Wrapping Up: Asia Continent

Here are some of the activities we did to finish up our journey in Asia Continent.

Sonshine re-did the map.

This time, i used an uncolored map (i colored the previous map to help him differentiate the countries). I wanted to see if he was memorising the countries by its color or location. Turns out, he remembered them by location since he poked all the flags in their places as swiftly as ever.

We did Asia Continent puzzles.

Sonshine had a brief read on an Atlas book that Poppy (he calls his grandma that) bought for him.

Sonshine made these Asia landmarks with his papa (who did most all of the work). There is the Taj Mahal (India), Great wall of china and 2 new landmarks he learnt were Gyongbokkung (South Korea) & Minato Mirai 21 (Japan).

These are an outline maps of the countries in Asia. Sonshine had to match the maps to the correct countries.

I realised we have spent alot of time in Asia, or rather we have been doing repeated work on this continent. So it's time to move on! NExt stop, Europe!

Oceans

Here's another Acorn book we've been reading. In fact, we've read its entire series on rivers, lakes and oceans.

I've always wanted to teach Sonshine boy about the different oceans but never got to it. He finally learnt about it simply by reading the book.

Here's our follow up activity. Sonshine boy placed the labels on its rightful position. Easy peasy!

More about the moon

I've been playing some moon activities with sonshine following our read on this book. Nothing really serious some impromptu play.

We were playing playdough the other day and i made the moon in its different phases. We just recited a portion of the book together 'and the moon got smaller and smaller and smaller!' as i pointed each phase.

Another version of our disappearing moon!

I saw this all over the Internet while searching for moon activities. These are Oreo biscuits with the inside scraped to look like the different shapes of the moon. Instead of naming them in its scientific terminology, we just quoted the book again. But Sonshine boy was able to point out which one was the full moon.

Capital Cities of the world

We have been reading up on capital cities of the world. As i have mentioned before, the world flags, maps and the likes always intrigue sonshine boy.

I prepared word labels on some of the capital cities we've learnt.

To make it interesting, i used world flags instead of country names. Sonshine boy had to match the various capital cities to the correct flag. He required no help from me.

Through our readings, we've also learn about some famous landmarks and where they are found. I made some word labels and he had to match them to the correct picture. I also had him match the landmarks to the country (flag) where it can be found.

Random Stuff

As you can tell, we've not been doing any fancy homeschooling for some time. It has not been easy for me coping with a 3 year old and being pregnant with no.2 (i did mention about this somewhere right?) at the same time.

But ah we try!

We DID do a few activities here and there; some 5 minutes here, some 10minutes there. Here's what we've been up to:

We completed our lesson on polygons! Hooray! N now knows the names of each polygon.

We continued our series on sorting world flags on the continent map.

And this was done impromptu. I took our volumeric solids, put them in a bag and played 'Mystery bag'! I asked N to pick out a certain solid from the bag without peeking into it. That way, he depends solely on his touch to decipher if it was the correct shape that i wanted. He did a good job!

Country names in Mandarin

Every, and i mean EVERY, night, N would bug us to 'play flags'. Here's how we play it. I would display the word cards of country names and N would match them with a stack of country flags. At first, it was very fun, then, i got really, awfully, extremely bored because we play this EVERY day and night.  I then shoved the respondsibility to my husband who also found it fun in the begining but boredom is now knocking on his doors too.

Hence to make it more interesting FOR ME, i decided to print out the country names in mandarin! It got me all excited again! Today, i started with 4 countries, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea & Indonesia. N surprised me again, he remembered all the country names in mandarin almost instantly. Unfortunately, N is not as interested in tweaking the game, i had to coax to do it. It's interesting how we learn as we teach our kids. I never knew the mandarin names of some countries like Ireland, Iceland, Poland etc, but now i do!

Here's a closer look

This week's plan

I don't have a fix curriculum that i follow and only would plan the activities for the week on the weekend before. I just go according to whatever resources i have at hand and the topics that i wish to teach N.

This week we are learning about the names of different types of ocean fish.

I wanted to take our time and use the whole week to learn about the fish, who knew the daddy taught N EVERYTHING while i was showering. And within minutes N remembered all the fish and its names...there goes my plan for the week!

