Teaching EK- There has to be an easier way?

Early Learning Teaching Your Child Encyclopedic Knowledge
1

I like the idea of teaching my children EK, but I don’t like the thought of all the work and preparation involved. What are my options?

  1. Buy the BIT cards premade from doman’s site. I would totally do this if I was rich, alas, I am not! So this idea is out. And, they only make so many, it seems like you’d blow through them fairly quickly?

  2. Try to get lucky buying some used from Ebay or where ever, I assume this would be hit or miss.

With wither of these options, I would still be left with a ton of retired cards laying around. Is there a computer program that does the EK for you, similar to LR? I know Doman has a series of 10 Cd’s with images, but is my understanding correct that it is only images and and the name of the object/item/whatever? They don’t delve into “magnitudes” of the 10 descriptive phrases about the items, do they?

What am I missing, is there a relatively cheap, easy, and non-time consuming way to teach EK? I know I’m asking for the moon here, I just want to know if I am missing an obvious answer!

2

I also wanted to add, we do watch the TW DVD’s so they are getting some flashing there, but just statements as to what the objects are, no information about them.

Also, I saw in a thread below that some people bought large flashcards to use as BIT cards, but ideally what I’m looking for is a one-stop shop. Where I can get all types of bit cards or a computer program that does it all for me without the hunt, etc, and all the same style/size would be even better. I think I must be dreaming though, huh?

3

Maybe it is because there aren’t that many people who want to do EK, but I think there is a big gap here. The Brillkids guys, or another “baby content” vendor, could step in and fill it. Traditional publishers could, as well–if they were convinced there were a market. My guess is that the Doman market is still so small that it is not cost-effective for anyone, even online, to prepare the resource for much less than the Institutes sells their bit cards. As anybody who has tried to make a really good presentation knows, it’s hard to find just the right picture to illustrate something, especially anything specialized–and if you’re limited to free or cheap resources, this becomes even harder. I guess this is why we’re all sharing freely our amateur content. Vive l’Internet…

4

It might now be perfect by some members were putting EK and POI together and sharing them a while back. Here is the link http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-encyclopedic-knowledge/encyclopedic-knowledge-weekly-collaboration-group/15/

5

I’ve been digging through the DL’s in the EK area and so far it’s just not exactly what I’m looking for. Maybe i haven’t found the right files yet?

Let she who complains step up and fix the problem, right? LOL

In all seriousness, if anyone wants to collaborate a little, I can try and do voice and look for pictures, but I have no desire to do 10 facts about anything (simply because I don’t know what I’m doing). Keep in mind I have not read the book, only the theories online, my library does not stock it. I am thinking it should be a series of 11 files, just like the 10 magnifications.

(Scratch that, after giving it a go 10 magnifications seems a little intense, maybe present the topic and then 5 magnifications would be better)

For example:

Day 1, File 1: Present 10 Kinds of fruit with picture, text, and voice
-Apple
-Orange
-Banana
-Strawberry
-Peach
-Plum
-Watermelon
-Grapes
-Kiwi
-Mango

Day 2, File 2: Present same picture/text with voice clearly speaking fact #1 about each
-Apples come in all shades of reds, greens, and yellow
-Oranges are citrus fruits rich in vitamin C
-Bananas are considered perennial herbs
-There are over 700 varieties of peaches
-Plums can be red, orange, yellow, or purple
-Watermelon is composed of 92% water
-The two main types of grapes are European and American
-Kiwis are brown and fuzzy on the outside and bright green on the inside
-Mangoes are native to southern Asia
-Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside

Day/File 3: Again, Same picture/text is presented with fact #2
Day/File 4: " " with fact #3
Day/File 5: " " with fact #4
Day/File 6: " " with fact #5

Those were pretty random facts, I did not fact check them as I did this very quickly. They should probably be more organized as to what is covered each session (color, how they grow, where they grow, what they are used for, etc).

So out of that, you will get 6 days worth of flashcards if you only do one set per day. 365 days a year divided by 6 = 60 cards to last a year, or 120 if you do two at a time. Correct me if there in an error in my simple math.

Now great, who wants to help me make 120 LR Encyclopedia files LOL???

6

Thanks Waterdreamer I will check out that link and see if they offer what I had in mind.

7

Okay, I checked out some of the Art files and they are good, but

  1. I was looking for something in LR format so I don’t have to mess with ink/paper/useless retired cards…you know, Going Green! (or cheap anyway)
  2. If someone was to take 10 of those Art files, break them up evenly into 10 LR files & add voice, then you would be able to flash all 10 BITS/POI’s daily for 10 days via computer. Makes more sense to me only because I am not really interested in doing it the old fashioned way with flipping physical cards.

