There's Nothing New Here

[sonya_post]

I think we will find a group of people much like everyone else but with a higher overall intelligence. Giving them more choices in life and endless dinner party invitations.

 

[Tamsyn]

You are all amazing.  Just so you know.  I'm not as well read as many of you, I wish I had time for it, but I am learning so much from the crumbs you freely share.

I'm also glad that I'm not the only one that doesn't completely agree with Robert Levy.  He has inspired me and I admire him, but I do disagree on a few things.  He says it's wrong to look for a magic bullet, and hard work is best.  I'm not saying we shouldn't work hard, but by golly, I think YBCR was a magic bullet for Peter!  I worked really hard to try to teach him to read without buying a full curriculum, and I didn't get very far.  I made cards and showed them every day.  I tried making games.  I made videos.  I tried the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons".  I tried Sidney Lesson stuff.  The hard work was there.  My son didn't get it.  Meanwhile here on BrillKids and the yahoo group, my son's peers were reading.  When Peter was 3.5 and still not reading, I broke down and told my husband that we were putting in the money and getting it.  Within a few weeks he was reading.  Now we have Little Reader and I like it even more.  Teaching my 2-year old has been fun and easy because I've discovered, understand, and use a "magic bullet." 

In fact, you might say that my homeschooling style centers on the pursuit and use of magic bullets.  My husband subscribes to a site called life hackers.  The do things like installing bookshelves in wasted spaces, using every-day items to make menial tasks easier or faster.  I love how the father in cheaper by the dozen worked so hard to find the fastest way to do things and said it was because he was lazy.  Work is important.  Knowing how to work is important.  But why do things the hard way just because everyone else is doing it that way.  I call my homeschooling style "education hacker".  If the best way is the old tried and true way, that's what I'll do, but if technology has given us something new and something better, I'm going to go with that.

I also don't agree with the idea that the best math books are colorless and picture less.  I plan on using Saxon, but I think little kids respond well color and pictures because they are more right brained.  They also respond well to kinesthetic things like the abacus and manipulatives.  My kids have had the best math success through media sources like YourChildCanDiscover and Starfall.com.

I didn't finish "Smart Moves, why learning isn't all in your head" before it was due back at the library so I'm not ready to do a full review, but after that and a Brain Gym class a local homeschooler did, I have to say that I am fascinated by how movement helps the body grow and learn.  One mother's dyslexic daughter couldn't read until she had done brain gym for 5 minutes at e start of the day.  It was like that for years.  The author shows children who struggled to write, but after 5 minutes of brain gym they were able to do it.  Brian gym was a magic bullet for these families.  My brief intro to Brain Gym shows me that I haven't taken Doman's physically superb program seriously enough, and the fact that my 9-month old is still scooting across the floor is a testament to that. ( her siblings were early crawlers).  She's starting to stand up but hasn't mastered the criss-crawl, so this is a focus for me right now.  We learn the criss-crawl pattern as babies but Brain Gym is the next step. (Or dancing, or any other activity where the right side crosses to the left side and visa versa).  I have Ruwan (Raymond) to thank for getting me interested in Brain Gym.  It's an important part of what they do at these mid-brain activation schools.  I am definitely pursuing a magic bullet if I think it's more important to teach my kid how to read blindfolded than to force him to do math drills that he doesn't like.  We play at math, but I'm not going to apologize for where my focus is.  When I say I'm trying to get my son ready for Saxon 54, his is what I mean by it.  When I say we will do 5 lessons or 10 hours a week, I'm optimistic that it will take much less than 10 hours.  And I don't think I'm crazy.  If we can crack the mid-brain code, math will come a lot easier for them, as will everything else.  I'm an education hacker.  I might be totally wrong,  but here's to my experiment.   

[FomerlyMrsObedih_Now_BatmansMama]

I love the idea of being an education hacker. Indeed, I am a parent who needs to feel she has the best tools for the job - because I know I do not have the patience or talent to get results without.

