Hello ladies!
We usually leave these threads for some of the other parents who have used our system to give their own experience and input on, but I hope that you might find my input useful somewhat. :happy:
It’s true what Frukc said - kids, being kids, are all different, which applies to level of learning, interest, attention span, and concept of fun. With this in mind, we believe there is no specific rules set in stone when it comes to teaching your child. This is why we stress (time and again) that what’s really important is how the parent is able to follow the child’s lead and make learning fun and exciting. The tools we have are just what they are - tools - and we always inform parents that a big part of their child’s education relies not on any software, flash card or book, but on the way parents are intuitive to what their children want given any specific time.
This is what we mean when we say that the parents are given that special opportunity to be the child’s best teacher. No one will intuitively understand when a child wants more or when a child wants to stop better than a parent.
Given that, our learning system does offer a “guide” to those who are new to teaching their kids. This comes in the form of a curriculum which already comes with the system. If you have the trial already, you’ll notice that for both Little Reader and Little Math, there’s a section entitled “courses.”
The trial comes with 9 days of curriculum lessons already built-in. This allows you to “try” following our curriculum for 9 days to see if you and your child enjoy the lessons together.
In courses, you will find a list of lessons already laid out for each day. What we recommend for those who have never tried it before is to always start with Day 1 lessons. Regardless of your child’s age, these lessons will ease your child into getting comfortable with learning with the system.
In the Teaching with Little Reader booklet, (see chapter 4) under session frequency, we recommend giving your child the LR lessons twice a day. This is the reason why you may see under Day 1, there is Session 1 and Session 2.
Each session is composed of a word flash session (which goes by really quickly, and is auto-forwarded), a multisensory lesson (which requires for the parent to click on the mouse to advance the lesson - this is because we encourage the parent to interact with the child during the multisensory lesson), a picture flash lesson (again, this is quick and auto-forwarded).
When you go through the curriculum and advance in the days, you will find some extra lessons are added to each session, such as Pattern Phonics lessons and Stories.
We recommend our programs for children from 4 months and older - for infants younger than this age, we recommend starting with visual infant stimulation cards.
Some parents in the forum have already used (and are still using) our system with their kids - some are teaching at the same time, and some prefer to teach one child after the other to help with the child’s focus. Again, this is a subjective choice for you to make; if you find that teaching your kids as a group is sometimes difficult (like in any class setting, one child’s disinterest may affect the other child’s attention) try to teaching your kids one by one to see if it helps. Most of the time, it does, because the parent is completely focused in one child at a time and you will be able to pick up on whether your kid wants more or wants a break when it’s just two of you.
As for the age of the children, again it’s subjective. Theoretically it’s easier to teach a younger child because the child may be less mobile (not running around yet, so it’s easy to just pick up your child, place her in your lap, and start the lessons on the computer) compared to an older child who wants a higher level of stimulation and wants to run around. But this is not to say that our system will be ineffective to those older kids. Many of our parents here started using the system when their kids were already 2, 3, 4 and even 5 years old (and older) and still they are able to make the lessons interesting for them.
I noticed that you may have a very strict goal for yourself and your kids (my aim…have them reading in about 1 year, could it be any sooner?)
For this, I would suggest reading our short section in the Beginner’s Tutorial (this is in Little Reader, click on the button START GUIDE > BEGINNER’S TUTORIAL > and go to item no. 6 entitled YOUR FRAME OF MIND.)
To quote this section, here’s what we wrote:
Always keep the lessons FUN and JOYFUL!
One of the most important things you must remember when teaching your child to read is this:
In doing so, this also means:
- Do not focus on achieving results
- Do not force your child if she is not keen to view the lessons.
Focusing on results tends to bring about negative emotions such as anxiety and disappointment, which may be picked up by your child. Similarly, forcing your child is counter-productive and would lead her to associate reading with something negative.
Instead, treat lesson time as a time for bonding with your child. The aim is to expose your child to reading and to have fun while doing so, thereby giving her a joyful and loving experience. Keeping a bonding-focused mindset will make you a much more effective teacher, and you are also likely to find that your child learning to read is a very pleasant side-effect.
Remember, this is not a race! Any exposure to reading that you give to your child during the early years will already be very beneficial.
Hope this helps! :happy:
Lappy