She play puzzles!

I have put up a couple of puzzles on the shelf for babydoll since she was like 10 month old. But she would just take out the each puzzle piece and strewn them all over the floor.

Recently, i discovered she can do something new!

She has learnt to put the puzzles into its right places by matching the pictures! I would pick out a piece and ask her 'where do we put this?' or i might say 'where is the pig?' (whichever animal piece i am holding). She would find the matching picture (there's a corresponding picture under each loose piece) and promptly put it in its place. Most of the times, she can't quite fit the puzzle into the slot but at times, by some magical luck she can.

This is another puzzle that she loves. Her favourite pieces are the grapes and strawberry! Like the above puzzle, she's able to match the pieces to its place.

YAHOO!

All about babydoll @ 14 months old

Her favourite word: mama, mama mamaAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! (Yes in that exact manner). She first uttered 'mama' at 10 month old.

Her favourite things are 'ba ba' which can mean 'balloon, ball and birds' all starting with 'B'!

Her other favourite thing is 'ka ka' for shoe.

She loves shoes and would insist i try on shoes for her when we're out shopping at the shoes department :I.

She also says 'na na!' for 'No, no'

She says 'ge ge' (or something like that) for 'kor kor' (big brother)

She understands two-step instructions like 'pick it up and put it back' or 'put it back and close the (drawer, door)'. I am loving this because i get to engage her help at times!

She points to things that attracts her; she can point to her body parts & fruits etc when asked.

She understands when i say 'Mama is going to the toilet', she would drop all that she's doing and start walking & pointing at the bathroom where i'd do my business.

She knows to head toward our reading corner when i say 'read book time!'

Or when i say 'let's go', she would wave and start to head toward the door or to me.

Recently, she seems to tell me after doing her 'big business'. She would look at me and say 'baba' while pulling her diaper.

Awwww, my baby is growing up too fast!

I am also a tad dissapointed that she isn't showing signs of reading (yes, i can see all you people rolling your eyeballs, here let me help pick them up for you).

:D

 But that's because i realised sonshine recognised a list of words at 14 month old. I know, i know, each child is different. I do realised that i have unconsciously put on sonshine's cognitive learning curve on her. Here, i have to remind myself that it would be a different route with her. I have had it too easy with sonshine since he absorbs information very fast & effortlessly.

So my journey with babydoll might be alittle different, ok maybe even difficult. :I

But then again, to be fair to her, i haven't put on the same diligence on teaching & reading with her as i had with the boy. This i blame sonshine's school! I am spending my time ferrying him up & down; it really breaks any momentum.

Anyway, time to buck up mama! :)

Poem

I love poems! I was introduced to poems during my secondary school days and i fell immediately in love with it. I love the rhythm and the rhyme.

So although I was skeptical about making sonshine memorise poems but i decided to give it a try anyway.

The first poem is 'The Caterpillar' by Christina Rosetti

First, i read the poem to sonshine and we talked about the content. Then i made him remember the first two lines of the poem. But to my surprise, he remembered the entire poem effortlessly all in one night.

But that's not the point. The key thing is, both mother & son had such a blast reading & reciting the poem! Sonshine enjoys reciting this poem and insist that i take turn to recite too! We really had alot of fun! Did i tell you we had A LOT of fun? Yes, it was THAT fun. :))

Some of the side activities i did as we read/recite this poem

1) Comprehension: i asked him simple questions like 'What color is the caterpillar?', 'Where is the caterpillar going?' etc

2) Speech & articulation: as he recites i work on his tone, speed of reading and pronunciation. He tends to rush by it. But i dare say he is near to perfection now! I don't know why, but it was such a proud moment having the boy stand in front of us reciting this poem so perfectly. Awww, that's my baby.

Marble Paint!

Pinterest to me is like an encyclopedia of great ideas! This is one of the cool things i picked up from Pinterest.

Place a piece of paper in a tray. You'll need some paints and marbles for this art.

Drop a few paints of varying colors randomly on the paper.

Put the marbles in.

Let the kiddo twirl the tray away!

Our final masterpiece!

It was waaaaaay too fun. Even i had a ball! :P

'First Language Lessons for the well trained mind'

I was looking for a grammar curriculum and decided to adopt 'First Language Lessons for the well trained mind, Level 1' by Jessie Wise. Here are my thoughts.

I would recommend it..NOT.

I was quite shocked by how slow the lesson plans are. Imagine it takes 41, a whopping FORTY-ONE (almost half the book), lessons just to teach about common & proper nouns. I was yawning my way through while reading the lesson plans. I took just 10 minutes to teach sonshine both concepts.

I picked up a locally written grammar book

In this book, it took about a 2-3 pages to explain the same things. This is right up my alley. I don't know. It could be the Singaporean in me that makes me want things to be quick, fast and good! Oh and cheap too! This local book was like $20 cheaper then Jessie Wise's book!

