In our class this week...

 

 

I have decided to pursue copywork as part of my homeschool curriculum. There are too many benefits of copywork to give it up though its boring. You can read more about copywork here. But to each his own. Before you jump in, i suggest you take a second to think if it suits your child's learning style. I don't think every child will benefit from this style of learning. For sonshine, i think he needs this type of drilling to help highlight the sentence structure, punctuation marks, capital letters etc.

 

 

I gave him a simple book to copy. The key thing i was looking for was minimal punctuation marks (just commas and periods) and repetitive sentences (hoping that he can magically learn the spelling of the words he wrote several times over). Pelangi books are right up my alley for this purpose.

 

On a separate note, we had quite a frustrating time doing this on one of the days. I had him re-write some letters because it was not written accurately (he wrote '0' like a '6'). I ended up scolding and caning him. Not because of his error but his 'i can't do it' mentality which made him cry in despair. I didn't like that he cried over such a small matter (not the first time) and told him that it is okay if he doesn't know or needs more time but its not okay to cry and give up! 

Do you have days like these? I do! So, don't ever think its all bed of roses for us. Just keeping it real.

 

 

He did some Maths on calculating money. I had him do this since he was taught this in school last week.

 

 

He continuously surprise me with his ability to understand and solve mathematical questions. For instance, a question he encountered was  "Jim had 3 five-dollar notes. He bought something and left $3. What did he buy?" I was certain he needed help and was just about to explain to him when he said 'car' (see diagram above).

 

 

As for the girl, she did some sensory play. Squeezing sponge and spilling water all over herself and the floor. She even used a towel to wipe herself and the floor with each spillage. It was very amusing to watch to say the least.

 

 

She enjoyed this scooping activity. Actually, she is able to handle the utensils and self feed very well. Now when we are out eating, she would insist to feed herself and i am proud to say she is getting quite professional!

 

 

I secretly think she loves the scooping activity because she loves the beads. She poured them in a tray and decided that it was more fun to step on it.

 

 

Oh, how about 'bathing' in it?

In this week's news....

These were what we have been doing for the past week:

 

 Grammar:

 

                

 

For the past few weeks, we have been working on Personal Pronouns i.e 'I vs you', 'We vs they', 'He, she, it, vs we/they' and 'am vs are', 'is vs are'.  

 

                

 

I also threw in another exercise on how & when to use 'who'. Actually, i don't really teach him, i just make him do! LOL.

 

Maths:

 

                       

 

We did some Word Problems. An example of the questions we have been focusing on is "Lisa has 10 eggs. Eliza has 2 less/more eggs than Lisa. How many eggs does Eliza have?"

 

 (I usually toggle between Kumon grade 1-3, the difference is not the type of questions asked but usually is doing the operation within the ones, tens or hundreds unit. I don't need him to practise his operations (i.e add/subtract) so i usually let him do grade 1 or 2 just to expose him to the type of questions. I don't want him to spend too much time on adding/subtracting.)

 

On a separate note, I saw the following word problem on another blog & on a whim, i asked him to solve it:

 

Jars A and B have 12 cookies each. There are 14 fewer cookies in jar C than jars A and B together.

a) How many cookies are there in jar A and jar B altogether?

b) How many cookies are there in jar C?

 

He did this quite mentally, just by reading it off from my ipad. Without telling me the answer for a), he straight away told me '10!'. Well, okay, son. Now i know you know.

 

Mandarin:

 

                     

 

I made him practise writing using the newly bought assessment book i bought. The words he learnt to write were '他，也'.  

Spelling- The caterpillar

 

 

Our spelling lessons have taken on a very sleepy spell.

 

We haven't been doing spelling of late (but that's because i only have 10-15 minutes a day & there are so many other topics i want to cover).

 

The last spelling sonshine did was on the poem he learnt (yah, we are still at it).

I made him learn all the new words.

 

After that, i made him write the entire poem without me dictating it or spelling any words for him. At the same time, he practised his handwriting. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone i say!

Biblical copywork

*spelling error alert*

I only realised after i posted this! Goes to show how bad my spelling is. :P

I am sticking to copywork.

Not so much for creative writing but more for honing sonshine's penmanship. What better 'phrases' to copy than the bible verses? I am hoping that as he copies, the verses stick to his mind and someday, he can readily recall the verses when in need.

First passage i am going to have him copy is Psalms 23. Today, he copied part of the first verse.

On another note, if there is only one thing i want my children to know about the Christian walk, it would be this; that it isn't about who they will become in future, it isn't about their 100% attendance in Sunday services, it isn't about how many hours of prayers they can clock, it isn't about how many souls they can save for Christ and certaintly not about how much money they can give.

It is not about how much they can love and sacrifice for Christ.

But it is about how Christ love and sacrificed for them.

There is nothing they can do to earn that love.

There is nothing they can do to make Christ love them less.

