My 19 month old DD has been saying “No†to LM which seemed to have started after I showed her the more exciting video with music and cartoon on LR. I do not make her watch LM but occasionally I sneak in a session of the curriculum in a day if I can. Sometimes she is receptive to it and sometimes not. Currently, I’m still at day 20 of the curriculum (Sigh). Before I started using the LM curriculum, I’ve already finished showing her quantity to 100 and division equations … although not as consistent as I would like it to be. She could be bored. If she is, I’m sure it is not because she knows the stuff. I did a little test with small numbers with peas (bad mommy here) and she got them almost all wrong. Strangely enough, she seems to like tests and asked for more. But I did not oblige.
However, my DD started to be interested in counting after watching “Counting Bubbles†(http://forum.brillkids.com/downloads/?sa=view;id=6625) in LR. She now likes to say some numbers when she sees the floor indicator panel in the elevator. She only knows how to say 1 to 6 but she gets them wrong 99.99% of the time!!! I now read out the numbers to her instead whenever she starts to say the numbers in the elevator.
Similarly for alphabets, when she sees words on my T-shirt or some colourful signs when we go shopping, she sometimes likes to point to the letters and say out some letters. She only knows how to say a handful of letters. Again she gets them almost all wrong except for “I†and “Oâ€. Worst, she says “O†when I show her “COW†or “DOGâ€, and she says “I†when I show her “PIG†in LR.
The questions I have are:
Q1) Is it a good idea to start showing her numerals in LM or teaching her alphabets since she is interested in them? I thought we are not supposed to teach them too early. Hence, I’ve been delaying “seriously†teaching her numbers/alphabets or getting her numbers/alphabets puzzles (she has developed a liking for puzzles lately). But I do show her video on number/ABC songs sometimes and count/sing to her for fun.
Q2) I think my DD has a spoken vocabulary of more 200 words (I stopped counting when she hit 180 words 2 weeks ago and she keeps surprising me with new words everyday). She also has been saying phrases and a few 3-word sentences. I thought I read somewhere that language skill is more of a left brain ability. Do you think she is losing her right brain ability and bridging to the left brain faster than she should and hence she sees “O†in “COW†and “DOGâ€, and “I†in “PIGâ€? If she is, it is not a good thing, right? What should I do to keep her right brain open?
If you had already shown a lot of the LM presets to her before starting on the curriculum, then yes, she is likely going to be bored with many of the lessons because the curriculum is written on the assumption that there was no previous exposure. I would suggest:
skipping some of the lessons (or doing them less times) where similar lessons have been shown many times before already
choosing the icons that interest her before playing back the lessons (you may find it makes all the difference to her attention span).
And remember, don’t despair even though she may have given you wrong answers. Even though she cannot give you the correct answers now, you can be certain that all this exposure to math concepts will be very useful to her later and will enable her to pick up math concepts faster.
If she is interested in them, then I would certainly show it to them. Just make sure you continue to show quantity alongside them too.
Q2) I think my DD has a spoken vocabulary of more 200 words (I stopped counting when she hit 180 words 2 weeks ago and she keeps surprising me with new words everyday). She also has been saying phrases and a few 3-word sentences. I thought I read somewhere that language skill is more of a left brain ability. Do you think she is losing her right brain ability and bridging to the left brain faster than she should and hence she sees “O†in “COW†and “DOGâ€, and “I†in “PIGâ€? If she is, it is not a good thing, right? What should I do to keep her right brain open?
Whether or not language is a left-brain activity, the point is in using the right-brain to take in the information, which you can do much more efficiently using the right-brain than the left, hence we have the right-brain flash method, for example.
Also remember, left-brain is not a bad thing! And just because you are using your left-brain for something doesn’t necessarily mean that your right-brain is being compromised. From what I understand, the right-brain remains very active and open for the first 5-6 years. The question is whether we nurture it and how we try to keep it open beyond that age.
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That is what Im thinking too but deep down I wish I can see a little result to give myself a bit of encouragement. I’ll definitely continue but I’m thinking of giving my DD a break from LM to see if she will get interested again later as I think the lack of consistency now maybe futile. For now, I’ll try changing the icon as you have suggested. How do I choose the icon for LM curriculum lessons? I don’t see a button for “preset settings†when I’m at the “Course†tab.
I agree … it’s just that she will be using her left brain a lot more when she gets older and I’m hoping that her right brain will remain open longer … like you say it is more efficient to take in information using right brain.
It’s good to know that. I feel a bit better now. Thanks.