Doman, ABA, and Afterschooling Momma

The Vaccine Book

2012-01-27T09:32:00.000-08:00

Something I have been struggling with this whole pregnancy is the decision whether or not I'm going to have this baby vaccinated. I'm not trying to start a debate whether or not we should vaccine. But I thought I'd share this great book I read recently that help me make up my mind.
I think for a lot of parents there is just too many secrets when it comes to vaccinating. Doctors just expect us to stick our children each appointment without knowing the pros and cons to each vaccines. And while some doctors are very open to talking to parents and answering their questions, a lot are not. As a parent I want the facts, pros and cons of vaccinating, and pros and cons of not vaccinating. I also want options.
Dr. Sears does this in his book "The Vaccine Book". Not it is important to know that he is pro vaccine. But the important thing is he is honest. He explains:
- what each vaccine is for.
- ingredients in each vaccine
- which brand is a safer choose
- the risks involved with the vaccine
- the risks and chances of the actual disease
- selective, alternative and delayed schedules
Dr. Sears respects parents enough to give them all the information, different options and the power to make informed decisions for their children.
While I'm not pro vaccine, I'm not anti-vaccine either. I want my children to be vaccinated, but in the safest way possible. I don't believe in HPV vaccine because the risks are too high, nor do I believe in immunizing children for chickenpox because natural immunity is stronger. If my child has not caught chicken pox by the time they are a teen, then yes I would consider vaccinating. I believe we are going to delay immunizations until my little man is done teething(around 2 or 3) and follow an alternative schedule(skipping chicken pox and delaying Hep B till preteens). My child will not be in large groups of children and I plan on breastfeeding and using naturopathic remedies to build his immune system. If he has ANY reactions to any vaccine, at least I will know which one and not continue with that particular one. As well starting later means we will need less vaccines. I also will not assume my child will need the second shot for some vaccines as most cover you 95% of the time, I will have my doctor run a blood test to make sure it is necessary. Right now this is a tentative plan, things could change. But right now I can sleep at night.
Really before reading Dr.Sear's book I was lost and now I feel more confident. I think every parent should read this book, whether they are pro vaccine, anti-vaccine, or on the fence.

Starting our Soft Mozart Adventure...

2012-01-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

Well since there has been a lot of changes to Wesley's schedule in the last little bit, we decided to stop his Suzuki violin lessons. There are only so many hours in a day and as important as music is, we needed to find something that better fit our schedule. I'm not one of those parents that want to over program my child, to the point where I never get to see them. To be honest putting him in school is not my first choose, but right now its what we need to do.
But the thing is what were we going to do for music. Music is SO important for a child's development. So I started researching programs we could do at home, according to OUR schedule. Then a friend from BrillKids suggested I look into Soft Mozart. Actually, she more then insisted... Actually the lady would not take I'll think about it as an answer! LOL I'm just teasing, she just strongly suggested it. And after hearing her talk about the program, then watching her videos on YouTube, I made the purchase after using a coupon available for BrillKids members and the gift certificate the friend who recommended it to me gave me. (Thanks again Nadia!)
I bought the one year subscription, and it seems that the one year subscription could go towards the purchase of the full program when I'm ready to take that step.
One thing I noticed on their forum that the price for the full program and subscriptions will be going up on February 15, 2012.
More information can be found HERE.Now I wish we have used this program long so I can give it my full stamp of approval, but we haven't really started :( However you can head over to the Soft Mozart's forum and read how things are going for some other families using Soft Mozart.
Stay Tuned for more updates about our journey.

Don't change autism definition

2012-01-25T10:42:00.000-08:00

Wow yeah leave it to the government. How do we deal with an epidemic? Lets change the definition and that will lower the number of children affected by this disability.

NEWS FLASH!!! These children that don't fall in to the new spectrum, will still have issues. They will still need help! The government thinks they will be saving money on funding these children. WRONG! The government will still have millions of people on social assistance in the future, even more so because they will not have received the help they needed.

Stories like this make me so grateful that I'm a Canadian. I thank God that my government helped me fund an ABA program that, along with alternative treatments I have funded myself have SAVED my son.

Stories like this make me sick. All I can do is pray for the families effected by this.

The New MonkiSee DVD "Around the House"

2012-01-25T08:20:00.000-08:00

Well once again I'm honored to be able to team up with Krista from MonkiSee to review their new awesome DVD "Around the House".

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know this is not the first time we have done reviews for MonkiSee. You can find some of my other reviews HERE(Vol 1-3), and HERE(Action Words).

MonkiSee Around the House is a fun and exciting way for your baby or young child to learn about all sorts of things around the house. Your child will see the object, hear a few phrases about the object, shown the word and asked to repeat what the word is.

Around the House is approximately 30 minutes long and teaches the names of 25 items around the home, including objects in the home, possessions, foods and animals. The video features Skip and Howie as the furry host. It also has an appearance of my friend Tracy's little boy Bennett! Its so fun for us to see a familiar face.

The wonderful thing about these videos is that it exposes your baby or young children to written language, which they are able to learn from a much younger age then most people think. Most people believe children should start to learn to read at the age of 6 or 7 in school. However more and more parents are discovering that the earlier you teach your child to read the easier it is. Before the age of 6 children are eager to learn because their brains are working hard to learn as much as possible. They thrive to learn and to a young child they would much rather learn then play. Actually learning is playing to them! After 6 years old this process slows down, making the process slower and less fun.

I started the process with my son at the age of 2. Back then there was not nearly as much materials available to help me, and as a busy single mom who worked full time, it was hard to pull together a program. Krista and the team at MonkiSee have made it easy for parents. They offer complete reading kits, which include DVDs, Books, Flashcards and instructions. This kit makes it easier for busy parents to spend their free time teaching their child instead of researching and creating materials. You can view the kit HERE.

What did we think. Even though Wesley is a bit to old for these videos, he still enjoyed watching them for a few minutes. The people in my houses that really enjoyed this video were my daycare children. They get so excited when they see me with the DVD case about the turn on the DVD player. We enjoy it together and the kids love following the directions and repeating the words.

I'm most excited to be introducing this video along with the rest of the series to the new addition to our family coming this May.

Don't take my word for it though! Watch the preview below:

Thank-you Krista for allowing me to review this DVD. Its only been here a week or two and its already a favorite.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this DVD in exchange for my honest opinion.

My Weekly Goal Update

2012-01-15T09:37:00.000-08:00

Well I figure on top of my friend who is keeping me accountable I may as well blog about what I did off my HUGE list this week.