Because the love of God is free, it is unconditional. No, it is not cheap. It came with a price, with Jesus's blood. That is the grace of our God. That despite our evil selves, He still loves us & took our punishment on the cross so that we earn the right to His kingdom. Unfair? Yes, that is the grace of God. That is the essence of the christian walk.

Let no man tell my children otherwise.

I will gnaw at any man who tells my children that their worth in Christ is measured by how much they can offer to Christ.

*Fangs and claws shooting out*.

....Right, now that i have regain my composure...in other news...

If you are seriously thinking about homeschooling your child, i suggest you pick up this book:

But be warned, it is a very thick book because it covers from preschool years to higher grades. It spells out exactly how you can teach your children, with what resources and even how long each lessons should be. But not everything is applicable, pick out only the things that suit you. What i like about this book is that it has a list of homeschooling resources. I've picked up a few curriculum from this book. I say, borrow from the library- not necessary to buy.

The Journal homework

Sonshine brought back a blank jotter book from school. He had to write a journal as a holiday homework. Knowing that sonshine might have difficulty expressing his own thoughts and translating them into written words, i decided to incorporate Susan Wise's suggested activity in her book.

In the book, she suggested that the child read a passage  and have the child answer questions relating to the short story, in complete sentences. The parent/teacher then writes down his answers. The child copies what is written thereafter. I think it is a great way to give the child a visual on how his thoughts can be translated into words and then in writing.

So to guide him, I ask him simple questions, he answers in complete sentences and i write down his answers in full.

He copies his own verbal thoughts on his jotter book.

Example of questions that i ask;

me: What is today's day?

Sonshine: Today is Friday.

(i write down his answer)

me: What are you doing?

Sonshine: I am eating biscuits

(i write down his answer)

me: How are you feeling?

Sonshine: i am happy

(i write down his answer)

He copies his answers onto the book.

Questions i asked:

What is today's day?

Where did you go yesterday?

His answers:

Today is Sunday.

(Yesterday) I went to take the train.

He added on his own accord:

It was very fun.

I am happy.

I was pleasantly surprised that he added the last two sentences. More importantly, he actually used the correct tense i.e. 'went' without my prompting!

The teacher encouraged the children to draw pictures on the blank side of the book. I asked him to draw a happy face and this was his creation.

Mr Happy potato!

I love this homework! It not only helps to brush up his spoken grammar but also his writing. WOOT!

字写

Since sonshine is comfortable with writing English letters, i thought i should move on to teaching him to write in Mandarin.

But i discovered that he already knew how to write a few mandarin characters, some learnt from school and some he was able to write out by recalling the words i taught him. He could recite the strokes as he wrote and could accurately count the strokes of each word. All credit to the school! I'm so relieved that he seems to enjoy writing and reciting the chinese strokes. PHEW!

But since i already bought a book for him to practise his writing, i decided to teach him alongside with the school.

I started with the simplest of words thinking he would be averse to writing Mandarin!

But since he didn't resist, i got him to write words involving more strokes.

When i don't have the time, i would just ask him to raise his fingers in the air & we would practise writing a few words. Just this morning, i taught him to write ‘头’ by writing it 'in the air' with our fingers. Fun stuff!

Simply writing

I'm getting sonshine to practise lots on his handwriting (he's improved much-whoop!) and writing in short phrases/sentences.

He wrote 'Small dog' and 'big dog'. This is adapted from the Kumon Sentences book i purchased. I made my own because i didn't like the writting space given on the book. Still, i'm using the Kumon book as my guide to teach sonshine writing. I felt that this was a good way to teach him on adjectives.

He copied two sentences using the short phrases he worked on previously.

In line with the copy work he did, i also taught him Simple Present Tense using one of the assesment books i bought.

More practice

A simple work combining what he learnt on adjectives and simple present tense, applying them in a sentence form. He had to copy the sentence and choose the correct tense applicable to the statement.

All About turtles

Sonshine was briefly interested in Turtles some time back and i tried to take the opportunity to do some activities. But i procrastinated so much that by the time i got to it, he lost the interest. MUST.ACT.FASTER.MUMMY.

We read up on Turtles. This is where I, yes me, learnt that turtles do not have teeth! Did you know that?

I have the turtles from Toob (which was what got him interested in the first place) and sonshine matched them to the pictures i printed from the web. I wasn't getting him to remember the names of the various turtles, it was more to let him know what are the different types of turtles out there.

Sonshine did some copywork. Besides the above, he also copied "Turtles are slow". I am moving on to copywork so that he not only gets to practise writing but also hopefully he would learn how to form simple sentences (which hopefully will help lay some foundation for his composition- this is my worst feared subject for him).

Continuing his practise on writing and spelling.

Handwriting with Love

My amateur effort in making something 'lovely', didn't quite turn out what i had in mind. :(

I LOVE February!

It's Valentine's month- and my birthday month of course!

Can you just smell the love in the air?

