FABULOUS NEW EARLY LEARNING BOOK

Early Learning Teaching Your Child to Read
1

I have just finished reading a book all about how one family taught their child to read at age 2 and I think there are many people here who could benefit from it. It’s an overview with enough details to follow the same path. It’s well researched with plenty of leads to further reading if you want to follow the rabbit trails. It is well written and easy to read. Here is the link

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Miss-father-daughter-science/dp/1502827883/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419974321&sr=1-1&keywords=nathan+meikle

This is the book I will be recommending to beginners who ask me about my early readers. And handing to the mums I love with new babies as a baby shower gift. If you are just beginning or havnt yet seen success this is a great book for you! For the old timers on here we all know you will read anything about early learning anyway so go get it and tell me what you think :smiley:
EVEN BETTER I have contacted the author and he is happy to chat and answer all your questions!
So for when he gets here
Welcome Nathan. Thankyou so much for writing your book. It fill a big gap in the market.

How does your wife feel about it all now in hindsight?
Is Kyla at school yet? Or are you keeping her home?
Will you do it all again with your son?
What other subjects are you planning to teach or did you teach?

2

Mandabplus3, I am thrilled that you read/finished/enjoyed my book, Little Miss. We’ve had such a wonderful experience with our daughter and hope that others will similarly enjoy the book and benefit from it. And I would LOVE for the book to become a default book for baby showers (and book clubs:)–so many parents do not know the research on the benefits of reading to children and I hope to inspire parents everywhere (especially fathers) to take advantage of the opportunity with their toddlers (and children of all ages). And of course, a small advantage early in life often leads to a large advantage later.

Regarding your questions: Initially my wife had more concerns about early reading than I did and also felt too busy to head up a reading program so I was happy to take the lead. But we soon realized that it didn’t take much effort on our part (5 minutes/day at breakfast doing reading drills). And when we started the early reading lessons (YBCR and later Hooked on Phonics–because I was unaware of BrillKids at the time:) we simultaneously came across the research on the benefits of reading to children–so we upped our reading from ~1 book per day to ~10-15 books per day. But we never really felt like reading 10-15 books per day took a lot of effort because we found, and read, excellent books (here was my first, favorite book list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisel_Award). Moreover, we did the majority of our reading at meal times (2-3 books at each breakfast/lunch/dinner/naptime/bedtime), and reading 2-3 excellent books in one setting didn’t ever feel overwhelming. We quickly found that all of the books we were reading enhanced our relationship with our daughter (while simultaneously boosting her vocabulary and decoding ability). So yeah, in hindsight, my wife is 100% on board with what we did and we will be doing the same thing with our son (who is 2.5), adapting of course where we need to. In fact, we just moved out of our apartment last week, are staying with in-laws until our new apt is ready, and as soon as we get stabilized again (hopefully next week), we are going to start doing everything with our son. We can’t wait to see how our son responds. And we are especially excited now because we have more resources available to us that we weren’t aware of when we taught our daughter (e.g., BrillKids, ReadingBear, etc.).

To give you an idea of how Kyla progressed, here is a video trailer I made that summarizes our experience: https://vimeo.com/107099654. Kyla is now 5, but she just missed the kindergarten cutoff date so she is not in school yet. We live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and plan to enroll her in an accelerated kindergarten program (it’s a public program through our school district). Our plan is to try it out this first year to see how she responds. My wife and I will probably talk monthly about whether we think we should homeschool.

Regarding other subjects, we have tried to teach math but have had less success. We found that whenever we taught reading, Kyla received the added benefit of hearing a story that entertained her, whereas math has been more abstract. That said, we did work through a Singapore math book during breakfasts and we try to talk numbers as much as possible throughout the day (e.g., How many carrots do you have left? How many will you have left after you eat two?). Kyla has a pretty good grasp of addition and subtraction, but is not as advanced in math as she is in reading.

Regarding music, we have done nothing formal, but actually just came across some great music resources that we plan to get started on when we move into our new apartment in a week (thank you Mandabplus3 and others here:).