-Read the Vaccine book,

- Read half the How to Multiply your baby's intelligence,

- Watched that video on baby languages,

- Finished my monthly blog quota,

- Updated the music on my Sound Beginnings belt,

- Cleaned up ALMOST all my basement,

- Got together about 10 boxes and 7 bags for donations,

- Bought 7 sets of EK card,

- Bought Soft Mozart,

-Bought a keyboard(well actually two but I ahve to take one back),

- and mailed out Dec tutor hours,

School and Ultrasound

2012-01-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Well we went for my medical ultrasound.

I remember going for Wesley's 20 week ultrasound. That pregnancy I was not really trying to drink a lot of water on a regular bases, so drinking 2 cups of water and holding it was hard. Plus Wesley was less then co-operative, it took over an hour and 2 ultrasound techs to get his measurements.

That night was easy because I regularly drink 2 cups of water in a sitting, so my bladder didn't feel like it was going to burst. They did half the measurements and sent me to pee so the baby would flip for the other measurements they needed. When I came back he was exactly where they needed him. I looked at the screen and his measurements were ranging from 19.6 weeks to 20.6 weeks. I am 20.5 weeks so she said everything looked pretty average. And he's measuring at 12oz. Basically the whole thing took 15 mins. The tech said we have a very co-operative baby.

The funny thing was she asked if we wanted to know the gender. I told her we were told it was a boy, but we'd like her to confirm it. Just as I finished that sentence he spread his legs wide open and flashed us his boy parts, and she laughed "Well he just confirmed it. He must have heard you."

I just couldn't believe how much bigger he got since our last ultrasound 3 weeks ago.

Its amazing, I feel so connected to this baby, and knowing his gender has really helped me. He kicks so much when his Daddy is around, I know he's not even 21 weeks but its like he knows he's around.

Wesley started school full time yesterday...

I had mixed emotions. But he was so excited!! He got on the bus no problem. His teacher emailed me to tell me about their reading program, and said he was smiling all day. When he came home he jumped off the bus and said "Mom! I did it!!"

I asked him about his day and he told me, "We had recess, then we had recess, then we had another recess!!" LOL later on he told me he played a dice game. (His teacher uses a lot of games to teach math)

One thing I'm not liking is the mornings. Right now I have to get him up for 7am, so I can get the peeling him out of bed battle done before my daycare kids start arriving at 7:30 am. Plus because he was at his dad's a bit later last night because of the ultrasound and didn't get to bed till 9:30pm. I've found the best bedtime is 8pm, 8:30 the latest. This really restricts our evening activities. I loved that with homeschooling, if we had a late night because it was beautiful and we wanted to spend more time outside in the evening, he could just sleep in the next morning. This is an adjustment we will have to make for the time being.

I really don't like sending him to public school. Or any school for that matter. But as long as he keeps coming home with a smile it will work for now.
I know my title states Homeschool in it. I was going to change it, but then I decided to leave it alone for now. I'm not sure if this permanent and I will be homeschooling my next little man from birth.

Dunstan Baby Language

2012-01-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me a link to an old Oprah episode, and after watching it I realized I needed to share this with all my readers.
Now while I can't testify to it right for another 19week when Baby Z makes his grand appearance, I'm excited to see if its true.

After watching this video I will certainly be researching more into this technique. I just think it would be wonderful for your baby to be able to tell you exactly what they want right from birth. I think it would help parents get through the baby stage with less stress.
I'll keep you guys posted about this when the time comes.

My homemade flashcards

2012-01-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

Well a friend of mine from BrillKids decided that we need to make a list of stuff we want to accomplish by a certain date, then meet on Skype every Sunday night to report what we have finished. I'm finding this accountability SO motivating!!!
Since Sunday I have managed to:
- email someone regarding a review
- email someone about making a Doman spec neck collar for my baby
- make 18 infant stimulation cards
- Read "How Smart is Your Baby?" by Glenn Doman from cover to cover
- Start Reading "How to Multiply You Baby's Intelligence"

I used my Cricut Machine to create these Infant Stimulation Flashcards:

These are just some basic black and white shape cards. I have cartridges that can cut out some more sophisticated shapes.

These are the next step of the infant stimulation flashcards. The require some color, so I used red since it is very attractive to the eyes.

Here are the white dots on a black background that they recommend in "How Smart is Your Baby? " I do have the Doman dots 0-100, but the dots are much smaller and they are red on white. These were very simple to make since I only needed to go up to 10.
I'm hoping to try and update more about our journey.

2012... Already???

2012-01-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

Well this is my first entry of 2012. WOW! I can't believe its here. 2012 will hold lots of great things for my family.
- My new baby boy will be joining our family
- My son is turning 7 years old
One thing I am worried about this year is the fact my son will be starting grade one in public school. Its a 6 month trial. The school has from January to June to make me feel comfortable with the thought. It works great right now because I need the time to focus on my business, go full force save as much cash, pay off my car, so I can enjoy my year maternity leave. This year will be the year I give my boys 100% of ME.
- My Fiance will get to experience a full time mother and wife
- My Baby Z will get an awesome one year Glenn Doman program. Of course longer, but right one one year is my MAIN focus.
- My Wesley will either get his education supplemented at home or a wonderful homeschool program.
Some people are wondering, what about me? This is me. I know it sounds crazy, but I have always felt that my calling was to be a mom. Sure I went to college, and all that jazz. But my calling is my children.
Right now I'm in the process:
- of going through all my early reader. Getting Wesley to reread them. Making sure that they are indeed easy, creating an excel sheet with all the books titles and bagging them. For now I plan on lending them to a friend to use with her little man, and by the time she's done with them I'll need them again for Baby Z
- Transporting all the diaper boxes filled with baby clothes from my parents. As soon as I have them all I will be spending a day sorting and documenting what I have, and what I need. Then re-boxing, labellings and storing them until needed.
- Spending a lot more time reading with Wesley. I really want to fill up his reading chart this month.
- This morning I started a 31 day fast food restaurant fast. With the holidays and all the running around, we have turned to fast food too many times. Last night was the last time for a while. Not only is it not helping me have a healthy pregnancy, it is draining our pocket books.
Things I would like to start asap:
- Green smoothie fast. Well maybe not a fast, but I would like to drink one green smoothie every morning for ATLEAST one month. When I do I know I feel fantastic.
- Get my basement in order. Ideally I'd like to go to Carpet Barn and purchase a big piece or two of carpet that someone has ordered but no longer wants. I just need something cheap to put on my basement floor, so I can move the boy's train table and a bunch of toys cluttering Wesley's room down there and make an area where they can play.

Side note, I bought Baby Z a take home outfit yesterday. It was too cute to leave.

Anyhow, since Wesley's at his fathers house all night I can sit here and plan or I can start doing. So here I go to take on my house. I'm hoping to start updating more often.

