My son (almost 4) arrived at Brillkids @10 mos. old, having completed YBCR training. He is a tad shy, but extremely compassionate and sensitive to others feelings. Says please and thank you--(and no thank you) without any coaching whatsoever.
We started w/ LR & LM, and did not completely finish math. But, you know what? Even so, he's really advanced in math and can count to 100, and he can skip count to 100 by 5's and 10's. We grouped all of his play food into 52 "pairs" recently. He knows his ordinal numbers, pattern recognition and sorting are amazing to watch. We made a great buy in a Mathtacular DVD. He watched it again and again, dozens on dozens of times. He absorbed a lot and loves working with the manipulatives. He knows there are 100 pennies in a dollar, 20 nickels in a dollar, ten dimes, and so on up to half dollars. We haven't added more than pennies together yet, though.He knows his planets in order (thanks to Rock N Learn dvds). He can add and subtract, and is curious about multiplication, so we're falling back on Little Math again. He shows renewed interest now, and is excited to learn. He knows his months and days of the week. and several other feats I haven't listed. We glued lots and lots and lots of dry beans to popsicle sticks, to demonstrate how math is based on units of ten. We call them 10 sticks. We've gotten all the way to a thousand cube using this method. We have a full set of ones, tens sticks, hundreds squares, and one one thousand cube. I use them mostly to conceptualize larger numbers of things--- like we used them to demonstrate 1,800---the average number of rainstorms around the planet and any one given time.
In science, we performed 30 experiments on air, 30 experiments in the kitchen, and our next unit is plants, but I'm dragging my feet because I don't have a green thumb myself.
I purchased Lakeshore Learning's science folder games with 16 matching/sorting games in it. We covered recycling yesterday. we've done games like- featfher, fur or scales animal matching. He really understands a lot about atmosphere and the weather. We have corkboard cutouts of the human anatomy labeled. He loves learning about the digestive system, but doesn't care to become a doctor. We took his anatomy flashcards and his doctor's kit playset to his last doctor's appointment, and we had a great time despite his illness. I used his kit to "examine" him prior to seeing the pediatrician, so he was less nervous about the whole thing.
In social studies- I printed and laminated coloring pages of all the state flags and flowers of he U.S. Next unit will include similar, but world countries flags and flowers. The coloring pages can be found on
www.coloring-pages-for-kids-boys.com for free, + a good deed. They ask you to print extras of any topic and bring them to children's hospitals, waiting rooms, etc. We purchased several educational dvds from cerebellum, on topics like what is time (history), US Presidents, U.S. History little known facts, and several sets of flashcards spanning topics like world landmarks, flags of the world, and of course the little reader downloads of all those topics and more.---he still prefers using maniulatives. I pretty much let each day evolve and teach to it. My daughter had world thinking day with Girl Scouts recently. My little reader tagged along, so later I incorporated world studies in that day's teaching. He enjoys it, but I've not measured his progress to any state standards or the like.
In languages: we used Little Chinese for some time, but we hit a learning lull. He's showing no interest in that language at the moment. He likes Spanish and I teach to that end three or more times a week.We started out with the first three Little Pim dvds. We have moved to Whistlefritz immersion videos now. I've been signing to him since he was six months old, and he still communicates to me in this language. He probably knows 1,000 or 2,000 individual signs, but I've never really tested him. We got a tremendous deal on signing time videos. Then, I realized the benefits of a classical education, So I bought an ancient Greek for toddlers system, and also their Latin program for small kids on dvd from classical academic press.(you can google them) We follow along when we find time.
For quite a while there we didn't do any reading of hardcopy books, but relied heavily on printed subtitles on various teaching videos. He got the Reedeez dvds for Christmas,and he loves to follow along with that also. His sign language videos have captions, so we take advantage of them. He just recently has started asking to read books frequently, so we keep the library on their toes, now. He really likes the feel of board book stories with pictures that have about one sentence per page, But he can read up to two or three sentences per page in some books .I think he likes the comfort and confidence he gains from reading easier books.
As far as Music, we only recently purchased the LM. It's hard to find time to be consistent with it, but with a little push, I could teach him and his two & a half y/o friend I babysit full time now together. They both love it, and will sit together on my lap to view it and LR and LM. they're showing more interest in computer aided learning than dvds at this time. We've used the Kinderbach Piano dvd course since he was two, but his interest stalled about halfway through. He can play seven or eight simple songs, however,and really enjoyed putting on concerts for anyone who would sit down and listen. He's so cute.
He wears big boy underwear at all times, including nighttime. He stands up to go, also. We're still on the sticker chart system, b/c he loves the feeling of accomplishment and pride in a job well done.( Free Printable Behavior Charts.com ) He's not attached to food much. I think this habit is particularly good for longevity. We use the 1-2-3 Magic discipline program successfully with him. He also amazes everyone with his phenomenal vocabulary and his grasp of syntax, and general understanding of the English language. I can explain almost any concept to him in normal language, and he will understand what I'm saying. He's extremely curious about everything.
I want to train him on the 3G abacus next. We'll see! It's been such a marvelous journey with him. I can't believe I'm having this much fun. I'm forever indebted to Dr. Titzer, and K.L. Wong. The forum has supported me through some rough patches, always with plenty of new ideas and inspiring stories. My son and I have so much love for one another. I'm super-glad I jumped in with both feet and haven't looked back. I've learned so much, too.
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That's just my own experience.
