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!

Questions About Early Reading, Math & Speech

Here are some more questions from a reader .  My replies are in purple.

Hi,

I stumbled on your blog a few days ago, which is immensely helpful, and am hoping you can answer some questions for me.

My child is 24 months old and is speaking about 15-20 words, so working on speech is a priority for us.

I am wondering a couple of things:

- when did your DD begin to speak single words?

She was about 7 months when she spoke her first word, & if I remember right, she had about 8 or 10 by one year - I wrote it down, but I forgot where - oops.  

 .

- was she reading before she was speaking? if so, how did you know that she could read - did u test for actions or something?

I'm sure she was, but I feel very strongly that testing should be done very rarely, if at all.  I did test briefly, on one occasion when K was about 15 months & was certain then that she was reading some words.  We really didn't test again until she was about 2 & started voluntarily saying words out loud. It was really only in about January that we started consistently getting her to read books for us each day. Until that time, we waited until she was in the right mood to read to us.  I think it is much more important to make sure it is a good experience & that the child does not feel pressured than to have to know how they are doing.  It can be a very frustrating leap of faith, but a lifelong love of learning & reading is much more important. If I was going to try to test, I'd be sneaky & teach action words & model the action, hoping for a response.

-- what things did you think were most helpful for getting her to speak more words?

Probably the most important thing  wasn't anything I did! K is the youngest of 4 daughters & she hears a lot of talking from all of the family.  My next oldest daughter KJ, is a "gifted talker", & K has been known to say "KJ, please stop talking." lol!

Some things that we did that I think helped were:

 - talking to her a lot & explain things to her - we talked about just about everything even as a very tiny infant.  We talked about sounds we heard, we described what we were doing when changing or dressing her, we talked about colours, body parts, familiar objects, foods, you name it - even very uncommon subjects.  For example, last summer just after she turned 4, we  had a conversation about some irrigation equipment we saw on the side of the road.  

- to give her lots of time to respond to us verbally.  Even when she was too young to speak, we would listen very patiently for her to make some sort of noise & have a conversation.

Google Dr. James McDonald's site - his Communicating Partners method is wonderful. He also has an active Yahoo group you can join.

Longvida curcumin & fish oil are two supplements to research that can be helpful for speech.

- i have been doing Glenn Doman's sight words program with physical word cards (only the words - no pictures) for a few months now, and just saw the post on Little Reader. I am curious about why you stuck with the physical cards only for a while, and at what point you transitioned to the Little Reader program itself?

We actually stayed with physical word cards for a very long time.  Until K was about 3.5 years, she would not even look at a flashcard that did not have a picture on the other side!  From age 3.5 to 4, we started to do more word only cards, & only in the last 6 months have we transitioned right over to Little Reader.  We will still rarely do cards, but not often.  We still do home made, laminated books occasionally, but more often to help teach or prepare K for things like her recent trip to the dentist, which, thanks to all the  preparation with her personalized "My Visit to the Dentist" book, went very well.  The biggest reason we switched is that she was getting to the point that she was sounding words out & had so many sight words that her vocabulary was tested at age 4.5 at a 4th grade level.  I felt that it was better to just stick with longer sentences on Little Reader or getting her to read us stories. Even on Little Reader, besides finishing up a series of phonics files, most of what I pick to show her is more geography, science & French words because we are starting to focus more on learning a 2nd language.
 

 

This is a picture of many of our flashcards - those are bundles 

of cards, not just individual cards - we have thousands!

- on Little Reader, do u do all the methods each day - flash cards, multisensory and picture flash cards?

- when did you start Little Math?

 When we got the Little Reader program, it was just in it's initial beta testing stage.  The didn't have the semesters yet, so we just made our own play lists.  By the time the semesters were finished, K was too far along in her reading, so I just used some of their files & still created my own play lists &  more & more I find that I need to create my own files to keep her challenged  & entertained

We have puttered with Little Math off & on, but didn't officially get the full program until last summer.  It just seemed like I had too many things going on & didn't really focus on Math.  We also did the Doman red dot cards when K was little, but again, I wasn't real consistent.  Doman dots & Little Math are meant to be done with very little kids - under age 2 for typical kids.  We have & do still use Little Math, but have now gone to a program called Math N' More which was recommended by K's neurodevelopmentalist.  We have been consistently doing 1 or 2 pages a day since about October of last year along with some other math activities & it is going very well.

I recognize you are probably superbusy but would be most grateful for any light you can shed to help me out.

