@akalori.  Yes, I also think that your son's interest and enthusiasm for learning will go a long way in helping your son succeed and overcome any obstacles. 

You mentioned concern about the COGAT test - I think it will benefit if you do practice tests for such an exam because you never know what kind of format the test will have - It's better to have your child prepared in advance.  A very helpful resource that contains all sorts of tests is www.testingmom.com.  This will give your child plenty of practice so they feel more comfortable on exam day - best of luck!

@PokerDad – I agree with your statement “You cannot assume that your child "has it" and move on from a skill at this age without periodically revisiting that skill (or EK knowledge, etc).”.  I have a few instances to share about this from experience with my own child.  He is now 6.5 and I used to avidly do all the EL when he was around 2 or so (you can see some of my earlier posts dating all the way to 2009).

I will tell you some things I was happy about and some things which I wished were a bit different. 
First, I’m very happy about his reading progress – there is no doubt that getting a head start in reading will make things SO much easier later on (he is in 1st grade now).  Had I taught him how to read later on, I can very well imagine how much he would have resisted me teaching him - I think it would have caused a battle between us, with me trying to teach and him running away from me!    I think reading is a skill that most EL kids will demonstrate very well.

About his math – this is one skill that I had hoped he would have showed better results for.  I did the traditional Doman red-dot math with him where I would show him the math facts via the red dots.  I was consistent but didn’t see any significant results.  He could never ‘demonstrate’ to me that he knew the addition/subtraction facts.  There is only one exception to this I have seen (there may be others that I’m not aware of) – About a few years back, there was a lady by the name of DomanMom (or something similar, I may have the name of bit off) – her son was amazing – he knew all his math facts only based off the traditional Doman Math approach.  But that was the only case study and the only 'success story' I have ever seen myself.  I tried to make my son achieve the same results, but didn’t succeed.  What I found helpful was that at the age of 3 or 4, I had to personally teach him all his addition/subtraction facts.  And I can tell you that this is certainly helping him right now when he is having his timed math quizzes at school.  But if I could do it again, I would go straight to teaching the MATH FACTS and not do the red dots, as the actual FACTS are actually helping him in school right now. 

About the EK knowledge – personally, I would have liked to have my son more interested in the subject of history.  My ideal was DadDude who taught LOADS of history to his son - starting from a very young age.  DadDude used to say that his son knows more history than he did when he was in the higher grades.  I used to constantly compare my son’s progress to DadDude’s son I must admit.      But I wouldn't say that comparing is necessarily a bad thing – I think it's actually quite helpful because it inspires a parent to do better and set higher goals for their own child. 

Although my son is just a bit advanced in some things, I am sure their are other kids more advanced than him.  I remember how I had seen a kid almost his age skip kindergarten and go directly to first grade.  I thought of doing the same with my son and discussed it with the teacher.  She said that even if academically he was advanced, she thought its best to keep him in kindergarten because he needed to develop social skills.  And let me tell you, keeping him in kindergarten was the best decision ever!  I saw a different kind of change and maturity in him.  I saw that he was HAPPY and as a mother, that’s my primary goal.  So yes, it’s not about the ‘competition’ – it’s about making sure that our kids are happy also and know how to deal with life situations. 

For example, right now I’m teaching my son about ‘anger’.  I’m teaching him that if he gets angry and says something, he will most likely hurt somebody with his words – So I have made it a rule in our house that we will only have a ‘discussion’ if he is calm, otherwise we won’t.  I told him that if speaks passionately out of anger and says something he doesn't mean, he will look like a fool later (he thinks I’m very ‘mean’ for using the word ‘fool’, ). 

But I would say that my ultimate goal (and hope) is for my child to be a respectful and helpful boy - somebody who is going to go and interact with people, help them with their problems and get a sense of satisfaction from that.  Ofcourse I also want him to be highly educated and know what he is talking about when he talks – so EL was a must for that.  Reminds me of the quote “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”  So that is the other side of EL that I think is equally important.  A lot of my focus with my son is teaching him how to deal with his feelings, how to act in different situations at school/home - making sure that he is doing okay - both inside and outside.  I tell him that he doesn't know what experience life is going to give him - he may have to face many difficulties in his life, who knows?  But that he must be strong and positive and face those difficulties in a good way - I think it's good to tell the kids while they are young, because one day a peer's opinion may matter more to him than mine - So I think it's easier to have him 'soak up' all these principles at this age! 