Sonya_post thanks for your thoughts, I think you got very much to the heart of the matter, when people ask what difference EL makes, they should be asking instead what difference do they want it to make. I don't have an ideal career choice for my son, I'd be just as happy if he became a lecturer as I would if he became a  musician. I don't mind if he isn't the most brilliant mind of this century, but I do want him to know how to learn and be able to do so easily and confidently so he can achieve what he desires. I am not investing in EL to achieve Greatest Mind of the Century status, but to nurture multifaceted abilities in my son, for personal enjoyment and to earn a living. As Mandab mentioned, I do want him to enjoy social/personal interactions with all sorts. This is all part of having  a full life. I believe EL can improve a child tendancy to have 'multiple abilities' but I do not believe it can guarantee genius at all, and I do  not think that's what most parents here are after.

[sonya_post]

Education Hacker: yes, I like saying that. It rolls off the tongue much easier than say "I'm in the Early Learning Closet".

There are somethings, however, I don't think should be hacked. Well, again, this depends on  your goals. So for us, the great books is one of them. I am also starting to think that math is another. All I can do is skirt around the edges of what is starting to formulate in my brain...... I just finished a certification course in Vedic Mathematics. I am now certified to teach. Woot, woot. I took the course to determine if it was something I wanted to incorporate into our Jump Program, if it could supplement Jones Genius or even if it was worth fooling with at all. There is a lot of controversy surrounding it regarding legitimacy. It is worth fooling with and something I plan on incorporating into our math program. Now, I am not so interested in accelerating my kids (meaning mine and the daycare kids) through the early years of math. I think i want them to spend a lot of time playing with numbers and getting to know them and their personality and how they work. Jump does very good job of this and Saxon is sort of good at it (for the record, there is a lot I like about Saxon in the early years). I think RS is probably very good at, from what I've read. I am more inclined to slow down and play LOTS of games, spend time on the abacus, playing with 10 frame cards, dominoes, and dice. After that, I'll be more ready to push them quicker.

My experience with Smart Moves/Brain Gym is connected to a friend who had an adopted child with RAD. We use many of the exercises with Miss C. I should be using them with all the kids but haven't. I went to a conference where they showed before/after brain scans....truly amazing. 

So Tamysn, I want to know why you think mid-brain activation is for real. It borders on the "hoogiboogli" and "fever swamp" territory to me. I am not saying it is not for real, but I have a hard time believing that a child can flip the pages of a book and have it speak to them. I want it to be true. Philip is too young to for the testing. So, I've checked it out and read reviews on Amazon for this kind of thing. I'm still stuck at fever swamp.

Mrs. O - I'm with you. For us, this is a quality of life issue. What does it mean to live "the good life"? For me it is all tied up in the pursuit of "the good, the true and the beautiful". Or if you prefer Mortimer Alder's - Six Great Ideas: Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Liberty, Equality, Justice : Ideas We Judge By, Ideas We Act on

[Tamsyn]

I've been struggling with the philosophy behind mid-brain too.  Not because I ever doubted that it was real, but because my earlier research into it always led me into magick (with a k), and that's a forbidden territory to me because of my faith.  I'm really grateful for the insights from Ruwan.  He is definitely not a magician, he has a very scientific approach to it, so I've ventured to study it again.

It has to do with using a sense we don't fully utilize.  Some call it the third eye, but it stems from the pineal gland in the brain.  The pineal gland has many rods and cones just like the eye, which has puzzled scientists because there is no light there.  The pineal gland interprets electricity.  We are electric beings with currents.  I have enough experience with muscle testing, reflexology, and energy work to understand this.  I also believe that we are spririts in a physical body.  Call it a spirit or call it an aura, kirlian photography is picking up something.  I'm sending this message from a small tablet which will wirelessly send my message all over the world instantly.  It's not magic.  So if there is a part of the brain that is designed to interpret electricity, why should it be so strange that my brain is more powerful than the man-made device in front of me?

Not only are living things electric, but every thing has an electric energy.  I was going to link to a post on the TweedleWink Facebook page on Aug 31st where they talk about it, but they took it down.  I did post an excerpt so I do have this;

The right brain is photographic and receives images through visual and "other" pathways. This is very common with children and adults whose right brain pathways are sensitive and open.

Everything has a frequency. Each word has a vibration and sends energetic, electrical information outward--forming a color/shape in space as well as a feeling. Students who are blind or those with "second sight" depend on their frequency intake in order to receive these currents to learn more about the world around them. It's simply another sense... commonly referred to as the "sixth sense."

