I was taking Chinese lessons with my son with http://www.chinesehour.com/privateclass/lessons/chineseforchildren/ I was actually very happy with them (special program for kids, good teachers). Were taking for quite some time but have to stop one year ago due to the family issues.

Hello,

I would like to participate too. I can do Netherlands and Belgium

Hello,

I am interested to hear what is the next product you are working on? And when are you planning to release it?

Thank you very much for the support!!!

Keri, it is the smallest double bass (1/32), we are renting it.
I made a big mistake when we started, our teacher never had so young pupils but he agreed to try (and he is leaving in the neighbourhoud). So we had classes practically for the whole year and did not learn any songs   May be if we would start with our current teacher with violin, everything would be different and he would enjoy playing violin. But anyway double bass is his passion and glad to continue with it. So learning by mistake

Thanks a lot, Keri!!!

Here are our 2 videos (2 short songs, recorded today). Of course, we are just beginners, but I love how he is playing
http://youtu.be/9SDubnylbBI
http://youtu.be/dN1uH2dkFa4

Let me know what you think

and chess, forgot about chess. Trying very hard to have it in our daily routine but still not consistent. I am not good in chess myself so learning together

Hello Everybody!

I did not realise that it was practically one year ago when I posted the last update from us. Yes, the time really flies when you are full time busy with early learning

I really thank the moment when 3,5 years ago I opened the small brochure about early learning and this journey started for me. I learned a lot myself during these years.
For example, we are visiting different exhibitions, museums and performances (2 times per month at least). I never visited so many things before . Now we have abonnements in all teaters that are in the neighbourhood:laugh: Two weeks ago we visited dans show from Russia (folklore dances, amazing show). But I was a bit afraid whether my son could sit for the whole performance but he was sitting for 2 hours with open mouth and telling all the time – they are dancing so beautifully    
Do not know whether it is in line with early learning (I meaning visiting all these performances) but I think it is a good experience as well.

For the rest I am trying to do the utmost but sometimes I feel sad that I could not give him all that is possible (working full-time and being single mum in a country without any relatives is not really a good combination but I am trying)

Languages – very good level in 4 languages (Dutch, French, English and Russian). Now Martin really understands that they are different languages and then I asked him, please answer in English or Russian, he knows exactly which language I mean and answers correctly.
Chinese and Spanish is a bit in hold, need some more energy, will restart after summer holiday.

We really likes Kumon workbooks, especially Mazes, already doing the last what are there (for 6-7 years), number games and tracing and so on. And just started Folding books. For some reasons he did not like or may be did not understand the fun of these books for quite some times but now he is really enjoying it.

Mathematics – Singapore math, Right start and Russian books (Igralochka). Little math we already finished quite some time ago, now doing Little Reader English and French (Chinese is also finished long time ago). I think we used/using all brillkids product

Also busy with Little Musician now (already in the half way in the second semester). I really like this program, so well made and so informative. We are enjoying together.
If I start talking about music then we have 2 lessons per week, one is with the teacher for learning piano (actually it is not only piano but also general music education, i.e. sounds, intervals, different songs and etc). And another one lesson is double bass. Yes, we started with the violin but it was so painful and not enjoyable for both parties. Interesting that Martin was obsessed with double bass practically from the birth, was all the time playing on different things pretending that it is a contrabass. I do not know from where and from whom as I am not musician. So I looked for the double bass’s teacher and found amazing Suzuki teacher. So now finally our lessons and home practices are not painful anymore. Let’s see how it will develop in the future.
Martin is still asking for drumming, but now it is something that I do not have energy, time and could not afford as well

And we continue going to the football and swimming.
So this is my quite long update.

Thanks to all brillkids community for support and a lot of interesting ideas

I could recommend the following serie - Mes P'tits Docs (for example, http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/2745919709/ref=pe_217191_31005151_dp_2) There more than 20 books in this serie. All of them have very beutiful pictures, very good quality and short but informative stories. I bought a lot of these books and my son could sit 30-40 minutes but looking through them and telling himself what he is seeing.

