Reading from puzzles

 

This activity has been on our shelf for months now. Every now and then, either Doll or I would whip this out and have her work on it.

 

I am fortunate that Doll never gets tired of this even though it's always the same 4 words. The reason why I've not rotate the puzzles is because I want her to recognise these words before I move on.

 

To help her, I would get her to 'spell' the words using our movable alphabet from our Melissa and Doug kit after she completes the puzzles.

 

I think she is getting it (finally)! I'd take away the puzzles, leaving only the movable alphabet on the floor. I ask her to read those words aloud and she's been reading them accurately! Yahoo! To really make sure she gets it, I plan to write these words on paper and have her read to me. *cross fingers!*

A bit of craft

Sonshine wasn't and still isn't a crafty/arty person. I was a tad disappointed because I love to do arty stuff. Doll, like most toddler, loves crafty activity. However, ironically, now I find no time nor inspiration to do with her. -o-

 

Still, I try. Here was my wee bit effort to stay afloat with crafts.

 

 

 

I made some bear shape paper sprinklers using my paper puncher. Took out my washi tape and created a heart shape on her drawing board.

 

 

She smeared glue all over the page and sprinkled the punch out paper all over it.

 

 

The final look!

 

I gently tore away the washi tape to see a very faint heart shape formation. So, the anal me, just had to draw heart shape lines around it.

 

The purpose wasn't to get a masterpiece, it was more to entertain her with some sensory play. It was fun while it lasted!

Count my ribbons!

 

 

 

I wanted Doll to practise counting from 11-20. She can rote count from 1-29 but I wanted her to do 1-1 counting. So I improvised the Montessori red counters activity by having her lay out pretty ribbons accordingly starting from 11.

 

Got to stop here and be real. Doll didn't take this activity like a fish in the water. No matter how I tell her, she didn't seem to get it right. I was hot frustrated and I had to walk away 3 times to cool down leaving her sobbing in the room :(. Yes yes, I know, I was being unreasonable, don't start that on me. I am not perfect, we all slip every now and then don't we? :(

 

I was frustrated because I knew this was not something beyond her but why couldn't she do it? On reflection, I realised what I did wrong. I didn't present the activity to her. I merely gave her verbal instructions and expected her to get it. She didn't understand what she was suppose to do.

So, I tried it again the next day. I am very fortunate because that episode didn't deter her and she didn't resist working on this activity again. This time, I  demonstrated to her in a very calm & cheerful fashion as well as worked together with her. And, lo & behold, she took off and did it herself.

 

Ah, lesson learnt (again)!

 

 

 

Anyway, while keeping this activity I decided that we might as well sort out the ribbons- another pre math skill. Hee Hee. I was making her keep and learn at the same time. :D

 

 

Sensory Play: Hear the bells ring

 

Here's a Montessori inspired sensory activity. These capsules were collected from our numerous Kinder surprise purchase. Instead of throwing them away, I used them for our sound play.

 

The last time we played this, I put in different items that make different sounds in each pair. This time, I wanted to make it more challenging by putting in the same item (bells) but of varying number. The kids had to distinguish each sound and find it's match. The kids had fun! Shaking away with a huge grin and an 'Is this it?' expression plastered on their faces. :)

 

You can use any bottles but make sure they are covered and opaque so that the kids cannot see what's inside from the outside. Have a blast playing this one!

Working the fingers

 

This week's work is all about pincer grasp, counting and some thinking is required!

 

 

 

This was meant for Chinese New Year activity which we did and are still doing. Sequencing the alphabets in order. Doll has to figure out which alphabets are missing and where to place them.

*If you scrutinise the board you will notice some errors- I'm well aware*

 

 

Another sequencing activity and a pre math skill. Laying out pom pom balls on Velcro strip in alternate colors.

 

 

Scooping beads from jar to jar

 

 

But as usual she was more interested in pouring and pouring.

 

 

Threading. In the past I'd let her string through the holes randomly. This week I ask of her to string systematically i.e  from one hole to the next hole. 