One of my early- learning friends who isn't active here is my partner in trying to figure is out.  Raymond has been so helpful.  She went to the mid-brain activation center in California (www.midbrain.com).  She assures me that it's real.  They were so surprised to have a white person show interest.  As we have gathered bits and pieces about what they do, we realized that a lot of it is the same as what they do in the Wink program, so we are taking that very seriously.  ( my package is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday!). Things like photo eye play, photographic memory, and most importantly, getting into that deep relaxation mode known as the alpha state.  At the midbrain center, Ashly discovered that the first day they mostly listen to music.  As I have become more aware of that, I can actually say that I've had an experience with this.  I woke up in the middle of the night in this state and noticed that there was light of some kind in my eyes.  This has happened before, but I usually ignore it and wake up.  This time I tried to maintain it and focus on it.  To my surprise, the distinct shape of the floral patterns on my sheets came into view.  I got excited and woke up more and the image was gone.  I can't replicate it or call that ability at will, but I have had two other experiences with it as well.  I don't think this ability is limited to children.  I also know that my ability to remember and even control my dreams may have helped, and my diet doesn't need to be changed to detox my pineal gland.  That's why many adults struggle to activate it, I think.  Children haven't been as exposed to toxins that clog it up.

I know it sounds kind of crazy, but then again, ten years ago the idea of teaching babies to read sounded crazy to me.  Here I am doing it.  It's time for the next step.

By the way, my husband read my post and said he doesn't think "magic bullet" is the right word.  It's more like a greased bullet that goes faster, or a better gun to do the job.  We don't want to take shortcuts as much as find the best way to get it done.  Right now we are playing a lot of math games to develop that part of the brain, but we are holding off on drilling multiplication memory.  Instead we are focusing on the ability to memorize things quickly and easily.  We are memorizing fun picture sequences with silly stories.  Soon enough memorizing math facts will be easier for him because we have built up the neural paths for memory.  I have heard that mid-brain activation doesn't make you smarter, it simply upgrades your brain.  I like that terminology.  No shortcuts, just faster transportation.

That's what I'm hoping for anyway.  I'm still a newbie with very little experience with it.

[Tamsyn]

Disclaimer:  the Wink program does not advertise itself as a mid-brain activation product.  While with my own research I have seen similarities, they are only my friend and my own observations.  Nor do I think that the Wink product alone would be enough to activate the mid-brain.  Still, there are students of Wink that have developed ESP or intuition.

[Tanikit]

I've skimmed some of the posts here so excuse me if I miss things. Sonya you are right - we do need to decide what we hope to accomplish with EL. My children are second generation ELs - my mother taught my sister to read at 2 years of age and my twin brother and I learnt early too though not as early (I think managing 3 small children at once may have had something to do with this) My sister has also taught her child many things early and both children who now should have been in school are advanced.

So why do we do it? Partly because that is how we were brought up and education is important to us. I have started doing coursera courses just because I can and to learn things that I do not have to use in my job or in my life (and that do not cost anything) But I think the main reason is that I want my children to have choices and feel that an early education will give them more choices than if I left it. My child can still decide to do a non academic job when she gets older if she wants to - she doesn't need to feel pushed into a professional career if she doesn't want to, but she will be able to if she does want to.

Just like I said that the argument here is about commericalism and selling products, I think much of the world has become very materialistic - many people say they want the early education so that their child can get ahead and compete in the world and if this is important to them (and it is to many people) then that is a reason to pursue it. Mostly though it is a competition for money. I am hoping that through homeschooling I can also teach my child that while money is necessary and competition is good, that relationships are even more important. I can have the best job in the world, be the most educated and be extremely wealthy and not feel fulfilled. We all know this, but I think sometimes the aquisition of money and even education is easier and more readily measured than the aquisition of good relationships. I hope that through early learning I can also get a good relationship with my children and I think this is one of the things that can be gained as long as it is done right.

[sonya_post]

Part of this thread has gone completely off topic.   I am going to start a new thread on mid-brain activation....


Tanikit, as a 2nd generation ELer, what do you see is the biggest difference between yourself and say the peers you grew up with? Do you think that is because of EL or perhaps because of your mother?

.

