Educational stuff for kids and parents

If I spend a lot of time trading stocks and reading Financial Times, Bloomberg and The New York Times, it doesn’t mean that I don’t pay any attention to my kids and their education… Just the opposite.

I am very proud of my older son – 4.5 y.o. Brian, who does K-1 grade mathematics, speaks English and Russian and loves to solve all the logical challenges I present to him. He also seems to be very gifted in psychology and has diplomatic skills. Nevertheless, I don’t leave it up to him to develop his strengths, but am actively involved in his everyday educational progress and constantly come up with the different ideas to blossom his logic, memory and imagination. Lawrence – my husband and Brian’s dad is extremely helpful in working with Brian on increasing his knowledge and improving his language skills.

Our younger son – 1.5 y.o. Connor, has a very different personality – smiley, mischievous and sporty, yet it is much harder for us to work with him on educational subjects, as he doesn’t speak much still. I don’t know if he, as many other younger siblings has it easier, but we definitely understand his needs much better than Brian’s at his age. This might be one of the reasons he doesn’t have it as a necessity to verbally communicate his needs. I guess the time will show how he develops in the usual subject areas – mathematics, languages, etc.

Meanwhile, as I didn’t arrange my logical and math games with Brian into my own “Children Development Program”, here is the list of resources I am using to get some ideas from in addition to my own:
Leap Frog – Letter Factory

Leap Frog – Talking Words Factory

Leap Frog – Math Circus/Talking Words Factory 2 – Code Word Caper

Leap Frog – Learn to Read at the Story Factory

ALL 5 DVDs are absolutely awesome. It took Brian only 2 times watching Letter Factory DVD to learn the pronunciation of all letters and to be able to recognize them all. Going to School and doing all other learning activities with me didn’t have the same drastic effect. Both boys love to watch all 5 DVDs and don’t realize that they are educational – little frogs are so attractive and entertaining that I don’t mind to watch them either for about 50-es time 

If you want to participate in your child’s education – here is what I found to be quite interesting: