I know some people think I'm bizarre in that I make nerdy little videos for my kids. In the past, I've explained how that came about (just look at the early posts of this blog.) It does back up long held assumptions on my part that I have begun to discover actually have a good bit of scholarly support.
At the behest of a friend, I read an old and short little book called "Amusing Ourselves to Death." It really nailed home for me what TV can do to a brain. I suggest everyone read that book. It's not directed towards raising children, but the message is applicable to them as well as you parents. I'll add a link to the book if I can track it down.

Last week, there was an article in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics that, again, hammered home how bad stupid TV can be for you and your kids. Mind you, I add the word "stupid" in there for a reason. Obviously, I don't believe that just because an idea is presented on a screen that it is somehow bad.

Here's a link to the super brief summary of the study with the full text available in a link to the top right of the page.

The Immediate Impact of Different Types of Television on Young Children's Executive Function

Dolch First Grade Words Up

Dolch First Grade Words video is up on Youtube, now.

Here's the video... :-)



Even though it's just a few inches down the page, here's the post with a little more info on Dolch Sight Words and why they're so important to reading English.

The other three aren't even made, yet, but I hope to have them up on YouTube in the next couple of days. If you watch these & have any suggestions, feel free to let me know. You can find me on Youtube at http://www.facebook.com/Roopull.

Lazy Dad = Great Dad!

After my first son was born, for a variety of reasons, I took a job at night. One of the benefits of this was that we could keep our son out of daycare and at home with his parents. When he was under a year old, this seemed like a good idea. I slept when he slept (which was a good part of the day.) However, as he got older and needed fewer naps, the struggle for me to find time to rest was just that... a struggle!

It wasn't long before I started making little home movies for him to watch. They were simple affairs, really. 45 seconds of his mommy singing a song to him, 30 seconds of me singing the alphabet song, a few clips of his grandmother talking to him... these were all low effort productions, but he loved them. When I realized just how entranced he was with watching us on TV, I started making longer and longer videos. I'd put him in the very kid friendly living room, turn on one of his videos, and I'd cat-nap for 30 minutes. It worked out great!

Well, when trying to decide what to put into those videos, I naturally added a few educational bits here and there. There was a clip of us holding up various items and announcing their color, us counting, and other simple little things. We had no idea how well this would work out, but knew it couldn't really hurt anything.

Well, to my surprise, by the time he was 18 months old, he was singing the ABCs and KNEW them by sight! My mother in law still brags on him by telling people of how he'd read off the numbers and letters on her car's license plate. That's what got me so interested in using videos to teach. The interesting thing was that I could be standing right next to the TV doing the EXACT same thing I was doing on the video, but he'd rather watch me ON THE TELEVISION than he would in person! Baffling!

He's five, now, and nothing has changed. No matter how boring I think a video is that I've made, he'll watch it through multiple times. If it's a "good" video, they can't be watched enough!

So, my attempts to find a way to take a nap turned into one of the things my mother in law brags about!

I've attempted to talk friends and family into making their own home videos, but I suppose you have to be interested in that sort of thing in the first place for that to sound appealing. This is a big part of why I've made the educational videos that I have... so I can share them with others. I've simply re-made the ones I made for my son without my wife and I in them. Our not being in them doesn't seem to take much away in their appeal, so hopefully, they'll be appealing for your kids, too.



But... But... they're BORING!

Yes, they are. I noticed that the more things I added to a video to make them interesting, the less effective they were at actually teaching. Don't get me wrong, I still make videos that have lots of entertainment value, but the more basic and simple they are, the better. So, while I do have videos with music, graphics and people, I'm focusing on videos with as few distractions as possible. For example, studies have shown that the simple presence of a face is highly distracting to a viewer. So, if I were in one of the Sight Words videos, instead of focusing 100% on the printed word, their attention would be drawn to my face for part of the video. That's counterproductive... not to mention the fact that my face isn't much to look at in the first place!

So, forgive me... my videos are boring to you! But, I'd be willing to wager that if your learner is part of the target audience, and you turn the TV and radio off, they'll be more than interested in what's going on on the screen... particularly if you participate.

Dolch Kindergarten Sight Words Video is Up!

Well, after wrestling with the uploader at Youtube, I finally managed to get it to accept my upload.

In case you don't know what Dolch Sight Words are, here's a very brief explanation: When you're reading, you actually only READ a very small portion of the words. You're actually looking at the shape of the word or the "picture" of the word. For example, you've "read" the word "word" several times by now, but not once did you go through the exercise of sounding out the "w" sound, the dominant "r" sound in "or," nor did you ponder what sound that "d" makes. No, you glanced at the basic shape or picture the letters make & you knew the word without having to read it. This is very much how people read those "funny looking" words in Chinese... they and you have memorized the "picture" of thousands of words.

The Dolch Sight Words lists are the most commonly used words in the English language. They're all fairly simple words and easy to learn. For a young learner, they're a great starting point. If they can learn these words, the words they'll actually have to "sound out" will be minimal. The Dolch Sight Words are divided up into five lists based on difficulty. They start with pre-K, and go through 3rd grade. I have found, however, that with a little help and encouragement, a pre-k kid has no problem learning them all (especially if nifty videos are used!)

These lists are also great for people learning English as a second language for the exact same reasons. I also used these lists and videos for my grandmother after she'd had a stroke and lost her ability to read.

The videos are quite simple, and I've made them that way on purpose. If you're familiar with my Youtube channel, you know I can - at times - go a bit overboard with editing and special effects. However, those don't serve these videos well. The Sight Words flash on the screen for three seconds and are accompanied by a clear pronunciation. I didn't want them to be too slow, because the goal is to get people to read them "by sight," not by sounding them out (thus the name "Sight Words.")

If you're helping someone learn to read and use these videos, have them watch the video and repeat the word. After they begin to say the word independent of hearing it, start muting the audio when familiar words pop up. Eventually, they can be weened off the audio all together!

Only one is on Youtube, so far.
Kindergarten Dolch Sight Words
The others will be up as soon as Youtube and my ISP play nice with each other.

As always, comments, suggestions and requests are welcomed! If you like the videos and/or this blog, please subscribe and share with your friends!

What software do I use?

Well... that's easy.

Okay, maybe not so much.


For producing my videos, I actually use a variety of programs depending on what I'm wanting to do. If you're willing to actually learn all the ins and outs of the program and use it creatively, you can actually make some pretty impressive movies with Windows Movie Maker that comes with any PC.

Outside of that, to do nicer transitions, layers and effects, you'll be wanting something a bit nicer... and a bit more expensive. I've used at least a half dozen top tier programs and have one that I think is far superior to the rest.

Introducing Cyberlink's Power Director 9 Ultra 64!


This lovely little program can do just about everything any other program can do. It has fancy transition, cool particle effects, nice video effects, an easy interface and much more. While some programs do certain things better, Power Director 9 has a lethal little Ace up it's sleeve. It's that "Ultra 64" part.

Most any of the top tier programs can do anything the others can. Sure, some have a couple of nifty tricks, but in the end, they don't make a huge difference. Once you've created your content, edited the thing beyond recognition and decided what kind of file you want to produce, every single one of these programs ends with the same step: PRODUCE.

That's where the "Ultra 64" bit comes in. No video editing software on the market uses hardware acceleration when producing your finished file except Power Director 9 Ultra 64 (man, what a mouthful!) I have literally had to wait HOURS for other software to produce a movie. With "Ultra 64," not a single video has taken more than a couple of minutes.

It's not just in the production of finished videos where the speed of this program shines. All throughout the editing process, the program just zooms. If you're looking to only get ONE program to edit videos, this is it.


But, seriously, Windows Movie Maker. If you're creative, you can do some pretty impressive stuff with it. The biggest tip to making "complex looking" videos with a simple program is to remember that you don't have to do all the editing at once. For example, if you want to do multiple titles on the same video, you can't readily do that with Movie Maker. But, you CAN put one title on the video, produce it, then open the produced file and add the second title to it then... Just be creative...

Ug... uploading a nightmare!

So, obviously, I upload videos to Youtube from time to time. If you go to my channel and see the videos uploaded, keep in mind that's only about half of what's there. The other half are videos I have marked private for a variety of reasons.

Anyhow, I have always had problems uploading to Youtube. I have tried via Sprint's mobile data connections, ATT's DSL, T-Mobile's 4G network and a variety of WiFi hotspots around town. Invariably, the video gets mostly uploaded & then fails for whatever reason.

ARRRG!

Mind you, it can take over an hour to upload a video!

I've been trying to upload the 1st Dolch Sight Words video for the bulk of the day. It annoys the snot out of me that, even when spending the amount of cash I spend for data connections, I cannot upload much of anything.

Counting in English!

One of the most basic of things to learn is how to count. For children, stroke victims or people learning English as a second language, this is also a critical first step towards becoming fluent.

The two videos linked are designed with this in mind. They're simple and clear. While to parents or others who are fluent, this seems "boring," to a learner, the simplicity is priceless.

The "Counting to 30" video is a bit older (and the production quality proves that out,) but the "Counting to 100" video is brand new. The "100" video includes not just the numbers, but also the words spelled out. Videos of this type have helped both my sons and my stroke-victim grandmother learn the numbers, and I hope they are helpful to you, too!

I welcome any comments, suggestions and requests. If you do find these as helpful as I hope you do, please pass them along to friends!

Counting to 30

Counting to 100