Our original sign language article is under construction, so I just post some of the resources until we have a chance to post it back:

Web Sites for looking up signs

http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
http://www.lifeprint.com/

Books

I’ve used the following book: Sign With Your Baby: How to Communicate With Infants Before They Can Speak by Joseph Garcia. I can’t guarantee that this book is the best, but it worked fine for us in the beginning, and once we ran out of signs mentioned in the book, we were just using online resources for getting new signs (see our Sign Language Resources section). I was really surprised how much “non-speaking” baby can tell with signs language! Many of the signs in this book are standard in American official sign language, as opposed to baby versions. Having the communication going with a non-verbal child - is absolutely amazing!!!

DVD/Video

The most highly recommended video is Singing Time. Here are some of the recommendations:

• Thanks to Viviane, Isabelle,Christina & Michael Aziz for sharing: Christina loves those 10 to 20 minutes in front of the tv watching signing time and your baby can read dvds
• This collection of DVDs is the first one to be recommended every time the discussion on educational DVDs comes up. I haven’t bought it for my first one, but I’ll definitely consider it for my second one - I haven’t heard anything but raving reviews from everybody who used it.

Physical Exercises materials
Swimming Materials
Other materials

Physical Exercises materials:

• Glenn Doman, How to Teach Your Baby to Be Physically Superb: physical exercises from birth to age 5.
• Glenn Doman, How smart is your baby? - book review: comprehensive collection of tests and exercises for the first year of child’s life - both physical and intellectual.
• Top reasons my child should participate in a sports team

Swimming Materials:

• Teach your child to swim
• How to Teach Your Baby To Swim by Douglas Doman: book review
• Newborn Baby Swimming
• Dry Drowning Facts

Other materials:

• No Testing!
• Doman’s method results

Yes, you can start that one very early too! Read on some of the suggestions:

• How to Teach Your Child Math: Glen Doman’s Dot Method
• Mathematics PowerPoint Presentations
• Incorporating Math in your Daily Life - Linda Sebec’s approach
• Incorporating Math in Child’s Daily Life - How do YOU do it? - forum members’ suggestions
• Free online game for kids teaching base ten numbers
• RightStart Mathematics: uses the AL Abacus to provide a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experience. The elementary and intermediate program lessons guide the teacher day-by-day and year-by-year, helping children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics while surpassing state standards. Highly recommended by many parents at TeachYourBabyToRead yahoo group, many of whom start this homeschooling curriculum right from toddlerhood. More opinions and personal experiences are welcomed.

 

What is intelligence? According to Glenn Doman intelligence is “a product of three things: the ability to read; the ability to do math; the amount of encyclopedic knowledge one has.” (How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge, Glenn Doman, 2001, p. xi. From now on GD) Well, we’ve all heard that child’s brain is getting formed by 5 and in the first 3-5 years the child learns faster and easier then ever before. Glenn Doman goes further: “It is easier to teach a one-year-old, then to teach a six-year-old” (GD, p. xi). Glenn Doman is the only one I know who provides some suggestions on teaching kids encyclopedic knowledge, but if you know anybody else, please comment below!
Encyclopedic Knowledge Materials
Books
Pick Yourselves a Subject to Learn: categories and units of study
Encyclopedic Knowledge Materials at other sites: English; Spanish; Other Languages
How to teach Encyclopedic Knowledge
How to use these materials
How to make your own materials
Buy materials

Encyclopedic Knowledge Materials

Read more…

For us this turned out to be the easiest and the most fun so far. And the fact that the last time I’ve heard of music notation was singing “Do-Re-Mi” in kindergarden, didn’t stop me. To aid our studies, I use the following site to get familiar with music reading myself: Introduction To Music Reading . Again, for the litte ones there are myriad of methods:

• Glen Doman method
• Power Point presentations
• Suzuki
• Teaching little babies music: wonderful recommendations from a professional. The most updated version of Tamsyn’s advice is available now at her own site: Professional Mothering.
  Part 1
  Part 2.
  Thanks to Tamsyn for sharing this!
• Other Materials (Toys, CDs, Books, etc.)

