Intentional Movie Watching

We are so blessed to have collected a wide assortment of educational DVDs.  We don't have cable, so I can feel good about the screen time Xander does get.  However, he tends to get stuck in modes where he watches the same movie again and again and again...  I have decided I want to be a little more intentional about what he watches.

I gathered all of our DVDs to take inventory (and weed out the ones he has outgrown).  He had fun "helping."

Here is what I came up with.  I will choose 5 movies I want Xander to watch each week.  The first movie he watches for a day needs to be from the list.  If he watches anything else, then he can choose from his other movies or from Netflix.  Two of the movies each week will be an episode of Magic School Bus, first in English, then in Spanish.  The other choices will just be other movies we have in hopes of varying the content he receives.  Other than watching Magic School Bus in English before Spanish, I really don't care the order.

I printed up this little list and laminated it.  It now lives by the DVD player, where I also put the discs for the week.  

 To make sure I rotate, I scanned the disc list for Magic School Bus and typed up the list of our other movies.  I'll put a check next to each one as we watch it.

Sparkabilities

As most of you who have followed the blog for a while know, I am incredibly picky about Xander's movies. I do not like the idea of too much screen time for any age, but particularly for very young toddlers.  Xander gets a maximum of two baby learning DVDs a day, which works out to about 45 minutes of tv.  A lot of days, he doesn't even watch that (although he gets more if he is sick). Because I limit it, I want to make sure we make the most of the time he does get.  What's interesting, is Xander has become even more picky than I am!  He will only watch certain movies, and cries and complains if I put in something he deems unacceptable.  Almost all cartoons are out, as are any children's television shows.  Anyway, a few months ago I was looking for something to show him when he ran out of Your Child Can Read discs and someone from the BrillKids Forum suggested Sparkabilities.

I have to admit, when I first heard of Sparkabilities, I was not too sure.  It seemed a little to simple for Xander, since he has been learning about special quadrilaterals on his Your Baby Can Discover movies.  Then I did a little bit more reading and learned that Sparkabilities is based on neuroscience and infant development research.  They teach things like shapes, vocabulary, emotions, focus, attention and processing information efficiently (in addition to the more traditional things like colors, shapes, numbers, sizes, emotions, etc.).  The more I read, the more it sounded like it lined up with a lot of the right brain education information I have been reading.  They even have segments that are very similar to the right brain eye tracking activities, only better because of strategic backgrounds.  I decided to show him the YouTube videos and see what he thought (there are three segments available on YouTube).  Talk about love at first sight!  He LOVED them.  He called them BeeBees (Sparkabilities may be a bit hard to say) and asked for them any time we were around a computer.  I had trouble limiting him to just one viewing.

I let him watch one or two of the segments a day for a few weeks.  What really blew me away was that during that time frame, I noticed a huge improvement in Xander's speech.  Over the winter he had gone 2-3 months with chronic ear infections which resulted in hearing loss.  His hearing came back after surgery, but I felt like he lost that time to work on his pronunciation.  (In fact, the first few days after surgery, he kept making all sorts of weird sounds, and you could tell that he was having fun listening to himself.)  Anyway, I noticed that after he had been watching the videos for a while, he really started trying to say a lot more, both words and sounds.  I also noticed that during that time a few of our "school" activities really seemed to click for him.

After mentioning this to my mom, she was wonderful enough to pay to buy three of the videos for Xander (we have Babies 1, Toddler 1, and Toddler 2.  I will definitely adding Babies 1 to our collection if I ever get to have another child).  We have had them for about a month and a half now, and I am SO happy with them.  He watches them a few times a week and still likes them a lot and will still ask for his BeeBees.  He does get annoyed if I happen to show a certain one too many days in a row.  In that time he has come even farther in speech.  I am still seeing him trying much harder to say a wider variety of words and sounds.  How much is actually from the videos, I am not sure.  He also seems to be learning to read new words faster than before, although it could be that I can just tell he can read more words because he is better at communicating.  Maybe the big improvements just happened at the same time by coincidence.  Regardless, he loves the videos and I love the educational content.  I also like being able to give him some extra right brain exposure, because I know I don't do nearly as much as I would like.

