I feel like I know you all personally from aangeles to teachingmytoddlers, daddude to mandaplus (and you guys are just a few of our forumers I’ve learnt so much from over these past few months!) … to everyone I’d like to say a GREAT BIG HELLLLLOOOOOO :biggrin: It’s soooo good to be sharing rather than sculking hard core on the forum lol You know how it is, I purchased my first brill kids products at the start of March this year and boy have we become early learning converts over those months. Been through the whole doubtful husband who gets converted when he sees results stage. Been through busting budgets because our home is now heaving with EL products, dvds, books. But the new stage we’re at in our home is making the decision that I should give up my job as a secondary school teacher to raise our son (going to be 2 yrs old in October/next month).
I am really excited about this and knew I would find some appreciative souls to celebrate this decision here My husband was a full time stay at home dad through out last year and so he has been responsible for delivering DS early learning programme. My job was to prepare and provide a variety of materials that made it easy and fun to do so. Although I sometimes found it frustrating that DH wouldn’t read any of the EL books we had, I was content to discuss the highlights of the techniques I learnt, as CONCISELY as possible before he totally lost interest in the conversation
Anyway, the result is that our son knows all his letter sounds and names (Leapfrog style A says Ah), is starting to put letters together on a magnetic board/fridge (we are doing blending with Montesorri House DVDs and ReadingBear), and can read a fair few words from LR, YBCR (we’re on volume 2) and colour flash cards. He can count from 1-10 in English and French and identifies body parts in french (my DH speaks french), I think he gets the idea number value but not precisely. He absolutely LOVES LMs and music and sings doremi and hums the notes but does not yet have nor demonstrate exact chord recognition. And all of this progress was within 7 months and a fairly inconsistent delivery of EL by my DH! Our DH really enjoys it though, which makes me proud as people who haven’t tried this generally do believe it involves hothousing children :nowink:
Anyway, I am looking forward to taking DS EL to the next level with a more consistent and structured approach, and I am hoping to see more results especially in terms of his love of books - he loves em, but we probably only read a parental combination of 3/4 stories a day maximum. I’d like to have more story time built in throughout the day ala Daddude I think I can achieve this by giving him two lots of physical/outdoor play time in the morning and afternoon so he use up all that energy that makes him not want to sit down for a story. I’d also like to see more progress with his music (thanks TmT for some great ideas on how to extend LMs lessons) and french.
Anyway that’s enough about me and our goals! I am looking forward to posting some videos and progress updates in the future.
YEYYYYYYYY for taking the brave step to be a full time professional mom!!!
It sounds like you have been working hard with your husband to make hm work hard with your son. So exciting when there is visible progress isn’t there.
I was going to ask you what you thought of the Montessori House DVDs. You said that you were using them for blending. This is my sons weakness so I am always open to more exposure for him.
We easily fit in an hour a day for reading into our day. I read for at least 30 minutes before nap time and bed time at night. Lately I have been making James read to me for 15 minutes each session. And I have been reading for longer periods also. We also have sporadic reading periods throughout the day when James brings me a book. And Somedays I will read aloud to James as he plays quietly on the floor with his cars or trains.
MrsObidih,
Oh, how exciting! Congrats on your success already, and I am sure that your enthusiasm and time devoted to your LO will meet with wonderful success and great joy.
First off, what an awesome hubby to be trying to implement the ideas for you!..but still, it just never feels the same, does it? I think that the parent that tackles all of the research, information, preparation, etc., always has the best idea and an optimum plan/scenario to how that will be accomplished lol
And even when the most reluctant of parents comes fully on board the EL train after seeing the success, it STILL is not the same, bless their hearts.
I have an awesomely supportive hubby who will try to implement anything I want him to, often adds to the lesson, and is always willing to tackle a new project…BUT. His time commitments and other responsibilities mean that he just does not have the time to devote to reading, learning, preparation, and such…
SO! It must be such a thrilling (and daunting!) prospect to finally have the time you wanted to devote to your LO and to EL :yes:
Keep us updated on the progress, and certainly glad to have another voice chime in with thoughts and experiences,
WELCOME!! I want to say THANK YOU for taking the time to send a shout out to the ‘regulars’ here, myself included. I always think of helping people in terms of the interactions I have with other members, but it’s It’s nice to consider that I might be helping someone out there in cyberspace I’ve never “met” who is just reading through posts. It puts it in perspective, thank you for that!!
Congrats on your new life changing journey! Please do keep us updated and let us know how it’s going from time to time!
