I am happy to say I'm loving this. Anything to share something with someone else always makes me feel really excited.
With the myriad of things making their way onto the market for babies and young children. Its not hard to get excited when some kind of offer or discount comes my way.
With the many things I've used with Maggie to teach her to read I'll have to admit that as for an all in one program I love Brillkids.
You say to yourself, well what about Your Baby Can Read and Monkisee? To me these are the most excellent video programs out on the market for little ones. But as for a computer based reading program, well, Brillkids is the bomb!
We have been very fortunate that we've been able to use Brillkids. It all started innocently one day when I joined a Yahoo group and saw a link. I just had to click it! By doing so it took me to another world that I had no idea existed. You know, a world where little children actually have the ability to learn whatever it is you give them. Wow! You mean that they don't have to be school aged to learn this stuff?
So hence we gave the Brillkids program a try. They have a 9 day trial to see if its something you and your child would like. I'll admit the first few times Maggie wasn't all to interested. But then again we were doing the Your Baby Can Read at the time and that was more interesting. After a few days though all of a sudden she became VERY interested in it because you can download a ton of videos, powerpoints and so on to your Little Reader and I came upon this cute little video, I then downloaded. So after she was finished watching YBCR she quickly wanted to watch her favorite video. Every since Brillkids is something we do everyday.
There are several things I love about the program. I like that its all done for me. I don't have to waste marker ink to make cards, I don't have to worry about when to switch to new words, or count. The Little Reader program does that all for me. On top of that I can find lots of fun educational videos for Maggie to watch. Which she loves by the way. I can find lots of Encyclopedic Knowledge information all there, ready for me to print out. No need to spend countless hours of making them myself. Last, but not at all the least is the access to countless foreign languages. Maggie has been on a Chinese kick. So I can pull up Powerpoints and the Little Reader Chinese program and she can sit and watch. She loves it! My older daughters very much love that part of the program. Just the other day Marilyn and Maggie were home with the ick and we sat and watched the Chinese slides on Little Reader. Fun was had by all that day that's for sure. He, he
With all of this said Brillkids is a wonderful product. Something I wished was around about , oh say, 13 years ago.
what's even more amazing that I've learned so far is that not only can 'healthy' children learn to read but children with special needs can too. I have seen amazing blogs, videos etc , on children with Down's syndrome, autism, and brain injured children actually learn to read. I mean seeing a child like Maggie , who has physical health problems ( no mental challenges) learn to read so well its amazing. But its even more amazing to see children with special needs learn to read.
Brillkids also think its amazing and is offering an awesome offer. You can go to this blog to read more about it :
http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/2011/03/exciting-announcement-from-brillkids.html
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Flashcard fun
I remember when I first started to teach Maggie reading. I learned very quickly on that she loves flashcards. She loves them because she knows that we can play games with them after we're through using them.
I have the set of Your Baby Can Read cards. These were the first type of flashcards that I used for reading. She loved their sliding cards, and I thought they were pretty neat too , with the word in the front and the picture that you could pull out the side.
We played lots of word games with them and she loved the little dry erase board that came with them as she could copy the words on them. That was just so super fun for her.
After we finished YBCR we moved on to Monkisee. Maggie loves these flashcards. I like them too because they are ready made and I don't have to do anything but to pull them out of the box. You can't get any better than that!
That leads me up to right now. Maggie still watches her Monkisee, and she even watches the Your Child Can Read that we have right now. But most times, especially the end of the day she cuddles up right beside me on my chair and she watches her Little Reader. This program too comes with printable cards. I know right now they are working on some ideas on maybe selling word card sets but I'm sure that won't be for a while. I do like their feature and you can print different sized cards. You can make large cards that you could easily slide into the paper protectors ( like I showed in my Monkisee review) and can be used that way. You can print them so that they fit in their Brillkids Binder (something I eventually would like to get) , and cards that are nice and big. Maggie loves these nice big cards. The words are big and I found a great way to laminate them. Granted I'm not sure how economically sound my idea is but it does involve packaging tape, and recycling cereal boxes.
As much as I love the Monkisee flashcards they aren't made to withstand a 4yr old who likes to step on them. No matter how much I tell Maggie not to step on them , she does anyways. So I only use them if we are sitting at the kitchen table, or involving a game where she is sitting flat on her bottom. Thankfully we haven't destroyed any of the cards yet but I'm trying to prevent that.
So what do you do with a four year old that likes to step on cards? Well, you make them yourself of course. So with the magic of Little Reader they already have the cards made online. You pull them up with Little Reader and select the style, type face, color etc. and then press the print button. Easy as apple pie.
So how do you make them sturdy enough to last through trampling by your toddler? Well let me show you.
First you need the materials. The flashcard, the packaging tape, scissors, and cereal boxes that were cut up and stored ( see, I finally found a use to my crazy keeping of cereal boxes).
Next you want to cut the cardboard from your cereal box just big enough to fit on the inside of your flashcard,, the flashcard is folded in half as it usually has a word and a picture on back. For phonics words I write the word on the back so when I flash them to Maggie I don't have to fickle around with the flashcard to see the word.
