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The Little Lounge Introduce Yourself
1

I know this forum already for quite some time, got a lot of great ideas and bought a lot of stuff based on the recommendations.
And thought that may be I will tell a bit about us, what we are doing, where are our problems and which areas we need to improve (I always think that I am missing something, something else we need to do).

We live in Netherlands, my son Martin is 3.2 now. From the beginning I wanted to focus on languages, I searched in Internet how it can be done with small children and find out about early childhood development and all started from here :biggrin:
Now Martin is speaking in 4 languages (he is still mixing them a lot but hopefully it will gone soon), i.e. Russian (I am Russian by origin), Dutch, English and French. I also teaching Chinese (I know it myself not very good but not so bad) and Spanish (started to learn myself to able to speak and teach it to him). The only language I do not know is French, not a word, but Martin stays 2 days at home with nanny and she is French. So I am just looking and preparing materials, songs, posters and so on and the rest is done by nanny :laugh: Now I think it is good time to start with alphabetical blocks, found good reviews about Uncle Goose, so now the only problem to get them

First two years we did a lot, if not, from Russian company “Umnitsa” (Doman method) and also finished Little Reader Chinese and Math. Still did not start the English version of LR, still on the list.
My son loves Kumon workbooks, he is extremely active but he can sit at least 40 minutes working on them. Just bought and started Singaporian math. And will buy RightStart, read a lot of comments/reviews, program looks great.

What else are we doing? Well, a lot of art activities, listening to music (classic, opera, children songs on different languages) and of course reading and reading. Also trying to teach chess (have an excellent book for teaching small children (in Russian)) but going a bit slow.

Music. We are doing Little Musician, excellent program and my son loves it, reading books about instruments, posters and so on. Martin is quite good in recognizing which instrument is playing (while listening to music in a car for example), knows notes. We are trying also violin, already for more than half a year but progress is zero :frowning: He know how to hold, knows string, how to play and that’s it. He could not even play a simply melody. We were taking lessons but now stopped as Martin likes playing home but not with the teacher. I do not know why, before he really likes him. I think I need to start teaching myself (have Suzuki violin books) but my problem is that I do not have musical education, musical eye and not a lot of timе. Let’see.
Last couple of weeks I was thinking and thinking about Soft Mozart, very tempting. But think that I will postpone for some time, not sure whether I will have enough time and also it is quite an investment. And also one of the reasons is that real passion of my son is not a piano but drums. He is crazy about them, but I completely do not know where to start here.

On weekends we are doing sport activities, football and judo on Saturday and swimming pool on Sunday (not lessons just swimming, playing in the water together). And also we are going for different concerts, theater performances on Sunday afternoon.

I think that ‘s it. A bit long but hopefully not very boring

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hello. not boring at all, quite interesting actually! Your son is getting a very broad, well rounded up bringing by the sounds of it! You have done an amazing job with languages. 4 languages and counting is wonderful for a 3 year old. I am curious, does he mix up his languages with the French speaking nanny? Or just with you, who speaks to him in multiple languages?
For music, you are using little musician, so you have already started on training for drums. The clap along session is teaching him to hold a beat while singing a tune at a different pace. Good training for drums. If you wanted to add more any children’s music program will have some percussion training, here we have a steel drums workshop and a couple of holiday drums workshops for little kids. Look around, ask at the local music store. Perhaps for the violin you could try again in a few months time. Using little musician is teaching him great skills that transfer well to Suzuki and soft Mozart. You could add soft Mozart easily, it isn’t a big time commitment for the first year it’s about 10 minutes twice a day for that age group, although your son seems to be able to focus well ( 40 mins at Kumon! Wow!) so he may be happy to do 1 lesson 20 mins. I can give you a half price code if you want it PM me very soon! It’s ALOT cheaper than paying for lessons, and much more fun. I do think it works much better if mums have an interest in learning along with the kids.
How many languages are you teaching your son to read in? I am surprised you havnt added little reader in English. Why is that? Does your son speak English? Do you use the program to teach reading in French or the other languages? ( other than Chinese)
For art here is a link to some activities you might like to try http://sleepyheaddesignsstudio.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/paint-collage-process-lets-paint-friday.html
I liked them on face book and am just amazed at the ideas, plus the art they do is “real art” which teaches real skills. Anyway I love it, wish I lived close enough to sign all my kids ( and myself! ) up to classes!

