Foreign Language for a Babe in Arms

It is not a problem for a baby to learn two languages at the same time in a bi- or multilingual family. But what if mum and dad speak the same language but still want their little one to study a foreign language as it is much easier to learn a language when one is little. I will share my experience of "teaching" our daughter English (Russian is native to her). Any second language could be taught like that.

When Soniya had turned 2 months old, I decided to buy a book of poems with colourful pictures in English. But I could not find such a book in our bookstores. I found some books with fairy-tales instead. And it was for the better as later I found out that the child is not interested in poems at all (these rythmic lines were like a noisy background for her) but likes to listen to stories when mummy is reading them for her.

From 2 to 4 months

I read 5 funny phrases about animals to our daughter - every day, with the right intonation and pronunciation. And the baby was really listening.

From 4 to 5 months

When she had turned four months old, I added 2-3 Read the rest of this entry »

Del.icio.us : children, early-childhood development, home schooling, ideas, kids, language, personal development

Developing Games on Trays or How to organize the Baby’s Space

Our Arseny and Soniya are only 1 year old but we are already studying developing games to play with them in the future. We are sharing a marvelous idea with you from the field of "early-childhood development", the idea of a mother of almost 3 kids already, Karisa.

"First, WHY Trays?

• Let me begin by saying that I am in NO way saying that my beliefs are right, they are just MY beliefs. I share openly about what I believe when it comes to educating young children, and yes I do have a college degree, but that in no way makes me any smarter than others out there. I just share what I believe!
• The TRAY itself: I believe the tray itself provides a sense of space for a young child. When all items are contained on a tray (or a mat, or something similar), it is easier for the child to visualize all involved with the activity and also how to CLEAN it up! Cleaning up is a huge part of this method for me.

• 

• The ACTIVITIES: I believe in providing simple, yet engaging activities that sometimes expose a skill and sometimes are just fun! I love the discussion times these trays provide. I love the concentration required. I love that Krash is developing perseverance, focus, and determination to accomplish tasks. I love the vocabulary alone that stems from the tray activities, it really is endless. I love that I can change up the activities easily without a ton of work each evening. I love that most of the items on the trays aren't *toys* so they are refreshing for Krash and engaging.
• The ENVIRONMENT: Trays provide Read the rest of this entry »

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How to organize a Home Playground for the Tots with One Year’s Difference in Age?

Today we are answering the question of Daria, a reader of our blog:

"So far, I have not been able to think out how to make table and a home playground for our elder daughter (24 months) for her to be able to make crafts and other creative things as we also have one ore baby (12 months) who will bother her. It is not possible to leave all the things like paints, pencils and plasticine on the table for them to be reached by he girl at any time as then you will get tired to collect all thi stuff about the room".

We have asked mums who have also got toddlers with 1-1,5 year's difference of age between them what solution they've got concerning this issue.

Vera, the mother of Bazhena (4,5) and Kyrill (almost 3):

«Kyrill started crawling late, when he was about 8 months old. Till some certain time, we could play (study) peacefully with our daughter. But I decided in the very beginning: the things which are really not to be touched (by both the children) should always be in boxes on the refrigerator in the kitchen: everything for plasticine modeling, puzzles, pencils, brushes, watercolours, etc. I bought these boxes in "Ikea" but you can also

Read the rest of this entry »

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How to Master a Foreign Language in Unconventional Circumstances?

The first year of the baby's life is a great opportunity for his mummy to do what she has always wanted but never had time for. For example, it can be creative work and/or mastering of a foreign language. Not possible? Just the opposite! Natalie and I have shared our experience where to find time for it on the pages of this blog. But besides time, one should be able to accommodate him/herself to the circumstances. How? I will explain it by giving an example. The language being learnt could be any language.

Have you paid attention that there is also a little one in the picture?

How to master a foreign language when you have a baby?

When one of my acquaintances had returned after her visit to Italy, she had a dream - to learn Italian. In a year, a daughter arrived in their family. It was then when she bought an Italian textbook, audio-tapes being a very useful supplement to it. Walking for hours along the embankment with her daughter sleeping in the pram, my friend was learning the language (keeping the Walkman in her pocket). Taking into consideration that a little baby should walk every day month after month, she has really moved forward in learning that Romanic language.

One of my students decided that she should learn English when her baby-son was 2 months old. It was September which was very close to October already (zero degrees Celsius). Her tutor (me) agreed Read the rest of this entry »

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Where to Keep Children’s Books?

"I recently got asked how I store all of our children's books. This was a very simple answer so I thought I would put it in a Behind the Scenes post! This issue haunted me at first as I had TONS of children's books even before I began homeschooling. I used to teach Kindergarten and had kept all of the books I purchased myself over the years. Finally I came up with a solution!

I bought cardboard magazine boxes, made labels for them and sorted the books by the general themes or concepts. Specifically I have these boxes from Ikea, and I used my printer to make the labels, you could use a label making machine or just hand write them! This makes it so much easier for me to find what we are studying at a particular time, or just to find books we want to read!

As for my categories of books, I made Read the rest of this entry »

Del.icio.us : do-it-yourself, family, furnirute, home, home schooling, ideas, kids, lifehack

Handmade Visual Aids for babies of 8-36 months old. Tips from our Readers

How to make developing toys from the things at hand for a small baby? A reader of our blog has shared her ideas with us:

What to Do with Diapers?

The pictures on the diapers are very bright. You can make a game using them. To do it, cut the picture out from the diaper, collect two pictures of each type, stick them on (colour) cardboard, laminate the cardboard (or cover it with sticky tape) and cut it into pieces. The game is ready! So far, with a tot of 18-24 months old, we are just looking for the pair pictures. You can also gradually add more pairs of pictures into the game and when the child is older you can already follow Read the rest of this entry »

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Top 5 Creative Ideas on How to Decorate the Child’s Room

«The space we live in influences us…»
Alexei Karpov

1. The world-known mathematician of the 19-th century Sophiya Kovalevskaya writes in her memories that the passion for this science awoke in her in a great part because of the walls in her room when a child: for the lack of money there were pages from the maths book instead of wallpaper on the walls. She was very much interested in the unknown signs on the walls and she was studying them for much time.

2. Once, when I was 20, I was painting a picture in oil in an American college. Unexpectedly, my hand depicted Read the rest of this entry »

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