[Korrale4kq]

My mum did EL with me also. So I guess My son is second generation ELer too.
My mum taught me to read early and I did lots of flash cards.  I had no idea about all this until she told me all the stuff I do with my son was stuff I loved to do when I was little.

One thing I should note. My mum never used a program with me. But she did use flashcards and played games. But she mostly read to me. Then I read to my sister. I read lots of complete sets encyclopaedias when I was a kid, including the entire encyclopaedia macro media when I was in High School.
I loved reading. And I loved math. I think alegbra is fun. I loved doing math like people enjoy crossword puzzles.  I never studied math in school beyond 10th grade however I tutored the hardest level Math for people in 12th grade. Just because I got it easily. In math class I never listened. I read other books instead. I would read my textbook right before a test and ace the test.

Am I highly successful? Umm probably not by most people's standards. But I think I am. I am extremely happy as a wife and a mother to my son. I didn't have the drive for a career like others. I wanted to do stuff. But most importantly I wanted a family. I am a homebody. It is who I am.

Things that I do well? I can read extremely fast. As a child/teen I had partial eidetic memory when it came to written words. I was able to read an entire libretto from a musical and then sing along as I listened to a soundtrack for the first time because I was able to read the words in my head. I can't really do this anymore, mostly because I just don't do it.  I don't need to and I never practice. I am sure if I did practice I could do it again.

I learn things rapidly. And I can do a great many things from being self taught. Anything from fixing a garbage disposal to baking.
I LOVE to learn. I am constantly reading and teaching myself stuff. Even as a young child I was always doing my own projects of things that I was interested in. I remember when I was 6 doing a project on birds with pictures and little paragraphs. I did this on summer holidays for fun!

I have a better than most memory I believe. I remember a lot from my childhood. I don't think my memory is as great as it used to be. But many friends have commented on how amazing it is.

I loved primary school. I was pulled out of normal math class and put into advanced problem solving, critical thinking math classes. I loved them.... I always got high distinctions national math competitions each year and i loved Tornument of the Minds. All this until I moved school and I was put into remedial math because I could not do my times table rotely. I didn't need rote I just knew the answers. So I stumbled.

I excelled at sports. I was a sprinter. And I was reserves for states and I never trained a day in my life. I did states for cross country and I am not a distance runner. And I did well at swimming, always placing, not because I was a good swimmer but because I had natural athleticism. I moved school and because I was poor and didn't do Little Athletics I was not allowed to compete on sports day. However in 12th grade, after not competing for 5 years I made it to districts for 100m, 200m and long jump.

I studied clarinet and my first year became lead clarinet doing better than children that had been doing it for 2 years. Once again, once we moved  we could not afford to buy a clarinet and the school didn't loan so I stopped playing.

Moving from an excellent school to a subpar school hurt me a lot. I was well known in my school. I did well in all classes and loved school and enjoyed extra curricula. I became the new girl, teased and ridiculed. I was a lot smaller than my peers,  I had no chance for extra curricula and got put in remedial classes. I was completely bored and withdrew a lot. And went from outgoing to introverted. It wasn't until I was 18 that I moved far away and became an extrovert, had confidence in who I was and I liked myself again.

[Korrale4kq]

I have had 2 official IQ tests done in the past.
At 14 or 15  I measured at 148
As an adult in my early to mid 20s. Maybe when I was 23 I scored at 136.

Interestingly my friends in highschool also achieve scores from 140 to 160. The friend that archived 160 is possibly the most intelligent being I have ever met.

[Tamsyn]

Thank you, Korrale for sharing your story.  I know there are a lot of us that are curious about EL kids when they get older, so we appreciate your sharing details about your youth.  Karma!

[sonya_post]

i 2nd that

[FomerlyMrsObedih_Now_BatmansMama]

Hear hear.

[sonya_post]

BTW Korral - You've lost your memory because you gave birth. It's true. Brain cells leach from your skull with every delivery. Some claim that you can recover and they grow back right around the time you hit menopause. At which time, your cells flow directly out of your ears while you sleep. You die before those can be replaced. 

[Korrale4kq]

Sonya! I swear it is true. Being pregnant made my mind deteriote. But I remember reading about a study that claimed that baby brain was not real. An Aussie study I think. The results were out about the time my son was a few months old.

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