THank you,

The other thing I would like to add is that it is really important to use pictures to help teach comprehension.  I think it is easier to teach to word meaning & develop comprehension at the same time rather than have a child that can parrot back words but doesn't understand what they are reading. Because K insisted on having the pictures too, we accidentally helped her to have really good comprehension of what she reads. She reads directions all the time - it is her job to read directions in her math book & follow through & she does a great job of it.

Good Luck & I'd love to hear an update down the road!

Questions about starting a reading program with a 5 year old.

I love checking in on your blog.  I have a just-turned-five-year-old (yesterday), Erin, with Down syndrome.  I also have 6 older children and 1 younger son.  I would like to begin a reading program for Erin.  She knows all her letters and a few words.  I signed up for the Brill Kids free trial.  I like it, but have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind me asking.  No hurry....I know you are a buys mom, like me .

1)  I prefer flashcards I can hold in my hand to flashing on a computer screen.  Do you find a benefit to the computer screen method, or would hand-held cards work just as well, in your opinion?

I preferred flashcards as well & as a matter of fact, K didn't like TV or computer programs as well & didn't seem to learn as quickly from them.  We used laminated card stock flashcards until she was about 3.5 years old when we finally made the transition to using Little Reader as a computer program only.  In fact, until K was 3 years old, we included a picture on the back of almost every flashcard because she did not like word only flashcards.  The odd one we didn't do this with, but usually that was because it was difficult to describe with a picture.  After age 3, this was harder as we started doing the Dolch words like and, it, the, which can't be portrayed with a picture.  Laminated flashcards with pictures took lots of time as well as used a lot of ink & time & money for lamination, but I really think that it was the most beneficial way to teach my daughter.  It will not be the same for all kids, but for K it was because:

 1. printed, laminated cards with pictures kept her interest better which is the most important part of teaching a child

2. by including a picture with each word, K developed an understanding of the meaning of each word & I feel that she has excellent comprehension for her age.

We ended up with lots of cards, but don't be intimidated by this picture. This is about 3 years worth of work.

2)  Where to begin?  If you were just starting out, where would you begin?  Cost is a factor, but not the main factor.  Learning to read in the most efficient way is the main factor (keep in mind that my typical 2 year old will be right along side my daughter with Ds, so I have two kids that will use the program)

When just beginning, I recommend starting with familiar & fun words.  Thing like family member & pet names, lots of nouns & fun action words. If you like Little Reader after the free trial, make sure you check out this link to learn about their discount for kids with DS, etc. If you choose to print & laminate cards there will be a cost involved in that, but at least the initial program with it's thousands of files & pictures will be free which will save you tons of time.

If you do choose to use printed flashcards rather than the computer program, I highly recommend laminating them.  I have written about several different ways to laminate in this post.

Make sure you fast flash them like in this post.

I would teach both kids at the same time.  These methods are meant for really little kids, even under age 2, so I'm sure you will have great success with both kids.


3)  Is the Doman book recommended even IF you are using a reading program, such as Brill Kids, or does it basically just teach you what the packaged programs is already implementing?  Or vice versa! 

You can use one of the reading programs to do basically the same thing, but personally, I would still read How To Teach Your Baby to Read, or even the reading section in the How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence book.  It really helped me to have an understanding of why the method worked & when I understand things better, I can implement the idea better.

4)  I am a busy homeschooling mom, teaching 7 kids, so I need a program that can be EASILY implemented.  With that in mind, what would you recommend? 

The simplest thing would be to use a video program like Your Baby Can Read or get the BrillKids Little Reader & use their semesters one & two on the computer.  The next best & still pretty simple is to still follow the Little Reader semesters, print them out & show them by hand. If you use the fast flashing method that I talked about above, it will require only several minutes a day to show the cards to both kids.

Thank you so much for sharing what you have learned with the Ds community!

Kris

You are very welcome!

A Question About Flashcards

"Just a quick question for you. I am working on flashcards for my 20 month old. I was just going to do photos of animals and family members with the word underneath since we are just working on naming items, not reading. Do you have any info about what is the best size to use and if the fast flash method works the same with photos?"

First of all, why not put a picture on one side & a word on the other & teach  both at the same time?  It is a much better use of your time, you'll get a much earlier start & if you try to teach the word with flashcards later.  If you do the same ones later, it is possible that your little one may not find it as exciting.