Random Update//Homeschooling Supplies for sale

2011-12-16T19:49:00.000-08:00

Well I feel empty, my computer is dead. Well not really dead but the a/c jack pushed in and now I need to go buy a part so we can try to repair it. Ideally Id like to take it to a shop but we have been quoted $80 for something that requires a $3 part. We found a tutorial and it looks super simple. But the only store that sells this part is not open evenings so I have to run there tomorrow morning.

Wesley and I started reading The Trumpet of the Swan. Since he started reading little Headsprout chapter books, I decided it was time to start reading him out loud more complicated books. He sat so well for the 2 chapters. I'm not sure how much he was listening as its hard for him to answer questions, but I figured he was absorbing some of it. After the two chapters I put the book away and then asked him what he wanted to do. He asked to relax and watch tv. So I asked him if he'd rather listen to me read him a Toy Story book and he agreed. A few pages in I paused to talk to him about what happened and he was out cold. I guess all the reading was calming to him.

This morning was his last ABA preschool session. It was so sad to see his tutors go. He's starting a few half days at school. His visits to school have been good. The kids have been warm and inviting. He looks forward to going, but the work is less then challenging. I know their are some areas he is struggling with like word problems, and I know it will be good for him to work in a group, but I wish I could just keep him at home. But he would lose all his therapies. Its a 6month trial in my option, and mostly because HE has requested to go to school. It's just the level of academics is not to my standards.

Thing is since deciding to allow him to go to school, I've snuffed off on his school work. I guess I was sort of depressed about it. But now we are getting back on track. I realize now I'm going to have to stay on top of his education whether or not he is homeschooled if I want him to continue to get a stellar education. I'm hoping his teacher will see his strengths and keep him challenges. I also hope they can help him in some of his weakness where I haven't been able to.

I can't wait to see the baby on Monday. I can't believe I'm in my 18th week of pregnancy. It's just flying by! The baby is extremely active and I'm not only feeling it move, but solid kicks too.

Still struggling to fill some of those extra daycare spots. I have one part time kiddo starting in January. I still have all my regular spots filled, I just wanted to fill an extra spot to make a bit of extra money. Hopefully when the child that left comes back at the end of January they will want their spot back. I basically decided to stop interview for new kids because it's nearly impossible to hide my pregnant tummy.

I realized that I'm hoarding homeschooling stuff. For the longest time every time I heard about a good product I'd buy it. Well no matter how good the product is if you have too many you cant use them all. So I decided to go through everything. I decided what to keep and what to let get used by someone else. If your interested in checking it out, I listed the items I have on the BrillKids forum. I'm hoping that I can perhaps using the money I make to buy things for the baby. Maybe cloth diapers.
"http://forum.brillkids.com/sell-plus-swap/huge-online-garage-sale-of-early-education-and-homeschooling-items/msg78565/?topicseen#new"

Planning for a Doman Baby

2011-12-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Well as most of my readers know, we're expecting! I know I haven't been great at updating, between being pregnant, so change overs in my home daycare, transitioning Wesley to school(trial bases, because he has requested it) life has kept me away from here.
Well now that I'm in my 17th week, nearing the half way point I decided I need to get cracking and start planning.

A few years ago when I was looking for some EK card to use for my son, I bought this lot of Doman books and it included How Smart Is Your Baby? I flipped through it, but seeing as my son was 4 years old, he was a bit too old for most of the book. So I put it on the shelf. But now that I'm expecting I can see how this will be helpful.

A while back Elizabeth from Doman Mom shared these great forms she had created for her little man based on the How Smart Is Your Baby? book. I downloaded them and saved them for later use. I think anyone that wants to run a Doman program with their newborn should head over then and check them out. They are so well organized and I believe they save me hours of work and planning.

As for infant stimulation cards, I'm looking at getting cards from BrillKids.com. This is something I never did with Wesley and would love to take advantage of those first few months.

After the holidays, I'm hoping to go to Michael's craft store and buy some white, black and red 12x12 card stock and create my own homemade infant stimulation cards using my Cricut Machine.

I'm also hoping to start doing pre-natal learning in the womb too. I'm hoping to use the Sound Beginning belt to play classical music, foreign languages, etc. To help stimulate my unborn child's brain.

Little Reader Chinese

2011-12-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I wrote a review about a BrillKids product called Little Reader. Which is a revolutionary computer software that helps you as a parent teach your baby or young child to read. If you missed it, be sure to check sit out HERE.

This past month Wesley, my daycare children and I have been testing out another new product by BrillKids - The Chinese Content for Little Reader.

The Little Reader Chinese Curriculum will help you teach your young child to recognize thousands of Simplified or Traditional Chinese characters, understand their meanings, and to learn to speak Mandarin.

Fully customizable lessons progress from single characters all the way up to complete stories. Using Little Reader's Pattern Phonics™ system, the Chinese Curriculum will also familiarize your child with the pinyin system (Mandarin phonetics), setting the foundations for further learning of Mandarin in the future.

A ready-made Chinese Reading Curriculum - 12 months' worth of lessons

2 Weekly Lesson Planners in Chinese, one for each semester

3,000 BrillKids Loyalty Points

Your purchased content and license key will be stored in your account, which you may access and download immediately after purchase.

BrillKids has made it so not only can you teach your baby to read in English, you can help your child to learn a second language, even if you don't know it yourself. The lessons are nice and short, so you are able to run both Little Reader and Little Reader Chinese.

Even though Chinese is not the language our family is focusing on right now, we are still including Little Reader Chinese as part of our lessons because studies have should that:

-One study found students scored significantly higher in math and language arts after one semester of foreign language study 90 minutes per week. (Armstrong 1997)
Since each session requires only 5-10 minutes, at 2 sessions a day, five days a week means your spending 50-100 minutes a week on foreign language.

-Invigorate the Brain: Adults benefit from the brain stimulation produced by language training. Seniors who tackle a foreign language show improved brain function over a period of time. Students who learn foreign languages as children score better on academic tests. There is also evidence to suggest that they may be more creative and resourceful when faced with solving complex tasks.(http://www.learningasecondlanguage.net/benefits/)

I also read this list on the website http://trilingualonline.com/trilingual-children/

Benefits For Raising Trilingual Children
1. Growing up with multiple languages is the most efficient and effective way to learn a foreign language.
Research have shown that the best language learning period is between 0 and 3 years of age, since nature has granted us with a optimal brain building specially in the production of language. This amazing ability decreases by the age of 6-7, when children as adults have to put more efforts in what they learn on language.
Nature helped us to assimilate languages very quickly and very early, in order of survival needs. Studies have shown that languages in bilingual infants are stored closer together in the brain than in later bilinguals, meaning that learning later takes greater effort and is treated differently by the brain compared to children acquiring them simultaneously.
2. Children raised in a trilingual or multilingual environment have greater facility in acquiring foreign language fluency at a later time.
3. If your child wants to learn more languages later in life, she could master the languages faster. This is especially true when acquiring similar languages.
4. Many studies around the world have also proved that being trilingual or multilingual helps children to develop better reading and writing skills.

