! I can't recommend hooked on phonics enough! I think it's a fabulous resource to have. I came accross it when my son was 4 years old. Prior to that I had no idea of how to teach kids, I was just going to wait for him to start school and be taught there.

We started on hooked on phonics and he caught on really quickly. He learnt all his letter sounds very easily a d started to blend them. I think the best part was the fact that within a week, he had read his 1st book. Once he learnt A and T, he could read words like fat, cat etc, and the 1st book has sentences like fat cat sat. It was amazing. He was so excited.

Now, he's nearly 7 and is Reading at the level of at least a 10 yr old. I'm definitely going to use it again for
my daughter.

So pls, have a go!

Thanks a lot everyone. She continues to amaze me everyday! She is also starting to name other colours apart from blue! She hasn't been naming the colours appropriately but at least she knows there are other colours, she would open a book and call out green, pink, purple etc even though she might be pointig to White! But it's a big step as she would only say blue.

I'm so glad I didn't give up.

I'm in a rush to go out, but wanted to post this because I'm really proud of my 20month old!

Well, compared to a lot of babies here, she probably hasn't done much but for me it's a huge step and I'm really happy.

My daughter is an active little girl who is really into everything. I posted her a few days ago as I was concerned that despite trying every method I knew, to teach her colours, everything was 'blue'! She didn't seem like she was picking up anything i was teaching her, she wouldn't sit still for LR, she couldn't sight read, despite the fact that she loves watching your baby can read, she couldn't name any shapes... so I thought!

She decided to surprise us yesterday. First we were at KFC and she started to count from one to ten in sequence, over and over. She could count a bit before but would miss out some, but she did it perfectly yesterday. Then last night, she was reading a book with her dad and she started to point to shapes and name them, including heart and diamond! She had never even named circle in the past. I had downlaoded an App on my iphone with a game of shapes for toddlers a few months ago which I stopped playing with her as she would just keep tapping all the shapes randomly, but I decided to show it to her yesterday, it would applaud and give a cheer if she got it right, (and boy, does she love an applause!) she started to play it and we realized she would point to shapes like crescent and hexagon! At first we assumed it was just pure luck, but she did it over and over, I could have screamed!!!

of course she soon realized how excited we were, so she started making mistakes on purpose!

I feel really encouraged, that even though she seems disinterested most of the time, she really does learn. And i know there're other parents here that feel bad that their babies aren't doing much, trust me, they are learning, in their own time, they'll show you what they know. some babies like mine just don't want the attention, they don't want to be quizzed or put under pressure. I think as long as they think its all just fun, they'll do much better.

thats encouraging! I might order 'meet the sight words' as well then.

Linzy, if you don't mind me asking, how old was your son when he learnt the sight words?

hypatia, very comforting! thanks.

what is it about 'blue' anyway!!! A few people have said their babies have called all colours blue!

I stopped trying to test her as well. And like you, we only do LR when I know she's in the mood and once she starts fidgetting, i turn it off. She really loves watchingher DVDs though, so most of our teaching is from dvds. She loves reading, as well, so that's all we do now.
she really loves the LR book, and when I say yellow sun, she replies blue sky.

I guess some babies like to surprise you. I know she's a really smart angel though. I recently put up some number print outs on her wall with tape, some of the numbers had turned upside down, I caught her putting them the right way up. She, as far as I know can't identify any numbers yet. She does count to ten, ocaasionally missing out one or two numbers, but I was amazed she knew which way up the numbers were. Maybe she can actually identify them, I don't know! I decided not to push it, I was tempted to turn them upsde down again and start to ask her 'what number is this?' but I restrained myself. I think I should just focus on her enjoying learning and take the pressure off her and especially myself!

I live in the Uk and for some reason we don't have a wide variety off educational stuff like in the US or maybe I just don't know how to get them. Most of the DVDs at our local library are mainly entertainment, with some educational things thrown in here and there.

I just got a mail from amazon that it's been shipped so hopefully I'll get them soon. I'll definitely let you know when how good it is. I'm really optimistic about it though. I watched the clips on their website and it seems good. I'll write a review anyway.

thanks for the advice. i ordered the 4dvds on amazon and now i'm glad i did. I'm sure she'll enjoy watching them.

thanks. I think they're nice but with all the educational stuff we have, i'm hoping we can use them too. she gets too restless with LR, always trying to turn the computer off, so we don't get to use it that often, she really enjoys watching dvds, so i figured using dvds to teach for now might be the best option, but i don't want to overdo it either.

i'll ask Nikita anyway and get her opinion.

thanks

hello

has anyone used the preschool prep dvds. they look really nice and the testimonials are great as well, but i was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with them and what you think of it. i'm really considering buying them and as I've recently been banned from buying anymore educational stuff for a while, i need to have a good case to present to my hubby!!!

thanks.

thanks a lot.

