…card card…

There’s something about a stack of picture cards that our girl can’t resist getting her hands on. The thing about giving Hannah these not-too-thick rectangular pieces of paper for play is that she might fold, tear or crush them altogether. I’m sure many parents would feel ‘heart-pain’ when our kids damage brand-new items. But I also want Hannah to learn about herself and her environment and these cards (given by parents in-laws) serve that function.

In her early days, Hannah enjoyed walking around the house with one or two cards stuck to her soles. She found the experience amusing. Yang did a great job at helping her recognise the picture on each card by reading their names aloud to her. I was pleasantly surprised by the rate she picked up new words from these cards alone. It is true then when researchers say that the brain power of children is higher than the average adult. I remember reading that the brain of an infant is the densest, i.e. it has many more neurones (nerve cells) than say an adolescent or an adult. If any neurone does not receive enough stimuli over time, it gets trimmed off (exterminated, that is). Hmm, now I wonder whether we are in any way limiting the brain development of our girl.

Parents gave us about 4-5 stacks of such cards and Hannah is through with 2 stacks. It’s time to introduce another new stack to her collection. In the process of using these cards for learning, we discovered a fun element. These cards are not just for passive reading, they can be activity-based. Words such as ‘walking’, ‘kick’ and ‘jump’ would prompt Hannah to do the very actions. And she enjoys these little activities. If a card says ‘window’, she would start walking towards the various windows around the house, touch them, and come back to us to find out what the next card says. :)

Below is a snippet of a video clip taken recently for the sake of ‘capturing the moment’ of her growing years. :)