3

Oh, wow! You have done an exceptional job with languages! This is one area we definitely need some work on. Mine chatters incessantly in English, and will have whole conversations in sign language, loves to count in any language we teach her, knows a few phrases and vocab words in other languages…and flat out refuses to really do much more! Ah well, we will keep plugging away
We are using both Little Musician and Soft Mozart together, and they really work amazingly well together, although we have done some slight modifications…for example: when we bought Little MUS, we already had the SM Solfege stickers on the keyboard, so we colored in the circles around the SM symbols with corresponding Little Musician note colors, and it never seemed to phase her. Definitely recommend using both if you can swing it!
Everyone on this forum is great for sharing resources, ideas, and experience, so don’t hesitate if you have questions, concerns, or to share you own advice and experience (like how you manage so many languages :yes: )
One other place to keep an eye out for less expensive ways to obtain RightStart Math in foreign countries. The Well-Trained Mind forums have a For Sale board where individuals sell used curricula…not foolproof, but as these are private individuals, you might well have luck convincing them to ship to European countries. You will need to join the forum, but this site has a wealth of experience and reviews of various curricula, plus a wealth of ideas. It is primarily for homeschoolers/aftschoolers, and whilst I don’t always agree with a lot of the ideas…it is still an extremely valuable resource. You also won’t find much on EL, your son is old enough that I think you might find it very helpful:

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/index.php

Can’t wait to hear more about you and your son as you progress!

4

Thank you, Mandabplus3 and Kerileanne99!

LANGUAGES
Actually I did not follow any method in teaching him languages. On the one side – we were reading books, then listening to children songs, was trying to memorize then, then flashcards/posters and watching cartoons while my son was eating (actually the eating time is the only time when he is watching movies/tv) and speaking to him. I was trying to divide languages by days of the week, but was not good in it. Sometimes I felt more to do one language and we were doing it, may be it was not correct, I do not know. I started with Russian and Dutch, in couple of months – English and Chinese. When he was one year old – French. And when he was 2 – Spanish. Chinese is the only one language where I used real lessons’ material and where we were doing from one lesson/level to another. We were also taken lessons via Internet (one time a week) since he was 7 months old. But I stopped it some time ago as I disappointed a bit. So I will continue myself. So now Martin understands Chinese very well, he knows a lot of poems, words/phrases. The only part is missing is speaking. I think it is my fault as I was trying not to speak to him in Chinese. The reason is that I have very strong accent in Chinese and I know that many words I am saying with wrong tone so I did not want to teach him wrong pronunciation/accent.

He is still mixing different languages, it is much better now than one year before but still. Our French nanny is saying that in the first part of the day he is telling a lot of words in Dutch but at the second part of the day he is more and more switching to French
Also one interesting thing that he never talks to me in French or even says words in French but as soon as nanny is coming he immediately starts telling her something in French. I think that he somehow knows that what’s a point to say me in French, if I do not understand a thing :laugh:

Let’s hear how we progress. My plan now is to strengthen Chinese further, finally start real lessons with Spanish (at the moment we are just listening to songs and he is crasy about Whistlefritz dvds) but I need to put it to the next level. And in one year we will start Japanese.

We did not start LR English as we were doing Chinese and if I am not mistaken the same words and pictures are used in all versions so I did not want to mix them. But at the end of May we finished LR Chinese and will start English now. Actually I did not teach him to read. We did two programs for teaching reading (in different languages) but I never tested him, but I think he could not do it. But now we will start playing with alphabetical blocks (Russian and French) and I hope they will help.

Thanks for advices regarding drums and Soft Mozart. We will add them to our daily routine.

5

Yes, that makes sense. Kids often associate a language with a person. But since he is speaking Dutch in the morning with the nanny then yes he is a little bit confused. Nothing to worry about. He has the languages in there and will in time know which ones to use when and with who. You have done an amazing job teaching him. You will probably find he learns new languages super quickly now he has such a strong grounding
I don’t think he will confuse English and Chinese, they are so very different. Perhaps Spanish and English or Japanese and Chinese maybe I think you would be quite safe doing English LR at the same time as Chinese LR. ( if you wanted to of course) .
Thanks so much for sharing. I am given yet another incentive to teach a language.

6

Hello Everybody!

I did not realise that it was practically one year ago when I posted the last update from us. Yes, the time really flies when you are full time busy with early learning :laugh:

I really thank the moment when 3,5 years ago I opened the small brochure about early learning and this journey started for me. I learned a lot myself during these years.
For example, we are visiting different exhibitions, museums and performances (2 times per month at least). I never visited so many things before lol . Now we have abonnements in all teaters that are in the neighbourhood:laugh: Two weeks ago we visited dans show from Russia (folklore dances, amazing show). But I was a bit afraid whether my son could sit for the whole performance but he was sitting for 2 hours with open mouth and telling all the time – they are dancing so beautifully :slight_smile:
Do not know whether it is in line with early learning (I meaning visiting all these performances) but I think it is a good experience as well.

For the rest I am trying to do the utmost but sometimes I feel sad that I could not give him all that is possible (working full-time and being single mum in a country without any relatives is not really a good combination but I am trying)

Languages – very good level in 4 languages (Dutch, French, English and Russian). Now Martin really understands that they are different languages and then I asked him, please answer in English or Russian, he knows exactly which language I mean and answers correctly.
Chinese and Spanish is a bit in hold, need some more energy, will restart after summer holiday.

We really likes Kumon workbooks, especially Mazes, already doing the last what are there (for 6-7 years), number games and tracing and so on. And just started Folding books. For some reasons he did not like or may be did not understand the fun of these books for quite some times but now he is really enjoying it.

Mathematics – Singapore math, Right start and Russian books (Igralochka). Little math we already finished quite some time ago, now doing Little Reader English and French (Chinese is also finished long time ago). I think we used/using all brillkids product :laugh:

Also busy with Little Musician now (already in the half way in the second semester). I really like this program, so well made and so informative. We are enjoying together.
If I start talking about music then we have 2 lessons per week, one is with the teacher for learning piano (actually it is not only piano but also general music education, i.e. sounds, intervals, different songs and etc). And another one lesson is double bass. Yes, we started with the violin but it was so painful and not enjoyable for both parties. Interesting that Martin was obsessed with double bass practically from the birth, was all the time playing on different things pretending that it is a contrabass. I do not know from where and from whom as I am not musician. So I looked for the double bass’s teacher and found amazing Suzuki teacher. So now finally our lessons and home practices are not painful anymore. Let’s see how it will develop in the future.
Martin is still asking for drumming, but now it is something that I do not have energy, time and could not afford as well :mellow:

And we continue going to the football and swimming.
So this is my quite long update.

Thanks to all brillkids community for support and a lot of interesting ideas :slight_smile:

7

and chess, forgot about chess. Trying very hard to have it in our daily routine but still not consistent. I am not good in chess myself so learning together :laugh:

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Hi Jane!
So good to see you back and to have a wonderful update about Martin:)
I am so glad to hear that his language success has continued as I remember it being a really strong area for him!

And SO funny about the Double Bass! Alex has also been obsessed with it from the beginning. I thought it was just a phase, but this has continued for nearly a year lol
I finally convinced her that she could still enjoy the violin, that it would be a stepping stone to learning to play the Double Bass. The thought of tiny preschoolers playing something three times their size is amusing…and inspiring!
And talk about a teachable moment…for MOMMY! Those first thoughts that come to mind (too small, too difficult, too…!) I am SO glad we have EL and the collective knowledge of this forum that stopped those words from exiting my mouth!

If you get a chance, I would LOVE to show Alex a picture or video:)

9

Thanks a lot, Keri!!!

Here are our 2 videos (2 short songs, recorded today). Of course, we are just beginners, but I love how he is playing :slight_smile:
http://youtu.be/9SDubnylbBI
http://youtu.be/dN1uH2dkFa4

Let me know what you think

10

Jane,
What a cutie!
I showed Alex the videos after we did LMs, and she literally jumped up and down on the bed, asking if we could go buy a ‘tiny’ double bass, just her size:)

I love his enthusiasm, and I love that even though you had intended the violin for him, you followed his direction and desires. The true spirit of EL:)

Thanks so much for sharing. Let us know as he progresses :slight_smile:

11

This was inspirational. Thank you Jane

John

12

Thank you very much for the support!!!

Keri, it is the smallest double bass (1/32), we are renting it.
I made a big mistake when we started, our teacher never had so young pupils but he agreed to try (and he is leaving in the neighbourhoud). So we had classes practically for the whole year and did not learn any songs :frowning: May be if we would start with our current teacher with violin, everything would be different and he would enjoy playing violin. But anyway double bass is his passion and glad to continue with it. So learning by mistake :smiley:

13

Hello Everybody,

Wanted to share some latest things/progress.
We started the Soft Mozart program, going quite good, Martin is still enthusiastic so hopefully it will continue this way :slight_smile:
And, of course, the double bass lessons. Recently I really need to push my son to do the daily lessons (both on piano and double bass). My idea is to have short lessons, sometimes, very short but every day but he became resistant. He likes to play but somehow not to have lessons. Need to think how to motivate him and not to pressure him too much.

Oh, yes, decided to try the Brillkids contest. And we did a musical video (notes, rhythms, piano and bass). Frankly speaking until I recorded this video, did not know that my son knows and can do so much lol

Our weakest point is reading, actually he could not read at all. My fault, did not spend enough time on it, actually did not put it as priority before. Working on it.
Recently bought several books of Critical thinking co. Oh, likes them a lot, very good for developing logic skills.

You know, my biggest problem is that I want to try a lot of things, want to learn/teach this and this and this. Not good, I even have some books/workbooks that I never opened. Wanted to do but did not have time. I am a bit afraid to miss something, not to do what it is good to do so at the end jumping to everything but could not finish it :frowning: Any advice on how to stop it? Does somebody else have the same problem?

14

Good morning,

Wanted to share 2 our latest videos (double bass lessons):
The first one is his favourite song:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6GuSVL4Rqk

It took us several weeks to learn this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq-S4qPC1T8