Damien Crawling at Four Days Old

One thing that fascinates me is the little-know fact that newborn humans are actually born with the ability to crawl.

We put Damien on his infant crawling track for the first time today, at four days old, as his circumcision is healed now.

In this video, he goes from about halfway down the track to almost to the bottom - he actually started at the top and goes all the way down in this session. The track is on a slight incline, making it easier for him to move.

He has gone down the track a couple of times today. It is amazing to see his determination as he moves. He grunts, groans, and whines to build up the respiration needed to move.

When he is on his back, he just lays there, but any time I put him on his stomach, whether in the track, on the bed or floor, or even on my chest, he tries to move. And move he does.

"Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight." 

Psalm 199:35

Damien is 4 days old

Hunter's First Basket (basketball)

Hunter made his first basket today at a basketball game.

They are a few weeks into the season, and he has been wanting to get a basket at an actual game for the longest time.

He was so proud of himself.

"Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store." 

Deuteronomy 28:5

Hunter is 5 years, 11 months old

Fetal Interaction

Baby brother's movements have been getting stronger and more powerful by the week.

Here is a little game we play - kick, poke back, kick, poke back.

Learning cause and effect? Maybe... It does seem like a lot of the time, he enjoys these games and tends to kick longer when I play.

But mostly I am just enjoying the bonding with my teeny tiny little guy.

"For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." 

Psalm 139:13-14

Baby boy #2, in video, is 24 weeks, 1 day gestation

Our Adventures with Baby Sign Language

Hunter at 14 months, signing "please" and "ball" while simultaneous verbalizing "ball"

I look back and our journey with baby sign language with great fondness and appreciation.

It was long before we heard about Doman, or many of the other early learning topics I now am familiar with, but it nonetheless found its way into our lives in an unexpected way and I now can't imagine how his early toddlerhood would have been without it.

Before Hunter was born and during his early infancy, I had never heard of the concept as this was back in 2005 and in the very beginning of the "trend". When Hunter was four months old, with my mom's prompting I ordered the book Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk from a catalog.

How thrilled I was for the exciting possibilities!

At five months I started teaching him some sign language. I don't remember how many signs I tried to teach him in the beginning, but at seven months I was ecstatic when he finally reproduced his first sign: more.

Thereafter, he discovered the power of this type of communication and began using the sign "more" for pretty much everything. It seemed like the sign evolved to mean "I want" more than its actual definition.

Perhaps because of the versatility of this sign, he didn't mimic any more signs for what seemed like an eternity. Until finally, at eleven months old, he had some sort of signing breakthrough.

Within a month, he learned to sign "all done," "eat," "drink," "hot," "up," (his was slightly different) and "night night."

At twelve months he learned the ever-popular "please," followed by "hair brush", "phone", "toothbrush," and "hat".

By thirteen and fourteen months he learned "down," "come," "thank you," "water," "book," and "bath," followed by "milk," "dog," "ball," "outside," and "Cheerios" (which he made up - would pinch his thumb and forefinger together).

And then, it seemed like just as soon as our signing adventure had begun, it was over.

At fifteen months he began talking a great deal - within that month he learned to say almost two dozen words, whereas before he could only say a handful. He still used sign language, and that month picked up the new signs of "yes", "car", and, some things I never got a chance to get a picture of - "no", "hair", "listen", "headphones", and "iPod" (yes, he made up the sign for iPod too - it involved him sticking his forefinger and thumb in both ears as if he were putting in earbuds).

Then, the next month, he started really talking. In fact, even to a mother who had religiously written down every single possible milestone since he was born, from "first visit to the mall" to "first bandaid" to, well, pretty much everything, he had me beaten. He was learning to say new words at a rate that even I couldn't keep up with, and things just set off from there.

And that was about it.

For a long time he continued to often use his signs along with the spoken words, as you can see in the above video of him signing and saying "ball" and "please". In fact, certain signs, such as please, stuck with him until he was probably two and a half - he would always rub his stomach while saying "please"! But from that point on, he didn't really learn any new signs, simply because he could pretty much say everything verbally, and preferred communicating that way. And in spite of my intention to keep them in our life (as sort of a foreign language experience), they ended up falling by the wayside and fading into the past.

I was definitely surprised, and a little bit saddened, when it ended so soon. I had so many signs that I wanted to teach him, and it was all so much fun! But the experience definitely enriched our lives, and as I said, I couldn't imagine his early toddlerhood without it.

Giving him the tools to communicate without whining was so incredibly priceless. He could say if he wanted up or down, if he was thirsty, if he was tired, if he wanted to go outside, even talk to me about what he saw or wanted, such as a ball or the dog. It's so hard to imagine how this period of life would have gone without him having these tools, and thankfully I don't have to.