I would usually have N to use his finger to point as he counts. But he can't coordinate his verbal counting with his pointing. For instance, when he is counting at '4' his finger would be pointing at say, '6' etc.

So i made this activity for him. I cut out 10 strips of paper and pasted stickers on them from 1 to 10 (1 sticker on 1st strip of paper, 2 stickers on the 2nd strip etc...till 10). I instructed N to put the counter on each stickers as he counts along and find the matching numeral. This worked! N can count and coordinate better with this activity.

The animal youngs we are learning this week are: tadpole, elephant calf, fry (baby fish) and lamb. Again, i wanted N to take his time but within the first lesson he got all the names and remembered them!

We will also be learning that different type of triangles can be made into pallelogram, rectangle and squares!

We will also be dabbling on the tens board!

CAR PARTS

This week, we'll be learning about parts of a car. I downloaded a coloring page of a car and colored the various parts of a car. Pasted them over a cardboard & laminated the cards. I also made word labels.

8 different parts of a car! Unfortunately, i'm not able to show N the back part of the car since i'm limited by the picture. After N masters this, i intend to use his car model and revised with him the various parts. This way, he gets a more realistic view and can visualised better.

What we did today

N loves playing with the metal insets. Well mine is a cheap version thus much smaller than the real one. As i blogged earlier, i had N match the shapes to the word labels i made. Today, i also got him to match them into the insets.

(Check out the new table in his room! Its old really, it existed during daddy's bachelorhood! We wanted to throw it away but i decided to recycle it and convert to a kids table for N. I used the wall stickers and pasted them all over the table. It looks brand new doesn't it! N loves his new table, he cannot stop admiring it!)

The next thing he selected was 'Melissa & Doug' See and spell puzzle. He loves it!

And we revised on the Solar system. N could still remember each planet names.

This is probably N's all time favourite activity. I meant it to be a phonics activity but he prefers to match the word labels to the pictures. I think N enjoys matching words to pictures. Even the teacher in his school says so. This must be his sensitive period!

Asia Map Update

N has learnt where these countries are located on the asia map

Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
India
Sri Lanka
Russia
Kazakhstan
Myanmar
Vietnam
Thailand
Japan
South Korea
North Korea
China

Now he is learning the Middle East
Israel
Iraq
Afghanistan
Pakistan (not exactly Middle East!)

I've not taught him Singapore yet! Its so tiny that i don't know how to point out to him! Im going to put this off till i figure this out! :P

The Birds and...Insects!

After teaching N the different insects and birds, i got him to sort them accordingly. I made two word labels 'Birds' and 'insects' and had N to place each picture under the right label.

After that, i got him to revise and label the birds for me. Well done! He remebered all of them. :)

Animals & their food

I wanted to teach N the food that different animals eat. So i printed the pictures and pasted them over the ice- cream sticks. I seperate the food on one side and the animals on the other and i tell a story to N. I take an animal and tell him that its hungry and wants to eat. I get N to take the correct food for the animal. :) It's fun!

The Sky, Land & Sea

While waiting for N to sleep one night, i came up with this activity (only to know later that this activity can be found in one of the Montessori books).

I took 3 different colored sheets of paper, one light blue, dark blue and green. I pasted the light blue on the top of a drawing board paper, the green in the middle and dark blue at the bottom. The light blue represents the sky, green-land and dark blue- sea. I also prepared the words labelling 'sky', 'land' & 'sea'. I printed & cut out various transportation that can be found in the sky, land & sea. I talked through with N and placed each transportation in its respective places.

I also cut out animals and have N categorized them accordingly.

Solar System

After successfully teaching N the world continents using Montessori method, i decided to use the same methodology to teach him the solar system. I searched and printed out the different planets, cut and paste them on a black background, like so. I also made my own labels by writing each planet name on a small cut out cardboard (nice size for the toddler's hands).

Using labels, i taught him the planets and their respective positions in the system. N picked up the concept quickly and was able to identify the planets & match the labels with its respective planet after just 2 lessons!

Classify Fruits and Animals

I used flashcard method to teach N classification. To see if he really knows it, i took out the 2 word card 'fruits' and 'animals' and lay it on the floor. I gave him one picture card at a time and ask him to place it under its respective category.