 

 

I delayed this activity until now because she didn't have enough strength to work on the clothes peg. Now that she has, I have her remove the pegs and snap them back again.

 

 

Mama's never going to let a week a go by without Math! I love math activities especially Montessori ones! Here Doll is counting the Montessori beads.

 

 

After she counts them, she lay them in correspondence to the number plates.

 

Linking up to:

Counting, reading & fruits

I taught Doll how to read number words from one to ten. Since she can also count and recognise words relating to some fruits, I decided to create the following work for her.

 

My objective is to 1) expose her to these words as much as possible  so that they are deeply rooted into her memory

 

2) help her see that when words join together they mean something

 

3) get her started on reading short phrases

 

4) practise her counting

 

 

 

I made her fruit picture cards, on each card there are a variety number of a particular fruit. She's to read the word cards and match to the correct picture card.

 

At first, I would lay out 3 picture cards at a time in order to avoid confusing her. But she tend to guess the words by looking at the picture cards. So I took away the picture cards and made her read aloud from the cards.

 

When she was comfortable reading each card, I whipped out all the picture cards at one go and have her match the word cards one by one. One thing I notice, she didn't need to count the number of fruits on each card, she could instantly tell which card has say 3 pears or 4 bananas. (Ok granted they are a small number)

Before you think she took this like a fish in the water, not really. I had to get her to do this activity repeatedly over a few weeks. She tend to confuse the word 'apples' with 'pears' although she can recognise 'pear' *shrug*. But with repetitiion, she eventually sorted out the two. :)

Chinese New Year!

I made some CNY theme activities for doll.

 

 

Arranging chinese lantern patterns in numerical order.

 

Read aloud and match to the correct color chinese fan.

 

In line with the Chinese horoscope, I made these matching cards for Doll to learn the names of these animals in mandarin. (Why no horse and the rest of animals? 'Cause she learn most of them already).

 

Counting the number of mandarin oranges and matching the correct word number card. Sometimes I'd make her count in Mandarin and she had to match the correct mandarin word card.

 

Here's an activity I plan to work on with her. Either I'll put in a random number of gold chocolate coins in the red packet and have her count the number of coins in each packet. Or I'll write a number on each packet and have her slot the corresponding number of chocolate coins into the red packets.

 

And like a true Montessori style, one could use these chocolate coins as counters! :D

 

 On another note, I enjoy home teaching my kids. I enjoy researching, resourcing and preparing the learning materials for them. It gives me great joy when my kids acquire a new skill or knowledge through the materials I painstakingly made for them.

I don't necessarily do it because I want my kids to be ahead, believe it or not. I do it because I truly enjoy it. Of course, the result of all the home teaching is a bonus for me. I am really blessed that both my son and daughter enjoy our home learning time. This spurs me on to continue home learning with them. Otherwise, I don't think I'd bother nor last this long. 

 

But even if you don't home teach, please don't ever think your child is losing out. From my observation, things will even out by kindergarten/primary level. The supposedly not so advance kids will catch up sooner or later (i.e. most kids will eventually learn how to read and count by primary school).

 

Have home learning only if you and your kids enjoy it or you plan to keep them from formal schools. Otherwise, don't fret too much, I trust that most pre-schools prepare their children well enough for primary. :)

 

Till the next post, Blessed Chinese New year everyone!

 

Yo Ho Ho HO!

Some of us are still in the Christmas mood? Ah well, not exactly. I  am too lazy to reorganise the shelf. Therefore, Doll has been doing the same work everyday.

 

But here are 2 activities I tweak to keep up with her learning.

 

 

 

I made these reindeer cards to help her practise one to one correspondence up to 15. While she can count items independently up to 10, she gets confused counting anything more than 10- she tends to double count or miss a count. So for this, I hold her hand and guide her as she counts. In the past, she'd confused 15 and 16 because of her pronunciation. But now, I am delighted that she is counting it right!

