Wink - Right Brain Kids Package - Do I need everything?? Any key purchases?

[TheyCan]

I'm finally looking to purchase the Wink program and I'm seeking the advise of some experienced users !  Is there anyway I can avoid purchasing the entire kit?  Do I NEED the PhotoEyeplay dvd if we have the TW DVDs that include this exercise. Should I hold off on the $50 "Step 7" of Photographic Memory and Speed Reading until we've done the other steps frequently?  Are there any ipad apps that are just as good or better for any of the steps?  Also, am I correct in asssuming that the overview book is a required purchase for understanding how to use all the materials?  Thank you so much for any insight!

[Mandabplus3]

If you have an early reader you could definitely hold off on the speed reading section. They generally start to speed read almost automatically at some point.
Gosh I honestly can't answer the rest though. I would have to really scratch my head.   
how old is the child you are aiming training at?
The program is good. There are many items and games that can be made at home easily enough. Silly sentences being easily replicated at home once you try. Some of the memory games can be also. Once your read up on the games and look through the items you might be able to not purchase a number of things. Having them all in a ready to go kit though is very convenient.
I am not sure which book you mean, if you could post a link to the book I could tell you ( if I have it) how important it is.

[TheyCan]

Thank you for your response!  My son is 5 1/2.  The guide book is "Wink Program Overview and Guide. 
http://store.rightbrainkids.com/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage5/product_id,152/category_id,30/manufacturer_id,0/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,26/

I'm not really familiar with all the wink exercises (such as silly stories) - so it would be nice to read some sort of detailed instruction.  I don't know if there's a good online source for this?  Or if the book is the best source? 

I

If you have an early reader you could definitely hold off on the speed reading section. They generally start to speed read almost automatically at some point.

I'm very curious about this.  My son is a pretty fast reader.  For example, he can read a Narnia book in an evening.  I haven't given this a ton of thought - I assumed that it's not the photographic reading (that Wink teaches) since I haven't done anything at all to teach him that method. I guess I just don't understand early readers and speed reading??  I would be very eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions!   

[Mandabplus3]

I will check out the link and find some good examples for silly sentences later.
The speed reading your son is doing is likely to be a combination of regular speed reading and The photographic speed reading. Honestly since he has one of them already I really wouldn't be too concerned about photographic speed reading. However photographic memory would still be worth aiming for.  So doing excersizes to enhance visual memory and instant recognition would be worth the time. Photo eye play and mandalas would be my recommendation. And perhaps showing colourful picture cards for a second or two and then asking questions about the pictures ( show a hot air balloon photo for 2 seconds then cover it and ask " what colour is the balloon? what is the weather like? How many people were in the basket? ) this will teach him to pay attention and take in details quickly.
There are many many early readers who take to speed reading automatically. Since they are never taught to say each word as they point to it like school kids are they have freedom to develop a faster and more stable, flowing eye for reading which in turn allows for faster reading. They also have more practice than your average kid at actually reading copious amounts of material! Now that is just my personal ideas based on the examples I see among Early readers. There is no science studies to back it up yet. There is never any science studies for EL though......
I thought my daughter the photographic reading method using the ideas from Speed Reading for Kids book but I never bought the book I just used this rather thorough summary here
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/stancliffe59.html

[Mandabplus3]

This forum thread has a good bit of information in it for you. shenli's blog is loaded with great right brain stuff DO check it out. she is also here in the forum if you need to ask a question.
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-other-topics/jaykob-using-memory-magic/
My kids mastered the memory train software in my matter of weeks and I then printed out about 200 picture cards so they could make up their own silly sentances and play silly sentance games with each other. They got really good at it and actually got bored with the game before they forgot the order! They had no trouble doing silly sentances up to 50 but usually lost interest between 60-100....it is much more valuable to be able to make up your own silly sentances to 20 than to memorise someone else's to 50. By making up your own you can actually use the tool in real life to remember things like shopping lists or school test facts.
I haven't read that book so I can't help you there. Sorry. I would love to know if it gives any more game ideas though!
anyone????

[Lappy]

What happened to MamaofWill's review on Tweedlewink and Little Reader?  Can we please get that post back?

[Skylark]

Its right here, Lappy -- http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-to-read/little-reader-vs-tweedlewink/msg103234/?topicseen#new

Just a different thread, that discusses TW specifically. BTW, MamaofWill and Tamsyn, thank you for detailed review! I am sure many members will appreciate it! 

As far as Wink Book, that comes with the full course. I have it ( just recently got it) and I will work on writing an overview of it    Will keep everyone posted!

[TheyCan]

Thank you for your responses and suggestions!

 

There are many many early readers who take to speed reading automatically. Since they are never taught to say each word as they point to it like school kids are they have freedom to develop a faster and more stable, flowing eye for reading which in turn allows for faster reading. They also have more practice than your average kid at actually reading copious amounts of material! Now that is just my personal ideas based on the examples I see among Early readers. There is no science studies to back it up yet. There is never any science studies for EL though......

