National Down Syndrome Awareness Week:Learning About Money - Can I Go To the Mall Please?

This has been in my drafts since last winter & since I'm posting every day this week I thought I'd post this today.

K loves shopping so I thought I should get an early start on teaching her the value of money! The nearest mall is about 1.5 hours away so we don't go often but she does often ask to go.  Just this morning with the wind howling & the temperatures in the minus 40's with the wind chill my eager shopper's first request was to go to the mall.  Unfortunately for her we had a "school is cancelled, stay at home, clean the house & play games day".

Like most little kids K loves to pay when we go to the store.  When K is shopping with me one of the things I have her help with is getting the correct bills out.  She has easily learned the difference between all of the bills & only occasionally has trouble with coins. Each time she is helping me pay in cash I first have her identify the bill then ask her if that is enough money. This helps her figure out more & less & perhaps one day will help her figure out the value of money.  I'm expecting that to take a while though as I think her siblings all still think that there is an endless supply ;)

She does well at using an ATM machine for everything except the PIN code - with her love of shopping she can wait a few years & get her own card!

Another fun way we are learning about money is with the new learning cash register K got for Christmas. It has a coin slot that identifies the money, a scanner, full number keyboard & has a number of games to play. She loves playing store so we set up a little grocery store in her bedroom complete with a shopping cart, & food to purchase.  The best way to learn is to keep it fun & this is a hit! The scanner gives random prices each time you press the button. At $8.27 each the peppers I bought today must be organic!


There are some money related work sheets on this page:
ABC Teach Math Pages

What do you do to help foster money skills in your child?

K's Favorite Apps August 2013

I did a post a few years ago on K's favorite iPad apps.  It's way past time for an update.  These are some of the apps we've enjoyed since then. Many of them are great for doing program.


First things first -  Where to get the deals!  I like Smart Apps for Kids  & App Friday
If you watch these sites often you can get some really great deals. There are also a couple of good FaceBook groups that post lots of deals.  One of them is Free Apps For Kids.   I'm Sure there are a couple of other real good ones but they don't seem to be coming up on my FaceBook feed now & I can't find them so please leave me a comment if you have any other suggestions.


Language Builder is an app that we have used for speech. It contains photos of people engaged in various activities & allows you to record a sentence about the picture & then play it back. I was lucky to find this one for free but it is now listed at $9.99


We've just recently started using an app called  Speech Sounds on Cue.  According to their description it contains over 500 videos, sound clips and colour photos designed to help adults and children to produce the consonant speech sounds in isolation, in words and in sentences. 
Thankfully, I found this one on sale as the cost now is $24.99.


Rainbow sentences is going to be my next purchase ($7.99) as soon as I get to town to pick up a new iTunes card.  From their description:

Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues. The who, what, where, and why parts of sentences are color coded to help students recognize and understand how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure.
Students will learn how to recognize the parts of sentences such as nouns, verbs, and prepositions, improve their understanding of how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure. Students have the opportunity to record their sentences in their own voice to improve their receptive and expressive language skills.

Sounds pretty cool right?


Simply Smarter Kids - Memory - Memory is one of the apps that was fairly recently released by NACD. This is a great app for working on  sequential processing, short-term and working memory & really follows the neurodevelopmental approach to developing memory. The app is a pretty good price at $1.99. K loves animals though so to keep her interested I ended up adding on the animals package which cost another 99 cents.


Mem Magic is another memory game. In this game there is a circus theme.  3 performers are shown for several seconds, then one disappears & the child must remember which one is missing. Its not either of our favorite but K likes it & I like that it approaches memory in a different way than most. Free!


Fun with Directions & More Fun with Directions are two grat apps for auditory processing. You can set it to easy intermediate or advanced.  I loved this app but I wish it had a couple of higher levels as K is outgrowing it. I like that  you can set this app to voice or written commands so it can be used to practice reading comprehension as well.  The downside is the price.  I've had it for a couple of years & must have either gotten it when it was cheaper or when it was on sale as I know I'd have been too cheap to pay the $15.99 price tag :)


Splingo's Language Universe is my favorite auditory processing app -  K loves it too.  Help an alien get home to his planet by following directions.  Correct answers help him build his spaceship. There are four difficulty levels:
•Level 1 -contains instructions of 1 main word and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 18 months onwards, e.g. “find the apple”
•Level 2 - contains instructions of 2 main words and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 2-3 years, e.g. “find the red apple”
•Level 3 - contains instructions of 3 main words and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 3- 4 years and upwards, e.g. “find the big red apple”
•Level 4 - contains instructions of 4 main words and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 4 years and upwards, e.g. “give the big red apple to the boy”

In my opinion, Splingo's Language Universe is well worth the price at $2.99.


