'Tong-ing"

N got too bored with the scooping activity and his teacher suggest i vary the exercise. So i decided to let him try using the tong to transfer the marbles from one bowl to another. At first he wasn't too excited about it. I think he wanted to stop the game once he realise it was too challenging. Today, i saw him secretly trying it again (without taking it out from the shelf). I pretended not to but i saw he is slowly picking up the skill!

The Hungry Caterpillar

I saw this template online and decide to print them out. Taking from an idea i read from a local magazine, i pasted each picture on an ice cream stick. I used these 'props' to re-tell the story of Eric Carle's 'The very hungry caterpillar'. N even got to choose his storyline! :)

Asia Map revamp!

I realised the map i made wasn't condusive for the boy. The word labels were too big to fit into the some of the countries. I used some toothpicks & blue tag to remake the labels so that N can place them exactly at the right spot! So far he's learnt where China, India, thailand, philippines, japan, indonesia & south korea, sri lanka are. I need to speed up, i have not made the rest yet!

Maths

I bought some stickers and prepared 10 cards and numbered them from 1 to 10. I got N to stick the respective number of stickers on each card. He wasn't in the mood for this; so i had to stack it away. Sobs :(

Matching 101

I taught N how to read the words from 'one' to 'twenty'. To make him practise what he learnt, i got him to match the numeric symbols to the respective words cards. And then i would get him to give me the word cards in order. No sweat!

He can Spell?

N's montessori teacher said that the only activity that can keep him focus is the moveable alphabet. So she's been doing this with him for the past few lessons. She commented that he is 'already very good' for his age.

I could watch N over the school's monitor and saw how engrossed he was with this game. His classmate first chose the activity (using moveable alphabet to play phonics game) and after wandering up and down the shelf for some time he decided to do the same activity. I could see that his classmate was alittle dreamy and her mat had only a few letters when N joined her. After some time, N's mat was filled with the alphabets while his classmates didn't seem to have progressed (from what i can see from the video).

His teacher said that while N could not decipher the letters when presented with the object say, 'bag' but he could pick up the correct letters if she slowly sound out the word for him like so, 'ber (for b)- air (a)- ger (g)'.

I was excited to witness and receive the feedback. Because this meant that his phonics learning has gone up another level. He must, and i hope, figured by now that he could spell out words using phonics. Oh well, does that mean i should not give up on this phonics business?

Phonics again

I think i am ready to throw in the towel. This phonics thing is really getting more odd to me. I mean, i (and many in my generation) never learn phonics but i dare say i know how to read! I was never taught what sound 'a' or 'g' makes but i figured it out along the way as i read and learnt more words. I mean its common sense right? Moreover, the english language can be very tricky (and weird at times). For instance, the letter 'a' can say 'ah' or put it with another set of letters, it would sound as 'air' or it could be just 'er' or simply 'a'. Now, tell me, how are you going to explain that to a child? The poor fellow will be so confused! Phonics is too technical! Unless you are an English teacher or something, no one learns English that way! I think the best way to teach english is to read more books, listen to (or perhaps even watch) good english programs. So yeah, i am pretty much done with this phonics thing. Actually, i never meant to start it. I just happened to play a phonics dvd (which was lent to me) with no intention for him to learn. So goodbye phonics...i think im quite done with you.

Match it!

I have been particularly selecting matching games because N seems more interested in them. So i printed this activity out and cut them out. Placing them face down radomnly on the floor, i had N to pick any card. Then he is to find the matching card. N seems intrigue by this game,!

Matching ABC

I let N play an activity on my iphone the other day, and to my horror, he couldn't recognise the capital letter 'E' (ive been showing him only small caps). So to make sure he knows the ABCs in both caps and small caps, i printed this fish activity out. I cut out the small capital alphabets and had N match it to the capital letters. He did very well!

Pink tower, revamp!

I got hold of this idea from a montessori blog. Apparantly there is more variation to the pink tower! I traced out each of the pink tower blocks on a red paper and cut them out. I pasted each piece on a white paper and have N to match the block to the paper. Unfortunately, N is not too excited about this game. :( for now i hope.

Sorting Marbles

I bought a box of colored marbles for just $2. I got N to sort the pretty marbles according to color.

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.