This makes a lot of sense to me.  Thank you very much for explaining this  and pointing me in the right direction!  And it was great seeing the Memory Magic software in action!   I'm excited  to finally dive more  into  some right brain activities!  I'll look for some more resources and look forward to hearing about the book , Skylark!

[CVMomma]

I was trying to look into the memory magic, but the link from the BK shop doesn't work and I found several other companies named memory magic when I googled it, but I haven't been able to find the memory magic that Jaycob was playing in the link Manda gave. 

[Mandabplus3]

Here is a link for you so you know what we used. I shall Check out the forum link and get it fixed also. 
http://www.acceleratedlearningmethods.com/memory-magic.html
Honestly I can't remember where I bought it or how much I paid.....somewhere under $50 possibly $29....most likely I got it through the link on this forum. 

I forgot to add they have some of the games as apps for the iPad and they are REALLY convenient! Since each game only takes a few minutes it's really handy having the Instant login of an iPad over waiting for the laptop to boot up.

[Tamsyn]

I have the Wink program and it's amazing.  It's just one of those things that I haven't fully used yet.  How silly to make that kind of investment and not use it, but that's life.  Manda is right that you could put together everything yourself.  For that matter, there isn't anything on Little Reader that I couldn't do myself with homemade flashcards or power point, but time is worth something too, and the materials in Wink will save you a lot of time.  The materials are very different from TW, and they build on it.  The photo eye-play has a different focus.  Instead of flashing opposite colors back and forth, you see and image and focus on creating the after image on a blank screen, or a blank card if you are using the flash cards.  We have used the mental imaging before going to bed and the kids love it.  It's very good for relaxing- similar to the kind of things in my hypno-birthing CDs.  I'll look over the materials, make some notes, and give a better overview in a day or two.  I have only skimmed through the book, but it seemed to be well done.

[Skylark]

Yes, I like the Wink Program. We got it from ebay a while ago, but because the video materials were on the VHS tapes it took me a while before starting to utilize it little by little.

We have not done much with the actual program yet  . But as I am reading their Program Manual I started to realize how many Right Brain activities we were already incorporating into our daily routine. Most of the ideas I got here on the Forum, some from reading about Shichida program.

Reading through the Manual helps me to organize my thoughts thought, and see things in perspective. It is written very clearly and simply, I liked that. It almost feels like a summary of a longer work. For example when I red Shichida books I needed to take notes, here it feels like these are the notes. And it works great for a busy parent, even though I would have enjoyed a bit more explanation and in-depth information on some points 

I am putting some of my notes, as I am reading the book  here in case it will be helpful for anyone else.

[Tamsyn]

Thanks for the post!   

[TheyCan]

Thank you, Tamsyn and Skylark!  Thank you so much for reviewing the book! I really appreciate your notes! It does kind of make me nervous that both of you said that you haven't really used the the materials much after owning them!  That's one of my orginial reasons for wanting to reduce the purchase price - the fear of buying it all and not fully using it...eek!!  However, both of you praise it and are happy with your purchase.  I've spent the last two days searching on the web for examples of the different "steps"/exercises - I'm pretty pumped up to jump in and use them.  I really think my son would enjoy the exercises a lot.

Skylark - Would you might sharing an example of a type of Right Brain exercise that you realized you were already incorporating into your routine - that you didn't realize was Right Brain!  Just curious if you don't mind sharing !  

Tamsyn - I know my son would love to watch a dvd like that before bed too !

[Mandabplus3]

Great notes skylark 
I think I should note that I searched for alternatives to wink because I knew from our experience with other program's that it is reasonable easy to hit the ceiling of many of the activities. wink is great to have all those game ideas and resources in one place. But 100 photo memory cards just isn't enough for long. ( I have no idea how many are in hey eh wink program but we needed more than 200 within a month of playing)
Memory magic has 100 pictures ( from memory) and we hit it within 2 weeks.
Wink is fabulous as it teaches YOU what you need to know in order to expand the activities. So it is worth paying for any of the books that give you the ideas. It is also worth paying for resourses you know you will use, reguardless of the price a well used resourse is a bargain 
I have many bits of the wink program and find I use them more for ideas than actually using them....I am a little odd that way though 
If you start with kids age 5-7 you will get more from wink. It was my 7 and 9 year olds who hit the ceiling too fast. They still gained a lot from using it all the same. I just wondered how much more practice it would take to see massive results....really we would LOVE photographic memory since speed reading was so simple for her to learn. ( actually it's about time I taught the next one speed reading,) I imagine there is a tipping point where the brain decides to access that skill 100%. There certainly was a point in speed reading training where she just "got more" of the story.

BTW the memory magic link is fixed now

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