So overall Little Reader Chinese is allowing my son and daycare children to learn a second language in a fun way. Its also of little effort to me, since BrillKids has already created the curriculum for me. I click a button and my children and I can start to learn. This saves me countless hours preparing materials, translating, etc. Instead of spending hours preparing materials when my son is in bed, I can spend that time resting and recharging my batteries, so my kids get a refreshed me in the morning.

The person I'm the most excited to start this program with isn't even here yet. But when my little one arrives in May and he or she is 3 months I plan on starting this program with him/her.

Don't take my word for it. Head over to BrillKids.com and sign up for a FREE 2 week trial!

Long Update

2011-12-02T11:12:00.001-08:00

Well I'm struggling a little. I keep getting lead on by different potential daycare family, who on the last minute bail on me. I originally started with three daycare positions. In August I decided I needed to work a little harder and created one more position. Well now one of my kids has gone on an extended vacation and let his position go. So I'm back down to three, but in the perfect world now that Wesley is going to school full time in January I would like to care for 5 children. Really I only have 4.5 months left before I close my door, so I really want to work as hard as I can and pay off my car. But its proving to be hard. I need to fill the positions before I start to show. Also the reason I'm filling up my daycare as much as I can is because I know come the time people find out I'm expecting they will start looking for a new daycare. I have an interview for 2-3 days a week tonight. At this point I'll take what I can get. Please pray I can get some more work. I need to step it up so I can pay off my debts and not leave Travis responsible with more then necessary and be able to enjoy my maternity leave. I've been stalking the ads of Kijiji, Used Winnipeg and Craigslist.

I gave up Facebook for a week. I took a challenge from Mandy Mom, and gave it up from Dec 1-7th. I realized that I am on there too often. Well maybe not as often as before now that I canceled my phone's data plan, but still, when I'm in wi-fi range I'm clicking in all the time. My friend don't need to know every detail of my life as it happens. I know a bunch of people who have gotten rid of it all together and didn't burst into flames LOL. Its funny, I remember back a few years ago when people couldn't check their email on their phone, and Facebook didn't exist, you made plans to meet your friends in a chat room for a few minutes at night instead of chatting with them all day via Facebook.It also drives me bonkers when people write on Facebook about their older children having bedwetting issues. Its one thing to write about that in your diary where most of the readers don't know you in real life. BUT does every person on your Facebook list need to know about this. What will your child think in 5 years when they understand. I bet they would be mortified!

I dragged my butt to the dentist last night. Ok here is my confession. I Monique the dental assistant have not been to a dentist in at least 4 years. Yeah, yeah, well the carpenters house is always falling apart. Well I had a rude awaking when I found a small cavity in my mouth. I freaked because if I found this, what more was there that I could not see. So I went in and had a cleaning and thankfully that was the only tooth affected. There are two teeth with the signs of the starts of cavity, but if I take care of them they may never progress. I asked my dentist to do them anyhow but he said they are so small he doesn't want to even touch them. I asked him to fix a filling at the top another dentist in the office did, but the contacts are AWFUL and I get food stuck every single time I eat. I wanted him to wait to make sure the insurance will cover it. But he said he'll do it and if they don't cover it he will do the work pro-bono.

I've also been fighting with the people who run Wesley's ABA program. Wesley has a bunch of dates that his tutors were suppose to take him to the school so he can get use to it. Well this has never been a problem, his tutors have taken him to group violin lessons, and play groups. But now the last 3 weeks we are in the preschool program they have decided to make a big deal and say the tutors can't take him unless I'm there. IMAGE how it would go if I took him with 3 daycare children in tow. How much of a distraction to the class would I be?? They were the ones insisting that he go to school and not be homeschooled and here they are making the transition difficult. I am more then willing to sign releases that I will not sue if something happens(unless of gross neglect)I trust his tutors! And to change policies our last few weeks when it really matters what just a tick off. So after that conversation with the people arranging this yesterday, I talked to Wesley's tutor this morning who was also mad they were denying him this chance. She suggested I call the ABA preschool director right away and get her involved. So I called Daniella, but she is out of the office till the 7th. So I took it up a notch, I called the director of the whole program! I had met with her back in May to decide what we were going to do with Wesley. Angela told me she would go to that office and see what was up. And an hour later I was told the paper work was in processes and all should be good. The thing is I should not have to go to these extents. I'm so sick and tired of fighting for every little thing my son needs.

Thankfully the school division seems to be MUCH more helpful. I was in the process of arranging transportation for Wesley to and from school. The lady in the school division that deals with special needs children found out and told me that was not necessary and made arrangement for him to take the school bus. They also have arranged a bunch of meetings to the school this month, and for the meetings at the end of the month when Wesley no longer has daytime tutors, they arranged him transportation. They are absolutely amazing. Now the real test is, can they keep him challenged. Academically he is way advanced compared to his classmates. Now that I will be closing my daycare I can make arrangements to socialize him more homeschooling. So if they can't keep up with him or he starts to regress academically, I will not stand for that. But for now he wants to go to school. So who am I to not allow him to try? But as his parent I have to make sure its the best thing for him. So far I'm very happy with them.

Pregnancy is going well. I'm 15, almost 16 weeks along. Baby is moving lots now. Basically I feel it flipping and dancing around. I've hadsome issues with my midwife. She feels my blood pressure is too high and making a bit of a big deal about it. it was 127/78 and 130/80, both numbers that my doctor thinks are fantastic. But she feels my blood pressure should be 110/70, no matter what. I have never had that blood pressure reading. its always between 120-130/70-80. She feels I should start medication. I don't want to because if my blood pressure goes lower I will be tired and dizzy all the time and I don't want that. So I think I'm going to transfer to my GP, and when April comes transfer to OB-GYN so I can deliver in the city hospital. Its not my perfect plan, but if this midwife keeps on me about my blood pressure, I will stress out about it and land up giving myself real high blood pressure. Plus she missed an appointment because of a labour which is totally understandable, but then she no showed to our make up home visit. My family is also getting uncomfortable about how she is handling my case, so I believe a transfer is best.

17 more days till we find out what we are having. I'm still feeling girl, but everyone else is saying boy.

There is so much else more I wanted to write about and now that I'm here I'm drawing a blank.

Vaccine Rant

2011-11-22T15:43:00.001-08:00

I have to be honest, I'm getting ROYALLY ticked off with people getting in my face about my decision to delay vaccines for this little one and when I decided to vaccine (if I even do) that I will be selecting the important ones.

I'm sick of people telling me that my child was not vaccine damaged. I'm sick of the biased vaccine studies saying that I don't know what happened to my son. A child doesn't go from being a chatty 17 month old to getting his vaccines, spiking a fever that night and then not speaking again for a year and a half.

