People often look at my with my little brood of children and ask me how I do it all. Simple. I don't. Ha!
My friend told me something interesting when I was telling her about
how my kids don't have clothing in dressers anymore, just totes that I
can quickly sort their laundry in by child. No folding, and it's easier
than digging through laundry baskets of EVERYONE'S clothes because I
used to put off sorting laundry. Now I get it done in a snap!
The Christmas season is here again! It's my favorite time of the year. Many families have their own little holiday traditions that make the season special, and my family is no exception. Starting a new family with my husband has brought a new perspective on the holiday season, and it was important to celebrate in a way that fits our personal family culture, and we have come up with a method that is a little different. As always, take what you want and leave the rest. Here is how we do Christmas in our home.
This week I am attending an online seminar called "Reboot Your Brain", which you can learn more about if you scroll down past my review of the Photoreading session I listened to by Paul Scheele, PhD, which was the session I was most interested in.
A month into the new school year, it's time to finish this draft as I do want to share what we are doing this year. I was going to do school year-round but opted for a break in August and it has been a good time for me to do some curriculum research and get excited about what is possible. So much is possible! So many goals tend to fade over time as real life hits, but if you never set goals, if you never raise the bar, you will never improve. It is better to aim for the stars and hit the tree tops than to aim for the tree tops and land in the mud, so to speak. So when I set goals, I also give myself permission to adapt and change them.
I have had a lot of questions and feedback from my local homeschooling community and I hope this post may clarify some things or you too.
First of all, Piano Wizard launched it's Kickstarter campaign yesterday, and I am excited to have an i-pad app to go with the game. Check it out. They have some amazing stretch goals- ideas for other apps they would like to develop, and they have some awesome deals available. There are smaller versions of the software that are usually not a purchase option too.
In relation to that, those who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter may not know how it works. Kickstarter is NOT a donation program, as business builders are not asking for you directly to donate to their new project. They put together a series of rewards they will offer individuals depending on how much money they back up the project with. Kickstarter is a way for them to bring their project idea to consumers to see if there is enough interest before they make the actual investment of creating a product. If there are enough backers, the project gets funded, the product is made, and the backers get the reward they signed up for, delivered according to the individual terms and conditions. If there are not enough backers, nobody gets charged any money and the business owner knows there wasn't enough interest. Overall it is a win-win situation.
Second, yes, I am an affiliate for Piano Wizard. I love their product and they have an affiliate program. Naturally I signed up. That's what bloggers do. :) But I am first and foremost a fan. During this kickstarter campaign, I would rather see the sales go through this endeavor. I'm eager for them to be able to fund their app creations.
I have also had some feedback on the very long sales page that my affiliate link goes to, also as seen when you click on the Piano Wizard banner add on the side.
Yes. The link I shared is a big long sales page. But as an affiliate, the best price I can offer you is through that sales page letter. I could have shared a link to their main website, but while there is a lot of helpful information there, the overall price is more. I like to get a good deal as much as anyone else. I actually purchased through someone else's sales letter page. Piano Wizard is a big investment, and I actually found the sales page information to be very helpful, especially the videos. It clarified a lot of my questions and helped me know what to expect. But my bottom line reasoning for using it was the price on that page. I also know that if anyone does a little shopping online, they will find the Sonlight price, and I want to be able to match it. Sonlight is a great company and all, but I would rather keep the sales I genuinely refer, and I can only do it if I can match their price. This sales letter is my only way of doing that. Also, right now they are not shipping from their main website because of the Kickstarter campaign, which, again, I fully support and encourage you to purchase through. However, I was wrong to say on facebook that they wouldn't ship at all. If you buy through affiliate sales pages, they will still ship them. I thought it was great that a Piano Wizard respresentative read through my comments and clarified this point to me, even though they especially want to see the Kickstarter campaign be successful. I have been very impressed with my correspondence with the representatives of this company. They are simply good, honest people and their customer service has been great. Yes, I had to use it a few times while I was setting everything up. haha.
I will also throw in a free copy of "The Solfege Train" to anyone who purchases Piano Wizard through my link, which is the same offer I have made for "Little Musician". I am also in the works of putting together some printable games and activities with the Piano Wizard colors, but I am still working out the logistics with their company. These would be drawn from "The Solfege Train", but with their patented color system. Right now they are swamped with the kickstarter campaign, so let's just say this little bonus won't be available next week. Even so, I am excited that they have expressed a willingness to work with me in that respect.