Thank you again Mandabplus3 for the recommendation and the kind words. I am so excited to start participating in this community–I have largely been isolated while going through this process with my daughter and can’t wait to learn from others who have been through/are going through similar experiences. And please, if you or any one else has any other questions, please let me know. I thoroughly enjoy talking about early education.

All the best,

Nate

3

Nathan I am not sure if you have ever heard of Living math. It is an approach to teaching math using books. Picture books at the younger ages.

The link below has a plethora of book recommendations. We really loved reading the Math Start books by Stuart Murphy when our son was little. We also love the Sir Cumference books, and the Penrose the Cat books. But those books only scratch the surface of all the wonderful living math books out there.

http://www.livingmath.net/

4

Thank you Korrale4kq for the wonderful resources. I just bookmarked the living math website. It is exactly what I had been looking (admittedly I probably didn’t look as hard as I should have, though I have done a dozen or so “math” Google searches and never really came up with much). But you’ve nailed exactly what I was looking for–a way to teach math through books. Thank you (and as you can tell by now, I had not heard of living math:). I cannot wait to start reading all of these books.

I am also excited to read the books you specifically mentioned. I just reserved a bunch of Stuart Murphy, Sir Cumference, and Theoni Pappas books. I had not heard of any of these and again, they are exactly what I had been looking for as well. And I found it interesting that on the Living Math website, the author encourages parents to use the local library. This is always my advice as well. We go through about 50 books every two weeks–there is no way could buy or store that many books. But so long as we have new, good books coming in, our kids (and me and my wife), all love to read. The moment the books get stale or too repetitive, none of us want to read.

I am already loving this forum. Thank you Korrale4kq for your thoughtfulness and help. You read my last post and picked up on exactly what I was looking for, without me even mentioning it specifically.

All the best,

Nate

5

Cool, I will check out your book! We live in Provo, Utah. Our son attends a Chinese Immersion public school, and although he is very ahead in English, the Chinese program offers a good challenge for him, and we are greatly enjoying it. Are you looking into language immersion schools/programs for your daughter?

6

Living books are fabulous for all topics not just math. You will enjoy learning more about them Nate. Charlotte Mason used them extensively in educating children. Living books are stories that teach. So a science living book like say Pongue might teach all about the ecosystem of the ocean while telling a story about the life and habits of one hermit crab.
Kyla might be ready for some more meaty living books like those found in the yesterdays classics collection. Short novels. We loved stories Mother Nature told her children. It’s free on gutenburg. A knowledgable librarian can point you to good living books in the children’s picture book section. A couple we liked of the top of my head were “Old shell New Shell” and “the very ordinary caterpillar” but there really are thousands of them.

Actually I wonder if anyone here could point me towards some living books for music?

We have two really fabulous math threads for you to read through here. I will post links for them in a minute but be warned its a time consuming read full of valuable ideas and $$$ eating resourses :slight_smile:

Your math links http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/math-curriculum-for-toddlers/
The second thread is linked in this thread :slight_smile:

7

Nate,

I also wanted to mention that my son is about the same age as your daughter. As a December '09 child he also missed the Kindergarten cut off. However our state had a waiver until the end of December. We didn’t do that. We like having him at home a little longer.
We currently homeschool.

My son also learnt to read in a similar way that your daughter did. We did do some letter sounds to start. But we really did whole word language. And we just read and read and read. We were devouring about 30 books a week from the library. We used early readers but as his reading level progressed we stuck to picture books for several years. Most high quality picture books have a higher reading level than many early chapter books. So I am a huge advocate for not pushing into chapter books, due to maturity, but enjoying the picture books for as long as the child is willing. It seems you have the same thought.

