End of term 1

Last week marked the end of N's 1st school term of the year. Im going to jot down what he has learnt in school and at home

School

The teacher said that N had been picking the pink object box almost the whole term. But instead of building words, he was more interested in matching the words to the objects.

Also this term, the teacher has introduced to him tracing of the metal inset, which she said he could do pretty well.

As for mandarin, although he isn't reading aloud for his chinese teacher, but he could read for me at home when i revised with him. So we've all concluded that he IS listening and absorbing in class but refuse to show any verbal evidence...yet. However, he is begining to participate during circle time, dancing along the music which is vast improvement from the initial days.

At Home

Let's see. He has self-taught the alphabetical order. (If you've read my blog, you'd know i never taught him the alphabets nor the order. He mostly learnt it from reading books, watching educational DVD and listening to music).

He has also learnt the food that some animals eat. Now he knows:

Chicken eats corn, horse eats sugar (for snacks), cow eats grass, owl eats mouse, monkey eats banana, cat eats fish, birds eat worms, rabbit eats carrot and frog eats fly. He learnt it all through playing this activity.

He has also learnt the concept of buttoning and is now more interested in attempting to button and un-button his own clothes.

He was introduced to new shapes & its names, parallelogram, quatrefoil, pentagon.

He learnt the words from eleven to twenty.

He learnt new mandarin words on animals.

He learnt the various species of birds & insects and knows how to classify them

He can now identify and sort transportation by sky, sea & land,

Thanks to the iphone he also learnt the crescent shape and the fruit cantaloupe.

He has started to sing songs like 'twinkle twinkle stars, abc, He is able (christian song)' etc (yes, he is rather delayed in this aspect). This is a huge improvement because he would never have done this in the past.

Hmm, it seems he has learnt more at home doesn't it? That's why i've been thinking if he is better off at home with me and it doesn't help that this school is more expensive than some other Montessori schools around here. But i also its because i am his mother, so i know him inside out and i know what method is best to teach N. While the teachers don't readily plunge into a subject unless they are convinced he is ready.

Yet, it is through the school that i realised he is not responsive to other adults or teachers. That makes me want for him to stick to school even more so that he can learn from other adults too. Also, he seems to be warming up- very slowly though, to the teachers which makes me even more reluctant to change a school environment for least he has to start all over again!

Well, i'll just have to observe more this term and see how it goes!