Your DS enjoys SINGING TIMES, so go for that. Also what I did years ago with my DS. Child would sit on the floor playing and I would read to him. I would choose words that I wanted him to learn and I would spell them as I read. Example, Green Eggs and H-A-M- said Sam I am. Lots of sentences i spelled one word. He actually started picking up (i.e. learning) while playing on the floor. I sometimes tell people that he learned to read without looking at the book. I also made audio cassette tapes (it was the old days) and played them while he was eating lunch. Try a few minutes at bedtime. Also see if Big Brother could teach him something. Little Brothers sometimes want to know what Big Brothers know! Try "rewarding " Big Brother for “helping” Little Brother. Another thought. There’s TONS of clips on YOUTUBE> . The clips are between 15 seconds to 3 minutes mostly. You can watch the clips on YOUTUBE and see what types of clips appeal to him. I have downloaded clips on spelling, reading, colors, science, math, in several languages… I bought REALPLAYER 16 and have downloaded several hundred clips over the past 4 years which I have made into 45 DVDs for my grandchildren. I hope that these ideas help. All the best.-- GrannySkippy in Canada
TheyCan, I am so happy to hear things are much better. I was a bit sad reading your initial post because it sounded like your little one wasn’t having fun and nor were you enjoying it, and it is such a precious time. And even Glenn Doman says if the baby / toddler is not enjoying there is something wrong. Your little one sounds a lot like mine in some respects, she was crawling at 5 months and walking at 8 months (actually, let’s be honest, how can you have a walking 8 months old and say no sign of EL progress ;-), only an EL person would say that 
). She is always on the go and hence impossible to read books or watch EL videos with her. What I do is when I show her stuff on the iPad I let her stand so she can cruise and hop up and down, or I put things for her to touch and explore in front of her, even if it distracts her from the screen. But physical development is also a big part of EL, especially in the first years, so it’s great you now go outdoors more, see it as a strength not a weakness that your little one wants to move, that’s great!
Also it’s very harmful to compare siblings in that way, especially when one comes out more favourably, and as others said, surely your child feels everything that you think. EL is very important, but there are differences between children in how they respond and their learning style (maybe you read the story of Sophia and Lulu in Batlle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)? Some kids are more independent explorers, others enjoy being taught, so maybe with the first one your style simply suited better and it doesn’t work with the second one. I am sure you are doing great and there will be results from all the EL you’re doing, but definitely make sure you are both enjoying your time together and there is laughter every day. I sometimes get nostalgic during the day and ditch EL, because I think I could play games and chase my little one through the apartment and make her laugh, or we can do flash card which she finds interesting but they don’t make her laugh, and I want to hear her giggle and enjoy life. Not 24/7 obviously, but laughing together, jumping, running around is the most important part of the day. Reading we just sneak in during the quiet moments like bedtime, early in the morning, maybe nap time or mealtime. You got lots of great advice here. I hope it continues to go better!
Hi, I think that you are onto something by taking a morning walk. If exercise helps, think about a trampoline for example, check out wayfair.com and look under outdoor trampolines, although many of them are for indoors. it’s also a lot of fun!-- GrannySkippy
I’ve been thinking about a trampoline for awhile - we’ve just been using the bed! I don’t like my older one doing that anymore though - lol. And yes, his big brother is extremely eager to teach him anything and everything. He also reads books to him a lot - but usually has just as much success as me :)!
This made me laugh because he’s having nothing but fun ignoring my lessons - LOL! If something is playing on the TV, he’s jumping off the couches :). He’s playing all day - we have huge art area, toy area, Montessori supplies/environment area, etc (the YBCR video showing was early in the morning before everyone else was even up and the LR was at lunch or before nap - and then a second video may or not be running some other random time in the afternoon). And we normally spend at least one or two hours playing outside everyday, but it’s always been in the evenings - never in the morning. Sorry I gave the wrong impression!
See…I’ve been totally avoiding comparing for two years…that’s why I didn’t write until now. Otherwise, I would have written a year ago! 
I’m totally up for changing methods. I just didn’t really know the first method (might) have been a flop until not too long ago when it was finally obvious (I assumed he was still taking everything in and not showing what he knows).
Okay - so, I went back and read my title and I’m a bit ashamed of it! I need to see if I can change it. My husband would think I was insane! It should be “Not working this time - 2 years of EL and few signs of READING.” Of course, there are many signs of EL working…I’m sorry for the crazy shout out of EL not having any impact!!
Hey we all do it. Sometimes posting the strangest of things gives you the very best ideas.
Gee the best post into the forum has a name that it almost entirely irrelevant to the content…but we couldn’t change it because none of us would know where to look for the gold! I just added a little to the end of it to make sure people searching later would find it.
Robert Levy of Saxon fame came to talk to us in a book review thread! lol
Glad to hear you are making progress! lol
Currently I am reading newsletters of TestingMom, and she says:
"Constantly feeling guilty and inadequate is part of being a parent. If you aren’t worried that you aren’t doing enough for your child, you’re probably not paying close enough attention! " 
(It follows that you should feel guilty also if you are not feeling guilty because it means that you are guilty.)
I started EL when my first kid was 1.5 years old, and she already was very advanced. With my second kid, I started math at 3 months and other flashcards at 7 months. When he was nearly 1 year and 10 months I found that something goes wrong; he was not advanced at all.
Maybe you remember my posts half year ago here. My son was not delayed; he was just average. Now he is advanced, I think.
Now he is 3 years and 8 months and I can say with responsibility: yes, EL did not work until his 1.10 years. EL without interaction and without a lot of talking does not work. It is waste of everything. Our EL started to work when I discontinued the use any ready-to-use materials and started to observe what he is interested, and what works and what does not work, and started to prepare original materials for him. A lot of thinking about his personality and interests.
For example, math. With my first kid, I started simple quantity recognition when she was 1.5. Later I did also Doman math and LM but she was not much interested. Although she was able to count to 12 in two languages until she was 2 years old, she understood just “3” since she was 2.5 and “4” since 3.5. At 4.5, her math ability exploded and now she is rather advanced.
With my second one, I did physical math flashcards since 3 months, LM since 7 months, he watched both LM courses. Since his 2 years I show him math every day; mach more as I did it with my first kid. And he is exactly at the same level as my first kid was when she was 3.8. He follows the same steps of development as my first kid did. So I think that at least his 1.5 years of EL were just waste of time.
I did also a lot of art and EK flashcards. I do not see of feel any results. I see results from my other, later activities - dialogic reading and daily conversations.
Best wishes
Frukc, may I just add that I love your last post? It sounds so right. I have been thinking about what you wrote for days because it really hit home. My little one is very advanced but at the same time I have started to feel she is not enjoying the educational DVDs and LR at all. She loves singing with me, interacting, playing games, even flash cards, and listening and also all the physical stuff but she is so bored by YBCR/Monkisee DVDs and LR. Little Musician is alright when the clap along song comes, otherwise she shows no interest either. But she is very advanced now (started walking at 7 1/2 months, at 9 months now doing a lot of things that they aren’t supposed to do till 18 months or so) but I had this gut feeling I should just forget about the software and DVDs and just play with her interactively because that’s what she loves. I had this instinct but so many people here report success with the products that I didn’t want to give up. Now after reading your post and thinking about it, I think it’s probably right that the part she doesn’t enjoy is a waste of my time, and if I focused on the parts she enjoys she will progress much faster. If you have any other pearls of wisdom to share, please do :-).
Do you teach with only with videos or the computer screen? When my dd was younger I printed off all if her BrillKids flashcards laminated them then fast flashed them because I found that she learned much more quickly from a printed card than when seeing them on the computer or tv.
My kids loved the BK Flap Binders at that age and I would print off new words every Sunday night for the most part. If you are taking him for a walk, what about writing some words in chalk for him to discover on your path? Have you tried making some personalized LR files and/or printing them out into books? Kids LOVE to see their own face in a book. And I agree with the others, I would label everything in the house.
TheyCan ,
when my son was two years old, I created powerpoints with family pictures. I do not know if he got a benefit but he liked them
For example: picture with A and tractor. What is it? It is a tractor. What A is doing? He is sitting in tractor. Which color is tractor? It is read. One word per slide, and picture after each sentence. I also prepared tons of other small ppt files on simple subjects.
Great success was this file, with animated clipart. I started with the easiest words and added few words after every few days.
http://library.brillkids.com/download.php?cid=6&tid=&lid=104&fid=9287
I allowed him to operate powerpoint; this definitely kept his interest. He opened and modified files, and changed settings. He had his own profile, all files were saved as “read only”, and I often updated the content of his folder. So I kept control on files and his learning. I kept his ppt files very short because usually he watched just the first few words. He choose the files, as he could read their names.
A bit of general
There is a quote
“Parents often do not become believers in temperament until after the birth of their second child. Before this time, their child’s behavior may be seen as a simple and direct outcome of their upbringing, “a tribute to” or “the fault of” the parents. With the second child, management strategies that worked well with the first child may not be effective. Problems experienced with the first child (in feeding, sleeping, coping with strangers) may not exist with the second, but new problems may arise. Such experiences suggest strongly that “nature” as well as “nurture” influences child development, that children differ from each other from very early in life, and that these differences have important implications for parent-child interaction. A number of these individual differences fall under the rubric of child temperament, the subject of this chapter. Here, we define temperament as individual differences in reactivity to internal and external stimulation, and in patterns of motor and attentional self-regulation.”
