Wow certainly didn't mean to ruffle feathers and am sorry to anyone I have offended. Just giving my humble opinion not judging anyone's parenting choices. If you like flash cards then go for it they are just not for me and I was only using them as an example of rote learning not saying they are intrinsically evil or anyone is a bad parent for using them!

I guess I am just very anti hothousing which is about forced structured learning rather than learning though play, fun and experience. There is nothing wrong with exposing your baby to a range of things that is what every family does anyway, I do this too but hothousing is quite different. I don't like heaps of structured classes (I have heard of a case that 4 yr had to miss a party because it clashed with his maths tutuorial), competitive parents and trying to accelerate learning unaturally especially if the child is not interested or bored. Christopher Green in Toddler Taming has a great chapter about this. If your child is enjoying it and it is fun, then go for it. Happiness and enjoyment are the most important things for me. If you do some research you will find that a lot of child psychologists and early childhood educators oppose hothousing which is quite different from providing your child with stimulation and encouraging development. It is actually quite a controversial subject.

I also think sometimes people can dismiss the importance of play and the greats skills that are being learned by the child, those are the points I was trying to make in my earlier post, not slamming anyone. I also think sometimes we can take a too narrow view of intelligence which is not just about academic ability, but about creativity in other fields. I see nothing wrong with encouraging your child to be the best they can be but I do oppose trying to create something they are not. I think providing a stimulating and supportive environment is so beneficial.

Anyway i will bow out of this discussion and again am sorry for any offence but I was just offering a point of view that has clearly not been taken in the spirit it was intended.