That said, there are some thing i like about the book:

1) I like it's usage of famous paintings for the narration exercises. Take a painting and ask the child questions relating to the picture. It helps in their oral skills and at the same time exposes the child to well-known art works.

2) Although i don't exactly follow the lessons but it did gives me alot of ideas on how i can conduct my lessons.

3) I like the idea of introducing poems to the child but i am undecided about the memorising bit.

Overall, i don't think it is worth to purchase this book. It is way too slow even for the average learner. Although, it is great that each lessons are very short (less than 10 minutes) and it's lessons are very clear & easy for a pre-schooler/kindergartener to understand.

More Spelling

We continued our spelling with words with 'ay' in them (i am starting with words with the long a sound).

The mini booklet i made for sonshine.

It includes words with the 'ay' in them. He has learnt to spell simple words like 'day', 'say' etc and other words like 'pray', 'play' and 'stay'.

I have done away with the moveable alphabet because i realised he really didn't need them to help him spell.

I wanted to speed up our spelling and try to cover as many words as possibe. So since i have the Five in a Row books sitting nicely in my shelf, ive decided to use them for our spelling lessons too.

I made a mini booklet; inside are all the words that can be found in the book.

He has learnt animal words like 'goose', 'goat', 'bear' etc.

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.

Chinese books i love

I am very pleased that we have advanced in our chinese reading. We have been reading books with more words and longer paragraphs.

I am falling in love with the langauge, it has far more depth than English. I don't buy English books, i'd rather borrow. Strangely, i rather buy & keep chinese books. Like i said, i think the language is far more beautiful that the English language that it is worth hording my house with it!

So here are some good read that i would like to recommend & own:

This is a set of 15 books. I like this series because it comes with DVD showcasing all the stories in the set. The books are rather wordy so in order to keep sonshine interested, i sometimes would let him watch the DVD first then follow up with the book. Or sometimes the other way around. The great thing is that you can choose to watch the show either in English or Mandarin.

This series is originated from a a Japanese author. I love the humourous storyline! I think i bought it more for my pleasure! But i also think it is great for sonshine because the words are fairly simple and it gets repeated. I love this series so much that i bought both volume 1 AND 2! This is definately a keeper!

This is one of the better moral value books i have come across. Each book speaks about a certain value i.e manners, compassion etc. It gives detailed scenarios and what are the aceptable behaviours. I only found out that this series was translated from English- otherwise i would have purchase the English version because i find myself translating each and every sentence as i read to sonshine! Nonetheless, these are great books imparting great values to the child.

We have more books! I may add them on in another post. :)

I don't have time to make a trip downtown to get the books. So my purchases are mostly made online & I buy mainly from these sources:

Stuff for Junior

Happy cottage

June Holiday: English lessons

Over the school holidays, we did a few spelling activity and some English related lessons.

I took out our Melissa & Doug's spelling kit and let sonshine have a go (it was getting dusty!). Sonshine matched the letters to each board and wrote each word three times on his book. He learnt to spell a couple of words, thanks to this activity.

I also made him learn the spelling of some action words.

Our spelling lessons were too haphazard that i found a need to find some structure. I decided to go with Montessori's Movable Alphabet and use of phonograms. Yes, i said before i am not a fan of phonics. I am still not a fan. But i reckon that it would easier for sonshine to learn to spell if we follow phonogram by phonogram.

Nothing beats owning the original Montessori Moveable alphabet. I did think of buying it but the thought of storing yet another bulky educational kit was too much for me to take. Hence, i DIY my own. This one is much more storage friendly!

Our first structured lesson begins with 'ai'. He successfully learnt to spell words that has 'ai' in them including, 'train', 'pain', 'paint', 'wait' etc.

It turns out that the structured lesson didn't help sonshine learn his spelling any better. He is accepting of either way, a random list of words or words with the same phonograms. The good thing about him is that it doesn't take much for him to remember & retain the words he learnt. So i conclude the structured lesson is more for me! LOL.

As with Montessori's lesson, i also created a mini book.

This particular book contains words that has 'ai' in them.

We also played with Junior scrabble during the school holidays. I found it way too boring but sonshine had loads of fun.

One of the books sonshine loves to borrow from the library is a book on Homophones. After reading book after book on homophones, i decided to let him have a go at a worksheet printed from here.

June Art

We drew!

We followed a step by step application on the ipad. It was very easy!

Sonshine's version.

Mine.

Sonshine's cat (after adding some color; i helped him use a marker to outline his drawing too).

Maybe i am bias, but i much prefer his coloring than mine. I realised i was limited by my knowledge (i.e there's no such thing as a blue cat much less a blue headed cat with red body and yellow legs!) that i chose one color for my cat. Sonshine on the other hand, unlimited in his creativity, chose to use blue, red and yellow for his cat. Looks much more vibrant and attractive than my boring color! You want creativity? Look at your chidren's choice of colors!