Note: I am not writing for Sparkabilities or getting anything out of this post (unless, of course, you decide to purchase Sparkabilities through my Amazon Associates link instead of through their website.  However, be sure to watch their website because they seem to have promo codes frequently).  I just wanted to share our experience in case anyone else was looking for DVDs for their little ones.  I know I always like to hear real moms' experiences of products.

Color Themes - White Week

Xander is 14.5 months

This week's color theme was white, and what a challenge!  There just isn't a lot a lot you can do with white, so, unfortunately, we just didn't do as many activities.

As usual, one of our tot trays was a bin of white items.  This weeks included a paint tray, ping pong balls, cups from our play food, a plastic car, and wooden balls and spools I painted.  He really enjoyed putting the ping pong balls in the cups and paint tray.

We used our flash cards (find them on the downloads page) in the normal way, but then we also did some sorting.  I did it all for him, but he thought it was interesting.  Oh, and in case you're wondering, someone has hidden the "verde" card and I haven't been able to find it yet.

Because coloring with white is so hard, I did not make a white color book like I did for the other weeks.  However, we did paint with white paint.  I was impressed with how few times he tried to eat it!

We are still using all of the items in our color themes bin.  Xander plays with the ball and crayon puzzle (Staples).  He LOVES the dry erase center.  He also plays with the Wash and Go Magents and Leap Frog Maracas every single day.  He looks through some of our color books every day also.  Several times this week we went through some foam cards that I wrote the color names on.

With school starting and my life getting more hectic, I decided I wanted to take a more organized approach to Xander's Tot School Time.  I made the following goal sheet.  It includes each tot tray and the puzzle of the week, and five check marks next to each.  There is a row for stickers, coloring, Your Child Can Read, Your Child Can Discover, and Reading Amigo (see Reading Amigo review here).  While I have three boxes next to each, I don't mind if he watches the movies less.  I am very happy with all three DVD sets, but only have the check marks to help me remember to rotate what he watches.  I wrote in a row for our color flash cards, which Xander actually enjoys.  I also have a big section at the bottom for our Book Challenge.  The goal is to read four new books a day (although we read many many books every day), so I have seven columns of four rows to help me keep on track.  Once again, this is a goal sheet.  If something (or many somethings) doesn't get done, no big deal.  It is mostly just to remind me of what I have done and what I haven't each week.

Since this weeks theme was white and our Velcro block is white, that was one of our tot trays (post found here).  Xander hadn't seen it before, but he did better than I expected.  

Working on a puzzle.  He still can't do them, but likes to try.  I do them with him to work on the terminology and strategy.

His last tray was just a tray of alphabet blocks.  We practiced stacking the and knocking them down.

He also enjoyed dumping the tray.

Kid Start Spanish Review

Update:  Reading Amigo has changed their name to Kid Start Spanish, so I updated the review accordingly.  You can check out their facebook page here. Also, my son, who has become SUPER picky about movies and videos, still enjoys and asks for his Reading Amigo videos.  

Recently we had the opportunity to review part of the Kid Start Spanish program.  After being so disappointed by the Wink To Learn Spanish set (you can read my post about it here), I had very little expectations of this new program, but ended up being pleasantly surprised!

Our Kid Start Spanish came with four disks, a music CD, four sets of flashcards, a book of opposites, and a set of playing card type flashcards for a memory game.  There are also interactive features for an ipod or ipad.  However, I haven't used them, since we have neither.

The instructions from Kid Start Spanish recommend spending about four weeks per disk, watching it once or twice a day.  They also recommend using the corresponding flash cards twice a day, pointing to the from words left to right and very quickly.