I try naming colours to her all the time, for instance, instead of saying 'can you pick up your shoes', i try to say 'can you pick up your blue shoes'. i think she just likes the sound of blue! funny thing, i gave her a book today and she started pointing at random pictures and saying 'lelo' ie yellow, purple, (not corresponding to the exact colours though)so she does know there are other colours apart from blue, but she is yet to name them appropriately.

I hope it'll turn out like her signing. for months she watched baby signing time and i would try to get her to sign, she managed just a few signs initially, and just all of a sudden, she started to sign a lot, now, she can do at least 30 signs! i'm really glad and encouraged with that, it could get a bit frustrating sometimes when she doesn't seem to be able to identify any words,especially when I read what other babies are doing!

I guess the important thing is that she loves watching her dvds, she absolutely loves your baby can read dvds and would sit through the whole thing, repeats all the words, now once it starts, she says 'hi, my name is aleka'! really cute!

well, I'll continue trying to teach colours and I hope one day, she'll suprise me!

lilyandowensmom- thanks for the link, the dvds look really nice. I read the reviews and all, i'm very interested.

hi everyone,

my daughter is 19months, almost 20, and we've been teaching her lots of stuff, using ybcr regularly, LR on and off, as she is a very active baby and wants to turn off the computer when doing lessons with her. for some reason, she doesn't show any signs of reading, or recogniaing words. i try not to test her anyway. i'm not worried, but i would wish she could by now recognize words.

my main concern though is that i've been teaching her colours for a while, flash cards, LR, pointing and naming the different colours, but she doesnt seem to know the colours. we started teachiung her colour blue, and she just calls everything blue! one good thing i guess is that at least she knows that blue is a colour!

any suggestions please on teaching colours. thanks.

I didn't get to do lots either when I was younger, so now, apart from singing which I guess is a natural thing for me, i don't do much. never really learnt to swim, can't play any instrument, no sports! still I had a happy childhood though, only wished I could do something else.

With my kids now, I've made up my mind to expose them to lots of extracurricular activities as they show interest. My daughter is a bit too young, so apart from taking her swimming and basic skills, no real organized activities yet, but with my older son, he does loads, scouting, swimming, violin, ocarina,piano, football. we just allow him to do whatever he wants to do at a particular time, some he keeps on doing, others he looses interest and we stop. He's tried street dancing, cookery club, tennis, but after a while, I noticed he wasn't so enthusiastic, he never complained though, but we stopped when we saw he was loosing interest. we never force him to do anything.

He has however kept at his music for almost two years now and still really enjoys it a lot, he recently started football, so we're waiting to see if it's something he'll keep doing.

I'm just realy glad that what I didn't have the opportunity to do, he is enjoying now. And he is doing EXTREMELY well with his school work as well. He learnt to read and do basic arithmetic before starting school, didn't know abut the doman method then, but he learnt with phonics. He has stayed well ahead of his class, even with his quite busy extracurricular schedule.

I personally think doing extra makes kids more rounded, more organized, more confident. i'm actually looking forward to finding out what my daughter's interests will be when she's older!

the site looks great. i'm sure my daughter will love it as we're just starting to expose her to french and she absolutely loves songs. but apart from the basic 'bonjour' kind of french, i dont speak or read french and i didn't know how to navigate the site. i couldn't find telecharger either. i'll keep looking though. But thanks a lot anyway for posting.

....and hi nadiaD!

Hello,

I'm looking to buy little pim French and as many baby signing time DVDs as I can get. If you have one for sale, I'd appreciate you getting in touch with me.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks a lot guys! You really cheered me up! I just kind of wonder how much more she could have done, but I don't think beatng myslef up for it will do any good. I see the eefects of what we did, she has a very large vocabulary, she says so many words, and can make two word sentences eg, baby sleeping, water please, go garden etc. she knows and sings loads of songs, she LOVES baby signing time, and can do quite a number of signs as well. I'm really proud of her for these acheievements and I know its a s a result of the earlier stimulation, which is why I keep wishing I had continued, but like you all have kindly advised, I'll just start from now, The important thing is that she';s a happy little girl, that's secure in the fact that she has parents that love her dearly.

Thanks once again.