I love many different varieties of both coffee and tea!

We have 1 daughter, Taiya who will be 3 in September. We are trying for #2 and actually hoping for twins (most people think we're nuts).

Naya

I'm really interested in adding more of the Spanish words to our library. My daughter is learning Spanish (mainly through Dora the Explorer at the moment) and I want to start exposing her to a larger Spanish vocabulary. I don't speak Spanish myself, so I'm basically just learning along with her.

Naya

I agree with Noha in that the best way to teach your child morals is through your own example. Just act in the way that you would want your child to act. If you make a mistake and behave in a way that isn't what you'd want your child to emulate, then you admit to them that you were wrong to behave that way. That in itself will teach them that it's okay to make mistakes, but it's important to own up to your mistakes and do what's necessary to fix them.

In my experience with kids as a nanny I found that with things like morals and manners, kids learn more from what they see than they do from books or anything else. Not that they don't learn from other things, but what sticks with them more is what they see in their environment. So I think it's equally important to point out the behavior of others to them (whether good or bad) and explain the behavior to them. Obviously not right in front of the person, though. For instance, when the 4 year old I cared for witnessed her friends mom beat their dog with a spoon, she thought it was a bit funny. But after we left (which was pretty much after we witnessed that horrid event) I explained to her that what her friend's mom had done was wrong and why.

So back to my original point, I think some things are best left to real life experience. Art is one of those things too. There's so much that can be done artistically speaking just by buying some cheap craft materials from a craft store or any other place that sells things of that nature. Most of the time you can just set some glue, markers, glitter and whatever else and just let their imaginations run wild. Art is such as easy one to do without having to involve computers. But I've often thought of writing a book with age appropriate arts and crafts ideas.

Naya

I've been mainly sticking with the old fashioned way of teaching my daughter to read. I read to her every day and point out the words as I'm reading. We do have flashcards, but we haven't used them yet. Not sure how much of that we'll do yet. She seems to be picking up on things rather quickly, though. While she doesn't actually "read" the words, she is starting to recognize some of them because she's memorized them. I really want to start focusing on teaching her the sounds of the letters now that she pretty much knows all of the letters in the alphabet. Once she knows the sounds each letter makes, it will be much easier for her to learn to read.

Naya

We only speak one language in our home, but my daughter has been learning spanish since she was about 1 (and I've been learning along with her). She's 2 1/2 now and she actually does mix English and Spanish words, but we understand what she's talking about. Most other people who meet her find it cute and quite impressive that she's speaking two languages at her age when we only speak English in our home. So I don't think there's a problem with them mixing the languages at such a young age. As long as you know what they're saying and can translate to others who may not understand them... 2 year olds are hard to understand at the best of times anyway. And they can learn the difference as they get older.

I haven't even thought about teaching my daughter a third language. I would say that it would depend on what languages your child is going to be exposed to. For instance, if you live in an area (or family) where 3 different languages are spoken fluently, then it wouldn't be such a bad thing to teach them all three languages as soon as they start learning to talk. In my case, though, living in a country that is mainly English speaking, I think I'll stick with Spanish for a while and as she gets older and has an interest in other languages we can start looking into it then.

Naya

Mom of 1 from America living in Australia

Naya

Hi everyone,

My name is Naya and I live in QLD Australia with my husband, Nathan, and 2 1/2 year old daughter, Taiya. I've wanted to homeschool since before I had any children and this program is really going to make my job so easy. I can't believe that my daughter is just learning to speak and already she is showing an eagerness to start reading. I'm really looking forward to testing out this new software and getting to know all of you.

Naya