To my local friends I offer to show the Piano Wizard Academy materials in person and I will do my best to answer any more questions to anyone, either on or offline. :)
Piano Wizard, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. But first, let me give you a tour.
I love the fun animation that draws my children to the program. They can practice the same song on levels one and two in several different "worlds", with a variety of icons. They can choose whether they are in the ocean, in outer space, in dinosaur land, or skiing down the hill with Santa Claus, among other things. This variety makes practice time less dry and more fun. In the beginning, it is very much like a video game- a wonderfully fun video game- but it goes much farther than that. Piano Wizard works like training wheels with the goal of getting you OFF the computer and into your piano books. The best part is that my children recognize this important difference and long for it as much as I do. They love to learn the song on the computer, which is a safe haven where they can learn the correct fingering, rhythm, steady beat, and correct notes in a fun environment. However, like me, they recognize that this is just a game mode and they want to play out of real books, without the aid of the screen. My 4-year-old daughter was quite proud of herself when she took the book to Grandma's house and was able to play for her on their non-electric piano. From the beginning the curriculum is designed to get you off screen and I love it.
I love how the curriculum starts at the very beginning but progresses
rapidly. Like many piano courses, it begins on the two black keys-
notes that are easy to find, and promote better hand posture. Here my 2-year-old plays the first song on level one.
And here my 4-year-old plays the seventh song on level 5 (out of the book). We filmed this two days after she started this song.
My 6-year-old son has really struggled putting his two hands simultaneously together in the past. In songs that require it, his approach has always been to play the left hand first, hold the notes down, and then add the right hand. Otherwise he has done quite well in the piano, knowing the rhythm and quickly picking up how to read notes. Anyway, it was the hands together thing that has really been a struggle for us. Here he plays "Merrily We Roll Along", which is the fourth song in the curriculum, on level three. Within 5 minutes Piano Wizard had him playing two notes together- something I, with all my piano teaching experience, had failed to do up to this point. So this next clip represents a major breakthrough for us. It has not been the last.
One thing about the software that at first I wondered about but now, having seen it in practice, have grown to love, is the way Piano Wizard scores your playing and only reinforces correct behavior. You can play all the wrong notes that you want and it won't dock your score. To a degree that's where Mom comes in. For example, in the first song that only uses the two black keys, a child could hypothetically bang on those two black keys with both hands the entire song and they would get 100%. That's cheating and I tell my kids it doesn't count. But in actual practice, if the kids DO start banging around and loose their focus, they get a lower score, and they know it. They know that they have to get 90+% to get their sticker and finish their piano for the day, and to do that, they have to focus. If they are playing a lot of wrong notes, they won't score high enough because that 10% margin of error is usually applied not to wrong notes but instead to late notes- if you don't play it in time, you don't get credit. So there is a major focus on playing the right notes at the right time- only then will you get the high score you seek. I also like this because, let's face it, there are a lot of little kids in my family. When I practice, it's nice for me to be able to focus on my own game without having to shoo them away. They can bang on the upper and lower keys all they want and it won't effect my score. They can improvise around a melody. If they are memorizing a song, they can tell the software to play either the left or right hand only while they play hands together, then they can work on hands together with the visibility challenge shown in the first video. The icons in levels 1 and 2, and the notes in levels 3 and 4 have animations that will ONLY be activated if they are played at the right time. If an icon fails to turn into an animation, THEY know, without my input, that they have missed that note, and because they want a better score, they will try harder to fix it next time OF THEIR OWN ACCORD. Children are not that unlike birds and other animals- they train best with positive reinforcement. This software gives it to them. As a piano teacher, I used to mostly only point out notes played incorrectly to my students, telling them what was wrong and how to make it better. Granted, I was always eager to praise them and I tried to always give them as much praise as I could. But it is impractical and would be rather annoying if I were to say "right, right right" after every correct note they played, staying quiet on the notes they missed. But it's not annoying for a quiet animation to do the same thing. Teaching my own children, my role is to pull out the stickers when they get a 90+% score, and then to give them feedback as a regular piano teacher when they reach the 5th level. This is something that does not take years of training to do, and I imagine most parents will be able to help their children in this way.
As my younger sibling's piano teacher, I am not there every day to help them practice, but Piano Wizard will likewise transform my role as a teacher. Instead of the standard model of them coming and passing off every song before being assigned a new one, I will now be more of a mentor. They can show me their progress, but they don't need me to stamp my approval on every song before they move on. Instead, I will help them work on their goals, give them feedback on their technique and form, offer suggestions, and help them learn how to compose their own music- music that we can plug into this software. I loved having piano lessons with the "mentor" model when I was a teenager, but now I can teach with this model much earlier, and I have Piano Wizard to thank.
(some of the images in this video are outdated, but I like the general overview and how the methodology is explained in this video.)
Piano Wizard is also great for teaching improvisation, not just in jam mode, but during regular songs as well. I would love to do a separate post on how I do this, but I cannot promise it right away. Someday. I love Jazz piano and played in the Jazz bands when I was in college, so this is a subject that is near and dear to me. I am excited at how Piano Wizard is so adaptable for so many different needs, and this is another one that it meets beautifully.
I love the online campus. When you purchase the Piano Wizard curriculum, you become a "gold member" and have access to bonus materials, videos, as well as the free-version content like the forum. I have not fully explored this resource yet as it is vast, but I was particularly thrilled with one of the bonuses- the LDS Hymns and primary songs. One of the reasons the MIDI adaptability was so appealing to me is because I want my children to learn these songs- to be able to practice the songs that they are learning in primary, and to be able to play the hymns as they grow older as there is always a great need in our church for members with this skill. In fact, in Utah among Mormons, it is a popular requirement for parents to tell their children that they have to take piano lessons until they can comfortably play the hymns. Only then will they let them quit if that's what they want. Many parents told me this was their goal when I was teaching piano. As a parent, I'm not much different. While I want my children to be able to do more than just play the hymns, one of my primary goals is to prepare them well to be able to serve the church as a musician- both in playing the hymns and being able to serve as an accompanist. So I had the goal of making MIDI files for the hymns and primary songs. I was SO thrilled and impressed that this was one of the bonuses available for download from the academy. If you are LDS and have similar goals for your children, you will be happy to know that Piano Wizard has made this part easy for you. There is also a wonderful library of Christian music, so while the Piano Wizard curriculum itself is a secular program, some of the bonuses make it very easy to adapt it for religious use.
I am so excited to tell you about this program. Intellectual Baby is a company that has grown so much in recent years and I finally took the plunge to see what their reading kit is all about. See why I chose to buy it now in this post. Now it's time to get down to business. :)
First of all, I LOVE the flashcards. This reading kit comes with 200 solid, glossy cardstock, full-color flashcards. One side shows the word clearly in large, non-serif font using lower-case letters. The other side shows a full color picture to demonstrate the word, as well as a small grey word for parent's reference, as shown in the video. I love these flashcards so much that henceforth, whenever anyone asks me how to teach a tiny child to read without any screen time, I will tell them to read Glenn Doman's "How to Teach Your Baby to Read", as before, AND to purchase these flashcards to save them from a lot of work. In fact, the cost of making the cards if you're going to print out pictures on the other side would be more than buying them from MonkiSee, so unless you want to clip pictures from magazines from the thrift store and you've got more time than money, this is the way to go. Alone the flashcards from the kit are $85, or $17 for each set of 40. I am so glad that this resource is available for parents now. My baby Ruth, (13m) especially loves the cards and I enjoy being able to show her words during our downtime, like in the car, and even while I nurse her. I love watching her eyes light up when I pull them out.
Second, the books. The first thing my husband said when he saw them was, "Wow, these are really high quality". He was impressed by the classy layout of the pages that show the words isolated from the pictures, as well as the idea of using pictures of the leading puppets, Howie and Skip, on a colored background. He commented on how simple and intuitive they are, and how effective that kind of simplicity can be. I agree. Patrick was especially delighted to read the books because Skip is his favorite character out there. Alone the books retail at $12 each, or $24 total.
All of this talk about the physical aspect of the program, when the DVDs are the best part, especially if you are looking to buy a reading program for the first time. The physical materials drew me to the program because I needed them and I already have Your Baby Can Read and Little Reader, so I didn't NEED the videos. But each of these companies that I love, each showing they have been influenced by Glenn Doman in their own way, are unique. They have their own special way of approaching the material, and it's nice to have variety. Rest assured that I love the DVDs. So let's talk about them.
