Right Brain Training : Glenn Doman's Encyclopediac Cards

From an educator's point of view, I have always believed that education should be engaging, concepts are best learnt concretely, experiences of children should be one that they can remember for a long time even after they are done with school... that they were given vast opportunities to explore. Learning explorations offers curiousity in children and opens up minds. Hence, this interactive approach was my driving force when nurturing my students and my own children later on when I became a parent myself. 

From a parent's perspective, I wanted to maximize my children's potential to the best of their abilities. Understanding their learning styles would be a bonus so I could tap on their early sensitive periods to perhaps provide more stimuli.

From a mainstream advocate to a Montessori convert and now a Glenn Doman noob... I am always open to discovering different ways of imparting knowledge to young children since as it is, each child is born with traits unique to their own and with individual capabilities we can look to nurture.

Having raised two girls, having to care for my boys is a totally different experience. I never knew raising boys would be so much fun and so much more to learn about how they learn. Parents everywhere always cite short attention span as one of the challenging factors when handling boys. But boys being boys are supposed to uppity and bouncy... playful and fun... fearless and curious.

I embarked upon the journey of chanelling all that bountiful energy into honing their skills with right-brain training... and I found Glenn Doman.

I was trawling the net for information on right-brain training... one that I used to stereotype that it was more for boys than girls. Of course I was wrong. I was wrong to stereotype in the first place. Education is for every one and because each child was built differently, these varying methods of education help to diversify how education is being introduced to children. I know I said I was open to all forms of education methodologies but I have been skeptical of right-brain training and its advantages, well... till now.

My tiger_chubs is my third-born child born in the year of the Tiger.. now two. A terrific-two stage for me. For us.. We love how hungry he is for learning new things.. how patient he is with repetition work.. how cute he is when he expresses himself every single day.

He has worked with Montessori apparatus since he was about 14mths old with the treasures I have amassed over the years from teaching days and also from scrimping my SAHM allowances past 10 years. Apart from that, we read to him a lot.. sing to him i think almost every moment of his waking hours.. and we dance together every chance we get.  We encourage his endless questions and laugh a lot over many of the most intriguing thoughts in that handsome little head of his. His first quiet moment was when I first introduced him to Glenn Doman's Encyclopaedic Cards. I loved the realistic illustrations on the GD cards and how because they were pretty big, they display details clearly for every picture and of course the generous detailed information behind every card was a lifesaver for non-encyclopaedic parents like moi. Why was he quiet? 

Aaaahh... because he was interested.

I am poor at flashing.. just like how I am equally not that nimble with sewing.. so I show him the cards at my own speed rate. Please don't judge me. LOL! Apart from being a noob at this, I am also not that determined. Read : lazy. But chubs never once judged me (he doesn't know yet) for my shortcomings and welcomed the input I flash at him every (other) day at different intervals of the day/week depending on how much time I have with him to work these fun stuff.

I thought it strange that he just looked while I flashed and that I didn't have to get any input from him. He kept quiet the first three days when I showed him the amphibians set of cards. So I thought... blahh.. just as I expected. No response. Nothing sinked in. I almost scoffed at the lack of response as if I had all the while expected it. Very wrong, I know... So... I skipped the flashing on the 4th day and on the 5th day, he asked to have the cards shown to him. So I said ok and did one round of it. He just kept quiet again but later requested another and this time, he regurgitated... not all but an impressive regurgitation no doubt from a baby who had barely just turned two. He said his first words at 10mths. One reason why I considered right-brain training for him.. to expand vocabulary. Hee. I don't care if that one close friend I asked for his opinion said that this was clearly human programming. :P *sticking out tongue at ya, dude!*

Chubs went... Goliath Frog.. Glass Frog.. Red-eyed Tree Frog.. Common Mudpuppy.. Oriental Fire Bellied Toad.. etc etc.. I only went ................................. *awestruck* A jaw-dropping moment for me, albeit all that came out was still in baby accent.. perhaps it WAS because chubs identified the cards in such a cuuuute baby slang... that made it all the more awesome!

I worked a few days more with these awesome cards (other themes) and contained my surprise for the rest of the family. One fine day, after buds_hubs came home from work and the girls were chillaxing after finishing homework... I took the amphibians set of cards out at casually asked if he wanted to work with them. He nodded and sat cross legged on the mat. The rest of them were just   quietly catching up with one another's day (my dragon_boi was asleep) until chubs' baby voice broke the silence of the room.

Yes.. the surprise worked. The elder sisters went wide-eyed and said wow do that again.. and hubs went.. did he just say all of those? They requested a replay and chubs didn't disappoint. At the end of that week, hubs told me. "I think he just memorized it. By hard. I bet if you showed him in random order, he won't be able to tell which is which."