This is more detail about how I taught my son to read if you are interested.
http://littlemanlogic.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/how-i-taught-my-tot-to-read/

8

Hi LDSMom,

I love hearing from people all over the world in this forum. It is also nice to hear from people from the same county (basically:). I really hope you enjoy Little Miss. I would love to hear your thoughts if/when you read it. Regarding an immersion program, I have not done any research on immersion programs, but would love to learn more–especially about Chinese immersion programs. If you have any info you could share with me, I would love to read it.

Thanks for the message. Talk to you soon.

All the best,

Nate

9

Mandabplus3, thank you for the info on living books. I just looked up Charlotte Mason, as I had not heard of her. I really look forward to digging into living books. And I am so excited to start spending more time on math. My wife was just a few credits shy of a math major (she did civil engineering), and I think she will be as excited about the math as I am. I am already blown away at all of the wonderful resources here–thank you for guiding me:)

10

Thanks Korrale4kq for sharing your story. Reading your post got me excited about additional methods that I did not use. Thanks to you, I just downloaded the ABC Magic App and I believe my son will love it. I also just reserved the preschool prep letter videos. And my daughter Kyla loved the Bob Books apps. We also own a few “Meet the Sight Words” DVD’s, and I used those with Kyla. I just reserved a few “We Both Read” books and I’ve also just become aware of the Usborne books (and reserved a few of those as well). Thank you for sharing your story. And yes, you and I think the same thing about picture books. Picture books still make up the majority of our reading. We are gradually transitioning to longer books, but I don’t want to completely go away from picture books for a long time. Regarding chapter books, we’ve had excellent success with the following two:
Holes (then watched the movie)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret (then watched the movie)

Our daughter also really enjoyed the following books (and subsequent movies), though not as much as Holes and Hugo Cabret:
The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Tale of Despereaux (she enjoyed the movie more than the book). We’ve had a lot of fun introducing a book to Kyla and then telling her we can watch the movie after the book.

11

I read your book, it was great! I had a very similar experience when teaching my son to read! I really loved how your book was written and have lent it to a friend who is about to have their first baby. I’m hoping that I can gift them an early learning gift without them thinking I’m crazy :slight_smile: Hopefully the book will get them excited about the possibilities.

I just did a quick google search to try to get you info on the history behind Utah’s immersion programs and where you can find schools near you.

You can read this from BYU: http://education.byu.edu/new/node/46187 - The Utah Model: Why Immersion?

Here’s the list of schools: http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/dualimmersion/ - I’m not sure if this is the most up to date, so you may want to call the district to find out if they are offering programs at other schools in your area.

You can google to find additional or better info. There have also been a bunch of articles in the news over the past few years regarding the programs.

When I was researching schools for my son, I looked at what language was being offered, as well as how the public school was performing. I looked at Greatschools.org to get the school ratings. This helped me make a decision on which schools I wanted to apply to. I was hoping to find the best rated school coupled with a language program.

Once you find a few schools you’re interested in, call them right away to get more info and ask questions. They should be doing the language immersion parent information meetings in January/February to discuss the program and how to register for it. The immersion programs start in 1st grade, but you can go to get more info. The school websites usually have a page for more information on the immersion programs too.

If you have a good idea of which schools you want to attend, but they aren’t in your school boundaries, make sure you call the district office and apply for open enrollment now. You can apply for more than one school. There is often a waiting list to get into schools with immersion programs. You are accepted into a school based on lottery. Don’t expect to be able to apply the week before Kindergarten and get in. I’m not joking when I say look and apply now since she’s heading into K. If you miss the language school for K, still try next year to get into the school for 1st grade. The immersion programs don’t start until 1st grade, but you have a better chance of getting into the immersion program if you attended kindergarten there. We got lucky and they opened up another Chinese classroom at the school we wanted to get in to because they had SO many students who applied. We were able to get in for first grade so we switched after attending Kindergarten at another school (that did Spanish immersion, just in case we couldn’t get into Chinese).

Since you’re in SLC… if you’re interested in Spanish, you should check out McKee Language School. It’s an expensive preschool, but I am a big fan.