I made valentine's theme Handwriting kit. Sonshine wrote the words "Love, kiss, hearts, hug" first on the individual cards. Then i had him write proper on a paper- 4 times for each word. The boy also learnt to spell these words as he wrote.

Love, love that he's succeeding in writing- although i can't say he is loving (i am using alot of 'love' words aren't i? well, love, love, love!!) it as much. :I But i am very pleased that he is making an effort- albeit sometimes he makes me feel like pulling my hair out!

My husband thinks it isn't necessary to make him write on the line so precisely. But i disagree. I want him to get it right from the beginning. Otherwise, he might think what he is doing is correct but only to unlearn again later- which may be more challenging as he grows older.

So i made my own writing paper with lines. I divided each section with 3 lines, a top and bottom line- both highlighted in red and a middle, dotted line in blue. I taught N that for tall letters like 'l, h, k', we must touch the top and end it on the bottom line. Short letters cannot go beyond the blue line. I even made him leave a finger spacing between each word! And yes, this is Spalding's method. Told you- it is very precise.

So happy Valentine's with your lovelies everyone!

I'll leave you with a love message from my Father in heaven:

"... i have loved you with an everlasting love" Jeremiah 31:3

The letters 'b' and 'd'

It can be pretty confusing for pre-schoolers to differentiate the letter 'b' and 'd'. Sonshine has no problem identifying the two letters by sight. But when it comes to writing them, he tend to confuse the two. I stumbled onto this ingenious idea on this blog to teach a young child to write the 2 letters and knew this was IT.

I didn't quite follow exactly, but i used the above blog as an inspiration. First, i showed him the word:

b e d

I told him that the letter 'b' is 'facing' at the letter 'e' while the letter 'd' is facing the letter 'e'. Since then he wrote the two letters with ease. Actually, come to think of it, i never did asked him to write the 2 letters before so i'm not sure if he was confused in the first place- i just assumed! LOL!

Handwriting- Breakthrough!

I have finally discovered THE method to teach Sonshine writing! I have tried tracing, no- tracing, ipad, using paint, this and that but all didn't work until now.

Prior to this, he seemed to have difficulty regurgitating the letters in writing although he knows how it looks like in his head. Even if he could write, weeks later he is back to square one. It also didn't help that he dislikes- maybe even hates, to write, color, draw whatever requires him to use a pen! So there was no motivation for him to work on it.

Admittedly, i am not sure he's improved because of this method or if it's the school or simply he is developmentally ready. But what i am certain of is, this method helped him to recall the strokes of each letter.

Enough said! So what is this method i am ranting about? Spalding Method!

The key to helping sonshine to write is that this method uses the clock as a reference. Here's how:

To write the letter 'a', tell the child to start at 2'oclock, draw round the clock & back to 2 o'clock and without lifting the pen, draw a straight line down.

Note: i am not using Spalding's exact words. I talked through with N using my own words so that he can understand. I also made my own clock so that N could practise writing on it to get a better visual. But after a few demostrations, he was able to write without the clock- just visualising it in his head.

The spalding method is very precise. You have to read it yourself to know what i mean. I am not sure if it expects even preschoolers to write accurately i.e. points must touch the base line, start from mid point mark for small letters.

While i am happy with N's writing, i think it fails Spalding expectations. For instance the letter 'd', the bottom points MUST touch the base line, the curve MUST not exceed the mid-point mark. But as you can see, sonshine missed all the specific marks (i wrote the the first letters). Still, i am already over the moon that he can write confidently! But i still want him to work on being precise, writing more accurately on paper.

Practising writing the letters 'a', 'g' and 'o'.

I notice that it is very common that preschoolers tend to write 'c', 's', 'd', 'b' etc in the opposite direction. The spalding method helped N to overcome this. Previously, he always wrote 'c' and 's' in the opposite direction. But after telling him that 'c' starts at 2 o'clock, toward 10 o'clock and stops at 4 o'clock- he is able to write it correctly.

I'll share in another post how i taught N to remember how to write 'b' and 'd' without confusing the 2.

To wrap up what he learnt, i made this small writing booklet. The words all include the letters he learnt (we started learning to write letters that start from the 2 o'clock points). At the same time, he can learn spelling! :P

I am very proud of his writing (though it probably fails in Spalding's books!).

More Christmas activities

This was a treasure find at my mom's. My sister's leftover xmas decor from years back!

We used it for sorting!

Another worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Christmas wreath Tangrams printed from Pre-Kinders

The finished look

 

Christmas Tree tangram from Pre-Kinders as well.

Tis a season

We did the Montessori stamp game again this time with a Christmas twist!

I printed the Christmas tree printable (see photo) from Confessions of a Homeschooler (but i tweaked it). I wrote numbers & the answers to our sums on it. N had to work on the sums, find the answers on the worksheet and color the spot.

I made our own Christmas printables. On this worksheet, Sonshine had to circle the different Christmas symbol in each row.

And tracing, printed from Confessions of a Homeschooler  as well.

More Xmas activities to come!