UK Members

[MummyRoo]

Hello. I'm just outside London - it seems there are more of us here than it looks! There really should be an option of showing your country to make it easier to find one another!

My son is 3.5 and although we didn't do as much Doman as I would have liked (a combination of him being poorly and me being disorganized) he is still a way ahead of his peers. We are now focusing on learning Maths, handwriting, reading, Russian and Music. He has pretty much finished reception level work a year and a half early 

Is anyone else looking to be even more 'wierd' and homeschool, too? I know it isn't nearly as common here as in the US, but that's not stopping me 

[GeniusExperiment]

great to see some more Londoners here. I guess we usually hide :-). I've only discovered Doman very recently. My flash cards just arrived today and I am excited to get started! BT - great idea about meeting up. I have a newborn at home now but maybe in the summer it could be great to meet up for picnics outdoors or something like that!

MummyRoo - so far I am not as crazy as consider homeschooling ;-). I totally believe it is much more beneficial in educational terms, children could learn far more. But the social side is very important for me. Plus, maybe it's important for the children to learn that parents need to earn money as well. Or at least, I think I need some time to be productive, especially in London where rents are so high! At least, I find if you really look, in London you have great schools, it may be harder if you live in other parts of the UK. My older daughter is starting at a lovely Montessori school with a huge garden very soon, I think it will be great for her. I guess I will just "homeschool" the rest of the time and in holidays :-).

[BTBVEN]

All the best...I am sure both your girls will really enjoy the whole learning experience. Definitely happy to meet in the summer or when you feel ready.

I don't intend to homeschool either...it wouldn't be feasible for us...my husband & I both work full-time and we do want to progress further professionally. I will continue with the early learning for my daughter where time permits or can get someone else to help out with the same. At present, my daughter is learning with LM, LMS and LR. She's also learning with Tweedlewink dvds, sparkabilities and flashcards/apps/youtube videos that I have found seperately. She goes to lots of activities - baby sensory/toddler sense, tumbletots, playgroups, waterbabies etc. We also have a native french speaker come over once a week to play with her and speak to her in french. I intend to get the french curriculum that's just been released through LR, to reinforce learning in french. 

I have recently found a playgroup for learning mandarin, so she'll be going to that starting next month. Apart from this, as my husband speaks russian & german, she gets to hear him speak in both as well as learning Hindi & Tamil (Indian languages, given our ethnicity). We also take her to family concerts organised by the LSO every now and then. One of the mummies on this forum also goes concerts at the Royal Festival Hall...I am hoping to go to one sometime soon.

I found a company in the UK that specialises in home gyms for kids, we are saving up towards that and hope to get it by May.which will then help with bracchiation and many other physical activities.

We recorded affirmations for my daughter and began playing that for her as a part of her night-time sleep routine since birth. Whilst I hadn't researched into early learning specifically before giving birth, for some reason I thought that if I exposed my child to every possibility then she'd learn easily . Luckily, I had already exposed her to many things without knowing that this was already a well-established concept and since researching have been able to continue on this journey.


Do keep in touch.

Best Wishes
BT

[GeniusExperiment]

BT - thanks for sharing your background! Two questions - how old are your children? And also - what's the name of that company doing home gyms? I was trying to encourage my hubby to build a monkey ladder but he isn't up for it - thinks it takes up too much space in our small apartment - he has a point and we do have a playground with a monkeyladder near our house, but it's high up and over concrete floor so not really suitable for children under 3 or 4. I will PM you soon as well!

[BTBVEN]

I have a 9 month old girl....she keeps us busy enough ;-)

The gym company link is: http://www.homejungle.co.uk/  The one we are looking to purchase is the Jungle Gym model. You need to get their mats for the floor for cushioning purposes.

[MummyRoo]

We have the big giraffe model - unfortunately there is simply no space for the full-on jungle gym with the brachiation ladder that I wanted, but my son swings from the trapeze and has fun climbing the ladder. Be careful that you check the ceiling heights needed for the model you want (we have quite low ceilings so had no option but the fixed-to-wall model) and remember that fixing to plasterboard is not a good idea 

They are actually importing from Russia, so don't be worried if you find Russian instructions before digging deep enough to get the English ones They are a bit of a pain to get together (my dad told me never to buy another one because he wasn't putting it together for me) but not too much worse than your general Ikea flat pack 

On the plus side the customer service was great. The same company sells through amazon, but at a rather inflated price so go to them direct. I didn't get their mats - I found one only slightly thinner than they recommend quite a bit cheaper. The mats also double up as an indoor trampoline I would recommend this product that the same company only seems to sell via amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007459LBI/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It goes over the vertical ladders to prevent climbing unsupervised.