When you say that you are working on naming, do you mean that you wanting your 20 month old to respond with the name or do you plan to just give input? Our approach was just to input only, so that we were never pressuring our daughter.  Only very recently, at age 4.5 have we ever asked K to read to us.  Before, she just read to us when she felt like it.

Yes, fast flashing works for photos.  We have done this for encylopedic knowledge cards - blog post to follow on this soon.  

I've loaned my How to Teach Your Baby out right now,  but I'll try to remember what I can about card sizes. I'm sure at that age we were already using a 4 X 5 inch card, because I remember my 2 youngest girls reading them together just before K's 2nd birthday.  Usually, I used Little Reader's print function set to put a word & pic on each page, folded them in 1/2 & laminated.  Do you have any idea how well your child can see? If in doubt, go larger because it is not uncommon for kids with Down syndrome to have vision problems. 

It's wonderful that you are starting with familiar people & animals.  This is always a great way to keep kids interested in learning.

I hope this helps.  Please feel free to ask any other questions you have.

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.

Awesome Website for Encyclopedic Knowledge (Doman Bit Cards)

This is not part of K's program, but she really loves this sort of thing, so the other day, I made her some bit cards just for fun.

I found this website called a - z animals - it is great for making bits! It has pictures as well as all kinds of information of each animal.  I actually haven't been using the pics too much, because it is easier to use google images & find a more clear, concise picture without lots of background clutter, but the information is so easy to cut, paste, & reorganize & use for the 10 pieces of information on the back of the bit.

They have an animal of the day, so if  you were doing a program including this, you could even make one card each day based on that animal.  It can't get much easier than that!

If anyone has a good website of pictures that can be printed off in an 8.5 X 11 size & still print really clearly, let me know please :)

31 for 21 - Can you guess what kind of book we're reading this week?

These are some of the words K has been learning this week.  In anticipation of Halloween, we are reading a cute book about 5 little ghosts who keep getting in trouble at school.  It is a pretty simple book, but although we often challenge K with her reading, I think sometimes,  it is good to have her read books that are simple& fun to help build her confidence.

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.

At what age did K first start reading?

I am not a good record keeper & lost track of how old K was when she started reading.  The other day I stumbled on the post I wrote on a forum when K was 15 months old. I copied it here:

K is 15 months old.  I have been doing a reading program since she was about 6 months, however it has been much more organized since I discovered the Little Reader Program.  I have never tested her before today.  We tested her with about 10 different word cards.  She got every one right!  K has down syndrome.  Thirty years ago I would have been told to put her in an institution because she was unteachable ( I could never have done that).  Even when she was born I was given old & outdated information about her potential.  I admit I had never heard of teaching babies to read a year ago & would not have believed she could do this.  The sky is the limit for my little girl!  Thanks to every one here for all the help and information & for a place to come to celebrate with others who understand.

Thanks again from one proud Momma!

Wow!  I'm glad I found this again!

Laminating

Flash cards need to be laminated in order to flash them very quickly like this:

 http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/2011/05/fast-flashing-method.html

Here are a few examples of different ways to laminate cards:

Packing tape Method

This method is the least expensive.  It is the most time consuming though & the finished product is  not nearly as nice.  Cards laminated in this way won't last as long & tend to stick a little sometimes. I also find it hard not to make wrinkles sometimes.

 

I just lay 2 long strips of tape across my kitchen table, lay the cards on top, then seal with another 2 layers of tape before cutting the cards out. 

Laminating Sheets

I purchased this at a dollar store.  It was inexpensive, at only $1.00, but the rolls are not very big, especially when you have to double it over itself to laminate both sides.  

I just laid all of the pieces cards out, cut the laminating sheet, & lay the rest over top & cut them out.

These turn out pretty good, but are a little more flexible & flimsy than regular laminating & therefore a little more difficult to work with.

Laminating

Laminating sleeves are easy to find at local department stores or stationery stores.

I bought this laminator at a local department store when I first started making flashcards.  It was the cheapest one that I found  because,at the time, I wasn`t convinced that babies could really be taught to read.  Am I ever glad I was wrong!  Although it was the cheapest laminator on the shelp, it is still going strong thousands of flashcards later!

Cards that are laminated in this way are the most expensive to produce, but they are really easy to work with & fast flash.  The cards flash quickly & don`t stick together. I also laminate home made books so they stand up to a lot more love & abuse:)

Here is just a sample of what this laminator has accomplished in the last 3 years!