Well, I think often about how different my children are. They have nothing in common except their parents
My first kid is “early left-brained” - two years ahead her peers intellectually. she likes, she prefers to follow rules and instructions. she likes to behave well. she likes to watch and listen, and follow. She likes all kinds of EL.
My second one is not interested in rules and instructions. His main interest is imaginative play. At every free moment he takes toys (or non-toy things) and plays with these objects. His toys drive, fly, meet aliens, eat pizza, discuss daily events, relationship and other issues. They express their emotions loudly. He had discipline issues in childcare. He likes to play alone. He is very persistent and strong-willed. He is often singing, and it seems (to me ) that he is composing his own songs.
I do not think that one of them is more advanced. My first kid is very “handy” or “comfortable” to all kinds of educators. In her further life, she might become an expert but probably she will avoid leadership because she does not like to take risks, to resist and to look for her own way.
My second one seems to be similar to his grandfather who is very active, laborious, and he also always was leader and wealthy.
When I watch my son playing I sometimes remember texts like these
http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/1035/imaginary-worldplay-indicator-creative-giftedness.pdf
As he likes to play alone, he is at risk of late talking and little knowledge. I keep his knowledge and other skills in a sufficient level.
Well, I wanted to say that children are very different, and EL is not the only way to happiness
I like what FrukC said about creating files just for him. The more interesting it is the more he will want to pay attention. High interest information also aids in reading comprehension.
Thank you SO much for the many replies and suggestions! I have so much to respond to from the above posts! I wanted to write a quick update though to say that I think my little one is starting to…READ :biggrin: !!! YAY!!! His speech has drastically improved since I wrote the first post (it had just started to take off about a week before I wrote it - we had two different vacations with lots of extended family and I think that helped it!?!) and it’s made a HUGE difference. He will now eagerly say any word that ask him to say - so if we’re doing LR, Reading Bear, etc - he will repeat the words and he seems so much more into it. Lately, he has been upset whenever I close the laptop!
Also…and this is where I’m thinking he is reading, but I need some more time to pass to see how this plays out…I started leaving out words when reading books and I wait for him to say the word before moving on. It’s usually the last word in the sentence or a word that I know is easy for him to say. Well, he has been able to say the missing word almost 100% of the time. I didn’t give it much thought at first, because the missing words were very obvious at first - either I’ve read the book a ton or there’s a picture of the word right there (ie - the word is pig, and there’s a pig on the page). However, I recently got out a whole bunch of board books that we haven’t read in quite a few months and he was still able to fill in the missing word almost every time. The one that struck me the most was a book about cars and it starts with “I am Sam” and he filled in the word “Sam” when I paused! This is just one example of many…but I still wonder about it because sometimes he’s not even looking at the book at all and is able to fill in the words :blink: …so that makes me think that maybe he was paying way more attention when I read these books to him a long time ago than I thought he was!? Another thing that made me question, was that (until today!!) he never once was able to show that he read a word that was written on a dry earse board or piece of paper or on the computer, etc. Howerever - today he read “duck”, “baby”, “dog,” and “cat” after I wrote them on a piece of paper! Those are all words that I suspected he knew from our “filling in the blank” time. However…he ignored the word “Sam” when I wrote it :). Lol.
And one more update - when using Daddude’s cards…he was actually starting to sound them out yesterday. He had the word “map” in his hand and he pointed to “m” and said “mmmm” and then to “p” and said “pppuhh”.
Ahh - one more update! I also found out yesterday that he knows all of his letter sounds (except e)! I happened to have a bag of chocolate chips and he REALLY REALLY wanted some :)! I then asked “A says__” and ended up going through the whole alphabet! Yes, he got a handful of chocolate chips after that :biggrin: !!
Anyway, I’m super super excited seeing how much he’s grown in the last month or so. I just can’t believe how much can change in such a short time period! Thank you so much for all of your replies! I’ll have to give another update later!
Yay! Exciting update!
I agree when you said that he likely was paying more attention than you thought. Kids are sponges when it comes to learning!
It will be interesting to find out how much he knows as he starts talking even more. If he suddenly knows a lot more words or Spanish or his numbers, I’m going to be the biggest believer of this - lol! Seriously, when I wrote my first post, there were zero signs that he was taking in anything regarding reading (except showing me awhile ago that he knew most of the letter sounds).
I took some pictures during our recent vacation just for this purpose! I need to get busy. I think he would love it.
Lol - I had the most opinions about parenting before I had kids…then I got less judgmental after having one child…and then way less after the second :)!