Here is a link to one of my blog posts about our climbing frame: http://dancingwithdinos.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/climbing-frame.html

[Liesel79]

Hello
We also live in London, in Bromley right outside of London, and would be nice to hear from or meet other likeminded UK based/Londoners.
My oldest DS is 2 years 5 months and starting to show me he can read some words, although he doesn't like to show me most of the time. Still, I focus on imput, but because of lack of time when I was back at work and now with a newborn, we are still only on day 93 of LR after a year (I started when he was 1 yr 4 months) But he is a fluent speaker in Spanish (can't wait for the LR Spanish!) and Persian and English. And we are slowly making progress in maths.
I plan to start my second DS at 4 months on LR and LM.
I am interested to know how other families with EL kids are doing in the UK school system, as I also do not plan to homeschool since we both work/have successful careers and also we want the social aspect of school. But it worries me that school might bore my very active DS1 and put him off learning. I definitely plan to afterschool teach him myself but what do they do all day at school if they are very advanced?
If anybody is interested in meeting to exchange ideas or just chat to likeminded, let me know.

Regards and thanks to all for the wonderful resources shared in this forum

By the way, Reading eggs and Mathseeds are now accessible through the iPad, my son loves both, we are on a free trial, thinking of subscribing. Any experiences?

[GeniusExperiment]

Hi Liesel, welcome, you have a nice mix of languages in your home (like many Londoners I guess ;-) ). It sounds like your kids are doing great. We are based in Central London. I think we're four or five relatively active Londoners here so definitely one day we should try to do a meet-up, would be fun! You ask about the UK system - I am actually quite happy with the UK system, as systems go in Europe it seems the most open to early learning and is also getting more and more ambitious. I think they are also quite good about tailoring tasks to the level a child is at, so the children are divided in groups, so a child that is 1-2 years ahead wouldn't be so strange in a good school. Then, especially if you both work, you also have a private system, which to be honest I am planning to use. I am in Central London and I think if you are into EL and your child is quite advanced, if you choose a really good pre-prep it can be an enjoyable ride and you don't need to homeschool. At places like Westminster Under and so on, all the kids are 1-3 years advanced compared to their peers. In know in the pushy nursery schools there are quite a few children who can read at 3.5 or 4, and I've met quite a few parents who do flash cards and educational videos and whose children know all the letters when they're 2 and so on, so it is quite good to be in an environment that is open to early learning. I am actually more in the group of people who think they can't leave London because of education. Elsewhere in Europe or England I think it would be much harder to find likeminded people! Will be curious to hear what you think!

[Liesel79]

Hi Geniusexperiment
Thanks for the info about the educational system, we have lived in the UK for 5 years but it's difficult to grasp how schools will deal with an advanced child (not that my DS1 is extremely advanced but he does read a bit now and knows all his letters, letter sounds, numbers, shapes etc and hopefully by the time he starts school he will be more advanced, if he still enjoys EL that is
Here in Kent there are very good schools, although I would love for him to attend a private, we will see by then. We still have Grammar schools over here and I would love for my boys to attend St Olavs grammar school in Orpington, they have a very high percentage of graduates going on to Oxbridge and other top unis, all for free if they qualify through the 11+ test.
I know central London has fantastic schools, but I didn't know they were routinely 1-3 years ahead of their peers! Good to know. We might have to consider private 
I am also happy to live her when I realise there are so many good schools for other things, such as music or Soroban (I found a Soroban school in Lewisham that I want them to start, their earliest age is 4 they say )

Would be truly lovely to meet with all you wonderful London mommas one day and exchange experiences. Congratulations on your great blog, I've subscribed now. We seem to have a very similar approach to EL, do as much as we can in a semi- chaotic day with 2 little ones 

[Oana86]

Hi guys...I/ve just stumbled upon this post...and thought of replying. I/we also live in London (we are Romanian nationals) and have been in the UK since 2008. I have been using both LR and LM  with my lo (she/s 21 months) since she was 3 months old (at the time my husband thought I was crazy and we had a big debate whether to buy or not the software)....and it worked wonders on her.

Even though she is mainly exposed to English as she spends more time with me and I only speak in English with her (she is exposed to a certain extent to Romanian, but not at the same level with English)....she is bilingual and can communicate in both languages (she literary switches from one language to the other in a second). Her accent is a bit funny in Romanian...but that/s not really a problem for us. Her vocabulary is way above her peers and everywhere we go people ask how old she is and how come she can speak so fluent...

I recently started introducing German resources (even though not as many as I would have liked to) and she has no problem counting up to 15/16 in English/Romanian and German.

To all of you who have any doubts regarding the benefits of early learning...I would strongly encourage you not to hesitate and allow your child to be exposed to as many educational resources as possible....the worst thing it can happen (even though I doubt it will) is that your lo will not actually pick up on any of them...but still you would have spent a considerable amount of time with him/her and at the end of the day...that/s what matters right?

All the best,

Oana

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