PARTY POOPER, I know! Always that hubs of mine! But definitely my neutral gauge.. So I reflected and I experimented. Aniwaes, today chubs shot down that sick thought of his by proving hubs wrong. Like any normal mom, I object to forms of testing without my consent but I was engaged with other things that I was unable to go to his rescue (from being tested by his daddy!) LOL!!!

Hubs took the set of cards with the Organs Of The Body and mixed them up bad (i've never mixed them up before!) and he said, "Chubs, now tell daddy what this is.." "Hmmmph." I went in my heart. This was what happened.

"Brain."

"Pancreas."

"Stomach."

"Lungs."

"Liver."

"Kidney."

"Ekk.. wrong!" "It's heart." (smiling wickedly)

"No, daddy. It's kidney."

Hubs took a look and said nope noppity nope. "It's heart." He replied.

"Kiiiiidney... daddy..." Chubs reiterated almost exasperatedly.

Hubs took another look and turned to the back of the cards. 

It read KIDNEY.

Chubs went chuckling away and finished telling his daddy the names for the other few cards and then went on playing with his toys, unfazed. Atta-go boy! You my chubs.. 

To daddy... boo. Yeh, boo hoo hoo. *rolling on the floor laughing!* Don't care if this is cyberspace. He proved you so wrong darling. Suweet victory for this momma today.. 

More homework to do for me. To read more on Glenn Doman. *wink* Because I went into the flashing before actually reading through the whole instruction/program manual. *sheepish* 

Lesson learnt. Never judge a book by its cover. Never stereotype. Always be open to explore new things so learning will always be an exciting experience for both ourselves and our children. This way they will embrace learning (everything) positively. If at first they don't succeed, they can try other ways. :)

Right Brain Training : Part 2

I once had an invitation to come over for a free trial at a centre that endorsed the Glenn Doman method somewhere in the west. It was a newly set-up centre.

Having recalled some bits of the session from that experience, I tried out with chubs a couple of sessions within a span of two weeks, presenting the Amphibians set to him. Each time only flashed him the set twice. I didn't schedule a specific timing to show him the cards but squeezed the presentations sometimes before our Montessori sessions or at times after. Mostly done during the mornings when chubs was nicely showered and smelling baby fresh.. dressed handsomely and fed. 

Then, it happened.

Yes, just like that.

I was getting chubs to take his shower and while he was showering he simply said.

"Red eyed tree frog."

"Glass frog."

"Goliath frog."

"Common puppy." 
 *Uhmmm... he meant to say 'Common Mudpuppy' here. LOL!

I tried to contain my amazement so I just nodded. When he was trying to think of the next one, I thought I'd prompt a little to see if it might jolt a few more. Yeah yeh.. I know, I was greedy. LOL! So I prodded..

Hmmm... I know.... "Eastern.......?"

Then he finished the word. "Eastern newt."

Then he went, "Yeah!" 

After that, I stopped prodding. If he had more he'd dish it out. Be patient. Be patient. Besides... the other froggie names ain't that easy to mouth hokay. That set had....

> Giant Marine Toad
> Giant Salamander
> Oriental Fire-bellied Toad

....... just to the name a few. So, yes. I was astounded not just because the could manage the many mouthfuls. I was also in sheer awe for chubs was only all of 2 years young! 

Of course, I shared with hubs and he was curious as to how I managed to teach him that. I finally revealed my ehemm hefty investment on the Glenn Doman resources. Hefty by my calculations because we are a single income family. But knowing my fetish, I bought what I thought was worth buying. Value for money. Besides, now with our dragon_boi... I now have all the more reason to splurge a wee more since I'd have two new students to work with. Teheeheee.. 

Then, you know what wave came next? Hubs provided this spoiler : "Eh, d'ya think maybe he memorized all that? As in, he doesn't really know?"

Grrrr.

No words. Just grrrr.. and it got me thinking, sigh... yeeeaahh... mebbe huh? Could be... 

So, I ditched the right brain training for a bit. Then, after only two days off from the last presentation chubs went into the work room and pointed to where the cards were placed. In his babyish voice he said, "Amphibians." "I want, peeass." (please) Oh well, HE requested it! 

So, we did two rounds of it. Then I kept it. I didn't dwell so much on that spark moment but I was inspired to do other sets to see whether it was indeed just a memory thing... like hubs said... which meant to say that chubs didn't actually know what he was saying and that he couldn't apply these things aniwaes.

Then an evening at gramps just validated his (hubs') doubt about the cards and the presentations I have done with chubs thus far.

