(Part 4) Top products from r/raisingkids

Hi! Over the years I've found a few good activities to assist my daughter with HUGE memory problems (amongst other things) with reading.
I think the thing she loved most was Starfall. It's a website that has different rhymes and stories for different reading rules, a lot of people recommend it.

I used the book, How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. Which was helpful to a point, but then progress stalled with increasing word size.

On the review pages of Amazon it was suggested that the Bob books were a better way to go, as the child can read a whole book by themselves, fast - which is pretty motivating!

Good luck, hope you find what works for your step-sister! She's lucky to have such a caring sibling :)

My son knew all his letters at age 2 as well. At 3 he was reading out street and shop signs, and now at 4 he can read simple books by himself. All we did was read books with him from a young age. He watches about an hour of TV/videos every day, stuff like Pingu or Dora or Thomas or kids' songs on youtube - none of which can be credited with teaching him to read, I think it was just reading with him.

Some of his favorite books (in chronological order):

• Classics like Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  
  
• I See A Monster
  
  
• Funny Face - highly recommended, gave my two-yr-old a simple way to recognize and express his emotions
  
  
• Five Little Monkeys Jump on the Bed and other similar sing-along and/or play-along books, which greatly helped him begin to sight-read words.
  
  
• Catch Me, Catch Me, the first book he learned to read by himself. Simple rhyming text combined with his favorite theme, trains.
  
  
• That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown - his latest favorite: great story, great mix of repeating words and new/challenging words without ever going completely over his head.
  
  
  
  I'm a stay-at-home mom so we probably have more time to read with kids than families where both parents work. But even so maybe you can still try: we only read about one book a day on average, so making it a bedtime routine would put two-working-parent kids on the same footing as ours.

You can do it! The first few weeks I recall the baby waking every 2 hours or so to eat. It gradually gets longer, and when they sleep for 5+ hours it feels like a miracle! Just remember, it's only a phase, they will learn to sleep through the night, and you guys will quickly learn what works for your little one. The 5 s's worked great for us, especially the swaddle and shushing(white noise), the other ones are side lying/stomach (when you're holding them!), swinging, and sucking. The book "happiest baby on the block, the sleeping edition" was great for me when I was first learning the ropes. I'm 10 months in and ours sleeps 12 hours with 1 feeding before I go to bed, it's a dream come true. You'll get there!

Edit:link to the book I referred to: http://www.amazon.com/Happiest-Baby-Guide-Great-Sleep/dp/0062113321

I am so sorry this is so hard.

Here is an interesting article called that may help a bit:
"Parenting your strong-willed child".

Which I found when searching for this book: Parenting the Strong Willed Child

I have heard wonderful things about this book - seriously, it's been very helpful to a number of people I know who have intense kids.

EDIT: I've also heard good things about this one: Raising your spirited child

We just finished reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (https://www.amazon.com/Miraculous-Journey-Edward-Tulane/dp/0763680907).

Our daughter had it read to her class (2nd grade), and liked it so much she wanted us to read it as a family. We all liked it so much we read the whole thing in 5 days. There are some sad parts (a little girl dies from an unspecified illness), but it's handled well, and overall it's a great book about a rabbit that starts out completely self absorbed, but learns how to love. There is some challenging vocabulary for a young child.

CSM says 7+:
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-miraculous-journey-of-edward-tulane

• Anything by Mo Willems.
  
• Anything by Eric Carle
  
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?
  
• Gossie and Friends Books (note: there is another box set that adds "Booboo", which is a great book, but they are too small 4" square books instead of the 6" squares).
  
• Go Dog Go. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. Hop on Pop. One fish, Two fish. Pretty much anything in the Dr Seuss early reader series.
  
• Goodnight, Moon.
  
• Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site.
  

This is never popular when I share it, but this saved us. I start sleep training at 4 months. My second child was sleeping solid through the night at 6 months. From 15 months to 2 years they regress and will call out every 3 hours. If you follow the book, you just go in for 1 minute and leave then they're good, on average.

https://www.amazon.com/Solve-Your-Childs-Sleep-Problems/dp/0743201639

Best of luck!

Sounds to me like you handled it well. Does she have any "appropriate" sources to consult when she is curious? Our daughter has these books:

• https://smile.amazon.com/Whats-Happening-Me-Susan-Meredith/dp/0794512674/
  
• https://smile.amazon.com/Its-Not-Stork-Families-Friends/dp/0763633313/
  
• https://smile.amazon.com/Its-So-Amazing-Families-Library/dp/0763668745
  
• https://smile.amazon.com/Its-Perfectly-Normal-Changing-Growing/dp/0763668729
  
  We read them with her, and they are in her room so she can look at them on her own if she wants.
  
  > it’s still not allowed at her age
  
  I just read some study about how drug talks with kids are more effective when parents explain the why behind things, so make sure you are doing this. I'd probably say something about how porn is a completely unrealistic portrayal of adult sexuality, and how since she is just learning, it can teach her things that are not true, and that could make it harder for her to good meaningful relationships later in life.

It's ultimately your choice on how you act. When you say things similar to "it was how I was raised" you give yourself an out. It comes off as an excuse to act however you want. We were all raised to feed exclusively off bottles, but we all progressed past that point. Your post reminds me of a younger me, and it took awhile for me to realize that I wasn't a "tell it like it is, no nonsense" guy. I was an insecure man who needed everyone to act the way I want, otherwise they didn't respect me. It's not anyone else's job to make you happy, just you. This helped me a lot. Take time to absorb its message. Hope this helps, good luck.

I bought my son 'How much is a million' which helps to visualise big numbers including a million, billion & trillion (if a billion children stood on each others shoulders...)

NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children

Parenting From the Inside Out

The Whole-Brained Child