A great big WELCOME! Oh wow what a commitment! Congratulations! As a teacher I LOVE doing the planning and the reading and the organizing. I think it’s the best bit but it is such a joy also to be sitting next to your child when the lights turn on. :yes: I am pleased you will have the opportunity to see that after all your hard work.
A big pat on the back to your hubby also for all his work. He has done a marvelous job and laid some great foundations for you to build on.
Interestingly enough you and I are on the opposite paths, I have just returned to teaching from time at home with my kids. Lucky me though I get to take my son to work with me AND I get to do EL with my group of 3-5 year olds
Yes TMT It is wonderful to hear that our jabbering helps more people than we know! Thank you.
@ Korrale4kq: Hard work is right! (some might say nagging :wub: ). Looking forward to increasing our reading time to nearer what you’re doing, an hour of reading a day seems a distant but good goal for us! I got the Montessori House DVDs on recommendation from TmT I think, precisely to introduce blending at the time he was starting to get a grasp of phonic sounds because I wanted him to understand what you did with the sounds, and how that could help him figure a word out. I was doubtful at first because the graphics seemed soooo simple, but by gosh he loves it (asks for it by telling me ‘hello helllloooo’). And it seems to have served the intended purpose. So when we’re doing YBCR flashcards and he calls ‘Book’ ‘Kick’ or vice versa, I sound out for him and ask him to sound out the letters and figure it out rather than guess. MH DVDs definitely helped us start blending. We also got the printable books which he really loves and definitely helps to reinforce how blending works, like the dvd, it introduces the individual sounds, then blends them into words as a funny story is told. But if James is reading so well already (15mins outloud is a lot of stamina) I don’t know how much value this will add for him, but I would certainly recommend it as an introductory level to blending.
@ Kerileanne99: I 100% agree. It seemed like such a waste that I was doing all this research and had all this information which often gets lost in translation anyway. Like, I just couldn’t get DH to agree to exclusively speak french to our son, it took a bit of ‘work’ to get him to consistently use letter sounds instead of names with DS. That said, I do feel a bit nervous that after all my nagging I can deliver as well as DH ultimately has. Not that it’s a competition or anything :wub: but you know … I do bang on about the right techniques rather a lot :laugh: Just glad that this decision feels right for all of us.
@ TmT: I watch your videos on youtube and take your recommendation VERY seriously lol It’s difficult getting a lot of EL stuff in the UK, but I just got the Ultimate Preschool Prep pack from Zulilly this very week, on your recommendation - really looking forward to using the readers (I saw your DD and DH reading so well with them on Youtube!). I will definitely be needing some advise on how to implement some of the strategies you’ve used with LMs, I don’t know if I’m very good at crafts but am looking forward to finding out trying to make some of the scale/chord learning materials in your post about teaching with LMs. Well done you for being so organised about the learning of your babies
@ Mandabplus3: Wow! How lucky you get to take your kids to work and use your EL skills and knowledge too. This is something I think is very important to DH and I now, that we try to make career choices that allow us to be together with kids more often than not. I taught high school kids in very challenging schools in the UK, teaching in primary and lower years is considered the creme de la creme of the teaching profession especially in terms of how rewarding it can be. I found I lost my joy in my job. I DON’T think all this EL and homeschooling reading helped either :laugh: I just saw how different learning could be and started to find the school environment very toxic and their curriculums and attitudes mind numbingly narrow (not just for the kids but for us teaching staff too). In the end I knew I didn’t want to be part of that anymore. But early years and primary is a completely different story as I’m sure you’ve found. Maybe after I’ve been home for a while like yourself I may feel drawn to teaching again. But for now, I’m definitely excited to build on my DH hard work. We’re actually doing handover induction training for me at the moment lol
I have been skulking around reading for months, I have a favourite folder full of starred posts I come back to often and am making my way through a lot of the book recommendations. So grateful for the free links and just the knowledge I’ve found on this forum, I’ve learnt as much about education, teaching and learning from the references given here as I did from my initial teacher training. God bless you guys for that. And bless KL for bringing likeminded parents together, because in the ‘real’ world what we’re doing really is going against the grain and often discouraged with lots of fearmongering to boot.
Oh yes I think high school would probably kill my joy of teaching.
I find my room a bit restrictive at times but I am the final say there for the 4 year olds so tough to the naysayers
I taught 18 3-4 year olds today to decode CVC words. This was our first attempt at it so it was group work and I saw evidence of 8 kids who " got it" and were successfully decoding words already! I can’t believe how easy it was and i can’t believe it isn’t done in every kindy!