For the most part, the videos are very similar in format to Your Baby Can Read.  They are entirely in Spanish, with native Spanish speakers.  First they show the word, pronounce it a couple of times, and show a corresponding video clip.  The word being shown is pronounced slowly enough that a parent that doesn't speak Spanish would still be able to learn it to do the flash cards.  I was a little unsure what Xander would think, since I never really speak to him entirely in Spanish (I know, I know, I should).  He doesn't seem to mind that the video is all in Spanish, though.  Every few minutes there is a song, which really helps keep Xander interested (he LOVES dancing).  Some of the songs are really catchy, and are included on the music CD.  He has been watching it once a day, several days a week.

I am really happy with the video!  It shows quite a few words, and changes it up enough to keep Xander interested.  They also repeat many of the words over the course of the video, which I think is good for reinforcement.  They second showing of the word is far enough apart from the first, that it isn't annoying to watch.  My only complaint would be that for some (not all) of the words, they repeat the same video clips for the second showing.  Most of the words are things familiar to a young child.  The ones I can think of off the top of my head are nose, ears, head, arms up, ball, circle, clap, kick, bird, chick, yes, no, and dinosaur, as well as various colors (all in Spanish, of course).  They even show some images of famous landmarks like Machu Pichu and the Sphinx.

Below is a picture of some of the flash cards from the first set.  One side has just the word, and the other has the word with a corresponding picture.  Honestly, we have not used the flash cards much.  Xander would probably like them if I did a few at a time, but there are just too many to go through all of them.  I will say that the cards are made from durable material.  It seems like they should stand up to the normal wear and tear of toddlers.  I think I will probably use these a lot more in the future when Xander has more verbal skills and we can make a game out of it.

Here is a shot of the book.  It is entirely in Spanish and lists some opposites and some colors.  The pages are pretty sturdy, although not indestructible.  I haven't worked much with Xander on opposites yet, in any language.  I know this book will be a good asset when we get there!

These are the memory cards.  I have to say, I am very excited for when Xander is old enough to use these!  There are a bunch of them, with picture and word pairs.  They are designed to play memory, but they also seem great for matching games and bingo.  Because they are playing card size, they would be easy to throw into a bag for on the go activities.

All in all, I am happy with the program.  It is so much better than the other Spanish programs we have tried!  Not only do I like it, Xander is interested (which is really all that matters).  While we do not use all of the components exactly as intended, I still think Xander will benefit from it.

Organizing - Update

Back in March I wrote about getting organized.  Since then I have gone through a few methods of organizing our lessons and my flash cards before I settled on our current system.  I think I am pretty happy with it, so thought I would share.

Originally I kept the goal sheet on the fridge and the flashcards in one of the office file organizers.  I learned  early on that wet erase markers worked much better than dry erase ones.  The problem was the flashcards were in Xander's room and the fridge was in the kitchen, obviously.  I kept forgetting to go to the fridge to mark off where we were.  Eventually I took the schedule off the fridge and just kept it in Xander's room.  Unfortunately, even printed on card stock and in a page protector, it tended to wrinkle when I erased it.  For those of you who don't know, I am a bit of a perfectionist and having a creased page protector causes the ink to stain, meaning a messy goal sheet, bugging me.

After a while I moved everything to a three ring binder with a cover slot.  Putting the schedule in the cover was nice, and I was able to take the binder from room to room with me easily.  The downside to having the flashcards in the binder was that the Doman dot cards didn't fit.  Also, after about a week the schedule started sliding around in the cover, moving all my check marks, so I had no clue what day I was on.  To solve the problem I went back to the page protector and taped it to the front of the binder. 

Schedule:

As you can see, the current schedule involves two Little Reader and Little Math sessions a day, seven days a week.  He watches one of his reading DVDs a day (listed under SW because we are currently on Preschool Prep's Meet the Sight Words).  I have been having him watch our "current" DVD Monday through Friday and letting him watch an old reading DVD on the weekends since he loves his Your Baby Can Read so much.    

