Nice Cloth Diaper 

Why Flash Cards?

1. Easier: It is easier to teach a two-year-old to read at home than it is to teach a six-year-old at school.
2. A joyous moment for mothers and babies.:  Since babies would rather learn than do anything else in the world, and would rather be with their parents than with anyone else in the world, there are few activities as joyous as learning-to-read sessions.
3. Reading is the very basis of all : If mother teaches her baby to read at one, two, or three years of age he will not fail to learn to read in school at six, seven, or eight years of age.
4. Wondrous thing : It is a wondrous thing for a baby, or child, or an adult to be able to read.
5. Babies are linguistic geniuses:  Babies take in raw facts such as written and spoken words at a rate that no adult could come close to matching.

What to do in each flash cards session?

1. Pick up any number of flash crds.
2. Present the flash cards rapidly to your child at arm’s length.
3. Can flash from the  front to the  back, but the more preferred method is to flash from the back to the front.
4. While flashing the flash cards, read the words rapidly and loudly in a clear, high-pitched and enthusiastic voice.
5. Be excited and joyous all the time.
6. At the end of flashing, jumble up the flash cards. You may repeat the session for any number of times. You may wish to wait for about 5 minutes although there is no harm doing it immediately. It is suggested to flash the flash cards for 3 sessions in one day. If your child does not want it, do not do it. Do not bribe him into seeing it. Find another opportunity. All babies want to learn through play.
7. Always stop before your child wants to stop. This will keep your child’s eagerness, enthusiasm and expectation for the next session of flashing.
8. On the second day, retire 1 or any  number of flash cards and replace it (or them) with the same  number of any number of cards. Remember to be flexible and creative. Always let your child guide you to the level of his thirst of learning at that moment. Chances are, your child will request to see the flashcards.
9. Do the  same on the third day and onwards. The key to successful early learning is to be joyous about the whole process. Remember to smile, smile, smile!
10. At the end of  every session, kiss and hug your child and exclaim how wonderful he is. Give him ‘high-fives’! Tap on his shoulders, anchor him with all the positive messages. Programme into his subconscious mind that he is a super learner. And you love to teach him.

Important tips on successful flash card learning session

1. The conditions required for flashing cards are:

a)      you are light-hearted, happy  and joyous.

b)      Your  child is  well-rested, happy and joyous

c)      A quiet environment, free of distractions. Clear the room if required.

d)      Switch off the TV, take the phone off the hook, and minimize the  unnecessary sounds eg. Transferring pagers and handphones to silent mode.

2. Stop at the time when your child is still keen and interested in the session. It is important not to overdo the sessions. Learning must not be carried out for too long a period of time in view of  your child’s short attention span. Enter into the child’s world rather than pulling him into the adult world. Never, never, never bore your child. Remember, he learns at least 50 times faster than you do!
3. Do not be afraid to teach long words. Long words pose no problems to your child and are in fact interesting and easily recognizable.
4. At the intial introductory flash card session, avoid putting two words that look similar together, eg. ‘head’ and ‘hand’ to minimize possible confusion ( in the ‘look-say’ flashcard method, avoid arranging words phonetically like ‘cat’, ‘bat’, ‘fat’, ‘hat’, ‘mat’, ‘pat’, ‘rat’, ‘sat’. It becomes boring after a time. Try putting ‘oat’ in the series and you will straight away find that it does not fit in. ‘Put’ and ‘but’ do not go together. English has too many foreign words to follow the phonetic way, eg. Choir, lingerie. Operating the phonetic way activates only the left brain.
5. Arrange for your child to win. When your child wins, you win. Act positively by hugging, kissing, praising and motivating your child often. Keep saying ‘very good’ and ‘wow’. He loves to hear you say ‘wow’, ‘marvelous’, ‘fantastic’.
6. Do not underestimate your child’s learning ability. Teach with no stress. If you feel stressed, you are not doing it correctly, or may be the wrong time or place.
7. Be flexible amd creative, always present new arrangements: eg. By telling stories to your child as both of you progress. Let him make up his stories.
8. When you introduce new words, flash them fast.
9. You may want to present a ‘problem solving’ method by holding up 2 flash cards for your child to choose the correct one. If your child takes more than 3 seconds, move or wave the card to give it away to him. If your child right, celebrate! If wrong card is chosen, present the right card. Remember, this is not a test but an opportunity to learn. He is still a baby. Love him unconditionally. Do not spend time testing him. Teach him. You can explain the meanings of the words to your child. Keep it simple.
10. Games that you can play with:

a)      Place the cards on the floor for your child to find eg. ‘mother’, ‘uncle’ …. Pass small items like coins, toy cars, to your child and say , “ give this to ‘mother’, drive your toy car to ‘uncle’.

b)      Hand over pictures for the child to match his cards. Eg. ‘dog’, ‘swim’, ‘apple’.

c)      Teach the ‘memory train’ method by creating stories with flash cards, eg. “One day, a ‘yellow’ bird flew up a ‘tree’. It was singing because it likes to ‘sing’ and it was dancing because it likes to ‘dance’. A ‘horse’ was eating ‘grass’ below the ‘tree’. On seeing the ‘bird’, it started to ‘laugh’. And invite your child to laugh crazy like a ‘horse’.