Orange Juice anyone?

I am planning to start Doll on writing which explains why I am focusing more on Practical life activities as well as working on her pincer grasp. 

 

Plus, practical life activities are the easiest to prepare! Yesterday Doll made her own orange juice.

 

It started one day we chanced upon an orange juice maker vending machine! My hub was so y fascinated by the novelty that he splurge $4.50 on it without battling an eyelid.

 

It was intriguing watching how the machine selected the oranges, sliced them, squeezed them, collected the juice into a cup and served the fresh drink to us. Doll slurp up every last bit of the juice, she said it was "very very very nice"!

 

So grabbing the chance when that experience is fresh in her mind, I made Doll squeeze her own and at the same time exercise her hand muscles (for writing in future).

 

 

 

My invitation tray to play! Well, an invitation was quite unnecessary actually!

 

Squeeze, squeeze *grit teeth* *growl*

 

She had quite a hard time squeezing, she didn't have the strength. Still, she did not give up and could not keep her hands off the orange!

 

Good thing we had an HUGE orange that day because we extracted quite alot of juice!

 

Doll poured the juice into her cup (yes, another hidden practical life activity & chance for her to practise pouring- this time with a purpose!) and generously shared with me!

 

It was absolutely yummy!

Practically practical.

This past week, I have been focusing on practical life activities. Oh okay, I have been too lazy to plan Doll's home activities, so I decided to whip out our everyday things for her to dabble.

 

 

 

Learning to pour.

 

To make it a tad challenging, I deliberately chose a small jug for her to pour water into. I made sure she positioned her hands correctly when holding & pouring the filler. Obviously, it was no sweat for her.

 

 I notice young kids do not have the discernment to know when to stop pouring. They will continue to pour as long as there's still water in the filler which of course means, the jugs will end up overflowing with water.

 

So I gave her two jugs and filled the filler with water just enough for the two jugs. I wanted her to make proper judgement when to stop filling the jug i.e I reminded her she should stop when the water level in the jug reached to a certain level.

 

The other no-brainer practical life activity is to work on Playdough! I gave her a rolling pin, scissors and a slicer and let her work away! As she played, she was unknowingly exercising her pincer grasp and fine motor skills. WOOT!

 

Remember this counting card? I decided to use it again!

 

This time together with a handful of marbles, number cards & tongs. I have her count & determine the number of symbols on each card. When she has the answer, she had to transfer a marble with a tong onto the correct number card. My 2 in 1 activity- learn counting cum practical life activity!

 

So you see, one does not really need to have an elaborate plan nor deep pockets when home teaching a pre-schooler!

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:

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.

Pour & read with doll

This week...

 

 

 

Pouring activity for doll. Man, these jugs were hard to find! I got mine at Daiso after walking up & down the shop multiple times! The tray is also from Daiso, given by my good pal, Playhood mummy!

 

Instead of the beads that i use, you can opt for rice, grains, beans- anything bead like.  

 

This is a Montessori inspired activity. This is a life skill activity aim to train the child in learning how to pour (without spilling) so that she can pour her own drink in no time! Once the child can do this profficiently, you can replace the beads with water.

 

Scooping the beads into the ice-cube tray. Again, you can always use rice or any type of grains.

 

This is a Montessori inspired puzzle. It is used to sharpen the child's visual discrimination skill.

 

Lastly, reading. Matching the color duplo to the corresponding card.

 

I am SO SO happy babydoll has finally shown that she can read. So relief *PHEW*. She now can read a few words like red, blue, yellow & green. I wanted to make sure she truly can recognise the words so i re-wrote the words on a board (instead of using the word cards) for her to read. No problem there- whoohoo! The other word she can instantly read is 'nose'. heh.

 

I didn't teach her through Glenn Doman flashcards. She does not seem to be able to absorb through flashcards like Sonshine can. She needs to have hands on activity like the above to register the words. Even then, it took her a while to recognise the words. I started with 'red and yellow' but she couldn't read them for the longest time. But now that she is ready, she learnt 'blue' & 'green' over 2 days and can remember the words instantly. I guess, that means this is her sensitive period for reading. YAY!

 

Apart from English she can read some Mandarin words like 猫,牛,羊, 草莓, 苹果, 吃, 哭 just to name a few.

 

Doll is 27 months old.

Practical Life: Pouring water

 

 

You need a bottle, funnel & cup(s) of water and a tray (collect any spillage).