Please send me a private message if you want more information on the immersion programs, our experience with them, or going to kindergarten already being able to read :slight_smile:

12

It seems that we think alike with the book/movie tie in!
We often play an audio book, then we read the book, or an abridged version if it is a rather difficult book. We also read picture books that tie in also. Here are a few that we have enjoyed that I think of off the top of my head.

A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Wizard of Oz
Heidi
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Pollyanna
Alice in Wonderland
Coraline
The Nutcracker
Peter Pan
Charlotte’s Web
Nim’s Island
Boxcar Children

We did read and watch The Junglebook, Tom Sawyer. But there weren’t so well received.
There have been many more. We usually take 2-4 weeks to go through a book and movie.
I am looking forward to adding your suggestions to our list. We have read a few Roald Dahl books, but nothing that has a movie tie in I believe. We are going to start James and the Giant Peach this week.

13

My son (2.5 y.o.) loves Let’s read and find out science books. There are several stages of the books. We are going through stage 1. They are sold in Barnes and Noble.

14

Thank you Korrale4kq for all of the recommendations. I just wrote all of them down and we’ll start working our way through these. Can’t wait to get going on these.

15

Thanks Oasis for the Read and Find Science books recommendation. I had not heard of these and I just reserved a handful from the library. Can’t wait to start reading these. My daughter hasn’t enjoyed many nonfiction books and I hope these will help us transition to a few more.

16

Hello LDSMom, I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed Little Miss. And I’m also thrilled that you would lend it to someone else. I hope your friend enjoys it as well.

And a big thanks for all of the wonderful information on dual immersion programs here in UT. I discussed your email with my wife last night and looked into all of the programs. I had not even considered dual immersion programs and now I think we are going to try to get our daughter into a Spanish one:) I would love for our daughter to learn Chinese, but it looks like the Salt Lake District (we live in Sugar House) doesn’t offer Chinese programs. But I speak spanish, so it would be fun to speak spanish to my daughter.

I really appreciate you taking the time to do some research for me and send me those links.

Lastly, I would absolutely LOVE to hear more about your experience with your child entering kindergarten already able to read. I am so curious to see how my daughter will respond to kindergarten.

Thanks LDSMom.

Best,

Nate

17

I just finished the book today and I really loved it. Especially the book list at the end :slight_smile: I just don’t understand very well how they managed to do all those programs in only 5-10 minutes per day, as we need more than 10 to finish only BK. But anyways, it’s a lovely resource. Recommended!

18

Hello AnotherBookWorm. I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed the book. And I hope you enjoy the book recommendations as much as we did. Regarding the 5-10 minutes/day question, I probably wasn’t very clear. Each morning at breakfast, we worked on YBCR (for the first three months, starting at 2.5). We typically only worked on YBCR for about 5-10 minutes. We would also do flash cards on my iPhone before nap and bedtime (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa8zBzYEjnU&list=UURnqruy5po4_w3MEzBaVpag). Here is the app we used: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sight-words-list-learn-to/id445708245?mt=8.

After 3 months of YBCR, we then transitioned to Hooked on Phonics. For the next 8 months, we did HOP every morning during breakfast for about 5 minutes (and also did iPhone flash cards for a few minutes before nap and bedtime). So the bulk of the formal training primarily consisted of the 5 minutes of practice during breakfast each day. But this “5 minutes per day” does not include any of the reading we did, as we read together for 30-45 minutes every day (3-4 books at each of breakfast/lunch/dinner/naptime/bedtime). And when we traveled, we always showed LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD’s and Meet the Sight Words DVD’s. We also listened to books on tape when we traveled as well.

I hope that clears up any confusion, but please let me know if you have any more questions.

All the best,

Nate

19

I don’t have anything to add other than I’m glad you’re here. It’s great to add more like minded parents to our community. :thumbsup:

20

Thank you TeachingMyToddlers for the message (and apologies for the delayed response–we moved over the weekend and were without Internet). I really appreciate the warm welcome I’ve received here. And I’ve already checked out and purchased dozens of books that I’ve come across here.