Cool story, it is good to look back on your childhood and be proud of the decisions your parents made.
As a parent though, you have to remember that even basic play has a very high value to children. My little 2.75 yr old has dinosaurs in the bath and can count one, two, three, four, lots. He knows the lifecycle of the butterfly.
But I'd much rather that he did what some might consider "useless play" and mastered his social skills and self confidence than any curriculum ideas such as maths or reading. Those can wait until he is ready, though he is a very engaged and switched on little boy.
I think that forcing your children to do certain things that you expect from a 10yr old now is just ruining their childhood and can reduce their delight in learning new things.
Actually, childhood was a blast. The first 8 to 10 years of schoolwork being completely trivialized meant I could be over at some friend's house every day, futzing around in the backyard, or playing with action figures and legos. All the time.
I have few memories of before I was 4 years old.
* Rolling around some cookie monster thing.
* Being sick of flash cards.
* Spraying my grandfather with the hose, and thinking it was hilarious.
* The dog knocking me over to take the entire bag of snausages.
* Playing random games we made up in the backyard with the kids next door.
How much do you vividly remember from when before you were 5 years old? I'm guessing not a whole lot.
Interesting thoughts about memory. My early memories aren't quite that good.
I never found school particularly difficult, and I didn't learn how to read or do maths until school. There is a good chance you wouldn't have found it difficult either - even without the flash cards. Perhaps you are just smart.
It sounds like your childhood was still fairly moderate, it is not like flash cards is the only thing that you did. My main motivation for commenting at all is that I don't want any other parents to get weird, extreme ideas.
Anyway, I think I better gracefully bow out of this discussion before I step on any nerves.
As a parent though, you have to remember that even basic play has a very high value to children. My little 2.75 yr old has dinosaurs in the bath and can count one, two, three, four, lots. He knows the lifecycle of the butterfly.
But I'd much rather that he did what some might consider "useless play" and mastered his social skills and self confidence than any curriculum ideas such as maths or reading. Those can wait until he is ready, though he is a very engaged and switched on little boy.
I think that forcing your children to do certain things that you expect from a 10yr old now is just ruining their childhood and can reduce their delight in learning new things.
So be careful whose advice you take, even mine.