I'm sick of people telling me, well just because it happened to Wesley doesn't mean it will happen to this baby. A girlfriend of mine would not get off the topic, studies this, studies that (she hasn't read anything besides whats in the newspapers). Finally I said to her. "If the doctors gave you a medicine and said it was important you take it and then the next day you miscarried. The next time you were pregnant, Would you take that same medicine, even if they said it was not related? Oh course her answer was no. She way in God's name would I stick this baby with tons of viruses and heavy metals when I know those same viruses and heavy metals nearly destroyed my son's life??

I am his mother. I know better then you do about my son. I know what happened to him. You don't. I don't care what that study that was funded by a vaccine company says. I don't care that the people who say vaccines are safe or not (who happen to be share holders in the particular vaccine that is up for approval) says.

I'm not going to let my baby go unprotected. I am going to breastfeed as long as I can and use naturopathic ways to protect my children. Our naturopathic doctor did what our pediatricians couldn't do. She saved my son. So who am I going to trust?

I'm not telling you not to vaccinate your child. Do as you will. Please make sure they are healthy and don't give them Tylenol after. But what you do is what you do, in the end they are not my children and I am not responsible. What I do know is that, I am not interested in trying to save another child from what my son has gone through if I don't have to. So please do no try and talk me into it. Really your not changing my mind, your just pissing me off.

Good Day.

New Little Blessing

2011-11-08T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well now that the cat is out of the bag with my family and friends, it's time to announce my big news here to my wonderful readers. Wesley is expecting a baby brother or sister in May 2012. I'm 3 months and a bit pregnant, going into my 13th week of pregnancy later this week. Its very exciting for me, my children will just shy of 7 years apart. So its been so long since my last pregnancy that this is all new again for me.
One thing that shocked me is the fact I actually had morning sickness this time around. for about 4-5 weeks I was barely able to eat anything. So for my first 12 weeks I actually didn't gain a pound. This is also foreign to me because I gained a total of 80lbs with Wesley. I'm sure that now that I can eat again I will start gaining, but it is my goal to keep it a healthy amount.
Life has been so busy I am trying to get my car paid off before the baby comes, which means budgeting and working a little harder. But it will be all worth it. I may only be paying 0.9% interest, but the outstanding loan is a liability, and if I wrote it off in an accident, the insurance money would cover the loan and not the purchase of a new car, and I would be left with nothing. But if I pay it off, it belongs to me, and if anything happens I would have the insurance money to replace it.
I haven't fully decided what I am going to do with my daycare. I have to wait till tax time to see if I qualify for enough maternity leave pay to survive. So I'm holding off my announcement to my daycare families till I can answer these questions.
I have an ultrasound at a ultrasound clinic on Dec 19th to find out the gender of our baby. Wesley wants a baby brother so bad, that if we are having a girl, I really want to know so I can prepare him. The last thing I would want is for him to be disappointed when his sibling is born.
I'm looking for as much information about Glenn Doman's How Smart Is Your Baby? as possible.
I know DomanMom's Blog and Doman Inspired Parenting's Blog are full of great information. So I'm going to have to read through those and use their programs as ideas for my own. Of course I will be using BrillKids Little Reader.
If you have any information about this programs I'd love to hear about it :)

8 Reasons Being Stubborn Can Be Good for a Kid

2011-11-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Today I was flipping through my email and Barbara Williams emailed me a link an article on her blog called "8 Reasons Being Stubborn Can Be Good for a Kid."
While I'm not familiar with the rest of her site, as a mother with a sometimes very stubborn child the article is refreshing. It is a great reminder when your child is having a stubborn moment to remember some of these 8 points.
Thanks for sharing this with us!

Headsprout Reading Online Program, Final Review

2011-11-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that Wesley has been doing a computer based program called Headsprout Early Reading. You can read my first review on this program HERE and my second review HERE .

In 80 episodes, your child will go from being a non-reader to reading at a mid-2nd grade level!
During the first half of Headsprout Early Reading, children learn through direct positive experience that letters and sounds go together to make words, words go together to make sentences, and sentences make stories. The basic component skills and strategies necessary for reading, such as phonemic awareness (the sounds within words), print awareness, phonics, sounding out, segmenting and blending, are explicitly mastered in a fun, self-directed manner. The second half of the program focuses more on reading vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, while still teaching more sounds and sight words. Your child will have a fluent knowledge of more than 90 phonetic elements, more than 100 sight words, and a potential reading vocabulary of more than 5,000 words!
Headsprout Early Reading includes:
Individualized, adaptive instruction matches your child’s needs

80 online lessons each average 20 minutes

12 full-color Headsprout Readers

80 “ready-to-read” printable stories

Printable sound and word flash cards

Progress Map, stickers, and Completion Certificate

Individualized, detailed progress reports

It took us about 15 months to complete the program. At the beginning we were zooming through, but as the lessons got more difficult, we slowed down a bit, once in a while redoing a few lessons. I even contacted Headsprout and had them back him up a few lessons. I do have to say, this program really did help my son become a more confident reader. No only did it help him learn to read, it also helped him build up his fluency. He went from reading a book with a few words per page to mini chapter books.
While I don't believe one reading program is the only right way to teach a child to read. And I prefer to use a few good methods together to give my son the best of both worlds. That being said I feel this program was one of the corner stones in our reading program. I believe we are a Headsprout Early Reading success finish the program at the age of 6, with amazing reading skills.
Thank-you to the wonderful people at Headsprout for allowing us to review their product, and a year later we so still so grateful!!

WINKtoLEARN Speak & Read Italian Review

2011-10-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well Wesley and I have had the honor to work once again with the WINKtoLEARN company! Their programs have been such a blessing to us and will be used with our newest addition to our family next year.
In the past we have reviewed a few of WINKtoLEARN's other wonderful products like:

Wink to Learn - Speak & Read English

Wink to Learn - Animal Encyclopedic 6-DVDs (English)

Wink To Learn IPhone and IPad apps

Wink to Learn- Speak & Read Japenese

Over the last year or two I have loved watching this company grow! When I first heard about WINKtoLEARN, they offered materials in Chinese, and English. All I could think was "Wow this is amazing! I wish they offered it in French." Well, a year and a bit later they now offer their programs in 11 different languages!! Also according to the WINKtoLEARN website they plan on adding 6 more languages in the near future including a few Middle Eastern languages.

The first of three reviews I will be writing is on Speak & Read Italian. I was excited to hear that WINKtoLEARN had come out with this program because my next baby will part Italian, and I would love to expose him or her to this beautiful language.

