Noun or verb?

We have been reading up on what are nouns and verbs. Although i didn't think that the book was very clear in it's descriptions, somehow sonshine boy got it.

I made these cards to revise what we've read. First up, N had to match the the words 'noun' and 'verb' to the correct description.

Then he had to identify which words are nouns and which are verbs. He had most correct just needed some help with a few words. Well done my boy!

What's on the ships?

I bought a series of National Geographic books for kids. This was one of the books we read recently. Thanks to this book, Sonshine boy learnt about port, shipping goods from a country to another etc.

Just for fun, i prepared this little game for him. Since we don't have boat toys at home (how strange!), i used paper to fold make shift boats. I put some lego pieces in each boat. We pretended that the lego pieces were containers holding goods like toys, clothes etc. I took out our flag flashcard just to represent the country. We 'shipped

 the 'containers' (lego pieces) from USA to Malaysia etc.

The lego man was used to represent the people in a country receiving the goods. :)

Our Body

We've been reading Acorn books on Our body organs from hearts, lungs to stomach.

We are currently reading this book, Our hearts.

I dug out the Glenn Doman cards on Different organs. I asked N to point out the various organs based on the books we read. I also introduced some other organs i.e. bladder and pointed to him where they are in his body.

Down under

I WON I WON!

I participated in my very first giveaway at About a girl and won!

What did i win?

A set of Montessori Nomenclature cards on Australia. It was perfectly prepared by her! It came just at the right time! I haven't had time to make or plan anything for the boy but these cards made it really easy for me! I just had to print, laminate and cut!

The boy was super elated to see new cards and was eager to play with them. It made me both happy- that he still enjoys learning and sad- it shows how much he yearns to learn but i just don't have the time! :(

We learnt the various landmarks, things & people we can find in Australia. From these cards, N has discovered that Sydney Opera house, great barrier reef, 12 apostles etc can be found in Australia!

We also learn which animals live in Australia

I made this set of cards, solely inspired by the cards i won. Its the map of Australia, divided into different states. N did it only once and could remember every state without checking the answers!

I also went on a hunt in my house to find things relating to Australia to show N. There's the flag, Kangaroo, cockatoo, sheep, koala bear, Sydney magnets, a didgeridoo (made by N during his Holiday art class) and my fav, a Qantas aeroplane model!

Sonshine boy had lots of fun exploring the cards and he's been asking to play with them over and over again. I've also summarized what we learn by asking him what are landmarks, things, animals we can find in Australia.

Help or not

Friends, family all advice me to engage a full time helper, now that i have 2 kids to take care of. Initially i was against the idea because im quite territorial and quite reluctant to share my space with a stranger- actually even my own parents!

However, babydoll is quite a demanding child. She needs attention whenever she's awake, she wants to carried when she wants to sleep, she basically wants someone by her side 24hours- well except when she is sleeping at night. So, you can imagine the time i have for sonshine boy- NONE! The good thing is the boy doesnt bear any grudge toward his sister and his mother! But nonetheless, this mama is feeling guilty.

Yet, i am hesitant to get a helper. While alot of my friends- with 2 kids, insist that it is impossible to care for 2 without help, i do have a handful of friends who has done so successfully. The rebel in me wants to prove to them that yes, it is possible to care for 2 by myself but when babydoll's demands become impossible- i just want to succumb to getting a helper. The good, i can direct part of my time and attention to N.

Right now, without a full time helper, chores & what nots can still be done. The only down side is i simply have no time for the boy. Although, we do get some time together at night where we would read books together. So, if i do hire a helper, it would only be for the boy.

Tell me, how do you manage without a helper? Or what is the good in having one? And if you're an overseas mama without help- tell me, is it a norm in your country to hire a maid? Somehow, i am under the impression that stay home mamas in US, Australia rarely have extra help..

Adding in multiples

The other day a friend teasingly asked his 2 year old daughter what 1+2+3 was and if she gave him the right answer, he would give in to her request. That prompted me to ask the same question to Sonshine boy. I wanted to see if he knew how to add this type of equation.

I was expecting him to say 'Don't know' since i haven't quite taught him how to do it. But he, quite quickly, answered, '6!'. No fingers, no calculator, no paper & pen, no nothing. All added in his brain. That spurred me on to whack him more equations, and he was equally quick to give me the right answers. I also tried giving him similar subtraction questions- no issues there either! The odd thing is, the boy enjoys these questions and kept asking for more. AH! My little maths whiz!

Quick post on division

Obviously, i barely have time to do any homeschooling with boy these days. If any, it'd be 2 minutes here, 3 minutes there...

Anyway, we've been TRYING to practise division whenever babydoll permits us to. I've also been throwing some division problem sum to Sonshine boy to 'test' if he knows solve it. For instance, i'd ask him, 'if there are 18 trains and 9 children in the room, how many trains would each child have?'. I first asked him what divide by what. He can instantly tell me 18 divide by 9 for instance and sometimes, in this case, he can even tell me the answer. :) WOOT!

Division, the Montessori way

In the book The doorbell rang, a mother baked 12 cookies for her 2 children. The pair calculated and determined that they will have 6 cookies each. But before they could devour the delicious cookies, the doorbell rang. There, at the door, stood 2 of their neighbours. The mother invited them over for cookies. Once again, the children calculated that now, each of the 4 kids will have 3 cookies. But the doorbell rang again, and in came 2 more friends. The kids re-divided the cookies and each of the 6 kids will now have only 2 cookies. And...you guess it, the doorbell rang again, this time there were 6 more kids! With 12 children, each kid gets only one cookie, much to their dismay.

This is a simple book about division. Using this story, i showed sonshine boy how to 'play' the Montessori Division board.