Stick that piece of cardboard right on the inside of the flashcard.
After you've done that, begin to tape "laminate" your flashcard by going across it. The Little Reader flashcards require about 4 strips across on each side, front then back.
Once you've finished taping both front and back of the card, cut around the edges. Try and be careful that you don't cut to close otherwise you'll have spots where the flashcard didn't seal. I've done this a few times. Its hard not to do, but try and keep just a little bit around it so it keeps a seal. Once you've finished cutting around the card, voila'!
You've got flashcards sturdy enough for at least some fun word playing games that require feet stomping!
I have the set of Your Baby Can Read cards. These were the first type of flashcards that I used for reading. She loved their sliding cards, and I thought they were pretty neat too , with the word in the front and the picture that you could pull out the side.
We played lots of word games with them and she loved the little dry erase board that came with them as she could copy the words on them. That was just so super fun for her.
After we finished YBCR we moved on to Monkisee. Maggie loves these flashcards. I like them too because they are ready made and I don't have to do anything but to pull them out of the box. You can't get any better than that!
That leads me up to right now. Maggie still watches her Monkisee, and she even watches the Your Child Can Read that we have right now. But most times, especially the end of the day she cuddles up right beside me on my chair and she watches her Little Reader. This program too comes with printable cards. I know right now they are working on some ideas on maybe selling word card sets but I'm sure that won't be for a while. I do like their feature and you can print different sized cards. You can make large cards that you could easily slide into the paper protectors ( like I showed in my Monkisee review) and can be used that way. You can print them so that they fit in their Brillkids Binder (something I eventually would like to get) , and cards that are nice and big. Maggie loves these nice big cards. The words are big and I found a great way to laminate them. Granted I'm not sure how economically sound my idea is but it does involve packaging tape, and recycling cereal boxes.
As much as I love the Monkisee flashcards they aren't made to withstand a 4yr old who likes to step on them. No matter how much I tell Maggie not to step on them , she does anyways. So I only use them if we are sitting at the kitchen table, or involving a game where she is sitting flat on her bottom. Thankfully we haven't destroyed any of the cards yet but I'm trying to prevent that.
So what do you do with a four year old that likes to step on cards? Well, you make them yourself of course. So with the magic of Little Reader they already have the cards made online. You pull them up with Little Reader and select the style, type face, color etc. and then press the print button. Easy as apple pie.
So how do you make them sturdy enough to last through trampling by your toddler? Well let me show you.
First you need the materials. The flashcard, the packaging tape, scissors, and cereal boxes that were cut up and stored ( see, I finally found a use to my crazy keeping of cereal boxes).
Next you want to cut the cardboard from your cereal box just big enough to fit on the inside of your flashcard,, the flashcard is folded in half as it usually has a word and a picture on back. For phonics words I write the word on the back so when I flash them to Maggie I don't have to fickle around with the flashcard to see the word.
Stick that piece of cardboard right on the inside of the flashcard.
After you've done that, begin to tape "laminate" your flashcard by going across it. The Little Reader flashcards require about 4 strips across on each side, front then back.
Once you've finished taping both front and back of the card, cut around the edges. Try and be careful that you don't cut to close otherwise you'll have spots where the flashcard didn't seal. I've done this a few times. Its hard not to do, but try and keep just a little bit around it so it keeps a seal. Once you've finished cutting around the card, voila'!
You've got flashcards sturdy enough for at least some fun word playing games that require feet stomping!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Monkisee Giveaway Winner
Hello everyone. So sorry that I didn't get to the giveaway winner sooner. I'm sure you all wanted to know who it was.
My little one caught a viral crud that just didn't want to go away, and I was so superbusy with Girl Scout cookie money retrival that I almost forgot about it.
Thankfully enough I just remembered yesterday so I wrote all of the names on paper and we put them in a bucket that I had from Halloween and I had Miss Maggie pick the winner out of the Halloween Bucket. I should have video taped it but of course didn't think to do that.
So without further adue the Monkisee winner of the Three DVD set is ..........
Erica!!!
Erica you have two days to contact me with your name, address so we can get these sent out to you. If not I will have to draw another name out of the Halloween bucket. My email address is : reedfamilypa@yahoo.com
Thank you everyone for participating. That was super fun and I'm hoping to be able to do another one sometime soon
My little one caught a viral crud that just didn't want to go away, and I was so superbusy with Girl Scout cookie money retrival that I almost forgot about it.
Thankfully enough I just remembered yesterday so I wrote all of the names on paper and we put them in a bucket that I had from Halloween and I had Miss Maggie pick the winner out of the Halloween Bucket. I should have video taped it but of course didn't think to do that.
So without further adue the Monkisee winner of the Three DVD set is ..........
Erica!!!
Erica you have two days to contact me with your name, address so we can get these sent out to you. If not I will have to draw another name out of the Halloween bucket. My email address is : reedfamilypa@yahoo.com
Thank you everyone for participating. That was super fun and I'm hoping to be able to do another one sometime soon
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