When you purchase this product you will receive a box, and inside you will find your DVD case with 4 DVD and a beautifully printed "Parent's Guide". This is very handy for parents because it breaks down the basic rules for using this digitally based flashcard program. It also includes a detailed parents' usage guide based on age. One thing that was in the older versions of the Parents' Guide and not in the newer one for Italian was a content list which would show which words were in each lesson, and what they meant in English. This was handy if you wanted to create some basic physical flashcard for your child. But even with that being said I am still very satisfied with this package.

This 4-DVDs program aims to help your child to recognize more than 500 words and also to enable your child to form proper Italian phrases and sentences using proven flashcard-techniques.WINKtoLEARN programs are inspired by proven teaching methods pioneered by Dr. Glenn Doman (USA) & Dr. Makato Shichida (Japan).
Once again WINKtoLEARN has done it again. Every evening Wesley and I cuddle on the couch before supper and watch our lessons for the day according to the usage guide outline for his age group. He loves his cuddle time with mom and while he hasn't started speaking to me in Italian, I know that we are working that part of his brain. I'm REALLY excited to try this program with his new baby brother or sister at a much younger age to see how much s/he picks up.
A few things I have mentioned in past reviews, but are worth mentioning again:

FREE SHIPPING for all online orders
FREE VIDEO PREVIEWS for all DVD programs (found in our "Online Store")
DVD OF YOUR CHOICE if you email customerservice@winktolearn.com and they do not reply your email within 24 HOURS

Also WINKtoLEARN has won this award in Aug 2011! And until October 31st,2011 if you enter this code CELEBRATE you can enjoy a 10% DISCOUNT (minimum purchase SG$80 or US$65!)
Thank-you WINKtoLEARN for allowing me to review another one of your wonderful products!!
Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not in any other way paid for this review, nor was I required to write a positive review.

Academic Success for All Learners Review Part #2

2011-10-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

Back in January, Wesley and I had the chance to review Sets 1-4 of Little Books by Academic Success for All Learners. You can read that review HERE. Well, we have been so blessed to team up with them once more to review the rest of their Little Books, Sets 5-8.
To give you a bit more background history, Wesley and I have made these books part of our regular reading routine.


Set 1


Set 2

With Set 1(Designed for K-1.0) and Set 2 (Designed for 1.0-1.3) we flew through, reading 1-3 books a night. Reviewing the ones that had words he struggled with. But eventually they flowed so nicely together, and Wesley was reading them independently the first try. I thought that these levels may have been too easy for him at first, but now I realize that they did fill in gaps in his reading and help him with his fluency.


Set 3

With Set 3 (Designed for 1.3-1.6) there were a lot more words on the pages, but Wesley was still able to read them with great fluency. However we did slow down to 1 book a night, or even every night because they challenged attention span because they were much longer then any other book he had read before. Now this is were we slowed down, but it was totally worth it. We tried to move on to the next set, but Wesley resisted and asked we continue with the yellow books. While I knew he was ready to move on, I also knew the font would shrink again in the next set, and there word be more words per page. But there is so much more to me then for Wesley to be able to read the book at that level. He needed to have the confidences and motivation to move forward and be happy. So we worked on Set 3 again for a few months, to build his confidence and attention span.


Set 4

Finally I felt it was time we try Set 4(Deigned for 1.6 - 2.0) These books are split into 2 stories, so while there are a lot more words per page, we could work on half a book a day. We would read one story in a Green book(Set 4) then read an entire Yellow Book(Set 3) as a reward. This worked well. And we eventually faded out the yellow books. One thing that I did do to help was get an index card to help guide Wesley from line to line because he seem to get lost. This helped keep his place and read a lot faster too!
This past summer a friend of mine who was a kindergarten and grade 2 teacher before having her son came over. She wanted to see what Set 1 looked like to see if it was a fit for her son who is 3. While I had that Set out I pulled out the book Wesley had read to me the night before in Set 4. She seemed impress that someone who had just finished Kindergarten could read at that level.


Set 5

Set 6

Now to Set 5(designed for 2.0 - 2.3), and Set 6(Designed for 2.3 - 2.6) are our next goal. Because of the way Wesley panicked when moved him from Set 3 to 4, I decided to start slowly introducing these books while we are finishing up the last few Set 4 books. I have been reading them to him and having him help me read a few lines here and there. I'm hoping this will help him build the confidence needed to carry on reading fluently. Even though I know he could read them on his own if he just tried. But I have decided to respect him and work slowly, because a) its not a race and b) he loves the Little Books and I want him to continue loving them.

Set 7


Set 8

Then last, but not lest, we have Set 7(Designed for 2.6 - 3.0) and Set 8(Designed for 3.0 - 3.6). These books have a lot more words per page and resemble short chapter books. They look fantastic! But as you can image my 6 year old might not be ready for these one for a little while. Not because of the difficulty, but because of the font size. They are designed for students mid grade 2 to mid grade 3, so I'm not worried. Overall they look fantastic and are of great quality. I can't wait to update you guys on how they are working for us when the time comes.
So what do we think?
I can't say enough about this series! I tell anyone that will listen about them. I love that at the end of every few books there is an assessment to see if your child is ready to move on to the next book. You will also find that at the end of each book there is a list of sounds and words for your child to practice before reading the story. We tend to skip over those, but NEVER miss the little assessment at the end of the book.
While I don't believe ONE sole product is the way to teach reading to children. I prefer using a few different products to mix it up. However these Little Books have been one of our corner stones in our reading program. And when we complete a Set, they get carefully placed into large ziplock bags and placed into storage, so I can use them again with our next little one.For $30 a set I believe they are worth every penny!
Thank-you Academic Success for All Learners for allowing us to review your great products again!
Disclaimer: I received Sets 5-8 in return for my honest opinion. I was not paid or required to write a positive review.

Little Reader GIVEAWAY

2011-10-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

BrillKids Little Reader. I can't seem to say enough about this program! Would you like to give your child the gift to learn how to read at a young age, in a fun easy way? If so read on.
The wonderful Glenn Doman realized years and years ago that babies and young children have the ability to learn how to read at the same time they learn their native language. They are able to absorb information at an astonishing rate. Parents are to create large flashcards and present many sets a day to their child. However no matter how effective this method is, the process in making the flashcards are costly and time consuming. I know I tried to run a program like this, but as a single mom who worked fun time, it was just too time consuming.
However the fine people at BrillKids have created a solution to this problem, it is called Little Reader.