Now that I have given some insight about my personal experience, let me say that for a 16month old, your son is doing quite well!  I remember that my son didn’t start speaking until he was about 2 years or so.  If you feel that he is ‘forgetting’ something, don’t get discouraged or think that he doesn’t know.  As long as you are being consistent, you will definitely be stimulating his mind the right way - and he will continue to amaze you in all sorts of ways.     And I think it’s wonderful you are teaching swimming to your son.  I actually taught my son too late (at the age of 6).  In school when he was asked to write about 3 things he disliked, ‘swimming’ was one of them.      He even drew a picture  of that! 

and by the way - I AM 'LittleMamaChamp' (just so you don't get confused).  This is actually my old account which I used to use 4 years back.  Altough I was quite active in reading the forums, I was always a bit 'forum-shy' - so I didn't used to post all the time.  I had even made some powerpoints for the sight words back then.  Now that I have developed the reading system, I came back to this forum to get in touch with some of the parents.  You can read some of my older posts about Doman Math dating all the way back 2009 (wow, time flies!)   
Best of luck,
Nida

I assumed what a "Math Encyclopedia" card meant was kind of like what I once saw at the gentlerevolution.com website -

http://www.gentlerevolution.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=0520&Category_Code=BOT

they have these bits of intelligence for "polygons" and it gives 10 facts about each polygon shape - I thought those were very interesting and I know that creating something like that would be very time-consuming.  I assumed that that's what Malathi meant. 

Yes, I have looked at those other great quantity files you have mentioned and I use them for my son - they are very helpful, thankyou -  I would like to do some files on things like that in the future, but it's probably going to be a while before I get to work on that 

That's a good question, I would also like to know about Math Encyclopedia cards ... I don't think I have seen any around on Brillkids (unless I missed them).

I had been showing my son the icons from LM for some time - he stopped paying attention even to that!  I think even the icons got too much for him in the end ... I don't know why but I could tell that he wanted a "break" from it.  So this is what I did to interest him (so far so good)...

I prepare my equations the night before (only takes about 5-10 minutes) on powerpoint.  I use red dots ... after each equation, i put up a big picture of something, fullscreen (anything like cars, bucket, etc).  I put up a new picture everyday (like 5 new pictures)... so before showing him the dots, I give him a "preview" and tell him that I will be showing him some pictures, just look at the screen and wait ... then he looks at the red dots (about 5 slides) and there is a picture ... he gets happy ... then back to the red dots again ... so this is what I do.  So far it's holding his interest pretty good ... i tell him to keep looking at the screen, otherwise he might miss the picture! 

With the reading he doesn't have this problem ...but with the maths, when he sees the dots you can tell he is not interestested...why do they seem to be so disinterested in the dots, is it the lack of pictures - i don't know.

Using the website that contained all the 600 fry words and phrases, I have converted those phrases (from level 1 and 2) into powerpoint presentations - you can download them from the powerpoint section ... hope this helps!   

"Fry Instant Words are high-frequency words occuring in reading.  By practicing reading these phrases containing these words, students can improve skills in both speed and accuracy." 

It's been about 2 weeks since I have introduced dots to my son - as you can imagine at this age, he is already starting to loose interest (I had been showing him the dots/images on the LM) ... So I started to show him the lessons on powerpoint ... but he was still getting annoyed.   So then I started putting up a picture of his favorite car after each equation (1 picture/equation). 

After that he started watching his dot equations but the whole time he is watching it, I think his mind is "stuck" on his car... So even though he is "looking" at the dots, I wonder if he is learning anything from it or if he is just daydreaming about his car that he just saw?   

Do you think that showing car pictures like this throughout his lessons will do any harm or will he still learn the math?

I have been trying to make my son more familiar with all the alphabet letters lately ... I am teaching him the sound that each letter makes - so when he sees a letter, he pronounces the SOUND that the letter makes and not the name - do you think that it's important to teach him the names of each letter as well or it's fine if he just knows the sounds of the letters?

okay, I found one of the links:-

http://www.shichidaparents.com/rc/linking_memory.html

This may explain it a little more - one of the parents talks about their experience, but it may not be as detailed ... there is also a set of linking memory pictures + story that you can download at the bottom of the page for free ... I think that will give you a better idea of how this linking memory game works - Memory Magic uses the same concept and does the same thing.  It would be nice to find out some more information on this topic ... as i didn't come across many more websites besides the above one.

About the girl who could memorize 300 images using photographic memory and scan a page:-
http://www.shichidamethod.com/testimony.html

I wonder what is the "method" that was used to teach her this ...

I believe it IS supposed to help you remember an entire story in order once they get older ... as you "read a story", you keep forming mental images in your mind and you retain those images in the correct order in your mind - then you can recall them later if needed.  I believe that that's the concept behind it (as far as my understanding goes).  The game suggests that the 7-year-old remember the entire story fact-by-fact (I was reading the "instructions" section in detail one time). 

