Flash Cards

When my wife asked me to listen to a salesman selling flash cards, my first reaction was... "Gosh..Are these people crazy?" I sat in the presentation for 1 hour, nothing went into my head, except that I memorized the title of the following book.

It took me 4 days to finish reading the book...(plus night). The book basically introduced Dr Glenn Doman's research i.e. how baby brain develops, and how stimulus helps. I am convinced. I shared with my friends and 7 of us bought the product in group to get a group discount. Due to this, the salesman recruited me as his agent. Each of the following books is teaching a different topic, but the main concept remains the same.

Other than words, one can flash a picture of a dog, and tell 10 things about the dog. Never simplify to say "wow-wow" but use a precise words such as "puppy", "Alsation", "Boxer", "Bull Dog" etc. The main concept thought by Dr. Glenn Doman is that baby wants to learn. So, it's adult's duty to stimulate learning by giving facts and explanations.

The other topics is the dots (Maths)... Baby will not have concept of "1", "2"... but one can flash dots representing the number. At one point, I played a game with my son to race towards one of the "11 dots" and "twelve dots". Even adult, one needs to count but my son could memorize (I guess) and he got it right twice in a row.

Why am I convinced? Dr Glenn Doman's gave good explanation in his book. For example, the book discussed about the experiment results on the number of brain cells comparison between two group of mice. First group is put on a huge rotating disc opened to stimulus. And the other group is enclosed in a black box. The group having exposed to stimulus has more brain cell in average. Another example is from observation about a kidnapped child who was left growing up in a confined dark room. The poor child could not grow although the child received enough food and water. This shows that "stimulus" is needed. And finally, Dr Glenn Doman's method was used to treat brain injured child and to some extend, the results has been shown.

Now, where can you buy those cards? The salesman who sold me the card is no longer in business. However, I found out that the following site in Singapore offers similar product.
Other site from US is The Gentle Revolution

Other alternative is to use DVD...(to be shared later)

Spelling -- Hooked on Phonics Material Revisit!

This morning, my son showed me his spelling test results. Other than one time he misspelled one word, he scored full marks in his spelling tests this year. Certainly he deserved my praises. To be honest, I did not even supervise him anymore since almost a year ago. He managed his spelling test almost all by himself.

My son told me that learning "Spelling" is quite fun and easy. I can see that he has very strong foundation in spelling, thanks to the Hooked on Phonics and Hooked on Spelling.

For your convenience, I will paste the link to the product from Amazon website:

Hooked on Phonics




Hooked on Spelling






However, to be honest, I know some of my friends are not successful in using the same material. Here are some tips from them that might benefit you:

[1] Don't start too early... The recommended age is 4 years old. My son started at 3.5 years old, and we were having a hard time as the first few pages took us more than 3 months. I do not see this problem with my daughter now.

[2] Don't start too late... a friend of mine started the material at the age of 3... but his daughter found it too difficult. When he used it again at the age of 5.5, she found it too easy and somehow, my friend could not raise the interest.

[3] Make full use of the games and stickers... and remember to praise. For some reasons, some of my friends did not use the stickers.. or perhaps not giving enough praises... They were not successful in using the material.

[4] Never kill interest... Stop when the child is bored. Every child is different. I notice that my daughter can concentrate less compared to the brother. So, I have to adjust the teaching time accordingly.

[5] Don't start Hooked on Spelling until you are about to start level 2! I have a friend who starts Hooked on Spelling at the age of 5-6, and I heard that she is not doing well either.

Regarding primary school spelling test, my observation is that I am taking the right approach to empower my son to learn spelling all by himself. I can see that he is taking a lot of pride in his good work, and he is motivated to continue to do well. Without supervision, he can enjoy the spelling test better!

I would like to thank all my friends who feedback to me about their findings. And also to thank the author, and to thank God that I was lucky to start at the right timing. I hope I can repeat the same success story for my daughter!

Please share your experience with us too by leaving a comment below!

Update 2015: This product is now available in SG. I prefer the older version better though...