With Little Reader you can create your own flash card categories, customize your playback settings, create and edit sound files, or organize your child's learning library, you can even print your flash cards for lessons on-the-go if you prefer. The options are endless.
Little Reader already comes with a built-in curriculum (your choice of 6-months or 12-months)This eliminates the problem I faced when my son was younger and I tried to start the program. I was so overwhelmed cutting poster board and writing out the first 200 words recommended, I was not able to find enough time in the day to prepare my materials so I could share them with my son. Little Reader has the curriculum complete right at the tip of your mouse. PLUS there are many presentations available to download that other BrillKids forum members have created. There are other additional curriculums coming available that you can purchase to enhance your child's education, for example Little Reader's Chinese content.
I started Little Reader with my son when he was 4 years old. And "old man" in the world of early education, however even though he was on the older end, the program worked amazing for him! He was learning words left, right and centre. Now 2 years later, he is reading WELL above grade level. And I found learning to read using Little Reader helped his speech. He has always been behind when it comes to being able to communicate by speaking. But the stronger his reading skills get, the better he is able to express himself using his words.
I have also used this program on and off with my daycare children and they just love it. My 2 year old old absorbs so much and is blowing his parents away when he shows off that he can read.
I know I have plans on using it with our next little one as soon as he or she turns 3 months old.
Would you like to win Little Reader Basic Semester 1 for your child?
Complete one or as many of the following as you would like. Each on equals one entry. Leave a separate note for each.
1) Sign up for BrillKids using this link HERE.
2) Download a free trial using the associate/referral code BKAFF21929
3) Follow this blog publicly.
Contest closes Oct 24th/11.
Disclaimer:
I received one free copy of Little Reader Basic Semester one to giveaway in exchange for my honest opinion.

TOS AIMS PDF Review of Gettings Into Geometry

2011-10-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Wesley and I had the chance to review a product called Gettings Into Geometry by AIMS.

This workbook will help you teach your child the following concepts:

Triangles, rectangles, and squares jump off the pages as the activities in Getting Into Geometry have students using movement and their senses to learn the names and attributers of two-dimensional shapes. Early learners will step out the shapes, use scarves to draw them in the air, and make shape snakes out of fuzzy chenille stems. They will also find shapes in their world—on the bus, in the classroom, outdoors, and in photographs.

Once they have learned the 2-D shapes, students will compose them into other shapes like tangram trees, planes, animals, etc., helping them understand that the shape remains the same regardless of its orientation. Cutting, folding, and painting are used to teach children about line symmetry.
Moving to three-dimensional solids, young learners will compare and contrast their basic attributes. They will relate the 3-D objects to their 2-D picture representations and will combine 3-D solids to create new solids.

A section is included on spatial relationships in which students describe the relative positions of objects using terms such as “in front of,” “behind,” “next to,” “above,” and “below.” Finally, there is a section of playful practice that uses games to reinforce concepts learned throughout the book.

Each topic has several great activities to help teach the concepts in a fun and playful way and the activities are also reviewed at the end of the book.

What I liked about this book was the fact I could read over the activities and print out what I felt was necessary for Wesley. If I had a group of older children in my care that day I could print out extra worksheets and everyone could participate.

One object that I found was important to have were Geometric shapes to use as manipulatives. The hands on helped my son understand what he was doing even more so, and some of the activities require them.

This book is designed for Kindergarten to Grade 1. It is 264 pages long and contains 48 activities. The Physical workbook and the Digital PDF cost $24.99 each, but for international customers like myself(I live in Canada) the downloadable version is cheaper due to shipping cost. The one downside is you don't get the CD with the PDF version. Usually $24.99 is more money then I like to spend on a workbook, unless it consists of a complete subject for that grade level for example Grade 1 Math. But for a book that consists of only one topic it seems to be a good buy.

Thank-you AIMS Educational Foundation for allowing try out your workbook.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this PDF for free in exchange for my honest option.

Long Overdue Update

2011-10-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yikes! Its been a while. I feel awful that I haven't updated. A lot has been going on lately and I have been focusing on my family and my daycare.
Wesley has a new tutor and a new senior tutor who have started. So far they seem great. There as a been a bit of drama, but things seemed to have been bitten in the butt now.
I have been doing a lot of interviews for a new daycare child since Wesley will be starting school and I figured I might as well keep myself busy during the day. So far no fits, but I have another interview tonight, please pray that they will be a good fit for our group.

TOS Review Time4Learning

2011-09-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Wesley and I had the chance to review Time4Learning for the TOS Crew. Time4Learning is a technology-based online educational program that teaches preschool to eighth grade curriculum using a combination of animated lessons, interactive activities and reinforcing worksheets.

Time4Learning includes the following:

Online curriculum for grades Pre-K through 8th
More than 1,000 interactive animated lessons
Self paced lessons that kids will enjoy working on
Math & algebra tutorials & printable worksheets
Language arts, phonics & grammar lessons
Interactive, project-based reading activities
Science (grades 1st - 6th) & social studies (grades 2nd - 7th)
Detailed reporting for easy record keeping
Extensive lesson plans & teaching tools for parents
and much more

Time4Learning is web based, so there is no software to download, no CDs and nothing additional to purchase. Members can access the program 24/7 from anywhere with a computer and an internet connection.

When the student logs in they will arrive at this page.

There will be a little gold circle around the topic that your child has an assignment in. Your child clicks that topic and there is an interactive lesson. We focused mostly on Science because Wesley is doing well with his currently Language Arts and Math Program. Time4Learning would present a little cartoon teaching a topic. The mini-cartoon, would pause and ask a few questions then move on. At the end of the show, there would be a few kid websites on that particular topic as well as some recommended reading. After which there is a quiz on things the child should have learned that lesson.

Time4Learning cost :
$19.95 / Month for Your First Child
$14.95 / Month for Each Additional Child
They also have a 2 week money back guarantee.

Is Time4Learning worth the price?
Well it depends. If this program is able to be your complete home school curriculum, like it is for a lot of families, just under $240 a year for one child is quite a good deal. However if you are using this program to supplement your homeschooling program, $240 may be a little steep for the average family. Especially if you have more then one child. That being said try-out Time4Learning for 2 weeks and see how it is for your family, you can always take advantage of the 2 week guarantee. Or you can also try out the FREE DEMO available on their website.

What did we think?
Well this is the second time I have reviewed Time4Learning. The first time I felt it didn't work for us at all. But now that Wesley is a year old, I thought it was much better suited towards him. However Wesley was not as impressed. He'd do the lessons when required to, but never requested to work on the site or do more then I asked. I think though with time he would get more comfortable with it and more excited.

I would have liked it if the quizzes were a little more child friendly. I found the font way to small for a 1st grader, and well the quiz didn't look very exciting at all.

I liked that they have related websites and a recommended reading list available to references. It saved me time looking for materials to reinforce what Wesley was learning. I also like that it keeps records of the students scores for record purposes.

Disclaimer: I received a one month free trial of Time4Learning, in exchange for my honest opinion of the product. I was not paid, or compensated besides the one month trial.