And even though it was hard to see it go, it served its purpose, and that's what counts.

Looking beyond the temporary benefits of tools of communication, another thing I am thankful for is the benefit it served him for the rest of his lifetime. As this study showed,

Results of the study revealed that 24-month-old babies using baby sign language were on average talking more like 27- or 28-month-olds, representing more than a three-month advantage over the non-signers. The babies using baby sign language were also putting together significantly longer sentences. In addition, 36-month-old signers on average were talking like 47-month-olds, putting them almost a full year ahead of their average age mates. At 8 years, those who had used sign language as babies scored an average of 12 points higher in IQ on the WISC-III than their non-signing peers.

That is another reason I look so fondly on it, as it was one of our first "early learning" endeavors. And I know that even just in that short time period, it gave him a boost for the rest of his life.

It was definitely a fun adventure.

It didn't always go as expected. It ended a lot sooner than I thought it would. He started talking a lot earlier than I was prepared for. He surprised me by making up his own signs, or by his funny interpretations of the signs I taught him. He never did sign a lot of words I taught him for months, such as "mom" or "help." He even did something I never anticipated, and started signing in two- and three-word sentences, such as "drink water please".

But all in all, isn't that how all parenting tends to go? Not exactly how we expected?

I'm very thankful to have had this wonderful chance to learn together with my baby. And I can't wait to start with the next one!

"And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand..." 

Exodus 13:9

What about you? What was your experience with baby signs?

Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Paradigms in Education

Fascinating highlights from Sir Ken Robinson's talk when he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal by the Royal Society of Arts in London last year.

I love all of his talks and the way he thinks.

The full one-hour talk can be viewed here.

"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me." 

Psalm 138:7

Making the Jump to Reading Fluency

I took another video of Hunter reading the a couple days ago. Here he is, reading Curious George Feeds the Animals, a library book, for the first time.

He has all of the sudden made that jump from reading word-by-word to reading sentence-by-sentence. He actually reads, most books, almost as fluently as you or I.

I'm not quite sure how it happened. And it's always nice, for myself at least, when I can document each step of the way, and measure how much my son knows and how much he doesn't know. But really, he has thrown me through a loop. All of the sudden he's figured out all these phonics rules that I never got around to teaching him and, well, just, reads.

"And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses." 

Leviticus 10:11

Hunter is 5 years, 6 months old

Some past videos I've posted of his reading updates:

Reading Bob Books - (14 months ago)
Reading Phonics Lesson Book - (10 months ago)
Reading a "In the City and on the Farm" - (3 months ago)

Upcoming Review: Accelerated Education Curriculum

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Albert Einstein 

One problem I have had in homeschooling is that so far in my five or so year journey, I always seem to have to reinvent the wheel.

On one hand it has been because I have always had very little money to work with and therefore instead of buying a curriculum, I would just make my own.

On the other hand, and the far more prominent reason I always found myself "reinventing the wheel" and making my own curriculum, was because I could never find anything that was suited to my and Hunter's wants / needs. Usually just because I thought all the stuff that was intended for the "early years" was too boring / slow so I would have to [want to] take more advanced things and simplify them for Hunter's comprehension level.

But the longer I have homeschooled, the more I have felt the pull of the simplicity of a pre-bought curriculum. Not for every subject level necessarily, but at least for some things, to have it all already planned out for you would be really nice.

Math was one of those things. I knew how horribly the traditional American education model generally fails in math education. And I also knew that even most of the best private curriculums were still based off of that failing system, at least in essence if not always in exact content.

They were too slow. Does it really take six or seven years (pre-k through grade 5 or more) to just teach basic arithmetic? (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) And what was more, you would think that after spending so much time on a subject, it would be thoroughly mastered, right? But we all know that that is not the story here.

Is math really that hard? Is it really that complicated?

I knew it wasn't, but designing my own accelerated curriculum baffled me. I have tried, and Hunter has learnt a great deal of mathematics using Doman as a jump start, but I created every schedule and sequence basically on my own and in so many areas have been lost with what do next. The thought of attempting this until high school overwhelmed me, to say the least.

That is until I found Jones Geniuses.

Jones Geniuses Accelerated Education is an accelerated curriculum developed by Dr. Miles Jones based on years of research and implementation first in the classroom and more recently in the home. The math program aims to help children learn mathematics four times faster than the traditional model and with greater accuracy and speed than most college-educated adults.

His main focus is math, but he also offers courses in speed reading, Spanish language learning, and memory training.

Dr. Jones has kindly offered to send me his first year early learning program, to try it out with both Hunter and my daycare kids. I'm very excited about what looks like an amazing program and an amazing company and look forward to sharing my experiences with you all very soon!