We do three sets of cards, three times each.  The goal is Monday through Friday, but as you can see from the picture, sometimes I do them on the weekends too.  Some days they don't happen at all.  There is one column for a power point, which we hope to do Monday through Friday.  I have downloaded many power points from BrillBaby in addition to making my own.  I usually show him one after we do Little Reader. 

The "PP" column is for perfect pitch, which is our music lesson of the day (post to follow soon), which we also hope to do Monday through Friday.  However, since he likes the music lessons so much, we might end up doing them every day.  

The final column is for our math lessons, which we were doing three times a day, Monday through Friday.  However, I ran out of Doman dot cards and the polygon flash cards I made after.  Since I haven't made new flash cards yet, we are skipping the scheduled math lessons.  Instead we do simple addition or subtraction problems with toys or food.

It sounds like a lot, but most lessons are less than 15 seconds and it DEFINITELY doesn't all happen every day.  They are "goals."  If we are busy, friends are in town, we don't feel well, we didn't sleep enough, etc, we just do what I feel comfortable with.  Some days LR and LM are the only thing that happen.  Some days we only do one set of word cards.  Some days nothing happens at all.  You get the idea.

Flashcards:

Originally I made the GIANT flashcards as recommended by How to Teach Your Baby to Read.  Sometimes we still use them.  However, those were difficult to deal with, not to mention store.  Now I print most of them on card stock from Little Reader, but have also used Microsoft Publisher.  One of our sets of flashcards currently consists of pre-primer Dolche words, which I just wrote on large note cards with a giant permanent red marker.

This is how I store them the majority of the time.  It is just a three ring binder with pocketed dividers.  There are three dividers, one for each word set.  To keep myself organized, set one always goes in the first pocket, set two in the second, and set three in the third.  I have a rubber band on one of the rings to hook my wet erase marker and pen.

Here is a picture of the envelopes we have in the three ring binder.  They just hook in and have Velcro to keep them closed.  I only use them if we are going somewhere and I take the binder with me, which almost never happens.  Usually we only do lessons at home and skip them while we are out.

This is how I keep track of my flash cards (you may have to click to enlarge).  Forgive me, it isn't very neat.  Anyway, there are three sections, one for each set of word cards.  Each section has a column of words removed and words added.  Ever day I take out the oldest card from each set (shown 5 days) and add the newest word.  The day I add one I write it under both the "added" and "removed" columns, so I can just glance and see what word is taken out next.  I sure hope I explained that somewhat clearly.  It may not be the best method, but it has been what works for me.  As you can see, not all three sets are equal.  Since I sometimes only do one or two of the word sets, those have been through more words than set three.

Gabby Xander

Xander wants to talk.  In fact, he does talk.  ALL the time.  I can't understand him, of course, but his tone is usually very very clear.  He jabbers when he is angry, when he just wants to complain, when he is playing contently, when he is excited, etc.

I have been having conversations with him since he was first born, and wonder if this has contributed.  The Doman books recommend talking to your infant, pausing to let them talk if they want, and then continuing the conversation.  You can definitely tell that Xander appreciates the attention.  I look forward to many many conversations with him.  I think once he starts talking in real words there will be no holding him back.  In fact, he has been watching the Preschool Prep Sight Words DVD lately.  It shows each word and says it about 10-15 times.  After the first few times the narrator says the word Xander tries his hardest to say it along with.  It is really cute.

Here is a short clip of his jabbering.  Unfortunately, the camera didn't pick it up well, so you have to turn the volume way up.  Oh, and a plastic spoon has become his new toy of choice.