Has anyone done that yet?

ETA: Correct me if I am wrong, but with Doman’s method you have a stack of cards you are flipping through (say 10) and you are only reading one fact from each. So by combining 10 art files into 10 LR files with facts about 10 different pieces in one file, you have recreated what a physical flash session would be. Right? Or am I missing something? I don’t think I explained myself very well. But by showing 10 different pieces of art in one session, versus looking at the same piece of art and giving 10 facts in one session, there is variety to keep the viewers interest. Or will they get bored from seeing the same pieces of art flashed 10 days in a row?

8

Ok, it’s late and I really need to be off to bed. But it looks like there are LOTS of great BITS/POI’s on that link/group, just not in the format I want. I can convert them, but it will be kind of like plagarism. Which I suppose won’t matter if they are for my personal use, but if I upload them on the forum then I don’t want to take credit for someone else’s work. The magnitudes are already done in so many subject areas, I can’t see reinventing the wheel. I just want to make the delivery more accessible via LR to myself and others.

9

I bought for my grandson EK Cards and started using them when he was about 18 month.
They are very good.

I got them from :

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.pe/MPE-11360661-estimulacion-tempranabits-de-conocimiento-enciclopedico-_JM

I did not do the math but since they are local (Peru) I did not have to pay shipping.
A category is S/ 22 that is about US$ 7.90 and they have around 30 categories.
Maybe they can do the shipping to your location or if many of you get together it can be less expensive.
I hope it is usefull at least as a reference.

10

Hi 2010 Bebes,

The problem is that they are in Spanish not English right? Or do they have them in English and Spanish?

11

Yes, you are right, they are in spanish but i think that translating is no problem if you have a large number of copies to make. The mom that sold them to me is very nice. I will contact her to see we loose nothing just to know if there are other options.

12

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.pe/MPE-11360661-estimulacion-tempranabits-de-conocimiento-enciclopedico-_JM

So in this link above, how many do they sell per category?

thanks,

13

Normally one category includes 10 images with 10 comments on each image.but in that link they mention:

Categorías que presenta Edu Kids 1:

· Mamíferos ?Auquénidos (16)

· Aves (10)

· Insectos (8)

· Frutas (8)

· Verduras (12)

· Instrumentos Musicales (12)· Medios de Transporte (6)

14

At Target, they sell EK flashcards, including the facts, and it is only $1 dollar. The flashcards are: State of US, US President, Insect, space, animal, flag.You can find in one dollar bin.

15

I had also been thinking about doing EK in Little Reader and have been racking my brains trying to work out the most efficient and economical way to do so. The thought of researching all these topics seems like too much work!!!

What I’ve tried with my daughter, was download different topics from the Little Reader Library that my daughter was interested in; then created a playlist with 3-4 words from about 5 topics. This would be played to my daughter for a week. In terms of the points of interest, I thought I’d create a powerpoint style presentation (I used open org’s program - very similar to MS Office but free download) to see if she was interested in learning any additional facts. I’ll have to admit, I only did it for gorillas, but she did not seem as thrilled about watching it as she did with the LR playlists. I’ve attached the presentation that I created.

Now what I do is, with whatever topics I am showing for the week, whenever we talk about it or see a picture/object in real life, I give her facts then and there and she seems more interested in learning then eg. I had flashed some pictures of Musical Composers - Haydn and Debussy. During the week I’d play CDs of the composers and also play some pieces on the piano for her, whilst explaining who the composer was and what the music was written for etc, etc.

Hope this helps.

16

http://www.theclassicalmommy.com/bitscollectioncancel.html
This ladies webside is AWESOME!! Most of the slideshows I love!!

17

I made one Encyclopedic Knowledge LR file of the type you are talking about. It is planets. It has the pictures of the 8 planets as well as Pluto and 10 facts read for each one. Here is the link: http://forum.brillkids.com/downloads/?sa=view;id=3048. I was thinking about doing my program in this way, but I think other than HeyBlue no one else was interested in creating this type of file, if that is changed I might be interested in doing more. But I was also just considereing stepping up my physical bits creation as we are moving and now have more room.

18

linzy,

Is it possible we habe it in powerpoint?

19

Linzy- that file is gorgeous, exactly how I want to make mine! I need to sit down and figure out how to make one, I have never done it. Do you have any tips or advice? My only comment is that some of the facts are a little long, but I know how challenging it is to condense everything down. Pretty much impossible, isn’t it?

I would LOVE a whole collection just like that!

20

We can try to build some LR-based EK categories with the help of everyone! Please join in the discussion here:

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-encyclopedic-knowledge/encyclopedic-knowledge-categories-for-free-made-by-you!-(feasibility-study)/