My daughter started watching Signing Time (http://www.signingtime.com) when she was 10 months old. She loved the show so we watched it once per day, for about 25 minutes per day.
By the time she was 14 months old I could take her to the zoo and she could sign Monkey, Zebra, Horse and many other signs. Here is a video of her doing exactly that: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikejenphotos/3467807751/in/set-72157604954739094
By the time she was 20 months old she had a huge vocabulary of hundreds of signs even before she could say all of the words.
Now that she is 3.5 we communicate via sign language all the time. That TV show has been influential in teaching her to spell and read by incorporating finger spelling.
Of course, I wasn't just sitting her down and leaving her there. I would watch with her (that's how I learned to sign) and incorporate real world items so that she could see that link between the signs on TV and her own things (like toys, food, etc) but that TV show was absolutely instrumental in her language skills. (It didn't hurt that she's a genius... I'm not biased...)
My second will be born in January and there is nothing that could convince me not to repeat the same process with her.
My 3.5 year old daughter Eloise is a big fan. She asks:
"Why are pants wet all the time? Why are blankets wet all the time? Why will pillows get burned in the light? That's all the words I want to make and look up in the computer."
She also says her favorite They Might Be Giants song is: Ten Bowls of Soup, because she likes it... "Woah, woah! Good thing they didn't all spill."
I have a non-scientific theory that you guys are atheists like me. I would like to put it to the test. I'm basing my theory on the following lines:
"A fact is just a fantasy unless it can be checked."
"I like those stories about angels, unicorns and elves."
I interpret those lyrics to mean that religion is a fantasy and angels are simply fun stories. Am I correct?
P.S. My daughter is only 3.5 but is now interested in science and I can't thank you enough for helping me to light that spark!
I just finished this browser for kids and released it the other day. I use it with my three year old daughter so that she can use the web without encountering a lot of advertising or unapproved sites.
http://www.rebrandsoftware.com/showsoftware2.asp?soft_id=32
It still requires parental involvement but my daughter loves being able to browse and pick videos. It seems like kids are better with trackpads than with mice.
Last year my accountant had us pay Use Tax on all our online purchases so we had to dig up all our records. I live in VA so my questions are:
1) Should I be bothering to pay Use Tax at all?
2) It is legal or enforceable by the state of Virginia?
3) Since it's interstate is it really a federal issue?
4) What if I don't "use" the purchases or I give them as gifts?
Not monopoly, but anything on these lists:
Younger: http://boardgamegeek.com/childrensgames/browse/boardgame
Older: http://boardgamegeek.com/familygames/browse/boardgame
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."
"Jack Frost nipping at your knob."
"Tiny hipsters with their balls all a'glow, will find it hard to breed tonight!"
They know no baby's on the way. Hope Santa's loaded heat-proof undies on his sleigh.
Is there any particular reason an alien species would be any nicer to other species than we are to other species?
I hope that when we reach the level of intelligence necessary to travel to other inhabited worlds we will have, in the process of obtaining that intelligence, learned that we should respect other species and do everything possible to prevent suffering in all living creatures.
"May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe