Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Little Skywalker vs. Flashcards

After reading about using flashcards on their son at Loopy Meals (yes, I actually started this blog after being inspired by the Tan family... so thank you James for the inspiration... and hopefully we can meet some days so that our kids can have a clean mano-a-mano), J and I have decided to try it on Little Skywalker. So instead of getting him another toy that he will play for about 15 minutes before throwing it around, we got him two set of flashcards to start off with.

J was having a tough time picking through (even opened some of them) the 20 over sets of cards that was on display at the Popular Bookshop in Kepong Jusco that she finally gave up and push the task to me pulak. I just picked out two for "First Words" and "Alphabets and Colors" and headed straight to the cashier before J start a whole discussion on whether they are the RIGHT ones.

At home, I opened both of the flashcards set and started browsing through them while Little Skywalker was doing his "business" in front of the TV. He loves the TV by the way and specifically "The Rembrandts - I'll be there for you". I picked out the few items that Little Skywalker is familiar with to start off.

I put a picture of a familiar item next to an unfamiliar item and asked him to point out the familiar item. Surprisingly, he did so with little effort.

(Skywalker 1 - Flashcards 0)

Then, I put two familiar items next to each other and asked him to point out each item one after another. He looked at them for a moment and completed the task as well. J was beginning to think that our little boy may be a genius (Why are mothers always like that?).

(Skywalker 2 - Flashcards 0)

After that, I gave him a more difficult task by arranging 4 cards in a row and ask him to point out a specific item. Ahhhh.. finally he looks confused and puzzled... then he try to scramble those cards together to show sign of objections. I guess he is no Einstein afterall as J previously suspected.

(Skywalker 2 - Flashcards 1) - But Skywalker wins with a technical "scramble-out" !!

I look at those flashcards myself, some of them are really tough! Words like xylophone or hippopotamus aren't meant for a kid with four teethes. Furthermore, one of them even show an axe, hmmm... well to cultivate violence thoughts huh! I notice J and my parents sometimes try to teach Little Skywalker to say some words that sounds the same and yet refer to different things. To a one year old kid, that is just screwing him in the brain! Hence, I asked J to find different words to represent each item (even in different language is fine) so that poor Skywalker will not require psychological treatment at such a young age...

Another thing... one of the set of flashcards that I bought actually has real pictures of items taken. I personally do not think a small kid would like that very much, I think small kids would prefer a cartoonist illustration of "Nemo" instead of a photo of some fish.

Just my two cents...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 7/05/2005 11:00:00 AM :: and invited 1 Blah(s):

1 Blah(s) by:  ThatJames,

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