Letter School is our favorite printing app - Each letter on this app starts out with a little song. That says the letter followed by an object that starts with that letter. There are three levels of difficulty when writing each letter.  The first level guides you right through whereas the 3rd level requires the child to write quite independently although it does start to give hints if the child is having trouble. Numbers are also included & the quantity for each number is sthown before the printing begins. The special effects include fireworks, songs, trains with the whistle blowing, flowers growing, neon lights & lots more- very exciting stuff to motivate kids.  Well worth the $2.99.
 

Another handwriting favorite of ours is Write My Name by Injini.  This app allows kids to practice writing letters, sight words & most importantly lets you program in words such as your child's name. This app costs $3.99


Daily Art  - We use this app for encyclopedic knowledge. It is great for people like me teach my kids about art when I don't have a lot of knowledge in that area.

 
K really enjoyed Monkey Preschool Lunchbox when she was younger. It has games that teach concepts such as shapes, letters, colours, & matching. This app costs 99 cents.


Bugsy Kindergarten Math is an entertaining math game in which the child guides the hamster as it tries to fill it's fridge with food. K enjoys this & plays it often. This $2.99 app teaches math concepts such as:

- Numbers — 0-30
- Counting — count by 1, 2, 3 & 5
- Comparisons — quantities & numbers
- Writing Numbers — 0 - 9
- Pattern Recognition — simple & complex
- Number Bonds — number relationships
- Basic Arithmetic — addition & subtraction up to 20


Park Math was K's favorite math app for a long time.  While it's not an absolute favorite now she still enjoys it a lot. There are quite a few activities for th e $3.99 price tag. The child wanders through all the playground activities with various animals such as hippos, ducks & dogs while doing various math activities.


There are 3 Levels for Preschool, Kindergarten and First Grade
- Level 1: Count up to 20; addition/subtraction with numbers up to 5
- Level 2: Count up to 50; addition/subtraction with numbers up to 10
- Level 3: Count up to 100; addition/subtraction with numbers up to 20



We used the I Like Books app quite a bit when Kas was about 4 years old.  This app has 37 stories to choose from with nice photographs on each page. She still uses this app from time to time. Free!


Lakeshore Learning has an app called Beginning Sounds Sorting Game in which the player sorts each object depending on the initial sound. 99 cents.


Find them all is a game that requires the child to search for various animals on the farm. An in app purchase opens up a number of other habitats but we have only used the free farm habitat.


K has several Stella & Sam apps. While she's never watched this program on TV, she loves all of the apps.


K enjoys the Miss Spider apps such as Miss Spider's Tea Party.  $2.99.


 Toca Doctor was one of K's favorite games last year. The list price is $2.99 but I've seen it come up for free. The crunchy mama in me sometimes cringes at some of the "medical" types games but for a kid who occasionally has to go for blood work & see specialists etc. I think it's good to have some playing doctor fun.

What are some of  your kids favorite apps?

31 for 21 - Question from a reader about reading & math

A while ago, a reader asked some questions about teaching reading & math to her son. I thought I'd post my replies in case it helps someone else.  I only have my response, not the original questions but it should still make sense.

I found it very tough to really know what K was learning until she was around 2 years of age.  I tried very hard not to test her knowledge so really didn't know until she started becoming verbal enough to read out loud. 

I wonder if going back to paper flashcards would help your son.  We only switched to Little Reader on the computer when K was over 3.5 years & already reading simple commercial print stories. It seemed like she didn't learn nearly as well from the computer as she did with a laminated flashcard.

Even now, if K does not want to be tested she will either refuse to read or be silly & say completely wrong words so it is possible that he resents testing.

My other thought is that if you are repeating things too much & boring him, he may be losing interest. 

If he is losing interest it may be helpful to show the cards more quickly like this:

Fast Flashing

.  Do you use a flashcard with a picture?  That may help keep his interest. Also using a few less cards along with showing them as quickly as possible may help.  Always try to quit before he loses interest.  This may mean doing shorter but more frequent sessions.

As for math, I'm not really sure what is best.  We sporadically did a math program but probably because I didn't see as much positive feedback, I wasn't as consistent. We did do math dots but I'm not sure how well she learned them.  K did teach herself basic numerals before age 2 though & is just finishing a traditional kindergarten math curriculum one year ahead of schedule. 

The other important thing to remember about Doman dots & quantity is that the ability to see & identify large quantities is a not a skill that stays with babies except in rare cases.  This is why babies often start out with this ability & then lose it before age 3. The whole point is to give them a solid basis for later math skills.  Even thought they may no longer be able to instantly recognize quantities, other math skills should come more easily. I do think that most kids retain this skill until age 2 or 3 though so this may not be the case with your son. There is a great thread on BrillKids about this with replies from IAHP themselves.

To be honest, I can only think of one typical child that seemed to have great success with the Doman math program. I'm sure that there are others but I don't think that it is that common.

K is still doing pretty well with math so it is possible that her early math dot program helped some but it is hard to say for sure.

Back to School Thoughts

K headed back to school last week. I am having some mixed feeling this year.  She turned 5 about 3 months ago so is eligible for kindergarten but we have decided to wait one more year before starting.

Academically there is no reason for holding her back & it seems strange to me to see many of her little buddies, both in person & online head to kindergarten without her.  However, there are a number of reason for waiting.  Physically she is on the small side & not able to run as quickly as her same age peers.  K's speech is good & improving by the day, but is also not equal to that of most of her peers. I often think she is less mature than many kids her age although after spending a couple of days with her class I had to wonder at times! lol

My husband & I also wrestled with the question of whether or not to hold back one of our older daughters.  This particular daughter was born in mid December.  KJ was the only one of my kids who I wished would have been born 5 or 6 days late rather than a week early - this would have put her birthday in January & solved my concerns by missing the cutoff. I would have even put up with an extra week of  pregnancy - a 8.5 months of morning sickness type of pregnancy!

While looking into the option of holding back KJ, we researched as well as talked to a lot of parents. We talked to a number of parents who regretted sending their kids early but I have yet to talk to a parent who wished they hadn`t held their child back.

I believe that holding KJ back allowed her to be more confident & become a leader within her class.  School work has also come easily to her as it did her big sisters who were both born in the early months of the year.

This article on kindergarten readiness sums up what I feel as well.

 My expectation is that K will do everything that her peers will do in school & I feel that giving her one more year to prepare will help her to succeed. Once she starts kindergarten we will not hold her back as we feel it will be best for her to stay with the same bunch of friends that she starts with.

I admit to having another motive for holding K back. Her neurodevelopmental program takes quite a bit of time & by holding K back we will have one more year to concentrate on it.  The program has allowed her to progress much more quickly than any mainstream program so another year will be great.  Of course we will continue to do a neurodevelopmental program when she is in school but once she hits grade 1 it will not be possible to focus nearly the same amount of time on it.

As an added bonus, I get to enjoy having her at home for an extra year:) ..........Yes, it's hard for me to see my baby grow up sometimes even though we have worked with K practically since she was born to prepare her to be independent. 

We are so pleased that we are able to offer a preschool in our tiny community. It is organized & run by the parents who hire a teacher & fund raise to be able to keep fees very reasonable, buy toys & supplies etc. The preschool had a bit of a glitch with getting a teachers aide in place for the start of school on Monday so as president & founder of the organization, I was asked to step in as a parent volunteer to help get preschool up & running smoothly. 

After being able to spend 2 days in the classroom, I am confident that we made the right choice. My biggest concern at this point is still about K being bored when the other kids are working on academic concepts that are much to easy for K. For example, they did one activity involving placing some little glass stones on letters on the coconut tree from the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story. K's boredom became evident in her refusal to cooperate partway through the game.  She was eventually persuaded to join in again but wasn't thrilled with the idea.  Next they identified numbers from 1 to 10 & although this is equally simple for her, the fact that they swatted the numbers with a modified fly swatter made it so much fun that she had a blast.

K did well in gym class although she is often the first one to follow when another child is running around out of turn or jumping, playing etc when they aren't supposed to be.  For the vast majority of the time though she is doing well.  The extra year (& probably our summer running program) has made quite a difference in her ability to keep up with the others.  She also quickly understands the games they play & joins in easily.

I even notice little things like the fact that she isn't always the last in line on the way back from the gym as she often was in past years & that she is much more self disciplined about eating her sandwich before her snack at lunch time. 

Most importantly she seems to have really overcome her shyness & is playing well with the other kids in her class.  K has spent much more time with older kids & adults & in the past & because of that, has been a little more reserved with kids her own age.  It was wonderful to see her join in when the other kids were playing with horses & to initiate playing dress up.

Gathering the Info............

That's how I feel about a lot of things we have taught K. It's been a few years since we started teaching her & I am really seeing the results now. There are times when my husband laughs at the wide variety of subjects K is learning. Not that he disagrees - he just finds it entertaining. For example, this week on Little Reader we are learning about biomes as well as a more in depth look at the digestive system. It seems like a lot for her age but my husband also laughed when around 18 months of age we did carpentry tools. One year later when we built our house, K knew what a hammer, saw, nails etc were. At 18 months K was just "gathering the info" but a year later she put that info to work as she played carpenter & occasionally retrieved a misplaced tool for someone.

Encyclopedic Knowledge

 We have been doing Doman style "bit cards", also called bits of intelligence, or encyclopedic knowledge on & off since K was a baby.  It's never actually been on her neurodevelopmental program, but we did do it infrequently as part of her home program for the first few years, & she really enjoys it, so we have continued on, although never on a regular basis.


Doman bits of intelligence are very large, 11 inch X 11 inch cards with a picture on one side & a series of 10 facts one the other.  Of course, you can vary your size, number of facts, etc, when doing home made bits.

With a baby, you would start by just naming each cards, then, after showing a certain number of cards, you would start reading one fact at a time from the back of the cards.  I like to show bit cards as often as I show flashcards.  

First, buy a copy of How to Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge, or check it out at your local library.

Or, this book, How to Multiply Your Baby`s Intelligence will be great too, & includes a section on bits along with chapters on reading, math, etc.

Bits are available directly from IAHP, & I do have a few of these,but shipping to Canada is not cheap - perhaps because they are an odd size? Whatever the reason, it made the final cost pretty high.

When creating home made bits, I have used several sources. 

I haven't tried these myself, but the above picture is of blank 11X 11 bit cards that are available from IAHP. 

I found these 11 by 14 cards at the local dollar store.  They could easily be trimmed to 11 by 11 - they were 10 for $1.00 -  by what a deal!

 Ideally, you would cut the picture to make it very clear & concise that you are talking about the kangaroo.  K is old enough that I don't think it matters, but with a very young baby,  I would cut it out & mount it on a card so it was very obvious.

Calendars - If I can get the calendar inexpensively enough,  this is a wonderful way to make bit cards.  calendars often have wonderful, clear pictures.  & come in a huge variety of subjects, making them great for bit cards.

I often will just use 8.5 X 11 card stock to make bits.  I find a clear, high quality image, either one that I take myself, or use google images, print it out, type out the facts to put on the back, & laminate them together.

The other source that I stumbled upon the other day, is the above pictured poster.  It is part of the book pictured below & has 30 posters. It only cost $7.99.  The pictures aren't all exactly what I would pick & there are some repeats so I won't be able to use them all, but for the price that I paid, they are well worth the investment. I will just add my ten facts about the horse breed on the back, & will be all set to go.  Sorry for the sideways picture.....

I have heard of buying old encyclopedias or other similar books with large pictures, cutting out the pictures & gluing the picture on one side of a 11 X 11 card & using those for bits.  I haven't done this myself.  I just can't seem to bring myself to cut up the books.  I actually bought a set at the rummage sale a few months back, just for this purpose, but I don't like the idea of cutting them up.  When I looked at them again the other day, I realized that they are actually pretty good books, with a large picture on one side of the page & some facts on the other, so I think I'll leave the book intact & just read the facts & show the pic the same way I would if I were doing bits.

 I usually include 10 clear concise facts on the back of each bit card. I've found that I have to keep them short.  Even now at 4.5 years, K sometimes gets bored if the facts aren't pretty short.

When searching for facts for animal bit cards, I have found this site pretty helpful:    A - Z Animals
 I'm sure there are lots of good ones, so let me know in the comments if you know of any.

You don't have to do any of these activities in any one exact way.  As long as you are giving input, your child will benefit.  Use materials that are available & affordable & have lots of fun doing it!

Time Flies - Math is Fun!

Life has been a whirlwind lately.  I'd love to be able to protest loudly enough to be able to slow it down!  Not only are we busy with the day to day - it's ski race season for my older girls, so we seem to be running from ski hill to ski hill, but time is just flying by so fast.  I will have a 2nd teenager in about a month - I'm too young for that!

Anyways, I often wonder about the amount of time we spend each day on K's neurodevelopmental program & other learning games.  We have been been busier than usual lately - I took my older daughters to a skier cross race in the mountains for 4 days last week while K stayed home with her Daddy (I rarely leave her or any of my kids, & although I had a great time with my older girls, I missed her terribly). K read a few books to her Daddy, but I think that's about all the program they did.  Then on Tuesday to Thursday of this week, we went on a short holiday to a nearby city. We were so busy with activities & shopping that again, we did very little program.

When we got home last night, my husband & older 3 girls rushed off to ski practice at our local hill & K & I stayed behind.  We were both tired & had no plans to do any program, but K found the large plastic tub that I keep many of her program materials in, she was so excited to find her math book & insisted that we needed to work on it. Later, she suggested a few other activities.