He also learnt to draw a train. Again, i just love his choice of color combination!

Dinosaur! Looks poisonous!

*woof* Love love his color choices!

Can you guess what this is?

It's an army tanker. Check out the soldier!

There was once a time when sonshine was so averse to holding a pencil, let alone draw. But today, he does not hesistate to pick a pencil and even enjoyed our drawing sessions. So awesome! No one can be more pleased than me! I love to draw and an art teacher once said i was quite a cartoonist. Hope the son will pick up the love of drawing like i did. :)

l'l sister cannot resist joining in the fun! Or rather she was too jealous to let me have some alone time with big brother at the table!

Trapped!

So go ahead, laugh at me.

I have succumbed to the traps of the rat race.

I signed the boy up for chinese supplementary classes (no, it is not Berries) something i truly regret. (I may even withdraw him after this term! ha!).

I do not know how other parents do it but i suffered from alot of guilt, regret, remorse after i paid the fee! I feel so sorry for the boy like as if i was really, robbing him of his childhood!

Why did i do it then?

1) Sonshine's mandarin teacher at school has no time/chance to truly assess and understand sonshine's learning ability. Each time i see her, she will rant about how big the class is and it is impossible for her to go from student to student and individually teach them. This, i fault her not. And this, is the reason why i dislike the regular education system. The teacher-student ratio is too wide. Kids like my son, who is so quiet, will get neglected & overlooked. This was evident when she incorrectly told me during the teacher-parent meet that sonshine does not understand mandarin.

2) I was looking through his term 1 work and while i can somewhat keep up with the curriculum for now but i know i would not be able to keep up in the long run. I could hold off the extra class now since at this moment, he really has no problem with mandarin. But, i feel that if i send him of later, we would be playing catch up. So, i took on the typical Singaporean sydnrome and decided to take a step ahead.

Which school is it? I am not telling! But i can tell you why i chose this school

1) Low teacher-student ratio. The maximum students they accept in the class is 8. That, i like! It allows the teacher to cater her attention to each students.

2) Their Kindergarden curriculum incorporates oral skills and building sentence structure. Honestly, i didn't do alot of research, i don't know what other centers are teaching. But i compared to another school (its next door neighbour), i felt that the other school was too slow, it focuses more on word recognition. So, i thought this school's curriculum was the 'better' one since it includes activities like question and answer, learning to form proper sentences in mandarin.

The first lesson went well. For one, sonshine happily skipped to school. He was really looking forward to it! Secondly, unlike his school teacher, the center teacher was able to tell me his strengths and weaknesses accurately despite only seeing him for the first time. She was surprised by sonshine's ability to read all of the passage shown in class that day. She was even more surprised that he could read a rhyme that she only read once or twice but didn't require the kids to remember the words (i think its because he already knows all the words). But I was most pleased when she told me his pronunciation was accurate because i thought otherwise LOL! I was also pleased that he was able to understand and answer the two simple questions assigned that day.

After the first lesson, i am thinking of withdrawing him already! But we will have to see, there must be some value add otherwise there is really no need to send him for extra class to learn things he already knows and i am already whining about sacrificing my Saturday mornings!

'Homeschool' for babydoll

Here are some mini activities the girl has been entertained with. Mainly to exercise her eye-hand coordination & fine motor skills.

Transferring clips into an empty milk bottle. The mouth of the bottle is rather small which is makes it tricky. So babydoll had to tilt each clip upright in order to slot them in. She surprised me with this one, she did it with much ease.

I slit a tiny 'coin' slot on an empty carton box and gave the girl some toy coins to insert them into the box. Again, i thought this might be a little challenging for her age but i was proven wrong again. It was too easy for her that she got a little bored with this activity very soon after.

She was more delighted to find the coins in the box and would much rather i let her play with the box opened!

I was busy playing Monopoly with the boy & didn't pay much attention to her. I left her with a box of sweets and when i checked on her, she somehow managed to find another box & decided to transfer the sweets from box to box! This kept her entertained for quite a bit! It once again tells me that sometimes we really don't need to prepare loads & loads of activities for the toddler- they are curious enough to create their own, meaningful ones too!

AH! The milk bottle again! This time it made it's appearance with colorful poms poms!

Little sister hard at work, transferring each pom pom into the milk bottle.

I LOVE the Ikea stacking cups! I bought it for sonshine and took them out again for the girl. It is such a cheap & simple toy; even the boy is intrigued by it- still! (Ok, this has nothing to do with the sheep...it is there for visual pleasure).

I stacked the cups up and let babydoll push them down. She also helped me stacked the cups- great for her eye-hand coordination & fine motor skills!

All in all, i am delightfully surprise by her (fine & gross) motor skills. She is definitely way, way much, much, faster than her brother was. I remember i was pretty frustrated watching him do fine motor skills related activities- thank God that's all over!