DVD Schedule Stress

I was always one of those moms that was adamant about my child not watching television until at least two years old.  YBCR changed our minds about that.  Xander loves them, and I feel he is benefiting.  He still won't be watching broadcast tv (ever?), if I can help it.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I ordered him Your Baby Can Discover, a set made by the YBCR people.  I watched a few before showing them to him, and I really like them.  Madelynn watched with me, and they really held her interest as well.  There are 6 discs that teach pitch, numbers, reading, polygons, in depth colors, patterns, etc.  My goal is to have him watch one every other day, for about a month per disc.  The alternate days I plan on showing Baby Signing Time.  Maybe Trebellina instead of either, about once a week.

Those were the easy decisions.  What has been causing me a lot of stress is what to do about reading videos.  Xander has about a week and a half left on his final YBCR disc.  I don't know where to go from there.  The same company makes Your Child Can Read, which I intend to purchase eventually.  However, I think it might be too early for that yet.  Phrases are longer, shown faster, and repeated less often.  I have contemplated the Preschool Prep Sight Words discs, but am worried they will bore him.  From what I can tell, they are incredibly repetitive (to the point I might go crazy if I have to listen).  I would love to try them before buying them, just to see his opinion.  Instead, I may just end up flashing him the Dolche and sight words, which would get in more right brain learning anyway.

I have watched video clips of Monkisee, but feel like the ratio of words to accompanying video is too low.  I watched some clips of 2020Kids Sight Words, and it just kind of seemed weird to me.  Leapfrog has some cute videos, but they are plot based, so I would like to delay them until Xander is a bit older.  I have also thought about purchasing YBCR in Spanish, intended for native speakers.  It would give him good reading exposure, but none in English (other than LR and our flash cards).  I tried getting Your Baby Can Speak Spanish, by the same company, but it was glitchy and I didn't like the presentation much, so I returned it.  We will probably end up doing Boca Beth for Spanish, as well as custom creating Spanish lessons into LR once we are done with the English curriculum.    Maybe the decision of a replacement for YBCR shouldn't cause me to fret for weeks, but I really want to avoid sitting Xander in front of crap for 20 min every day.  I only get one babyhood with him, and I don't want to waste any of it.

Book Challenge

A week an a half ago I wrote about the 1500 book challenge.  That weekend I made up a spreadsheet to help us keep tract.  My original goal was 100 unique books for his first year.  Well in the week or so I have been keeping track, we have already read 34 books, in addition to some I am not counting.  I am thinking of increasing our goal.  I think I will go to 250 for now, and possibly bump it up to 500.  It will get more challenging as we go, just because we do not have that many books!  We would have to make frequent library trips.  Anyway, we will see.

In other updates, Xander is sitting better and better everyday.  Yesterday and today I made him sit up to watch his YBCR.  He didn't seem to mind at all.  Soon, hopefully, I will eliminate the bouncer completely.  Probably a good thing, he is approaching the weight limit.

Unfortunately, now that he wants to sit all the time, it is even harder to get him to spend time on his tummy.  He cannot push himself up on all fours yet, but he is getting much better at reaching for things.  He rotates himself as he plays, and he does get some movement in.  Unfortunately, he usually pushes the toys he wants forward, out of his reach, and moves himself backwards, away from the toys.  Needless to say, this causes a lot of frustration.  I also notice the other night, while I had him on his back to dry him off after his bath, he was scooting himself backwards, sliding on his back.  I know it wasn't intentional, but it shows he is getting stronger.

Xander still LOVES his food.  We finally switched him to a bigger bottle.  He likes veggies better than fruits, but now eats about a third of a jar at a time.  It is nice to be able to give him more during each feeding; I have less crying to deal with.  He has tolerated every food well, except apples.  We are not doing them again for a long long time.  They really upset his tummy, and gave him diarrhea for a few days.  I am excited to be able to branch out to a wider variety for him!

Baby Sign

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but kept forgetting.  About a week and a half ago we got the first Baby Signing Time DVD.  It is super cute.  All the lessons are set to music and they have babies doing the signs also.  Xander likes it, although not nearly as well as YBCR.