I was so relieved to see how much she enjoys these activities & misses them when we are not consistent.  K is not the kind of kid that just goes along with everything, so I often have to be very creative to get her to do some of the activities, & it is only recently after showing her some videos of other kids doing her math program that she has suddenly become excited about math, so this is huge for us!

UPDATE:  I actually wrote this a couple of weeks ago, & once more since then we had a busy 4 days away with skiing & family functions.  When we got home, the same thing happened.  I had no plans to do program, but K dragged out her math book & was so excited to work on it!

Another Question Post on Reading

Hi, I have a 3.5 year old son with DS that we adopted last year. He spent the first 2+ years of his life in an orphanage. Where do I start teaching him to read? He loves books, and loves to learn. His attention span is amazing for all things educational. My problem is knowing what to do and having the right amount of material to cover. I feel inadequate, the more I read, the more confused I get. I just need the bottom line, Thanks!

Congrats on your adoption! 

Don't worry about doing it "wrong".  Any extra stimulation he gets is going to be beneficial. I am so busy, especially in the winter that very often I am not able to be nearly as consistent as I would like, however I am still so thrilled with K's progress. 

If he already loves books, that is a big help, & a good attention span in wonderful.  Just make sure you quit when he is still enjoying it so that learning stays fun. When you read to him, run your finger under the words to help bring his attention to the text as well as to help him become familiar with the individual words.  

Flashcards are wonderful for a visual learner, which most kids with DS are, so of course I would start there. Have you tried Little Reader yet? Their flashcards have wonderful, clear concise pictures & many are free. The above link sends you to the details of their special needs discount which they are VERY generous with. 

As for the amount of material to cover, I don't think there is an exact right or wrong.  You have to consider his interests, enjoyment & as you mentioned, attention span.  In the beginning, when K was only about 6 months old, I did sets of 10 or 12 flashcards (word & pic) & showed them  about 3 times a day, but as K seemed to learn faster, I gradually moved up to an average of 45 words per week. 

If you haven't been to the Unlimited Potential forum yet, this is a great resources thread.  There are lots of resources mentioned that will be very helpful.

Have you checked out my important posts page yet?  It's a work in progress, but I'm trying to compile a section on teaching reading tips.

Lastly, have very high expectations for your little boy. Give him lots of input, lots of exercise, explain things, & most of all enjoy him!

If you want anymore specifics, please ask away:)

The Alphabet is Boring:)

Here is another recent question:

In your blog you mentioned that your daughter knew her alphabet by the age of 2.
What program or strategy did you use to teacher her this skill?

To be honest, I did not teach her the alphabet & did not plan to teach her until she was close to school age - but K had her own timetable & taught herself!

K did watch the Love & Learning videos  on & off from when she was about 1 to 2 years of age.  We also had the Leap Frog alphabet fridge magnets on our fridge & a set of letter fridge magnets & probably a few other toys with letters that allowed her to learn them on her own. She surprised me one day in the hardware store, when she started pointing out letters on the signs.  I still remember my shock & amazement when she toddled over to a  Shamwow display rack, pointed at the M & said M,  mmmm.

As I stated earlier, I did not plan to teach her letters & don't see the point in purposefully teaching this to a very young child.  The alphabet really has no meaning to a toddler & won't be much fun to learn.  Because sight words are the most effective way to teach a toddler (teaching phonics is really important, just not at this age - click on this post as well as this one for my reasoning for this), I don't think that teaching the alphabet is helpful.

Sight words are so much more fun! Put yourself in a toddler's shoes.  Would you rather learn that A says aaaa, or that M.O.M. spells Mom? We focused on the most important words in K's life first.  Family & pet names, favorite toys, foods & animals. Reading needs to be fun at this age in order to foster a lifelong love of reading.

If however, you have a school age, or almost school age child, letters will probably be more beneficial to help them keep up with what the other kids are learning.  We did intend to teach K letters by about age 5, before we realized that she had taught herself the alphabet.

Some good resources that I can think of off the top of my head are the many iPad/iPhone apps available.  We like LetterSchool lately for printing practice, but I think it would also help a child learn the letters.

There are some good DVD's out there but my tired brain doesn't seem to be able to come up with a title tonight!  I'll try to edit this with an example.

This is a similar product to the one that k used to teach herself the alphabet: LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet.