TOS Crew Review of "Big IQ Kids"

2011-09-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

Wesley and I recently had the chance to review the Premium Big IQ kids program, you too can check it out HERE. Big IQ kids is an educational website that focuses on Math, Spelling, Vocabulary and State facts. They offer something for children from all the way from Kindergarten to Grade 8, and their spelling program can be used even longer as it includes SAT words.

BigIQkids.com spelling & vocabulary program uses technology to teach a weekly spelling and vocabulary list. Daily lessons help students prepare for their Friday spelling and vocabulary tests through several different activities. This approach helps kids gain practice and confidence to master the material.

BigIQkids.com math program helps your student build retention, speed, and accuracy while learning their math facts. Parents are able to adjust the number of questions given in one sitting to match the students attention span.

BigIQkids.com U.S. States program helps your student master facts about all 50 states including their locations, capital cities, nicknames, and landmarks.

While clicking around on this site I realized that they offered a FREE program as well as their Premium program. So I wanted to know the difference, so after reading through their FAQ section this is what I found out.

FREE and PREMIUM programs differ because PREMIUM programs allow parents “to monitor the progress of the student and advance that student only when mastery of the subject matter has been achieved. Additionally, PREMIUM members have their progress tracked, saved, problem areas identified and these findings are reported via email to parents and/or teachers. The PREMIUM program offers students customized buddies, full game page access and the ability to save game coins and gaming high scores. These functions help double the fun while mastering core academic subject matter. The PREMIUM program has very LIMITED advertisement an no ads are displayed during lesson interaction.”

There are a few options to purchase a subscription to this program:
You can purchase each program individually for a month or 12 months at a time.
Spelling Junior - $7.99 1month or $39.99 12 months
Math Premium - $9.99 1 month or $49.99 12 months
US States Program - $39.99 12 months

Or you can get the bundle pack which includes all 4 programs

SpellingTime.com
BigMathTime.com
BigStatesTime.com
BigVocabTime.com

Individual Bundle Account: $19.99 - 1 month or for a limited time it is on sale for $89.99 for 12 months (reg. $99.99)

Pros
- I like that each topic has a usage and progress report.
- I also like that your child has to earn his or her game coins and does not have full access to play games whenever they want. This makes it more motivating to do the lessons.
- Free option allows you to try it before you buy it.
- Lessons are short and easy to fit in a busy day.
- I liked that you could modify the math lessons for mastered numbers, and choose whether or not to time the activity, depending on whether or not timed practice will motivate or discourage your particular learner.
- The Youtube tutorials offered are a great way for parents to learn about the differences between the free and pay products and other information.
- The customer service was second to none. The question regarding my account was answered in a very timely manner.

Cons
- I wish the site would "Hold" my log in a bit longer. If I log in and then head back to the main BigIQkids page, I get logged out automatically and have to sign in again.
- A few times I have received "Error Page- Invalid Account" even though I was logged in.
- The character’s voices are computer generated and don’t sound as friendly as a real human voice recording does, rather they seem a bit robotic.
- Even though they stated that the PREMIUM version has "very LIMITED advertisement and no ads are displayed during lesson interaction," none of the other pay-for-use websites we use do this. Most sites limit the ads to the non-paying users and ad-free viewing is an expected perk of purchasing the subscription.
- I felt there was too much clicking to get the math answers "accepted." For some users that have a set up as a timed test, it would be nice if somehow the numbers were instantaneously accepted instead of having to click on enter every time.
- The site organization is a bit cluttered, and I had to look closely to find certain information.

Our Thoughts on the Program
Overall my son had fun playing and learning with this program when I suggested that he play, but he does not request it on his own. I would set it up for him at different times of the day and he was able to complete his lessons in a very timely manner. For parents who are concerned about the amount of time your child is spending on the computer, this may be the program because the lessons are nice and short.

Personally, I would not have purchased it for him to use as there many other programs on the market that flow together a bit better and are not glitchy at all.

The American Geography lessons were helpful because as far as I know there are not many programs available for that topic. But since we are Canadian we did not spend much time on this as I am trying to teach Wesley Canadian Geography first. I did however notice that when you selected an answer, the voice would start reading out the next state before the current “correct answer” sound stopped. So the overlap made it very hard for my son to hear the next question.

If you have a large family, this program may be a good option for you because you can purchase a class room for lessons at a reasonable price and have all your children working on one program.

All in all, it wasn’t a perfect fit for my family but I know that every one’s experiences can be very different with the same product. So, I encourage you to check it out for yourself by trying out their FREE version with your kids! www.BigIQkids.com.

Disclaimer- We received 2 codes which allowed me to register 2 children for the Premium BigIQKids online program in exchange for an honest review. I was not not compensated in any other way.

TOS Crew Reviews- Wise Alec Nature Nuts Travel Game and Expansion Set

2011-09-08T23:57:00.000-07:00

Wesley and I have just been so blessed to be able to work with the TOS Crew this year. This time we were able to review a fun card game called "Wise Alec Nature Nuts", from Griddly Games. While looking around on their site I found this little video that explains how to play:

The game is designed for children 8 years old and up and comes with one dice, 3 sets of trivia cards and one set of Wise Alec cards. The 3 Trivia cards have two questions on the back side relating to that topic, which could either be, Animals, Plants, or Earth. One question is a bit easier for younger children, and the other question is designed for older children or adults.

For example under the topic Animal:

The easy questions reads :

Q: Reptiles have these covering their skin. What are they?

A: Scales/scutes

Where the harder question on the same card would read:

Q: Some animals disguise themselves to look like more dangerous ones. What is this called?

A: mimicry

Now the Wise Alec Cards are super cute! They have different little things you can do to earn extra points, for example,

Action! While Standing-up, touch your toes but keep your legs straight, +3 points

Brain Teaser - name 3 mammals +3 points

But sometimes they are not so good, for example

OPPS! You forgot to put your cans into the recycling bin. -2 points

OPPS! You fed the raccoons! -2 points

Overall I think this is really well put together. It comes in a sturdy box, and can be packed up in a purse to bring on a road trip or doctors appointment. The only think you need to provide is a piece of paper and a pen to keep score. The instructions are clearly printed on the inside over, so you don't have to worry about losing them and not knowing how to play a few months later.

Since this product was a little old for my 6 year old, I would have him roll the dice and we would pick a card relating to that color and I would read the question, and we would talk about it. So while we can't play it competitively we can still use the cards and learn together. We keep a score for each question we talk about, whether he gets it right or wrong, and the Wise Alec cards are still able to be included in our game. My son just loves these.

If you already own Wise Alec™ Family Trivia Game, you can use this set to expand it, or you can play Nature Nuts on its own. Wise Alec: Nature Nuts Travel Game And Expansion Set sells for $17.99 on Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the writer are hers and hers alone. Experiences with this product will very. The writer received a copy of this game in exchange for an honest review. In no other way was the writer compensated.