More than anything, I think the DVDs will be good to teach me the signs, so that I can teach Xander.  I need to get better about signing to him.  I also think that a slightly older baby would learn more from the DVDs.  Definitely one I will be keeping for future babies, but I haven't decided whether I will buy the next few DVDs or not.

Oh, goodness gracious those silly songs get stuck in your head for DAYS.  I kept finding myself singing them.

Early Education

You know that saying that goes along the lines of "the more you learn, the more you learn how much you don't know."  That has been very true for me this year.  I've been reading more and more about early education, and keep coming across new theories, methods, and techniques.  It is a whole world of knowledge and parenting that I had no idea existed, and now I'm struggling to learn it all as fast as possible! 

I now have almost all of the Glen Doman books and have been fascinated by the Right Brain techniques involved.  I really wanted to do EVERYTHING he suggests, but realize that it just isn't possible for me by myself.  That's what I was thrilled to come across BrillBaby.  They had tons of forums about teaching infants, with parents that had done it.  They also sell Little Reader and Little Math, two programs heavily influenced by Doman, that I can use to teach Xander reading and math with less prep required.  I'd already spent HOURS putting together flashcards and teaching materials and was starting to feel overwhelmed.  I downloaded the free trials and am hooked.  Xander has loved them so far, struggling to watch more when we're done and turn away. I also love that I can add my own lessons to them, including words, sounds, pictures, etc I think he should learn.  I put a link in the sidebar for anyone interested (if you register for the forums I'd love it if you used my link or affiliate code "BKAFF58564").  While I plan on using LM, I also think I will use the Doman dot cards I made to teach him quantities, but not equations. 

I know it will probably change constantly as I learn more, but I've developed the curriculum I want to use until I start school full time.  My weekly goal is to do two Little Reader (LR) lessons, two Little Math (LM) sessions, six Doman doth flashcard sessions, read two story books, and watch a Your Baby Can Read (YBCR) DVD every day, five to seven days a week.  However, this is my goal.  I know full well that there will be days or weeks when not everything gets accomplished.  I want learning to be fun for him, so we won't be doing any lessons if he is tired, cranky, not feeling well, or just not into the lesson.

The next step for me is finishing the Encyclopedic Knowledge book and organizing the materials.  I would like to have EK ready to go by the time we finish all the Doman dot cards.  Unfortunately, I think I need a new, more cost effective printer.  I will have to see what my tax return looks like.  This whole being a mom thing is expensive!

3 Months

Almost three months!  Goodness I can barely remember life before Xander, although I vaguely remember it being less exhausting. :)

Tonight I've been singing to him along with the music.  He loves it, smiling and cooing.  He has NO idea his mother couldn't sing a note on key to save her life!  Hopefully he doesn't inherit my lack of ability.  

Yesterday I started showing him the "Your Baby Can Read" DVD.  I also started on the workbook and flash cards, but he was much less interested.  However, he did sit and let me show and read him picture books for quite a while.  My friend Mellissa shared her experience teaching her children to read early with me and I was incredibly encouraged.  She said she used the Glenn Doman method, which is also a method my dad had told me a lot about.  Curious, I checked the library and they had his book "How to Teach Your Baby Math."  I was fascinated.  I read the whole book today and would have run out to buy materials to start teaching Xander right away if we weren't in the middle of a snow storm.  However, I did do some online shopping and ordered my own copy of the book, as well as 5 others by Doman.  I plan to combine his system with the YBCR system.  I can't wait to get them all and start playing learning games with Xander.  Maybe it will work and he'll be a genius, but really, I'll just be happy if only gets a little bit out of it.  I want him to learn that learning can be fun and exciting.  If that is accomplished, my hard work will be worth it.  If he comes out of it reading and a math whiz, all the better.  I have a few years before I'll know if any of the work we put in now pays off.  If not, at least we'll get some good bonding time.