Volume 1, Baby's First Words:
This is the first MonkiSee DVD I purchased several years ago. If anyone else is in the same boat, I am happy to report that it has been updated. While I loved the poetry and puppets in the first version, as well as how beautifully words were defined and illustrated in video and song, it wasn't my favorite for teaching actual reading. The reason for that is because each word was only shown once. They showed the word "Baby", then showed what it means for up to a minute without seeing the word again. They only read "Baby" once during the entire film. As a result, we watched the full video occasionally, but mostly used it for the slide-show clip that shows. Again, this DVD has now been updated. Now you get to see the word "Baby" several times while they define it, and so on with every word in the film. I am thrilled with this change. Hey, the original Signing Time videos were redone after the company grew. I believe in second chances. It's part of growing up. :)
Volume 2, All About Colors:
In this volume Skip bemoans that he while he would love to paint a rainbow, he doesn't know the colors, so his big brother Howie helps him. In addition to the basic rainbow colors and brown, black, white, grey and pink, Skip also learns indigo, silver, gold. My favorite part of all of the MonkiSee videos is Krista's rich use of poetry. I am amazed at her ability to pen little poems and ditties for such a variety of subjects, as her spectrum of videos have shown us. It's cute poem after cute poem all the way through all of them. For example, a PART of the color red shows her children eating licorice while we hear, "Licorice is red, licorice is sweet. Licorice is my favorite treat". Or while we see beautiful flowers in the breeze we hear "Purple flowers, dainty and fair, make me want to stop and stare". Krista told me that she loves to read books with poetry to her children and it naturally extended into their videos. I suppose I should read more books with poetry! All of the videos are rich with them.
Volume 3, All about Shapes:
Skip gets a box of shaped cookies from his grandma that he shares with his brother Howie and Olivia as they teach him how to identify all of the different shapes. Skip learns circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, diamond, heart, hexagon, pentagon, octagon, star, and crescent. One thing I love about these videos are the little references they make to the benefits of reading. For example, "These old books are rectangles that sit on the shelf. I can read one of these books by myself." There are also lots of interesting facts squeezed in, like "This bolt head is a hexagon with six sides around. They are stronger than nails, pound for pound." The video ends with an original song, "Shapes are Everywhere", a review of colors and shapes combined, and a slightly awkward scene where Howie and Skip politely say goodbye because they need to get rid of us before they can eat their cookies. haha.
Volume 4, Around the House:
Let's face it, this one is my favorite. Bar none. Why? There are three original songs, "Around the House", "Door Song", and my favorite, "Tricycle Song". These songs are really cute. This is the perfect time to introduce DaVida. The four oldest Guerrero daughters have started their own guitar band and it's been fun for me to watch them grow as their talents have increased. I love seeing family bands and singing groups, partially because that is my dream for my family some day. I would love to help my children do that, if they are willing. Let's just say that I have a soft spot for homeschooling families that draw closer together through their music. Their talents are beautifully showcased in this volume. My four-year-old told me she wants to learn how to play the guitar after watching this movie.
Action Words:
So, if I'm allowed to have a favorite, I'm also allowed to have one that isn't my favorite, and this is it. My kids love it. It's one of those movies that the kids love and the parents put up with because the kids love it. The film is centered around an action song. It's very repetitious. It's a good exercise film for them. They love to do the actions. So in one room we have little kids laughing and interacting with the film, while mom is rolling her eyes in the other room as the song gets drawn out a little longer as each new set of action words gets plugged into the song. Then again, one time I came in and did the whole song with the kids. When you actually do the actions while you listen, I guess the song isn't so bad. Olivia's enthusiasm is really cute. The rich vocabulary and poetry is present like in all of the videos. I can like a movie (I really do like it) without it being my favorite. Besides, even the Hokey Pokey can get old if you're not standing in the circle.
Each of these five videos are $20 each a la carte.
MonkiSee Music DVD:
This is a special DVD they recently put together that has the music of the videos in one collection with follow-along words so you can sing them karaoke style.