Alphabet letters are everywhere, making it so easy to incorporate fun games into everyday life.  There are big foamy bathtub letters & letter stickers to do different projects with. Our local Dollar Store has tons of different types of letters in the toy aisles -you could do so many projects with them.  Pictures, paintings, make one of those find the letter I Spy bags or put the letters in rice or popcorn for a tactile experience.  Use tweezers to grab the letters to work on letter recognition & fine motor at the same time.  Look for letters on signs, etc when going for walks. 

................and lastly, of course good old flashcards - They are tons of commercial ones available, or I'm sure BrillKids has some too.

My Reasons For Teaching My Child to Read

 The question "If you had only the length of an elevator ride to explain why you are teaching your child, what would you say?" was asked on a forum which does have some other parents of kids with Trisomy 21, but is mainly composed of parents of typical children who are keenly interested in all areas of early learning.

My reply is probably going to be very different than many of the parents here.  When I first started teaching my daughter, my goal was for her to be able to read at a beginning level by grade one.  She has far exceeded my expectations & taught me so much more than I have ever taught her.

When K was born with Down syndrome 4.5 years ago, several well meaning doctors & nurses told me that she would probably be very happy & love music.  They tried to be encouraging, but their expectations were very low.  It wasn't until I got home & started researching on the internet that I learned about a very small minority of parents who were teaching their kids with DS to read.  I honestly found it difficult to believe & more than once I have admitted   that if, 5 years ago, you had told me that your child with DS was reading at almost a 4th grade level at 4.5 years, I would have politely said " Oh, that's wonderful." & probably walked away snickering. As I said, my daughter has taught me a lot!

I really didn't believe it, but I was intrigued enough, that by the time K was 8 months old, I had built her a Doman style crawling track & to that same doctor's surprise & disbelief (he had to see it before he would believe it), she was crawling! I was so excited by that success, that at around the same time, I started showing K the large, red, Doman style flashcards. Of course, ever the skeptic, I really had my doubts, so I was a "closet flash card Mom" for the longest time, but sure enough, just a few months after K's first birthday, she began showing me that she was learning some of the words!  She knew many sight words & had self taught herself all of the letters & sounds of the alphabet by age 2. She read her first commercial print book that we had not practiced at age 3.5.

Back to my goals - I had originally hoped K would read by grade 1.  I had 2 reasons for this:

1. I wanted the teachers to see a little girl who had potential to learn just like the other students in her class & I wanted them to have very high expectations because the higher the expectations, the more success a child will have.

2.  I wanted K to be able to pick up her books & read the directions, so that if she didn't understand or hear the teacher properly, then at least she could read & try to figure it out for herself.  She is already doing this by the way - she reads her math workbook instructions all the time.

Now, at age 4.5, my concerns have changed.  We have always planned to hold K back in school (as we did her older sister who was born in December), to allow her to have one more year of maturing as well as physical growth because she is quite tiny.  Rather than worrying about her keeping up, at least in the early years of school, I am worried about her being bored - it is a funny dilemma & one that I look forward to working on.

My reasons for teaching her are still the same though.  I want her teachers to see that she has just as much potential as any other student & therefore, they need to have very high expectations. Also, although K speaks well for her age, she is not speaking as well as most typical kids her age. When the other kids in kindergarten are learning that the letter A say aaa, & she is already reading novels, I anticipate that she can work on catching up on speech.

I hope it's a long elevator ride, because I wrote a bit of a novel!

Laura

I just wanted to add to this a little bit. When I talked about goals, I missed at least one. I also was hoping that by teaching K to read from an early age that she would become proficient enough that reading wouid be a joy - not a chore for her. All 3 of her older sisters, as well as myself love reading. To the point where my daughters, like their mother before them, often get caught reading in bed. The subject of reading in math or science class has also come up recently during a parent-teacher conference(thankfully, we are not dealing with any worse behavioral issues:), & I turned to my dear husband & told him that he would have to be responsible for speaking with the offender. As a not exactly reformed sneaking a book into my desk offender myself, I just didn't feel I was responsible enough to deal with the situation. LOL! This is what I wanted for K, a true joy & voracious appetite for books & thankfully, I am confident already that I'll be confiscating her flashlights at bed time one day too!

The New Unlimited Potential Forum is Going Strong!

In case you are unaware, there is a new forum dedicated to helping parents who are interested in a neurodevelopmental approach to helping their children achieve their full potential. Other topics include supplements, nutrition, early learning & any other (mostly non mainstream) therapies that parents are interested in.  The forum just got started this fall & already has almost 120 members! It is a public group & a very supportive bunch, so please feel welcome to join.
Hope to see you at the Unlimited Potential forum!

Santa Claus came last night!

Actually, this was a gift from K's Grandma & Grandpa.  Santa didn't bring any educational toys this year, just a talking, moving baby doll, Littlest Pet Shop toys & a Barbie...............& of course, the most important thing on K's list................chocolate!

