Homemade EK = REALLY hard work!!

[sarahjean]

This week a part our our learning goal list is learning about the animals of the Polar Regions. I have been making my own EK card and I have to say that I am SHOCKED by the amount of work necessary!! I have 28 different species that we are covering, I've done the BO for 16 tonight, and it's taken me over two hours so far! I would say all together when you include finding the images, compiling the BOI, and putting the cards together, this ONE set of cards is going to take me close to 10 hours to complete! Holy heck! No wonder people buy EK cards!

Now, on the plus side, I'm learning an amazing amount about Arctic and Antarctic animals!!

What has your experience been with EK cards?
 

[TeachingMyToddlers]

This is exactly why I personally use TW for EK, and are looking to introduce some similar DVD based programs. I simply don't have the time or inclination. We also use "national geographic" type kids books of baby animals and things. I just got a few of the first DVDs in the Growing Up Wild series too, and I think Nat Geo also makes a similar one. Bill Nye has an entire line of DVDs at my library, and so forth. There are lots of educational DVDs.

For me, it's just not feasible to hand make BITS. Not gonna happen. In DadDude's essay he posted a link to some great powerpoints (no voice though) and I think there are some on myclassicalmommy too. Also, You tube is a big favorite in my house, you can find tons of learning songs for continents, countries, etc. www.keepvid.com lets you watch them later with no ads and so forth, and create your own filing system for favorites.

While too much screen time is not ideal, I would rather my kids have some EK exposure than none at all.

[TracyR4]

What are BITS?  and EK? Sorry but not familiar with every acroynm yet. 

[aangeles]

Since starting EK with my daughter when she was 18 months old, I have made exactly ONE set of bits with POIs (Composers). Since then I have mostly relied on TW and what was available from this forum. It was just not realistic to be working full-time, run a full early learning program (which includes much more than EK topics), make my own EK cards, and still expect to get a decent amount of sleep. The fact that my daughter was never enthusiastic about flashcards did nothing for my motivation to make them either. Anyway, since then, I have gradually been using more and more of the Montessori materials for EK topics. They pretty much cover the same topics - they are just smaller and have a hands-on interactive component. In this sense, they are probably not as right-brain as the bits but that's what I use TW for. My daughter also likes working with them better - she can play with them, match them, read them, etc rather than just sitting passively looking at them. I am amazed at the breadth of topics covered - I was even able to get cards for French, Spanish, and Chinese! If she wants to learn more about a certain topic, I just supplement with books from the library and, this way, she also learns to read things up for herself rather than expecting to be spoonfed information from EK bits. Also, the reason it works well for us is because she is at an age where the size of the images and words do not matter too much anymore. I expect that if you're working with a younger baby, then the Montessori cards will be too small and too fragile for them.

[mom2bee]

What are BITS?  and EK? Sorry but not familiar with every acroynm yet. 

No problem, allow me to illuminate a bit.

EK - Encyclopedic Knowledge
Bits - Bits of Intelligence
POI - Points of Intellect/Intelligence

All of them, I believe, are essentially the same thing flash cards with large pictures of one thing on the front, with some facts on the back that parents read to the child, a couple of facts at a time over a period of a few days, but I'm not 100% sure about that because I haven't had the chance to read "How To Give Your Child Encyclopedic Knowledge" by Glenn Doman and I haven't delved to deeply into it, I've been more interested in the reading, language and maths programmes.

[Martusia]

Sarah,
It's true that it takes a lot of time to prepare  EK cards. Sometimes it's better to present just a few at one time and enjoy them with your baby then overwhelm yourself and being discouraged by preparing so many. Also, like you said you learn a lot about new stuff when you prepare EK. It's easier and more fun to present these facts once you prepared them by yourself. I'm speaking from my experience!

I found http://www.wikipedia.org/ very helpful. Many times I just copy and paste all of the info.
I hope you find balance between your personal time and preparing EK cards.

Marta

[TracyR4]

Are there any already made EK cards?  Is this similar to the videos from Wink to Learn ( the animal videos?)
I've just got done reading Your Baby Can Read by Doman. I'll have to see if our library has the ": How to Give your child Encyclopedic Knowledge."
Also does anyone have any 'samples' online on how they put the cards together? I need a visual. 

[mom2bee]

You can buy premade EK cards from the IAHP--Doman's institute.

You can also buy Multilingual Encyclopedia disks from them.

[aangeles]

Sarah,
It's true that it takes a lot of time to prepare  EK cards. Sometimes it's better to present just a few at one time and enjoy them with your baby then overwhelm yourself and being discouraged by preparing so many. Also, like you said you learn a lot about new stuff when you prepare EK. It's easier and more fun to present these facts once you prepared them by yourself. I'm speaking from my experience!

I found http://www.wikipedia.org/ very helpful. Many times I just copy and paste all of the info.
I hope you find balance between your personal time and preparing EK cards.

Marta

May I add that Marta has an awesome blog where she graciously shares the learning materials she makes for her son: http://earlylearning-eaton.blogspot.com/. My daughter loved all of the Gingerbread Man activities this past Christmas and has learned to count to 100 by playing with the construction vehicle number puzzles that Marta made. 

You can buy premade EK cards from the IAHP--Doman's institute.

You can also buy Multilingual Encyclopedia disks from them.

The premade EK cards from IAHP routinely go on sale. If you get on their mailing list, you should get a sale notice about once a month. Even on sale, however, they are still too pricey for my budget. I do have the 10 Doman picture dictionary CD-ROMs and it is in 5 languages. But they only have the BOIs on them and not the POIs.

[sarahjean]

aangeles,

I LOVE Marta's blog! We're going to try her tropical wildflower file folder games soon!

As for EK cards, it just so happens that my Lily and Violet both LOVE flashcards! I am glad already that I took the time to make them because I used the Arctic animal ones today and now BOTH of the girls can identify all of the animals that I've shown them!

Even Violet, who is only 11m old when I held up the Beluga Whale and another card grabbed the Beluga and actually SAID, "Be-lu-gaaaa!!" before I even got a chance to ask which was which! (Yes, I "test"...my girls love it and CRY when I stop! For us, it's a fun game!)

So, time consuming? Yes. Worth it? Definitely!

[aangeles]

That's so cute!    I wonder if Marta has lilies and violets in her flower file folder game? I'm sure your girls will love it.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for me  ), Ella who is now 2 and a half, never took to flashing bits and dots so I don't feel too guilty about not having time to make them. There was a thread on the forum a while back about parents collaborating and sharing EK bits, I'm not sure if you've come across it: http://forum.brillkids.com/encyclopedic-knowledge-collaborations/encyclopedic-knowledge-categories-for-free-made-by-all-of-us!/ I wonder how that is coming along?

[Ann2010]

Yes it takes a lot of time, but we all make crazy sacrifices for our kids including our time.  However where you can it is beneficial to purchase them.

[sarahjean]

I did come across the EK forum but it's all PP or LR files. Unfortunately, I have trouble getting my babies to sit through a PP Presentation.

[queenkmommy]

Aangeles,
Where do you find Montessori EK cards? Thanks.

[luvn4]

I really like this for montessori materials and cards

 http://www.montessoriprintshop.com/

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