[dedward]

If you want your kids to read faster than you get them on speed reading training - just takes constant training.

Teach them sign language, while young when it's really easy to learn (harder for us adults, though apparently not hard either) - it could open up a lot of doors, and if I'm not mistaken it's somewhat internationalized? If enough of the new generation groks that, imagine what it does for communication.

Teaching them a new alphabet nobody uses won't help anything, other than theri own shorthand - but that can be improved even better by teachin ghtem real shorthand.

Also consider having them learn a second language - Mandarin probably. Throw in a romance language and they'll have no trouble learning new languages in a snap throughout life.... they'll naturally see patterns and grab concepts adults who grow up with a single language/alphabet don't.

[arnsholt]

Actually, sign languages are quite distinct. Distinct to the extent that British and American sign language are not mutually comprehensible (ASL is in fact related to French sign language). In Norway (where I'm from), some of the sign language dialects vary a lot more than the spoken dialects as well.