Flashcards are an excellent way to review over material learned or to aid in memory of new concepts/words/ideas. I have used flashcards from the very beginning of homeschooling. When I started teaching my children how to read, I would make flashcards for phonetic sounds, putting a letter on one side of an index card and simply asking them to make the sound when I “flashed” the card. I usually made a game of it by promising something special if they completed a certain number correctly. This was a great evaluation tool and helped me to know when they were struggling or just tired when we actually read a book and they wouldn’t say a word correctly. Such a help to my sanity at that age!
As my children have gotten older, I have used flashcards to help with vocabulary in foreign languages or even in English studies! In addition, we have found them helpful in memorizing Presidents or other historical information. As soon as they were independent readers, flashcards became an independent study tool with words on one side and definitions on the other.
We often make our flashcards from index cards (I am actually staring at a stack of them right now), and I have found that the act of writing out the flashcards is often helpful in building memory. There are also wonderful, colorful flashcards that can help from word recognition to learning the Presidents, and these can be found at many retail stores including the Dollar Store. You can also find flashcards online or for your mobile devices now – including applications for creating your own. Some flashcard apps will even let you download audio files, so your younger students can participate also!
Just today I had my older daughter type in her vocabulary flashcards into an internet flashcard database called Flashcarddb™. Tomorrow she will review them and the application will even develop a quiz for her. What a wonderful tool to clean up the clutter of handmade flashcards! BUT, you do have to access the internet to complete your studies, which is sometimes inconvenient, even with mobile devices. Click here for flashcard applications I have discovered on the internet.
If your student is struggling with certain concepts, try to find a way to incorporate flashcards, especially before investing in more curriculum or books or time on the internet. You may find that with a little review the “issues” are quickly resolved!
Used StudyStack (http://studystack.com) – love that it makes the flashcards into games like hangman, matching, and even a crossword puzzle!