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A few reasons. First and foremost, I want to offer my children the opportunity to learn as much as possible, up to their interest and abilities. Studies show k

A few reasons. First and foremost, I want to offer my children the opportunity to learn as much as possible, up to their interest and abilities. Studies show kids learn best via repetition and pick up language faster the more you talk to them (surprise surprise). Flash cards address both those learning modes by both repeating words and giving you prompts to expound about them, i.e. "a beaver swims in the water." Quite simply, by using them I find I talk to my son more and in a more directed (learning appropriate) way. Second, as a stay-at-home dad who also works on startups, I am searching for good (educationally-oriented) ways to entertain and occupy my son. I have a two-28"-monitor setup. I found I could put these up on one and still get some casual things done, e.g. reading email, on the other monitor. Third, I really like big full screen images, and haven't seen any flash cards to date that use them effectively.

jacobolus 17y ago
Why don't you buy some good children’s books with images of animals in them? A story is significantly more interesting than a flash card.
- epi0Bauqu 17y ago
  I already have tons of them :). It is a completely different mode of entertainment/learning. What you think is "significantly more interesting" isn't necessarily such to a baby.
tokenadult 17y ago
Studies show kids learn best via repetition and pick up language faster the more you talk to them (surprise surprise). Do those studies specifically compare flash cards to the children's books (which I like a great deal) already mentioned to you in another reply? Do they use an experimental rather than correlational study design? http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html What are the citations for the studies you have in mind?
- epi0Bauqu 17y ago
  I see from your profile that you too take care of your kids all day long. I've found that my son doesn't want to do the same thing for very long. So we read books, we play with toys, we take walks, etc. etc. This is one of a variety of activities that is done for only a few minutes each day. In other words, I don't understand the presumption that books and flash cards are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, I think that they are complementary. I look for things that are educational that hold my sons interest for some amount of time. This activity is one of those things. If kids don't like it, by all means they shouldn't use it. It is meant to be fun.
  - tokenadult 17y ago
    My concern about flashcards is that they are a very nonholistic way to present isolated facts. In my childhood experience, it was the DUMB kids in class who used flashcards a lot, while the smart kids did without them entirely. (I vividly recall an incident in fourth grade when some of my classmates were flipping through a set of geography flashcards, which was just old enough to show some African countries as still colonies of European countries, even though by that year those countries were independent. I knew the countries were independent because I read books and the daily newspaper.)
    - dmoho 17y ago
      I find that when I am learning something new, memorizing some facts is an important part of the process, kind of like establishing a set of axioms before using them to prove something. As I build more expertise, I can revisit those memorized facts later with greater understanding instead of simply being able to recite them. I find flash cards to be useful for that purpose. You definitely have a point: you can't exclusively use flash cards to develop a good understanding of any subject. However, I think that they are one of many useful techniques that you can use for studying and question whether using flash cards automatically means that you are a "DUMB" kid. It's great that you were able to learn outside of the classroom by reading books and newspapers on your own, but I don't think that incident means that flash cards are in ineffective technique. Relying on outdated flash cards to teach the children geography means that the teachers were not up to date on current events and that the school did not update their learning materials frequently enough.
tokenadult 17y ago
I am searching for good (educationally-oriented) ways to entertain and occupy my son. I hear you on that, as a homeschooling father of four children with a home-based business. But my friendly suggestion would be that very young children are not best served by screen time http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/children-and-tv/MY00522 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/children-and-tv/MY00522 but by their own auditory, visual, and especially tactile experience in their home environment from doing their own activities. (You mention your son--your first?--being four months old, so I suppose he is not walking yet, but he can already move and touch things.)
- epi0Bauqu 17y ago
  Yes, this is the reason they are huge, still, life-like images, i.e. less like TV and more like photographs or books. And like I said in another comment, this is just meant for a few minutes a day and as one of dozens of activities we regularly engage in.

jacobolus 17y ago

Why don't you buy some good children’s books with images of animals in them? A story is significantly more interesting than a flash card.

epi0Bauqu 17y ago
I already have tons of them :). It is a completely different mode of entertainment/learning. What you think is "significantly more interesting" isn't necessarily such to a baby.

tokenadult 17y ago

Studies show kids learn best via repetition and pick up language faster the more you talk to them (surprise surprise). Do those studies specifically compare flash cards to the children's books (which I like a great deal) already mentioned to you in another reply? Do they use an experimental rather than correlational study design? http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html What are the citations for the studies you have in mind?

epi0Bauqu 17y ago
I see from your profile that you too take care of your kids all day long. I've found that my son doesn't want to do the same thing for very long. So we read books, we play with toys, we take walks, etc. etc. This is one of a variety of activities that is done for only a few minutes each day. In other words, I don't understand the presumption that books and flash cards are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, I think that they are complementary. I look for things that are educational that hold my sons interest for some amount of time. This activity is one of those things. If kids don't like it, by all means they shouldn't use it. It is meant to be fun.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  My concern about flashcards is that they are a very nonholistic way to present isolated facts. In my childhood experience, it was the DUMB kids in class who used flashcards a lot, while the smart kids did without them entirely. (I vividly recall an incident in fourth grade when some of my classmates were flipping through a set of geography flashcards, which was just old enough to show some African countries as still colonies of European countries, even though by that year those countries were independent. I knew the countries were independent because I read books and the daily newspaper.)
  - dmoho 17y ago
    I find that when I am learning something new, memorizing some facts is an important part of the process, kind of like establishing a set of axioms before using them to prove something. As I build more expertise, I can revisit those memorized facts later with greater understanding instead of simply being able to recite them. I find flash cards to be useful for that purpose. You definitely have a point: you can't exclusively use flash cards to develop a good understanding of any subject. However, I think that they are one of many useful techniques that you can use for studying and question whether using flash cards automatically means that you are a "DUMB" kid. It's great that you were able to learn outside of the classroom by reading books and newspapers on your own, but I don't think that incident means that flash cards are in ineffective technique. Relying on outdated flash cards to teach the children geography means that the teachers were not up to date on current events and that the school did not update their learning materials frequently enough.

tokenadult 17y ago

I am searching for good (educationally-oriented) ways to entertain and occupy my son. I hear you on that, as a homeschooling father of four children with a home-based business. But my friendly suggestion would be that very young children are not best served by screen time http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/children-and-tv/MY00522 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/children-and-tv/MY00522 but by their own auditory, visual, and especially tactile experience in their home environment from doing their own activities. (You mention your son--your first?--being four months old, so I suppose he is not walking yet, but he can already move and touch things.)

epi0Bauqu 17y ago
Yes, this is the reason they are huge, still, life-like images, i.e. less like TV and more like photographs or books. And like I said in another comment, this is just meant for a few minutes a day and as one of dozens of activities we regularly engage in.