Don`t be intimidated by the number of cards here.  It doesn`t seem like a lot when you are just doing a few at a time.

BrillKids Little Reader & Little Math Programs

I thought I would re post this for my newer readers who haven't seen it yet.  BrillKids offers a discount from 30 to 100% off of both their reading & math programs for kids with special needs.  So far everyone I have talked to says that they have been very generous - 100% off, so make sure you check it out.  Here is a link to the details in a previous blog:

http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/2011/03/exciting-announcement-from-brillkids.html

Easy Flashcard Maker Site

This is a flashcard maker that I used in the past.  It creates a series of word only, flashcards with whatever words you choose.  Nowadays, I just use hand printed cards because K has no problem reading them, but I did find  this helpful at one time when she found it easier to read print.

As an afterthought to this post, I thought I'd add that at one point, K only seemed to be able to read word in print.  We started using more  hand printed cards & switching fonts (which was easy with Little Reader) & soon she was able to read in any form.

Here is that link:  http://www.kitzkikz.com/flashcards/

Great Blog Post About Early Reading

This is a blog post on early sight word reading done by Ria at Bill and Ria's blog. Ria's son Mathew whom I believe is about 3.5 years old, is reading over 100 sight words already! Here is the link to her post:

http://billandria.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-and-how-i-teach-sight-words.html

A Blog Post to Answer Some Early Reading Questions asked by a Reader.

Earlier today someone reading  my blog left a comment & asked some questions.  My response became so long winded, that I decided to put it in a blog post in case others are interested too.

hi there, just wanted to ask how you choose the words you teach you dd every week.. do you choose a subject and make all the cards accordingly?

When K was really little, we choose words that were exciting to her such as the names of her sisters, & grandparents. 

Then we started with common, familiar nouns like animals, foods, pets, & toys.  We continued to use nouns for quite a while because K refused to read words only & insisted on seeing a picture too, although it became harder & harder to find interesting ones, hence the video I posted  here of her reading world monuments. Thankfully Brill Kids has an extensive set of flashcards (literally thousands).

Next we started showing her the Dolch sight words, which kept us going for quite a while & then we taught K a list of dolch phrases.

About this time, K started to be able to read simple library books, so we started to take individual books that were a little above her reading level & teach her the words she didn't know.  


We still teach her words from new, more advanced books, but now we are also doing word families so I am trying to do this with phonics readers.  I have been noticing for a while that K is starting to figure out words that she hasn't been taught.  I am encouraging this skill by moving to word families & teaching them as sight words.

 i just wanted to ask where you got the words from.. do you sort them according to subject, and how you selected the subject?

In the beginning we sorted them by subject, but now we are sorting them by sounds as we are doing word families.  Sometimes we just throw random sets in just for fun or because it is relevant at the moment.  For example, we went to the circus with friends a couple of months ago. I blogged about how I checked on BrillKids & found some circus flashcards which we taught to K on the way.

also, how do you know that she will be able to read and remember all these words later on? i mean after 6 months for example, do you go back to the older words and check to see if she still remembers them?

In the beginning, we  had no idea if K was even learning any words, let alone remembering them for any period of time because we were careful to foster a love of reading by not testing or pressuring her.  Around the age of 2, however, she started to quite happily volunteer the word each time.  Around that time, I started putting one old set of cards in with her new  ones each week.  She never had any trouble remembering the old cards, so finally, by the time she was reading about 700 or 800 words, I quit doing that.  Occasionally we get out her old cards for her to read for fun, but she doesn't have a problem remembering even cards she hasn't seen in 6 months or more.  I know this is a problem for some kids, and I am talking about typical kids when I say this, only because I haven't talked to enough parents of kids with DS who are reading at this age.  I do recommend reviewing old words until you are confident as I am that forgetting words is not a problem.

how do you organize the new things she learns along with the old things she already finished? thanks:)

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by organize, but I'll try to answer.  First of all, I confess.....I am not an organized person!  The Doman method suggests teaching so many words each day & retiring old words & adding new ones each day.  I am not organized enough to do that, so I teach a series of cards for a week, retire all of them & start a new set the next week.  I just store the olds cards in sets with an elastic around each set to seperate them & put them in rectangular baskets.  When I was reviewing on a regular basis, I would set them in the baskets in chronological order, so I was always reviewing the oldest words, & transfer them to a new basket after reviewing them, so I knew which ones I needed to review.

I hope this answers all of your questions.  If you  have any more, please feel free to ask:)