First, i wrote the equation on a card. I didn't take pictures, but i started with the equation similar to the book, i.e. 12 divide by 2, 12 divide by 4.... When he got the hang of the game, i let him explore with other equations as the above picture.

I told the boy, that the green skittles are people and the green balls (see below picture) represent the cookies. So to solve the equation, say 18 divide by 9, i told him that this means that there are 18 cookies to be divided by 9 people. I asked him to take 9 'people' (skittles) and place them on the board (see picture above).

Next, he distributed the 18 'cookies' (green balls), among the 9 'people' (green skittles) like so. I asked him how many 'cookies' will each person have? Looking at each column, we determine that each person will get 2 'cookies'- and that's our answer!

Using this Montessori Board, i've showed him how to read the division equation. Now, we'll just have to practise doing more division equations

Other moms deal with tantrums, mischief while ive none of those, I've another set of behaviourial issues to tackle with. There are some things that the boy does that really annoys me to no end. It sets me on fiery mood and no matter how hard I try he just won't (or can't) stop. I've tried talking, scolding, yelling, beating and even caning but he'd just repeat them again. Here's what irritates me

1) He loves to touch me at the joints of my arms. That's alright you say. Not if he does it every other minute. What's more, in his excitement, he's touch would turn into grabbing, scratching and mostly pinching. That's what annoys me most. I can't seem to get him to stop no matter how I scream, cane or reason. I have even resorted to pinching him ( ya I'm that desperate) to show him it doesn't feel nice. He gets it and understood each time that he's not suppose to do it. But he can't seem to control himself especially when he's excited. It seems that I have to yell at him like a complete nutcase before he knows the seriousness of it. PoST note: And i realised he is doing it quite unconsciously, that's probably why he tends to 'forget' that he's not suppose to do it. It's tough to 'discipline' him because as i said he does it subconsciously and so quickly that he tend to not realise what he actually did. Likewise, because he does it in a flash, sometimes even i am not sure if it was a scratch, pinch, grab or just a simple touch that accidentally became a scratch. Hence, at times, i probably wrongfully yell at him. ;I

2) He thinks its funny to speak unclearly. He tends to cut out the ending sounds of some words. For instance, yes become ye, train becomes trai. It started out as a joke but it gCodigjggjot too far. I worry that he'd speak this way in school, if so, no one would ever understand what's he saying. I find it really annoying especially when he knows how to pronounce properly but too lazy to do it.

3) When nursing the girl, he'd sit beside me doing his own thing be it reading or playing his toys. At times he'd just lie down or roll on the sofa. It gets to me that each time he'd jump on me, knock me or even kick the girl's head. Some days he would poke me with his toes which can be quite painful & irritating. Other times he would run his fingers up & down my arms. It can get quite ticklish and annoying especially when I'm trying to manage an infant in my arms.

4) This is probably typical of most kids but still! He has a habit of picking something up from point A and randomly leaving it at point B. He needs constant reminder to put the things back. Its probably ok if I have time to watch him but I don't. By the time I discover it, its too late. I can't nit the problem in the butt!

POST NOTE

Well well, the son actually published my unfinished post, which is ironically about him, without my knowledge! I was going to add that these behaviour began way before sister was born, though i can't remember if it was before or during my pregnancy.

5) He has a new habit which probably is a spin off from pt 1. He likes to dig his chin right into my skin be it on my arms or legs...whichever part of my body he can manage. I hate it because it's, you guess it, irritating!

I have pretty much concluded this about his actions. I think it's HIS 'special' way of showing affection. Weird right? I think so too. While other kids probably run to their mamas to give them a hug, kiss etc, he comes to me doing all of these. The only time he'd sit still and hug me tightly is when he is upset or hurt. Other times, it's really difficult to get his affectionate touch...my way, that is. I am trying to see it from his point of view, but i think he needs to learn the proper way of showing affection. .

I am probably the only bad mother who complains about her son's strange antics. But hey, im a woman, i need to let out, i need to rant. :I Peace.

Additional addition

Thanks to the CD-Rom i bought for N, he has learnt how to add double digits. I just showed him how it is done and left him on his own. He's been playing this activity daily and has been getting the right answers.

A few nights ago, i asked him what 12+12 was. He wasn't able to answer nor visualised the working format. Today, i wrote the equation on the doodle board, this time in working form. I showed him that he's to add the same way as the game. Subsequently, i asked him to calculate 13+13, this time without any visual aid. He quietly added the sum mentally and gave 26 as the answer! We did a few sums and he was able to give me the right answers-all calculated in his head.

Solving multiplication problem sums

Even though sonshine boy can do multiplication, I wanted to make sure he truly, fully understand what it's all about. The best way, at least to me, is to give him a problem sum on multiplication to solve. Hence, I've been verbally throwing him a number of sums to solve. For instance, I'd ask him; if there are 3 fishballs in 1 stick and mummy buys 3 sticks, how many fishballs are there? Or I could ask if there are 9 sweets in 1 packet, mummy buys 4 packets how many sweets in all? Even though he can spew out the correct answers, I'd insist that he gives me the equation. Sometimes he'd get it mix up I.e 3x4 instead of 4x3, such cases I'd correct him. After a few rounds, he now knows how to solve a multiplication problem sum.

Dividing by half

Since we were on the topic of fractions, I taught the boy how to divide by 2 mentally. I told him that if 2+2=4, then half of 4 is 2 and so on. To make certain he has grasp the concept, I went on to ask him what's half of 8, 16, 10, 14, 18 etc. He looked upwards, thought about it and gave me all the right answers. Last night, the hubs randomly asked the boy what was half of 100 and the boy said 50!