K has been really enjoying the map. It uses the pen from her LeapFrog Tag reading system.

 

Right now, she is mostly just exploring, but it has lots of games to challenge different levels of players, so I'm hoping that she (& her sisters) will get lots of use out of it.

While we're on the subject of geography, my older girls love the app Stack the Countries.

I was honestly very surprised that this has become a family favorite.  Even my husband plays this often.  My 14 year old loves to challenge everyone, & I'll have to admit that I don't give her much competition!  She is a whiz at knowing where every country is. Usually my older kids resist their Mom's educational activities, so this game is really a hit!

Little Reader Chinese

I was recently asked to review the Little Reader Chinese content.  I must start by saying, that I am not the most well equipped person to review this program.  In the area that I live in, I don't know of anyone who even speaks Chinese, so I have never really had any exposure to this language.  However, K & I are always up for a challenge, so she has been learning Chinese for the last month!

 In order to run Little Reader Chinese, you will need to own the Little Reader program. Little Reader Chinese is available in either simplified or traditional written Chinese. There are 2 semesters of content available for a total of about 12 months of learning fun.  Just like Little Reader in English, this program is fully customizable.  You can choose your content, add your own pictures, voice or add new words or pictures.  The flexibility of Little Reader is one of it's best features.  The Chinese content also goes from letters, to words right up to stories.

While I cannot comment on the language, I can comment on a number of other aspects of the program. It was kind of neat for me to experience learning a totally new language & experience Little Reader from a similar point of view to what a child would have! 

The pictures and short video clips used in the program are very clear & concise. I had no trouble at all figuring out what each word meant, & I know that K is understanding some of the words too.  It is interesting though, that while she is definitely picking up some Chinese words, as far as I can tell, she is not learning them at the same voracious rate that she is in English.  I am guessing that it is because in English, she knows the letters, their sounds, & is starting to have some understanding of phonics, word families, & even just patterns in the words.  I expect that if we kept with it, she would soon begin to learn Chinese at a quicker rate as well.  I also think that I am probably not giving her credit for learning as many words as she has, again, more because of my lack of understanding of the language.

Notice K's fingers as the word fingers is displayed?


I also really appreciate that by having a native speaker, the program teaches children the proper pronunciation of each word - something that would be almost impossible for me to teach myself.

I imagine that all of you are wondering if I will continue on with Little Reader Chinese?  Who knows what the future holds, but at this point it will not be part of our regular routine.  Perhaps with my typical kids I may have continued on.  It is a great program, but K has too many other things that she needs to concentrate on right now.  Her neurodevelopmental program takes up a fair portion of our day & between that & running after my older girls, I just don't think I can consistently devote much time to anything else.  K is able to use the Little Reader program fully independently though, so you never know how often she will choose to play the Chinese content.  I really think the benefits to a 2nd language are huge, so although I am not ready to make a firm commitment to a 2nd language at this point, I am hopeful that she will continue to enjoy this program even if it is on a less regular basis.

While I am not planning at the moment to make Little Reader Chinese a part of K's regular curriculum, I do highly recommend it to anyone who is wanting their child to learn Chinese. 

Here is a link to learn more about Little Reader Chinese.
 
 While you are there, make sure you join their 70,000 + members forum & join in on the wide variety of early learning discussions.


You can also keep up to date on Facebook.


This review was written in exchange for a free copy of Little Reader's Chinese content semester one.  I was not paid for this review, nor was I required to write a positive review.  This is my honest, unbiased opinion on this product.

31 for 21 - Reading Comprehension

 These neat little cards from Discovery Toys are another  50 cent rummage sale bargain!  

They have short phrases & many of them are actions.  Most of them are really easy for K to read. Although we were very careful to avoid testing when K was young, we are much more relaxed about it now as she willingly reads out loud to us all the time.  I often read that kids with Down syndrome learn sight words, but that their comprehension lags behind their reading level.  I have always thought that k understood basically everything she reads, from simple words to more complex sentences. I purposely never taught her any of the words on these cards & have only had her read them to me.  They are a simple way for me to understand K's comprehension of what she is reading & I am very happy with how she is doing at this.  It is really confirming my thoughts that she is understanding what she reads.

K thinks it is quite a fun game to act out these cards:)!

31 for 21 - Moms With Apps

As you probably know, we love our iPad! Here is a link to a great site that has a "free app Friday". They list apps which are either free or on sale:  Moms With Apps

31 for 21 - More bargains!