Update: read the full review of Math One here

"...Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them." 

Deuteronomy 5:1

Periodic Table in Song, part one

We tend to make up a lot of songs to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

I know. It's not all that original. But it's the memory part that counts, right?

This particular little jingle (starring the names and numbers of the periodic table of the elements) is one we made up a learned a long time ago (I'm guessing a year and a half or more) but have recently been revisiting.

We're singing along to the next ten elements now (sodium through calcium) and hoping to work our way through all 114 or so, ten at a time.

This has recently provoked an interest in what elements are and a fascination of the idea that "everything in the world is made out of these element" and, also, having the names come up other random places (such as oxygen and sodium) which provoke more learning.

It is nice how that works, isn't it? You learn something "by rote" but then, of course, you have that information in your brain. Which tends to pop up everywhere, like finding Van Gogh in bathroom art or seeing Texas in clouds. Or realizing that neon is the element that makes up those neat lights and helium is what makes those balloons float.

Connections. It's all about making connections. But you have to have the facts there in order to connect them.

And singing those facts? Well, that just makes it all the more fun. And I think that, perhaps, kindergartners really don't have a preference for one, two, buckle my shoe over hydrogen, helium, lithium.


Just sayin.

"...in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat..." 

2 Peter 3:10

Hunter, in video, is 5 years, 3 months old 

Old Video of Hunter Naming Presidents, Age 2

Hunter (and monkey!) naming some of the presidents with one his favorite (and first) bit cards.

And making fun of Andrew Jackson's big head.

Hunter, in video, was 2 years, 10 months old

Hunter's Reading Update

I haven't video taped Hunter reading in a while so I decided to take a little clip from him reading his 1940's school textbook earlier today.

His reading is getting better in that he is able to read a lot more words by sight, his speed is improving, and he is getting better at inflection - that is, pausing at the right times, speaking in a "talking" voice when reading words in quotations, etc.

Sometimes I don't really notice the progress but when I realize that he was still in Bob Books ten months ago, I really do see how much he has grown in this area.

I always knew that I was silly for "worrying" about his reading at age three and four, where he knew lots of words individually but really didn't have a desire to read books on his own. And here he is now, an independent reader, still growing and not yet perfect but definitely enjoying the journey and definitely going at his own pace, as always.

"To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding"

Proverbs 1:2 

Hunter is 5 years, 3 months old

Hunter Swims Length of Pool

While we were camping this weekend, we spent a lot of time at the camp site's pool.

Most of it was spent like this:

And this:

And this:

And doing "pencil dives" in the deep end, twisting jumps, cannon balls, catching balls and jumping for frisbees, racing, playing Marco Polo, and generally just messing around and having a good time. Made possible by his new-found swimming ability.

In the process of it all, though, he built the endurance (and courage) to swim the length of the pool. Nice little byproduct, eh?

"...and I will lead on softly, ...and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir."

Genesis 33:14

Hunter is 5 years, 3 months old

Head Out of Water

So Hunter decided that he can swim with his head above the water last weekend.

We've gone swimming a half dozen times this summer, and while it took me until last week just to get him to swim under water like he did at age three and four, (although I wasn't really focusing on it too much, we were mostly just splashing around) he can finally, legitimately, swim.

I am incredibly excited that it was so sudden and effortless, on both of our parts.

You can read the summer 2009 post and especially the summer 2008 post on a little bit about our journey in learning how to swim. Even though we don't have that long of a history in Hunter's learning (he hasn't gotten nearly the ideal opportunity / exposure to swimming), it has been a fun adventure and I'm so excited for where we are now.

What's next for us?

Well, seeing that my goal for this summer was to get him to get his head out of the water and, perhaps, perfect that head-above-water swimming, I guess we'll be working on the second half of that goal and hopefully progress from a professional dog-paddler to a bona fide crawl-stroker.

Using exercises from sections 4 and 5 of How to Teach Your Baby to Swim, we'll be breaking down the elements of the crawl stroke (1. breathing, 2. arm motions, 3. leg motions) in different, fun activities to work on each element individually, practicing diving, streamlining, back-floating, and, of course, lots of fun games.

Hope everyone else has a great swimming summer!

"Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered..." 

Psalm 18:15

Hunter is 5 years, 3 months old

Doman Video of the Month

"You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do."

Exodus 4:15

Month of the Military Child: The Strength of Our Nation

Doman Video of the Month

The Power of Music

"Music helps you think by activating and synchronizing neural firing patterns that connect multiple brain sites... The neural synchrony ensembles increase both the brain's efficiency and effectiveness."