MemoFlix Video Flash Cards:
These are such a rich resource! If you have read "How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge", you will understand the value of exposing your children to "bits of intelligence", otherwise known as flashcards. But they aren't just flashcards, they are "bits" shown in categories that help babies to make connections. It's nice for them to know that blenders, waffle makers, and microwaves are all kitchen appliances. That bricks and concrete are both building materials. That acrobat and abacus both start with A. There are hundreds and hundreds of these words, divided into categories, and organized in a user-friendly menu so you can find what you are looking for. I LOVE the MemoFlix videos. So much time was put into making these. They're better than flashcards at home too, because there are often sound clips shown with the pictures, so you can hear what sound a snake makes while you see the picture after the word, and so forth. Volume one is full of categories like "Mammals I" and "Christmas". By "full", I mean three pages to dig through and choose from. There's a lot of content here! Volume two is for the letters. See a rich variety of words for each letter. Volume three is for consonant blends, including "ch", "ph" and "sh", as well as "kn", "wh", "sw", and common combinations like "st" and "cr". Volume four is for word families. This is for words that end the same, such as "ore", "ug", "ack", and so forth.
Guide to Teaching Your Baby to Read:
I already touched on how this film helped me teach my oldest, Peter, to read in my first MonkiSee post. In short, there are a lot of books out there (not just Glenn Doman's book, there are older ones like Winifred Stoner's Natural Education, and newer ones like Timothy Kailing's Native Reading) to help you teach your baby how to read. If you didn't want to use a pre-made program and just want to do it on your own, or you simply want to understand why and how it works, I would refer you to one of these books. But if reading isn't your thing and you would rather "wait for the movie", this is it. Krista does a great job. She has a lot of experience and she brings her own tips and tricks of the trade to the table.
The MemoFlix and Guide DVDs are $50 on their own.
All of these are really worth the money individually, so to get everything I've reviewed thus far for $140 is a real bargain in the "Baby Reading Kit Plus". You can add their two newest DVDs, "Animals at the Farm", and "ABC Roundup", as well as two more sets of flashcards if you get their complete reading kit, which is $185.
Animals at the Farm:
This was bar-none my 2-year-old Patrick's favorite Christmas present last year. This video is especially filled with interesting facts about animals. Howie has been reading and he's eager to share what he's learning. Cats can run up to 30 miles an hour. Ornithology is the study of birds. Donkeys have incredible memories. I'm kicking myself for not taking advantage of a special opportunity that was available for this film- MonkiSee fans submitted high quality videos of their children either on a farm, or dressed up as or acting like a variety of farm animals. My parents have a farm 20 minutes away and I never got around to it. :( But rumor has it that they will be making an ocean animals movie in the future with the same opportunity, so if you want to potentially jump on this kind of an opportunity in the future, it may be there if you subscribe to her newsletter.
ABC Roundup:
The first time I watched this video, I thought it was really cute and well done. That was about it. Then our family signed up for Netflix and I finally had an opportunity to watch "Leapfrog Phonics Farm". Now I'm not out to get Leapfrog because I thought it was cute, overall. But watching that film made me realize how spoiled I've become with the high-quality programming we have chosen, and what I have come to expect from an educational children's film. There's good, better, and best. I only mention leapfrog by name because it is a very popular series that is widely acclaimed for it's educational value. I will call it "good". But I couldn't help but compare them since they were two new alphabet videos for us watched in the same week. Leapfrog shows us a funny "Noisy Newt". First of all, newts aren't noisy, but it does show us the sound an "N" makes. In ABC roundup, we see three examples, one of which is a real video clip with a Nuthatch bird (new vocabulary for Mommy, I admit), complete with the bird call, as we hear "'N' is for the Nuthatch, nibbling nervously. He grabs a chunk for his lunch, and then the Nuthatch flees." ABC roundup explains the three different sounds an "X" makes, and how "K" is silent in "KN", among other phonetic variations. My children love ABC Roundup, and they giggle every time they see the Monkeys going ballistic trying to catch floating letters. I love the original music, and as always, the poetry and rich vocabulary introduced to my children. I will call ABC Roundup "best". What makes the video all the more endearing is knowing that it was primarily made by one homeschooling family. What an amazing family project!
Full Disclaimer: I purchased the reading kit at a discount as they took into account some of my previous purchases through the years. It was a purchase I chose to make because I needed the cards and I wanted to give MonkiSee a full review on this blog of my own accord. I was also given a free copy of ABC Roundup and the two new flashcard sets to review. I was not otherwise compensated for my review, and my opinions are fully my own. :)