Yesterday I taught them to read their colour words ( whole words method) and 90% could read those words this morning. We now sing all our nursery rhymes by following the words.
This whole week we have been learning counting and numeral recognition to 30. Honestly I think in one week with these little sponges I have covered what some teachers manage in a whole year at age 6. I spent the afternoon making more flash cards for them. I have ordered an electronic white board so I can use them in digital format ( LR and LMusic) and save on printing. Then I can sneak in some real EL.
We have preschool prep stuff and LOVE it! My own son has successfully transferred his preschool prep learning to his reading (so I will use them in Kindy too.) they are so attractive to children.
Enjoy your new lifestyle
Wow, Mandab. It’s impressive how your EL adventure has transferred to your classroom. I wish I could send my son to your class, he would be so advanced compared to regular classrooms where I learnt (on alakori’s thread) that kids are taught 1 sight word per week!
In just 1 week, your kindy kids have covered counting to 30, numerical recognition, CVC words, color words, etc. You’ve mentioned you’ll introduce flashcards, you mentioned you were going to sneak in Mathacular, you mentioned Preschool Prep. Oh, I’m so jealous. Really wish my kid could be in your class when it is time. Can you relocate to the UK?
You must, must, must get videos of your students using BK software in your classroom for EEECF! Capture some and do a little write up on using LR, LM, or LMs in the classroom “Get official” and let us sponsor you. We can offer school licenses (instead of using your own if you are) and maybe a few other things if we can swing it. Msg me if you are interested!
Thank you Mandabplus3 You really are doing well to teach them so much in such a short time. As others have said well done you for bring your own resources to the classroom, and getting in IWB for the Brillkids software is brilliant! It really would be great to see it if you can get permission from parents to film and share. We’re just getting into Preschool Prep but very excited to see it consolidate somethings we already have a foundation in, like shapes and colours. Bless your ongoing efforts!!
lol Don’t get too excited yet. I have only been there 2 weeks. I have to wait for my IWB until my kindy teacher finding goes through. It could be a week or months. In QLD they get a good injection of $$$$ if they can get a qualified teacher into the 3-5 age group. I was given the OK to buy one and it is on order, Until then I will find a way
I think using my laptop will be too small as a class group. But the flashcards are working and they are smaller so maybe I can find a way to do it. I don’t mind using my own stuff at the moment because my son is in the class! lol Right now it’s a case of seeing how much I can get away with and see how much they can handle. Half of them I only have for a few months as we are starting our final term of school here. The other half I get next year again. If I don’t get fired for being too radical! lol lol lol
As for video…well that will be tricky. Hmm rear shots that don’t identify kids are probably fine. Otherwise I need release forms. I shall ask once I get settled.
This group will REALLY like little musician so that was my first aim. Boy they love music!
You know it does seem like a lot of learning but it took no time at all. A little time and a bit of consistency and magic happens.
Moving to the UK? No chance, have you ever been to Australia? Nothing compares to my beautiful country! :biggrin:
My husband was a full time stay at home dad through out last year and so he has been responsible for delivering DS early learning programme. My job was to prepare and provide a variety of materials that made it easy and fun to do so. Although I sometimes found it frustrating that DH wouldn’t read any of the EL books we had, I was content to discuss the highlights of the techniques I learnt, as CONCISELY as possible before he totally lost interest in the conversation 
I think I can achieve this by giving him two lots of physical/outdoor play time in the morning and afternoon so he use up all that energy that makes him not want to sit down for a story. I’d also like to see more progress with his music (thanks TmT for some great ideas on how to extend LMs lessons) and french.
(some might say nagging :wub: ). Looking forward to increasing our reading time to nearer what you’re doing, an hour of reading a day seems a distant but good goal for us! I got the Montessori House DVDs on recommendation from TmT I think, precisely to introduce blending at the time he was starting to get a grasp of phonic sounds because I wanted him to understand what you did with the sounds, and how that could help him figure a word out. I was doubtful at first because the graphics seemed soooo simple, but by gosh he loves it (asks for it by telling me ‘hello helllloooo’). And it seems to have served the intended purpose. So when we’re doing YBCR flashcards and he calls ‘Book’ ‘Kick’ or vice versa, I sound out for him and ask him to sound out the letters and figure it out rather than guess. MH DVDs definitely helped us start blending. We also got the printable books which he really loves and definitely helps to reinforce how blending works, like the dvd, it introduces the individual sounds, then blends them into words as a funny story is told. But if James is reading so well already (15mins outloud is a lot of stamina) I don’t know how much value this will add for him, but I would certainly recommend it as an introductory level to blending.