Flashcards vs Magazines and Flyers

Ever since Matty got his little table and chairs from Ikea... he started to spend a fair amount of time sitting and "reading"... though not quite the usual publications that most toddlers read - magazines and flyers that we receive in the mailbox... and even catalogues from flora/gift shops.

Matty has never shown a keen interest in story books and Mummy kind of gave up reading to him. We never made it past the first house getting blown down in Three Little Pigs. Recently... grandpa bought a few sets of flashcards for Matty... as expected he messed up the sequence of the cards within minutes. Mummy has never been a strong believer of teaching with flashcards even though it seems to be the latest craze with a lot of fellow mummies of this generation. It may have proven its worth but being able to pick out the right cards at 12 months old does not make the kid a genius. It definitely takes a lot more to say if a kid is "gifted" or "intelligent". Different strokes different folks. So I am not too bothered that flashcards does not hold out to be an appeal to Matty. He will eventually learn the words through other means.

Magazines and flyers seems to work wonders with Matty though. He points to things that he is familiar with when he flips through the magazines and name his favourite objects like car, ball, clock and flowers. He remembers which magazine has what object and at which page. He has even learned brand names like "Esso" and "BMW" through the magazines and flyers.

Looks like our boy has a very different sort of library from others!

(Something cute to put down as record - We finally figured out what "kar-pi-kar" means. Matty has been saying it repeatedly since last weekend. It means "garbage car". Actually grandpa has been telling him its "garbage truck". But I guess he really like cars alot!)