note Sounds, and the Solfege Songs. He would demand me to play them over and over, his enjoyment only waning after a full hour of repetition. Not long after, he had accurate recall of the notes upon hearing them and can read them on the staff.

The video below is my second time to test him. Since I mostly leave him to click by himself on the custom playlist I created, I didn't have the chance to oversee him, correct him if necessary, or to develop a good ear on my own. The flashcards I used are screenshots of LM printed in grayscale to test if he can recognize notes not by relying on its colors but by its positions on the staff. I have zero musical background so any contructive criticism or advice would be very appreciated. Thank you for watching!

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

I initially clicked on the dropdown box beside the click and selected "send to>download a copy", then it asked for a username and password. Now, I tried just clicking on the file and it worked! Thanks again. This is a great tool. 

Hi kizudo, thanks for the link.  I tried to access the files to test my eldest but I couldn't open any.  Can you help? Thanks

A BIG CONGRATULATIONS KERI! How exactly did Alex welcome the news? I can't contribute much about EC, we haven't done much but Robert is so vocal that he's telling me and actually pulling me towards the comfort room before making potty since he's 17-months old.

The books I've read while pregnant was mostly about discipline and EQ. I would highly recommend these:

1. Have A New Kid by Friday
2. Setting Limits With Your Strong-Willed Child
3. How To Raise A Child With High EQ

All of these are available in Amazon.

God bless!

Thank you everyone! Practicing with Soroban can be a bit dry for a 4yo because of all the repetition. Hearing your comments gives us inspiration to continue on.

Thank you for posting this Izp11. How long have you been doing this? Our biggest hindrance in EL at our home was actually more on the self-management of my emotions. When I get ticked, a haul of negative words directed at my 4yo follows - how she is NOT focusing, how she's making me angry, etc. I know it's very counter-productive but still I seldom can control it. I used to hover over her watching for a mistake, correcting her immediately, and all the while reminding her about maintaining focus and persevering until the end. It was MISERABLE for both of us. To things that interests her, she gives it her all but to some things, she's like a log that I have to continually push forward.

After reading up on positive pushing (much like the book you've shared), things turned around quickly. This has inspired me to talk to her more positively each day. But there is a pitfall on this method: she didn't become a praise junkie but it seems that praising is not enough to inspire motivation and obedience anymore. At first it worked great for us, but I feel she needed a new kick to propel herself forward. It seems that all the hugs and kisses and being "persevering and hard-working" doesn't thrill her anymore.  Maybe I lack giving her physical rewards? I'm thinking joining competitions to would do the trick but I'm not sure. Any ideas? Thanks again!

What a treat to see Cub displaying such skill and enjoyment! A big congratulations to the family. To see such progress is so inspiring. It struck me how calm he is and I just thought that this kind of calmness and control have a big positive impact on EQ skills too. I'm just curious, would you say he manages his emotions better (for an 11-month old) with all his practice at being such a cool little guy at swimming? Thanks for posting!

Hi everyone! Here's an update on Cammie's mental math. It's been a year since we started with soroban. We have had 20 sessions with her school and the rest was all practice at home. In this video, she used small friends (bonds of 5) and big friends (bonds of 10). I could not film her on a "serious mode" so that she can focus more on the numbers but she did reasonably well though she's been thinking of silly things while at it. Thanks for watching!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/v0EKwe_KznE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/v0EKwe_KznE&rel=1</a>