 

These cards were used for sight word activity, for her to recognise 'is' and 'the'. I made extra words cards like 'cat' and 'heavy' & lay them in a sentence structure. We read the cards in order aloud. My objective is for her to learn the two words, seems like she is picking up 'is'. Let's work on the 'the' baby!

3 activites we did this week with doll...

These are the main activities we did this week.

 

 

Sorting/classifying fruits and animals.

 

 

I am not a phonics fan but still this activity is too fun not let Doll have a go. She had to sort the pictures by their beginning sounds.

 

 
 

Counting each column and placing the corresponding number below it. 

Mish a Mash

So, we have been out of action- I totally blame it on the Korean wave. I have been watching too many dramas and entertainment shows. *Hiak Hiak* Also, I have been too lazy to take photos, edit and type a post. It is getting a bit of a chore lately. :(

 

Anyway...here's some meager effort I made.

 

 

Doll wanted to paint so I reluctantly obliged. On the whim, I threw in a toy corn, a piece of Lego and a car wheel. I let her paint on them and stamp/roll them on the paper. And there you go! Sensory play in an instant! :D

 

I love to make learning material using felt! I sew a tree & call it 'counting tree'!

I place a numeral at the side and doll has to put the correct number of counters on it.

 

My DIY counting cards in mandarin.

 

We have been reading about body parts in mandarin for a long time so I decided to make her these cards for her to practise. Glad to discover she's recognise the words!

 

I dug out this number sequence card again- for Doll to learn counting BACKWARDS. Learning to count backward is important for learning subtraction. So instead of starting from 1, I made her start from 10. I also tried to introduce to her the term 'before' by asking her 'What number is BEFORE 10?'

 

There you have it, these were the work done this week. Simple.

Cards & Counters: Montessori

 

 

It is one thing to be able to rote count, it is another to understand the quantative value to each number. The objective of cards and counters activity is to help the child understand the latter.

 

I love how this activity shows the child what '1' means, how many '2' is etc. It is visual, clear and very easy for a young kid to digest.

 

I am glad babydoll has progressed and is now able to allocate the correct quantity to each number. Whoohoo! I was looking back at how she started and recall at an earlier point I wasn't even sure she was going to get over counting! But she has come to this point and I am reminded the importance of being consistent, persistent, patience & have faith.

 

So anyway, one does not need to own these materials to do this. You can always write numbers on cards and use simple household items like straws, cotton balls, Lego, Duplo or...

 

 

 

You can purchase these from Daiso for $2 and use them as counters! To make it interesting and fun, use a variation of counters.

 

Have fun!

Montessori- Geometry Solids

I am mostly presenting Montessori work to doll this week. One of which is Geometry solids.

 

The intent is to teach the child the formal names of these solids. If you are interested, I printed this set of cards here.

 

 

Of course, I do not expect my 2.5 year old to know the terms 'triangular based prism' etc. I whipped this activity more for her to do matching which is a pre-math skill. Anyway, I gave her this more for the fun of it.

 

 

 

In David Gettaman's book, I remember he mentioned about allowing the child to explore these solids particularly stacking the solids and showing the child that not all solids are 'stackable' like the sphere. Surprisingly, Doll explored these solids exactly  this way without my prompting. In fact, I was trying to pack up and turned around to see her trying to build a tower with the set. Instinctively, she discovered she cannot add more solids above the pyramid (because the base is too narrow- but of course she doesn't know exactly that!) or that the sphere will no stay on top either (because it is rounded).

 

This is why I love Montessori! There's little need to give extensive explaination- just let the child explore & learn!

Montessori- Cylinder Blocks

This was the activity that first attracted me to Montessori- Cylinder blocks.

 

 

It consist of 4 blocks and in each block there are 10 (mine only has 5) drilled holes to fit the cylinders in.