Other materials:

• Musical Toys Recommendations
• Classics for Kids: Lots of materials and audio programs about classical composers, their works, and kid oriented interviews with the experts. Can be loaded to iPod. The ones I’ve listened to were really nice.
• Fill the Measure manipulative cards
• Online Music Theory Helper
• Montessori Music Materials
• NY Philharmonic : fun site dedicated to music and musical instruments - for kids to explore by themselves
• Classical Mommy musical Power Point Presentations: terrific collection. There are presentations on musical instruments, opera pieces, classical works - all with sounds.
• Beethoven’s Wig Cd’s: these are absolutely my favorites. We are using them every day, in a car, with the kid and sometimes, secretly, even without. These CDs contain the original classical piece, beautifully conducted, and the “song” - funny rhymes written for that classical piece. Usually there is a name of a composer embedded into the song, on CD number three - every piece is for a different instrument. I love that pieces are SHORT: Blue Danube waltz by Strauss is magical, but the complete piece lasts 6-7 minutes. Both for learning and entertainment purposes, 2-3 minutes pieces that capture the main melody themes - are perfect.
• Alan Wasserman - Personality in Their Music: I love this CD. It is a good introduction to music: I’ve learned a few new facts about composers and like how the pieces are performed.
• Music Computer Games: Mozart’s Magic Flute Music Computer Game, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Music Computer Game, and Alice in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Music Computer Game - my kid is still too small for these, but my niece loves these the most. And since she is especially attached to the themes from Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky game won her heart completely.
• Classical Composers CD-Subscription: my friend initially signed us up to this as a gift and I love the set that I get every three weeks - 2 CDS with a little collection of different works of this composer, a little booklet with some information about him, and a nice picture on a front of the booklet. We usually select a composer for the week and listen to his CD, looking through the booklet, at least few times a day. So far Bach is my kid’s favorite and he would discern his style even when we listen to some musical works that we’ve never heard before.
• Fandex Composers Guide: I just got this one and found it pretty useful to keep around. As we listen to various music collection cds (e.g. Beethoven’s Wig cds that constantly on in my house), I would show the picture of the composer and try to fish out some quick fact about him from the cards. The format is very portable and quite convenient.
• Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought): my sister’s older kids are really into this book. My friend even reads it to her 3 year old, but I think it is a bit of a stretch.
• I couldn’t resist not put Musical Bingo that kid loves so much on this list as well. I find it incredibly educational. Read more in our Musical Toys Recommendations
• Mike Venezia books: I love every single one of them. I think for my sister’s older kids we actually purchased every single one of those. These books have fascinating stories, incredible pictures (both real and comics) and are both educational and fun. The language is very easy for kids ears.
• Flashcards: General Music by Jane Bastien: rather small flash cards, but I find using them easier, then making my own: they have a note on one side, and its name with position of piano on the other. The paper is very thin, but I had so much trouble figuring notes on our xylophone (that we use for Doman’s program of learning music), that these cards really helped. I just wish they were bigger and sturdier.

It seems that there are as many ways to teach a child to read, as there are children: some learn by phonics, some by whole words; some have special books, some have special letter magnets, some have syllable blocks, some have flash cards; some do it with their parents, some learn in school, some might even learn all by themselves! So, which method to chose? Which one is the best?

I think it depends on a child, I think it depends on a parent. I’ve heard opposing views for every single method. So, select the one that appeals to you and your child the most:

• Glenn Doman, whole word cards: brief summary & jump start teaching to read and FAQ, or if you are looking for some materials, proceed to the PowerPoint presentations: Word/Phrases/Sentences cards, or Books, or even Encyclopedic Knowledge Books.
• Phonics
• Combination of Doman and Phonics methods
• Methods applicable to teaching to read in Russian
• Teach Your Child with Multimedia: educational dvds, toys, websites, etc

You can read my personal reasons for selecting a particular reading method or see comments below for other paren’ts experiences, and please share your own!

Thanks to Krista (the creator of MonkiSee DVD series) for sharing her own road to success: How did I teach my kids to read.

Thanks to Laurie (the moderator of TeachYourBabyToRead) for sharing her own approach and ideas: Teaching kids to read with written conversations

Children have a remarkable ability to pick up as many languages as you introduce to them. For adults - it is a painful and lengthy process. So, here are tips and methods for you to try to give them this gift of knowledge without much effort on their part!

• How to teach your child… Foreign Language with Doman Method
• How to teach your kids Foreign Languages - Lisa Mirman’s recommendations
• Teaching 4 languages and My Experience - Thanks to Teresa!
• Teaching your kids with multimedia: find web, dvds, and other resources that can help you!
• Teaching Spanish Resources
• Teaching German Resources
• Teaching Russian Resources