From Arts with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen 

I have heard time and time again that studies continue to show that music - both the act of actively listening to it and the act of creating it - has been shown to stimulate more areas of the brain than any other single activity. And as such, music physically grows, organizes, and wires the brain in a phenomenal and powerful way.

The brain grows by use. And music grows the brain such a profound way as to have an enormous impact on mathematical ability, reading, critical thinking and reasoning, and so much more.

As Glenn Doman has long proposed, all brain function is interrelated. You cannot suppress one function without likewise suppressing the others. On the same note, you cannot raise one function without in turn raising the others. When you grow and improve the brain by any given activity, you are also growing it and improving it for all other activity.

Music is a beautiful way to grow your child's brain and improve their ability to learn about and appreciate their world.

"Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works."

1 Chronicles 16:9

Chess Wars

"Then I'm gonna get you in jail!" Hunter says with a devious smile and a curved eyebrow. Sound effects follow with pows, blasts, cheers, and shouts. "Your turn!" He yells.

We're playing a game of chess for the first time in several months and he is anxiously excited about getting my king. To him, it is an epic battle of, [eh hem], knights, kings and castles. Ironic, isn't it?

I cannot help but laugh as I advance my pawn. He first learned how to play chess shortly after his third birthday but, with me being the not-so-chess-savvy player that I am, we have only played it a handful of games since then. I do, however, intend to change that. And this particular game was part of the reason.

He is still a bit hesitant about some of the rules. He didn't quite remember how some of them moved and, frankly, neither did I. But as we played together, advancing and capturing pieces in our not-so-strategic pattern (but nonetheless with a lot of noise and fun!), I began to see what a neat and beneficial game this would be, in terms of academics (where my mind always seems to wander). I began noticing that chess, unlike my much-played childhood game of checkers, is in many ways an art, a science, a battle of wit and skill.

So I did what I always do and got on Google. I, of course, wanted to know what the [perceived or studied] benefits of chess were. This is because otherwise the subject would be in my head for days as I over-analyzed every possible aspect of the academic benefits of this little game. So I just let Google make my life a little easier.

I didn't sit there are read every research insert for hours but, what I found (upon googling the benefits of chess) intrigued me.

Apparently, there have been a lot of studies on the effects of chess on school children and it seems to help them in pretty much all areas academic, among other things (social, personal self-esteem, etc.) I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of numbers and details (you can look it up yourself if your interested) but lets just say that chess has been shown to excell kids enormously in critical thinking and intelligence tests (more than any other activity, including critical thinking-oriented video games or special extracurriculars), boost their math scores and analyzing abilities and even improve their reading (improving it even more than the control group who actually got specific reading instruction during the time while the other kids were playing chess!)

Chess is also used widely in other countries as a required part of the curriculum (as it was hundreds of years ago for anyone wanting to be a knight) and even takes a special seat in many U.S. classrooms, though mostly as a part of their gifted and talented programs, like this legislation for New Jersey public schools in 1992:

BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The legislature finds and declares that:

   a. chess increases strategic thinking skills, stimulates intellectual creativity, and improves problem-solving ability while raising self-esteem;

   b. when youngsters play chess they must call upon higher-order thinking skills, analyze actions and consequences, and visualize future possibilities;

   c. in countries where chess is offered widely in the schools, students exhibit excellence in the ability to recognize complex patterns and consequently excel in math and science: and

   d. instruction in chess during the second grade will enable pupils to learn skills which will serve them throughout their lives.

2. Each board of education may offer instruction in chess during the second grade for pupils in gifted and talented and special education programs. The Department of Education may establish guidelines to be used by boards of the education which offer chess instruction in those programs.

3. This act shall take effect immediately.

After reading this stuff, it reminded me of why Doman always said that if parents do something with their children but don't completely understand why they are doing it, they will not do it well. I began teaching Hunter chess almost two years ago but with only a vague understanding of why it was a good idea. As such, I never really went through with consistency.

But let's just say that now that I understand a little more of the why of it all, I am extremely motivated to continue with this and make it a regular part of our school time experience. And, if you can't tell from my description of our game together, so is Hunter.

"As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom..."

Daniel 1:17

Hunter is 4 years, 11 months old

Doman Video of the Month

Doman Video of the Month

Little Fish in a Big Pond - A Look at the Known Universe

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day was actually a video, called The Known Universe by the American Museum of Natural History.

We started making it an (almost) daily habit to check out the picture of the day, which are generally really, really cool. Sometimes Hunter is fascinated by them, sometimes he's not really interested, which is ok. But today he was totally enthralled, which he had good reason to be. This video was amazing.

All I could do was sit there and think, wow. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Astronomy sure has been a fun thing to study!

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

Psalm 8:3

Hunter is 4 years, 10 months old