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frogerella

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  1. When I inquired about piano or guitar for my first daughter most wouldn't consider her until 8 because 1. Maturity -many teachers do not know how or don't want to teach young children 2. Hand size and/or finger strength -young kids are sometimes not strong enough or don't have a wide enough finger span to reach notes for chords My LO started piano lessons this past February about a week after she turned 4. She's been going to piano lessons with her older sister for over 3 years, so obviously she's been exposed for quite a while. She has great finger strength, good attention span and an interest so I felt she was ready. The teacher did a test lesson and recommended a shorter lesson of 15 minutes. I do not make her practice as it's exploratory and fun for her but even with just the weekly lesson, she is still progressing. The program is called Simply Music. We attend teacher led lessons, but they do offer a home learning program. It does not initially teach kids to read music, but has a set of numbers/symbols that represent the hand placement. The thought behind it is to treat it how we learn language, so they learn to play first and read later. It has a sort of spiral approach as you go back to some of the songs (like Für Elise or Star Spangled Banner) a couple of times, learning additional parts and increasing in complexity, eventually moving to actually reading the music. I love the system and my older daughter (10) has steadily advanced in her skill sets.
  2. I love audiobooks. I've been listening to them for years and yes, I believe it's a skill that gets better with practice :). For me, reading a book is more engaging because I get to create the world, the images, the voices, etc. whereas an audiobook part of it is decided for you. It's probably why we are often so disappointed with books made into movies because the world we create is so different from the world that a movie director creates. Just a recommendation, young adult or kids audiobooks are fun and less complicated than most adult books so they're great for practice!
  3. We loved IEW's PAL reading & writing. They are designed to be used together, but are 2 separate programs so if you want to keep it short just use the reading program. It's fun, lots of games but loaded with learning. The games are included and require minimal work to put together, in fact they recommend you do it with your LO. They use a blended sight/sound approach. I found this worked well for my right-brain daughter and really boosted her confidence. She started her K year not reading, ended at a 3rd grade level. She is now in 2nd grade and is a very proficient reader and speller which I attribute to PAL. PAL is intended for K-2 (to go at child's pace), but since she moved through it so quickly it left a gap for the 1st/2nd grade years which is why we switched to LOE essentials and LOE cursive. I plan to use IEW again when we do more writing. I think IEW and LOE programs are both excellent and don't think you could go wrong with either.
  4. However, the LOE Essentials program is available in manuscript or cursive.
  5. Excited for our year. My desire is to get a little more formal, but we've always done interest led learning. So while this is the plan, we rabbit hole a lot! Right Start level B Logic of English Essentials Song school Latin Geography -doing an online virtual group and with our local co-op Science -still deciding, checking out Discovery Techbooks and Science Fusion Art/Music -piano but mostly interest led Life skills -Chess, Sewing, Cooking, and Typing
  6. We like this one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Y4HA7O/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1LZYWVXH3RMI3&coliid=I2T9UH2LH8W703
  7. My daughter has no interest in Magic Treehouse and I'm against Junie B also. It's a hard age to find chapter books for this age that have any sort of engaging content. These are the series that she's liked so far. Mermaid Tales (Trouble at Trident Academy is book #1) Never Girl series Candy Fairies Frankly Franny Starring Jules Lego Friends Goddess Girls Spiderwick Chronicles Whatever After (wasn't one I enjoyed so I don't think I'll encourage this series) Jake and Lily (great read, but not a series) Haven't read, but is on our list Keyholders series Sew Zoey Violet Mackerel Clementine Grimmtastic Girls
  8. We upgraded daughter from the Leapster Explorer to the LeapPad in August. Love, love, love it! My daughter is 4 going on 5 in March. I love that all the games are educational and don't have to worry about what she is viewing. They claim the system is for ages 4-8, but if my daughter were 6 I would really hesitate to get it b/c it may not be advanced enough for her. Last year a friend purchased the Leapster 2 for her 6 year old daughter and she never played with it. So this year they bought her a DSI. Our neighbor's son is 6 going on 7 and he asked for the LeapPad for Christmas after playing with my daughter's. However, it wasn't the game that interested as much as the camera/video capabilities.
  9. Just an FYI -The Tilted Kilt is a Celtic version of Hooters. Scantily clad women in kilt skirts.
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