Disclaimer: the Wink program does not advertise itself as a mid-brain activation product. While with my own research I have seen similarities, they are only my friend and my own observations. Nor do I think that the Wink product alone would be enough to activate the mid-brain. Still, there are students of Wink that have developed ESP or intuition.
I’ve skimmed some of the posts here so excuse me if I miss things. Sonya you are right - we do need to decide what we hope to accomplish with EL. My children are second generation ELs - my mother taught my sister to read at 2 years of age and my twin brother and I learnt early too though not as early (I think managing 3 small children at once may have had something to do with this) My sister has also taught her child many things early and both children who now should have been in school are advanced.
So why do we do it? Partly because that is how we were brought up and education is important to us. I have started doing coursera courses just because I can and to learn things that I do not have to use in my job or in my life (and that do not cost anything) But I think the main reason is that I want my children to have choices and feel that an early education will give them more choices than if I left it. My child can still decide to do a non academic job when she gets older if she wants to - she doesn’t need to feel pushed into a professional career if she doesn’t want to, but she will be able to if she does want to.
Just like I said that the argument here is about commericalism and selling products, I think much of the world has become very materialistic - many people say they want the early education so that their child can get ahead and compete in the world and if this is important to them (and it is to many people) then that is a reason to pursue it. Mostly though it is a competition for money. I am hoping that through homeschooling I can also teach my child that while money is necessary and competition is good, that relationships are even more important. I can have the best job in the world, be the most educated and be extremely wealthy and not feel fulfilled. We all know this, but I think sometimes the aquisition of money and even education is easier and more readily measured than the aquisition of good relationships. I hope that through early learning I can also get a good relationship with my children and I think this is one of the things that can be gained as long as it is done right.
Part of this thread has gone completely off topic. 
I am going to start a new thread on mid-brain activation…
Tanikit, as a 2nd generation ELer, what do you see is the biggest difference between yourself and say the peers you grew up with? Do you think that is because of EL or perhaps because of your mother?
.
My mum did EL with me also. So I guess My son is second generation ELer too.
My mum taught me to read early and I did lots of flash cards. I had no idea about all this until she told me all the stuff I do with my son was stuff I loved to do when I was little.
One thing I should note. My mum never used a program with me. But she did use flashcards and played games. But she mostly read to me. Then I read to my sister. I read lots of complete sets encyclopaedias when I was a kid, including the entire encyclopaedia macro media when I was in High School.
I loved reading. And I loved math. I think alegbra is fun. I loved doing math like people enjoy crossword puzzles. I never studied math in school beyond 10th grade however I tutored the hardest level Math for people in 12th grade. Just because I got it easily. In math class I never listened. I read other books instead. I would read my textbook right before a test and ace the test.
Am I highly successful? Umm probably not by most people’s standards. But I think I am. I am extremely happy as a wife and a mother to my son. I didn’t have the drive for a career like others. I wanted to do stuff. But most importantly I wanted a family. I am a homebody. It is who I am.
Things that I do well? I can read extremely fast. As a child/teen I had partial eidetic memory when it came to written words. I was able to read an entire libretto from a musical and then sing along as I listened to a soundtrack for the first time because I was able to read the words in my head. I can’t really do this anymore, mostly because I just don’t do it. I don’t need to and I never practice. I am sure if I did practice I could do it again.
I learn things rapidly. And I can do a great many things from being self taught. Anything from fixing a garbage disposal to baking.
I LOVE to learn. I am constantly reading and teaching myself stuff. Even as a young child I was always doing my own projects of things that I was interested in. I remember when I was 6 doing a project on birds with pictures and little paragraphs. I did this on summer holidays for fun!
I have a better than most memory I believe. I remember a lot from my childhood. I don’t think my memory is as great as it used to be. But many friends have commented on how amazing it is.
I loved primary school. I was pulled out of normal math class and put into advanced problem solving, critical thinking math classes. I loved them… I always got high distinctions national math competitions each year and i loved Tornument of the Minds. All this until I moved school and I was put into remedial math because I could not do my times table rotely. I didn’t need rote I just knew the answers. So I stumbled.
I excelled at sports. I was a sprinter. And I was reserves for states and I never trained a day in my life. I did states for cross country and I am not a distance runner. And I did well at swimming, always placing, not because I was a good swimmer but because I had natural athleticism. I moved school and because I was poor and didn’t do Little Athletics I was not allowed to compete on sports day. However in 12th grade, after not competing for 5 years I made it to districts for 100m, 200m and long jump.
I studied clarinet and my first year became lead clarinet doing better than children that had been doing it for 2 years. Once again, once we moved we could not afford to buy a clarinet and the school didn’t loan so I stopped playing.
Moving from an excellent school to a subpar school hurt me a lot. I was well known in my school. I did well in all classes and loved school and enjoyed extra curricula. I became the new girl, teased and ridiculed. I was a lot smaller than my peers, I had no chance for extra curricula and got put in remedial classes. I was completely bored and withdrew a lot. And went from outgoing to introverted. It wasn’t until I was 18 that I moved far away and became an extrovert, had confidence in who I was and I liked myself again.
I have had 2 official IQ tests done in the past.
At 14 or 15 I measured at 148
As an adult in my early to mid 20s. Maybe when I was 23 I scored at 136.
Interestingly my friends in highschool also achieve scores from 140 to 160. The friend that archived 160 is possibly the most intelligent being I have ever met.
Thank you, Korrale for sharing your story. I know there are a lot of us that are curious about EL kids when they get older, so we appreciate your sharing details about your youth. Karma!
i 2nd that
Hear hear.
BTW Korral - You’ve lost your memory because you gave birth. It’s true. Brain cells leach from your skull with every delivery. Some claim that you can recover and they grow back right around the time you hit menopause. At which time, your cells flow directly out of your ears while you sleep. You die before those can be replaced. :yes:
Sonya! I swear it is true. Being pregnant made my mind deteriote. But I remember reading about a study that claimed that baby brain was not real. An Aussie study I think. The results were out about the time my son was a few months old.