Gramma was into this cupcake design thingy and she had on her kitchen top varying designs she thought kids would find cute. She even had a few insect designs to show the children! They went awestruck with such delectable pieces. Insects you can actually eat. While they thought it was kinda cool, I was bordering along more to whuh.. naah.. yuck.. I'll pass.

The girls each took one design of a ladybird and a bug. They showed chubs another design and was testing whether he'd eat it.

He looked at the cupcake in wonder and said, "Red-eyed tree frog." Then the hall went silent.

Gramma said. "Wrong... no waita minute, what did he just say?"

The girls replied. "Chubs was right. He said frog. Red-eyed tree frog." Seeing gramma clueless, DD2 went on to explain. "It's a certain type of frog, gramma. It looks like the design on your cupcake."

After seeing his sisters eat their bugs, he looked at everyone and somewhat asking, "I eat?"

All of us nodded simultaneously assuring him he could eat it.

Chubs opened up his mouth slightly and went, "I eat the red-eyed tree frog. Yum."

Well, take that hubsy darling.

I found this while surfing for a pix of the cupcake mom brought back. Couldn't find the exact same design but the only close pics I could take were these..

 

And here is how if you too are interested to make your own froggie snack!

Nope. I didn't try any of the insect-inspired- design cupcakes. No thank you, mom. 

Right Brain Training : Part 1

The thing about education for the young is that there is no one method fix-all. Even as an educator, it is best that we acknowledge the need to constantly seek fresh ideas and perspectives and upgrade our skills as much as we can. Some of the reading material I read shared that boys have more of the right-brain capacity built in them. A few sessions with different lecturers and workshop speakers, I have had the pleasure to listen to their views, their research and their convictions of the difference in educating a boy and a girl. So before I delivered chubs (the 1st boy in our family) had me scouring the internet for a right-brain-training methodology that I could perhaps try with him (when he grew older) if I had the time to... however the search lead a noob like me to choices aplenty. I finally set my eyes on The Glenn Doman® Method. How To : Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge™ and commenced my search for quality Glenn Doman resources apart from his books which I later realized I already own but shelved deep in my resource library. Coming first from mainstream.. followed by Montessori.. then now learning about this training, I was of course initially skeptical. To which I must admit it was normal. I had a gazillion misconceptions and a lack of conviction for the Montessori Methodology too when I first embarked on it. I kept my eyes peeled for value for money bundles and pre-loved encyclopedic cards, for like the Montessori Method, these cards feature life-like illustrations. Taken from the Glenn Doman webbie :-
		"The Encyclopedic Knowledge Program provides  parents with the tools they will need in order to organize and expand what they are teaching. Both parent and child will maximize learning and experience the joy of accomplishment with minimum expenditure of time". I didn't start out the GD cards with chubs immediately because I was lazy. I didn't feel like reading up much either. So, I went ahead with Montessori Education for chubs. It was a natural choice especially since I love hands-on work plus I have all the Montessori resources that chubs needs to start with.  Aniwaes here's sharing some of the titles in my new-found collection :- Biology Amphibians Mammals Butterflies & moths Insects I Not having read the book at all, I randomly picked out a set to work with chubs around the time he started to express himself clearly. I think it was between the time chubs was 14mths to 16mths old. It did nothing much because all the first few presentations, chubs just had a jaded look in his eye but he seemed keenly observant and didn't indicate any objections to the material. I'm no pro in flash carding since I'm not that nimble. So I showed him the cards quickly which didn't quite qualify as flashing like a trained person would do. There was no response from chubs at all but I continued presenting to him every alternate day. Yes, I admit I was lazy... plus remember what I said. I didn't actually believe in this flashing method to begin with. I started with the Amphibians set first to test water.. The programme highlighted interesting returns detailed as below... The program will help you to: 1. Provide baby with a life long love of learning. I found myself nodding to this point as the cards came with extremely detailed information of the pictures they each represented. It was like a set of amphibians' characteristics and facts taken out from an encyclopedia. Aaaaahhh, now I get why they call the sets 'Encyclopedic Cards'.  2. Create his respect for knowledge for its own sake Agree, because later on chubs indeed displayed this respect. 3. Broaden and enrich his vocabulary. 4. Enhance his language development. Oh yes.. these above pointers are VERY true. 5. Increase his sensitivity to surroundings. Chubs seemed to be more observant to nature when I started the set. 6. Nurture his ability to use information to solve problem. 7. Nurture his ability to relate one area of knowledge to another area and draw conclusions. YES! Will share this in the next post on right-brain -training! 8. Enthuse him to teach others. Yes yes! He showed his prowess by sharing what he had learnt to his sisters. Ohh yes... the sister's were floored! *To be continued...*