Media Made Me Smart

Alright so the title is a bit deceiving.  

Media didn't actually make me smart and give me my level of intelligence but it certainly helped! 

In today's discussion about educational media and it benefitting children on various levels, I was reminded of my younger days and those educational shows were my absolute favorite.  

So something interesting about me, I skipped a grade when I was younger based off of my reading and english levels.  

Alright so Kindergarten can't exactly count as an actual grade but I take pride in being able to skip a grade at a young age! 

My older brother struggled in school a bit more and my parents would always put on movies and tv shows that involved phonics and learning and were centered around helping children learn. 

Safe to say he hated them and only watched them because he was forced to.  

I was much younger and would LOVE to watch these shows and absorbed everything I watched; which ended up paying off in the end.  

By the time I went to preschool, the teachers noticed I was very bored with a lot of the simple readings they would send home and I wasn't enjoying myself.  

They took me to the principal and I had to take a series of tests about my general knowledge about the world, my memorization, math, english and reading skills. 

I vaguely remember a few of the tests that were administered with just me and the principal in his office.  

Once I finished, the principal notified my parents that my knowledge was above average and that I had the option of skipping kindergarten AND the first grade if that's what they decided.  

Skipping two grades was a bit of a jump so obviously we just stuck with skipping kindergarten and from then on I would always get more advanced book assignments to do and read at home and I ended up skipping Kindergarten and have been the youngest in all my grades ever since (well until college of course).

I credit my early intellectual advance in school to the educational shows that I loved to watch.  I loved to learn from them and took in everything they were saying.  From those shows, I learned to read faster and then learned to LOVE reading which fostered this educational advance.  

So, for those with children, try out various educational shows and see which ones they like and which ones get their attention the best and who knows, we may end up having a younger generation in all the grades to come! 

:)