And if your child is in pirate's phase the following book is must to have - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/2700014898/ref=pe_217191_31005151_dp_3 (there is an english version of this book). This books has a very big 3D pop-up sea with several boats, sea creautures and so on. Really amazing book!

I think it is better to talk to his sister and his parents (as far as I understood they are the causes of your problem). Find a moment when your hisband is not around (at work for example) and talk to them separatly. Start with parents, talk open and firm asking what they want to achieve blaming you to your husband. Do they want that you divorce (sometimes people are not realizing the consequences of their words)?
When you will talk to his sister, first try to figure out whether she really thinks that you are lazy or she just dislikes you and it does not matter how your house looks. In the first option - ask her to come for one day as a spechless witness to see the amount of your work. In the second - be strong and firm, say what you think about her blaming to your husband and tell her not to interfer in your marrige. Be strong, you come to tell and not to ask.
Do not be afraid, you will not loose anything, they do not like you already, so you can only win.
Good luck and hope it will help.

One very funny moment happened to me. The only thing that was still missing in our curruculum is chess. I have several books but I am not playing myself so for me it is very difficult and really do not have time to figure out how to play. As I am alone so I was looking for a chess school around. And after several weeks I found that a chess organisation of our region is around the corner. So next morning I run there. I asked whether they have courses or private lessons for small children. They asked how small. I felt some tension so I answered - for almost 4 years old (my son is 3.4). Well, afterwards it was a silence for 5 minutes and one guy started to say the usual speech that it is too early, let a child play and so on. But then another guy turned and asked with sarcasm - MAY BE YOUR SON IS PLAYING VIOLIN AS WELL? I answered yes and they were completely out for a long time this time. They took my mobile number saying that they need to think for a week!!!! But I do not think that they will call me back. But ok, I needed to check.
Well I was laughing the whole evening. Sometimes I am asking myself may be I am really crasy

Recently I was thinking and thinking whether my son is overloaded by all things I am doing with him, whether it is too much or not? What do you think? Is it possible to overload kids?

Tamsyn,

Thank you very much for the reply! This site is exactly what I was looking for!!!!
I checked, actually our xylophone's name is sound bars (please see the picture). There are no note names but I will label them myself. There are only 2 "Do" notes, one - big and one - small.

Hi!
Is anybody using xylophone sheet music? Could you please recomend a good one? But for a parent with no musical education, please
We have a very good one and my son enjoys paying on it but it is just bum bum bum. I would like to start playing and singing songs (it is his another hobby, he likes to sing) but I do not know it myself so would be great if there is a simple guide with many songs.

Hello,
Could you please recommend good workbooks for practicing French (for example alphabet). I was trying to look myself in Amazon, but most of workbooks that are there do not have reviews and I do not know French myself so could not judge whether they are good or not.

Hello,

We started taking violin lesson (one to one lesson during 30 minutes, one time per week) one month ago. Brief summary - we already trying it for 8 months but after 4-5 lessons my son was losing interest and we stopped and then in a couple of months I tried again and again for 4-5 lessons - success and again loose of interest. But before my mistake was that we did not have regular home practices, very rare and irregular.
So now when we started I was trying to have short daily practices at home but it is not going very successful, very often it is just 5 minutes and that is it, my son does not want to play anymore (and also it is not every day, but I am asking him every morning to play violin but often he does not want). But he likes his violin, he is saying her good morning and good night, every day is checking whether she is ok and etc. I see that he likes the idea of playing, he likes to hear but for some reasons does not want to practice. First I thought that may be it will take time but at least our lessons with teacher are going extremely good. It was until yesterday. First 15 minutes it was as usual but then he started to run around, did not do what the teacher asked and so on. Teacher was changing activities all the time and it helped for a bit. But I am very worried now because we had it before, and I am sure that the next class would turm into nighmare and we would have to make a break again.

Could somebody please advice what I should do, how to motivate him to practice daily? And what to do at a lesson when he will start behaving badly?