I think I read somewhere about a girl who could just look at a page, scan the whole thing in her head, then close her eyes and read the entire page with the book closed ... that sounded too amazing to me the first time i read that.  I don't know if this "silly story" game would help a child do something like that, but as far as I understand, the concepts are very similar ... it's about learning to remember something in a specific sequence (whether it's images or the relating facts) ... there was an excellent link somewhere with a lot of this information on it in detail.  I wish I knew where it was as i lost that thread from a previous forum somewhere.  I will try to look for it (unless somebody could help us find it!) .... I hope this helps ... but maybe someone else can give us a much deeper, better understanding of this thing being related to the Shichida method.   

I wanted to share my experience with Memory Magic.  I just started using this software recently with my son.  I purchased the the deluxe version CD which has all the games included in it.  There are basically 3 games in it:

1)  Follow the Dot - I don't use this game, because it is more suitable for older children (my son is only 2).  But when he gets older, I will look forward to using it with him and see how it goes.

2)  Flash 'em - i like this very much, it's just like Doman flashcards.  There are 5 categories in total (Animals, Food, Sports, Musical Instruments, tools) and each category has got 10 sub-sections each of which contains 10 cards .... Now they flash these cards (10 at a time per seesion) automatically at a very rapid speed, just like Doman taught us to do.  It's very eye-catching and absorbing that it even glues my eyes to the screen.  As an added bonus, all the words (about 380 in total i believe) have these cards that you can print out.  It's interesting because these cards not only have one picture/word but also 5 simple facts about them (I think the facts are very basic though).  you can print out all of these cards as a supplement in teaching which is what I plan on doing in the future.  There are some words which my child wasn't familiar with even though he uses the LR ... words like "chess, bomerang, jack" which LR may have missed here and there.

3)  "Silly story linking game"  - i like this probably the best ... why?  because this type of "learning" is different from LR ... there is a series of pictures that you have to remember in a certain order (10 pics at a time, 100 in total) ... a "story" is told related to these pictures (10 facts + 10 images/story).  As each "fact" is presented, there is a matching accompanying icon with graphics.  So you show that to your child (at your pace) .  After that there are 10 blank card and you ask your child to guess them in order.  they remember what they had seen earlier and tell you.  I have been using this with my 2-year-old son and I was pretty surprised to see him follow along and start remembering many icons in the correct order.  For the younger babies, only recalling the image is asked for ('bird, cow, boot', etc). 

For the older kids (7-year-olds), you have to recall the whole story fact-by-fact, word-by-word, (not just the icons) ... if kids could develop such an excellent memory of a "story" they were told, imagine how much it would help them with reading comprehension and the accompanying questions that always follow such stories!  they would "remember" all the "details" of the story with a clear mental picture, and then they would be able to answer any questions about it with much more ease.

I remember how I always used to wish for a better reading comprehension level in college ... So I am excited about continuing this game with my son ...  hopefully this will help him, and his reading comprehension level will be much much better than mine!    

I was recently reading about kids whose sequential linking memory is so advanced that they can remember up to 300 images (cards) at a time in the correct sequence!  In the beginning they need the help of a "silly story" to remember them, but after some time they become so good that they don't need that support, wow!

This "linking sequential memory" is a learning concept by Shichida which is something which (I believe) they teach in their schools in Japan .  There was an excellent link that somebody had provided with in the earlier discussions - I will try to look for it and post it (unless it's at somebody else's fingertips, that would certainly help!)...   

I may have made some "errors" in my facts, so I apologize in advance for that!     

I am always looking for a way to try to "calm down" my 2-year-old's activity level before I have him sit in front of the LR.  Recently I played some relaxation music in the background while I played his LR category playlist ... I got the idea from how they do this in Tweedlewink.  So I just started wondering that has anybody else been doing this while they show LR?  And if so, have they see a difference in their child's attentiveness level with or without the music in the background?   

Yes, the Preschool Prep sight words DVD has far fewer words on each of its DVD as compared to the kid 20/20.

The Pre-prep DVD has about 16 words per DVD while the kid 20/20 one has got 220 words on both of the CDs.  I had considered buying the pre-pred DVD but then I had dropped the idea when I came across the kid 20/20 one.  I have not personally viewed the preschool prep DVD so I can not comment on how it is...

Thanks for giving the link to such great websites    

Something like this would be such a great reference tool ... in making sure that i don't "miss" a common word as I try to plan out my son's word list in the future.  It's a whole lot better than me trying to come up with my own new words off the top of my head!  

Thankyou luckylucy for that excellent link!  I will definately use it as a reference as I try to come up with different new words to teach my son....karma to you!