Just a quick update. 

We made it to the CNIB the other day & purchased a magnifier. It is small (ruler shaped) & she can slowly run it down the page of a chapter book as she is reading it.  She is not loving it yet but seems to be able to read better so hopefully she'll get used to it soon.

I'm hoping to try to the CNIB (Canadian national  institute the the blind.) tomorrow - it's a 2.5 hour drive so it takes a little planning. I'll met you know how it goes.

Thanks for your ideas

Our local (very small town) library has only adult large print books unfortunately. 

My older daughter has a kobo ereader but so far I'm having trouble finding shorter stories at this level. 

I have also been in contact with the CNIB & they will be doing an evaluation & making recommendations this fall but in the meantime I'm looking into a magnifier too. 

I am looking for shorter stories that are at a 5th or 6th grade level.  My daughter has visions problems that aren't correctable at this point so I'm finding that her reading ability is stalling now that she is at the level that most books have smaller print & longer stories.   Also because she just turned 6 sometimes the subject matter isn't interesting to her.

I would love to find some interesting online stories that I could print because then I could enlarge the font before printing.  Right now I'm typing out the first few pages of each chapter & having her read them while I read the rest of the chapter but I can't keep typing everything out!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Love the narrating your day idea. I'm going to start doing that.

Congrats on your blog!  I'm going to check it out

 re: Frukc's comnent on speech:

I don't think Glenn Doman had a specific method for improving speech however I am certain that teaching my daughter to read as an infant has been by far  the most effective tool to teach her to speak. She has Down syndrome & like many people with DS she is a visual learner. Reading is a visual way to teach her to speak. Now at age 5 she speaks quite well.

Love the way your little guy is watching so intently - I'm certain he's learning!

The best thing about a crawling track is that if you place it on an angle, kind of like a slide, gravity will help the baby to realize that if he moves his body he can propel himself forward. Gradually as his movements be one more controlled you can gradually reduce the angle of the track until be can crawl on fiat ground.

I have heard of people making temporary crawling tracks with a sheet of plywood, table top or even an actual playground slide. Of course you have to supervise carefully.

I have a couple of ideas to add to the great advice you've already received.  Try to give as much tummy time as possible. She may be very close to crawling but you may want to try building a crawling track to get her started. Another thing I've seen help is to have other kids model crawling  especially if you can find babies similar in age. Otherwise big brothers & sisters can be a great help.

I always giggle when I hear statements like only gifted kids can benefit from early learning. I'm in a somewhat unique situation in that my daughter has been reading since she was an infant & now at age 5 is reading at a 4th grade level ( or above - haven't checked in 8 months) & is at least 2 grades ahead in math & geography yet because she has Down syndrome many who don't know her assume she isn't very smart.

In the early learning world I hear that only gifted kids can do those sorts of things. In the Down syndrome word I hear that my kid can read etc. because she's "high functioning". I don't believe either is true. I believe we just need to find the right tools that work to help each individual child to learn & to have very high expectations.  

We started teaching reading with big red word cards but started using LR  shortly after it became available for beta testing. I think dd was just over one year. For the longest time we just used the print function to print off the cards as this held dd's attention better.

It was on a Canadian site.

I'm not sure if this is available to everyone but I thought I'd post it just in case - up to 65% off.

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CRAWLING IS IMPORTANT!  Sorry, I don't tell often but it really, really is important. We actually strategically placed our furniture to discourage crawling!

Cross pattern movement is extremely important for brain organization. There are many other benefits as well such as eye covergence & even fine motor from having their hands on the floor.

From a neurodevelopmental standpoint it is probably the most important activity you can do.

This is an early learning community so naturally the focus is more on learning but there used to be a community called Child Brain which focused on early learning like math & reading but also on a broader neurodevelopmental approach. The belief there was that while all areas are important if you have only time to work on certain areas you should focus on the physical because that will help with the brain development which will allow the book type learning to happen more easily.  Look into Glenn Doman's methods/books if you are interested.


Frukc - what a wonderful attitude your country has!

My daughter is really enjoying the Junie B Jones series right now.

Welcome!  

I have a 5 year old daughter also. She loves reading now thanks to Little Reader.

I'm not sure either why she thinks the phonics is hard work but I agree with mandabplus3 - don't test. Just Input. Input. Input. & make sure you both have lots of fun:)