 

 

Instruct the child to put the funnel over the bottle.

 

Take the cup and pour into the funnel.

{I gave her two small cups of water because i wanted her to pour small quantity at a time. I was quite sure she wouldn't be able to manage if she was given a bigger cup filled with water.} 

 

The adventurous girl wanted to transfer the water in the bottle into the cups which wasn't part of my plan but oh well. The bottle was too big for her i know, but that was what i had in my house.

 

Don't forget to prepare a towel!

Tip: don't be too overwhelmed by the spillage, just calmly teach the child how to use the towel to wipe the floor.

 

And once she is profficient in this, she is ready to pour a drink for you! :P

 

ENJOY!

 

Peel the Egg baby!

This is a common activity done by lots blogger moms. I couldn't resist either!

It is a great activity to practise eye-hand coordination skills and pincer grasp. Plus, it is just pure entertainment for the little one.

 

You got to boil the egg first, yah? I cracked the egg a little to make it easier for Babydoll.

 

Happily peeling the shell away. Focus, focus, focus...

 

 

Ta-da! Job done albeit broken but still taste as yummy as ever!

 

Some ABCS, 123s and colors!

Here's what are on our shelf for Babydoll:

 

 

Practical Life activity; scooping & transferring rice. (Picture of rice not included because I don't leave the rice in the bowl when shelved, i only take it out during actual work).

 

 

Matching animal figurines to picture cards.

 

 

A closer look of the cards i made.

 

 

 

Matching cut out numerals to sandpaper numbers.

 

Matching cut out letters to cards. Here she is revising the sounds of each letter. I deliberately kept the letters in a zip lock bag. She loves to open the bag, dig her tiny hands in and draw the items out of the bag.

 

She has typically learnt all the letter sounds. I don't think i can move forward yet because she hasn't given me te green light. While waiting, i am just letting her revise, take the chance to drill it deep into her brain!

 

More matching, this time, matching colored items to color cards. This week she is learning the colors, Black, white, orange and purple. 

 

This is still on our shelf. She LOVES this activity. I have up the cards and added 5,6 and 7 (because she keeps asking for 'more!').

 

I bought this so cheaply during my trip to Malaysia. She loves to poke each numbers out of the board and fit them back. As she works on this puzzle, i took the chance to name the numbers to help her recognise the numbers. So far, she already knows from numbers from 1-5, whoohooo!

 

I love that Babydoll is always asking for 'more! more!' during our activity time. It tells me she enjoys them and looks forward to our time together. :)

 

Linking up to:

Sonshine's Week #2 (Math)

 

I gave Sonshine some practical life activity.

 

Instead of polishing silver (which i find irrelevant in our context), i prepared this activity for Sonshine. I smeared washable paint on a Duplo block, gave him an old toothbrush and a cup of water. He was tasked to wash the Duplo.

 

I found the tray activity too difficult so i brought him to the bathroom instead. He washed the Duplo under running water. He cleaned and washed it till it's spick and span!

 

Last week Sonshine was let off again and was given minimal work. He worked on a chapter from this assessment book.

 

He practised his Division.

 

There were word problem sums on division. The first few questions were rather straight forward and he had little issues. I am thankful he remembers his division even though i hardly practised with him, LOL! The last few questions needed a bit of thinking- two step equations involving subtraction & division.

Week #10 with doll

 

I didn't plan much for doll this week. Too exhausted. That is why household knick knacks come in handy for time such as this! No planning needed, just need to hunt around the house for activities to do!

 

Sorting buttons. I kept all those Gerber bottles because i knew they would come in handy one day! Doll sort them by color and as she picked each button, i say out the color. That's how she learnt 'pink and white' (she already knows green). Yay!

 

 

Next, she did some pouring at her own will.

 

 

More pouring, scooping and merry mess making!

 

 

We did some dot to do art. LOVE it! I love the size of each paint- very nice to hold especially for small hands. I love that the paint dries up easily. I love the effect of the dots! Pretty!

 

When left alone, doll would take out the Duplo box and play with it. Most days i just leave her be but today i sat down with her. That was how i accidentally found out she knows her colors. As she took out each piece, she named their colors. Whoohoo!

 

Containers lid matching. Doll enjoyed this, i enjoyed watching her enjoying it. :)

 

 

I have also been letting her watch Letter factory. Very pleased that she has picked out some of the letter sounds from this show. However, my only grouse is that they use capital letters and not small letters. :(