 

Each cylinder differs either in diameter or depth or both. For instance, in one block, all the cylinders have the same diameter. However, they vary increasingly/decreasingly in depth. In another block, all the cylinders have the same depth but vary increasingly/decreasingly in diameter etc (sorry, to lazy to give lengthy explanation but read here if you want to know more) 

 

 

The direct objective of this activity is to sharpen the child's visual discrimination of varying dimensions. The indirect goals are for pincer grasp exercise (as the child use her index finger and thumb to manoeuvre the knobs on the cylinders) and if I may add, eye-hand coordination skills as well as Mathematical concepts.

 

During the initial work, present only one block at a time. Once the child is seasoned in working with each block; present all 4 blocks at a go to her & mix the cylinder blocks for more challenging work.

 

 

The best part of it is I don't need to give her lengthy lecture. As she worked, she instinctively learn that each cylinders have differing dimensions. I thought it was very interesting how she always pick up the largest pieces first- I guess these were the easiest to identify & match. She naturally discovered that the bigger cylinders don't fit into the smaller ones and some smaller ones don't fit into the smaller holes because they may differ in depth.

 

According to David Gettman, when the child matures, we can use this to explain the terms 'shallow' vs 'deep', 'thick' vs 'thicker etc.

 

Admittedly, this is something you can't DIY easily unless you are an expert in sawing and drilling wood- even if you are, you must be well equipped! However, if you like you can pick this book up. It comes with a template, though 2-dimension (but better than nothing & much cheaper than purchasing) which emulate this activity.

Counting

 

Babydoll has progressed! She can now rote count comfortably up to 39. At the same time, she can also count one to one correspondence without any aid.

 

 

So I took out my Duplo cards and have her count- this time without the counters. She is able to point and count in correspondence accurately. Whoohoo!

 

 

 

I also started her with Montessori counters. I learn that it is one thing to count 'how many' items are there but it is another thing to be able to allocate the correct amount of counters according to the numeral. Oh well, we will just have to practise, practise!

 

Mummy! Do work!

 

It is becoming a habit for Babydoll to do mummy's work. Every noon after her lunch, she will demand & insist on doing 'work'. Never mind that mummy has been too tired to clear the shelf and add in new activities, she still tells me 'mummy! DO WORK!!'.

 

She has been doing 'stale' (as in I haven't change the activity trays for weeks) work for the last few weeks. So, I just HAD to perk myself up and slowly added new activity for her. Here are some of our new activities on our shelf this week:

 

 

 

Transferring beads into ice-cube tray with a tong.

 

We are FINALLY moving on with numbers from 11-20!  I am quite sure the road ahead would be a breeze from now on. PHEW.

 

Counting! I made some counting Duplo cards for her. To help guide her count, I gave her counters for her to place it on each Duplo. As she places each counter on the card, she counts them aloud. I am very glad that she is getting the hang of counting! Yahoo!

 

Sorting items by their weight. There's a boo boo in the photo but I was too lazy to correct it. This was fun for her. She took out each item from the basket, determine if its light or heavy and put it under the correct label.

Montessori: Sound boxes

Or rather, sound capsules! My kids are obsess with Kinder Surprise no thanks to the Youtube. These eggs are not cheap and we are made to buy them every week.

 

While my kids look forward to cracking the eggs for the toys, I look forward to collecting the capsules (that is use to hold the toys in the egg). My husband laments that I am a trash collector. :D But I just knew one day these capsules would be put into good use! And I was right!

 

I decided to use the capsules for Montessori Sound box activity. To know more about this activity, read here.

 

 

First, I filled the capsules with stuff like rice grains, a piece of Lego and pom pom. Use items such that when you shake the capsule, it makes a sound.  I used 6 capsules, each pair is filled with the same items.

 

 

Mix the capsules up and have the child pair the capsules that makes the same sound. As a control of error, I pair up the capsules according to its color.

With reference to the link above, the purpose of this activity is to refine the child's auditory sense. We can also use this activity for language purpose like teaching the child the concept of 'loud' and 'soft' sounds (I didn't know that before this! Ha!).

 

I think I need to increase the challenge by adding more capsules.