I love educational toys - perhaps to the point of being a little bit addicted! lol  I don't like the price tags though, so these are today's 2nd hand bargains.  I spent $1.00 total.  I probably didn't really need 2 of them, but the price was right, & they are both a little different & variety is a good thing - right?  Remember that I said that I have an addiction?

  

  

 

K loved making this rocket ship.  Afterwards, we sang Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're Going to the Moon, with the expected toss in the air after we counted down of course!

31 for 21 - BrillKids Little Reader Semester 1 Giveaway!

I am very excited to be able to give away the  BrillKids Little Reader semester 1.  This is a wonderful program - check out  yesterday's blog  for details about the program.

All entries for this giveaway must be received before midnight on Friday, October 28 2011. 

Here are details on how to enter the giveaway.

1  Follow Down Syndrome Up Up Up & Away

2.Leave a comment on my blog telling me that you are following my blog & a short note about how you think the Little Reader semester one will benefit your child.

If you have fulfilled the above requirements, you may also enter in the following ways - make sure you leave a new comment for each entry:

1. Blog about this giveaway
2. Post it on FaceBook
3. Spread the Word on Twitter
4. Join the BrillKids Forum
5. Like BrillKids on Facebook

The winner will be announce on Saturday October 29 2011.

Good Luck!

31 for 21 - BrillKids Little Reader Program Review & Giveaway

I have been asked by BrillKids to review their Little Reader program.  Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while already knows that I love this program!

Of course K loves it too!

Little Reader is a computer based program which is intended for kids from around 3 to 6 months & up Little Reader Basic starts at $149. This program allows a parent to customize a play list of words & images to suit the needs or interests of their child. We have been using this program with their print function to make wonderful, clear, concise flashcards as well as by using the computer program since a little after K's first birthday. With this program you are able to flash the words quickly. Before we found out about BrillKids, we were fast flashing anyways, so it is nice to carry on with that as we have had so much success with it. Words & pictures are flashed on the screen & the word is spoken at the same time. You can choose between available pictures or add your own.  Fonts can be changed or set to display randomly.  You can even record your own voice if you wish. Little Reader has a set curriculum, or you can choose between thousands of files that are available. We are now using Little Reader as a computer program as it is intended, but in the past, I printed out & laminated many files to make wonderful, high quality flashcards.

 This is a picture of K reading a small selection of her Little Reader flashcards that we used when she was about 2 years old.

We are currently working on stories, various science, geography & other subjects, while doing several sets of phonics/word families each week as well.  The focus on phonics is really paying off as I am noticing that K is finding it easier & easier to decode new words. I am so impressed with the versatility of this program!

Besides teaching our daughter to read, we have noticed a number of other wonderful benefits as well!

We have found Little Reader to be excellent for working on speech. Because a word is spoken each time a picture of word is flashed, K also speaks the word.  Recently, we have been recording more of our own words. I have been having K do this herself & she loves to hear herself speaking on the computer!  The more I am able to get my daughter talking, the better! This is in addition to the proven benefits of teaching sight words to help strong visual learners like K learn to speak. 

Although I got the Little Reader program for K, her eight year old sister, KJ is also benefiting from it.  She is not using it for reading practice as she has been reading chapter books for quite a while now, but  this summer, KJ expressed interest in learning a little french.  For the past month or so, she has been using little reader too.  The wonderful thing is that, although I do speak the limited amount of french that I learned in high school, I do not speak with the accent of a native speaker & the wonderful french files I found at BrillKids are really helping me to teach her.  We are both very excited about her progress so far!

I have even used Little Reader for my oldest two daughters on occasion!  They are avid, actually advanced readers for their ages, but I have occasionally found some files, often science related that were relevant to what they were doing in school.  We have viewed them on the computer as well as printed them off to take to school for everyone to enjoy.

 I could talk all day about this program!   The biggest benefit to me is again, the versatility.  This is the only program that has been able to keep up with K as she progressed from learning a few words, to last night, being able to pick up a 3rd grade reader that KJ brought home & read it with ease. I can happily credit BrillKids credit for a huge part of my daughter's reading success.

Click on this link for lots of information, links & details on how to sign up for the Little Reader free 14 day trial: Little Reader

BrillKids has a wonderful forum: BrillKids Forum 

BrillKids also has a blog which you can find here:  BrillKids Blog

This review was written in exchange for a free copy of Little Reader's first semester, which all of you, my fabulous readers can enter in a draw to win! I was not paid for this review, nor was I required to write a positive review.  This is my honest, unbiased opinion on this product.

If you are interested in entering the draw to win a free copy of Brillkids Little Reader program, stay tuned for tomorrow's blog post for details  on how to enter.