Here is a question?
 
How many people know how a law is made? I'm just a bill... yes I am only a bill....Sitting here on Capital Hill.
Or, How many branches of the Government there are? Executive, judicial and legislative. 

I learn those facts from School House Rock with the girls I nannied. The girls didn't understand what it all meant at the time, they were 2 and 4. But both of them now understand what the songs are about 8 years later.

I am sure that we can all bring to mind songs where didn't understand the meaning. I thought that Tequila Sunrise was just a pretty sunrise. I had no idea that the songs Oh What a Night and Afternoon Delight were carnal in nature. 

 

I can give many examples of when 'facts' I learnt as a young child didn't really make sense until I was a lot older. The most common way to introduce or 'flash EK' is not through cards but through simple sayings and nursery rhymes. I remember a book I was given for my second birthday.. I remember nearly every single rhyme in that book, though I can't quote it by heart they come back to me at odd times. A certain rhyme I never understood, but enjoyed as a child was:

"The north wind doth blow
And there will be snow."

This made absolutely no sense to a toddler growing up in the tropical southern hemisphere. However when I moved to Ohio my husband, who is from here, explained to me that wind coming from the north will bring a cold front in from Canada and is we have precipitation we will have snow. That is when I burst out with the rhyme I didn't even know I knew.

Another saying I never understood, and didn't even realize I knew either was:

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning”

I now know that red sky at night means that there is a lesser chance of a storm. I found this phrase came to my mind very specifically when I was studying the Odyssey. Every time dawns rosy fingers were mentioned if made me think that there was some impending doom laying ahead. 

Other examples of when EK I learnt as a youngl child came to the fore was when I moved to the US. It is amazing how much about Sesame Street does not make any sense to a non American child. I never learnt about nickels, quarters, dimes etc. And very few Australians would even know what they are. But I knew the face value of them all from watching Sesame Street in the 80s. I can even recall vaguely a little clip about them. Once again I didn't know what it meant at the time.

Though I didn't learn these things by flash cards I was definitely learning things that I didn't really understand. Basically little snippets of information that was filed away and didn't come to the forefront until I was much older and it was provoked. I may be considered odd that I can recall so much from my early childhood but I have found that many people who had a rich educationally exposed up bringing with books, facts, and  nursery rhymes et al, think that they have forgotten them until they have their own children and all that data is once again released with minimal prompting. 

I believe that young children are sponges. They suck it all in. I think that young kids are more able to retain this information. I know that I can recall more from my early child hood than I can from high school.

I am not convinced that I need to use flash cards with James. But he will be read to a lot and exposed to a lot of information, even if he doesn't understand it, in the hopes that one day it will all make sense.