Humpty Dumpty with a twist!

Some nursery rhymes can be quite sad and cruel. But thankfully, there are lots of revised versions out there nowadays. And I enjoy the humourous twist to the stories.

 

One such book is this: 

 

 

When I saw this book 'May I see the King?' with Humpty Dumpty on the cover- I knew it was one of those versions with a twist. Without a thought, I borrowed the book- and oh Boy, was I moved to tears (well uh, almost) after reading this book.

 

Like the typical story, Humpty Dumpty (HD) had a great fall & all the King's horses and men were helpless. They couldn't put him back. HD requested to see the King. The horses and men picked him & his broken pieces up and brought him to see the King.

 

As HD was before the King, all the King's horses and men eagerly await for HD with great anticipation. The story goes on to say that the King's horses and men had NO doubt that the King will be able to put HD back together again because...

 

they themselves were all once broken before and it was the King who mended them back into complete treasures.

 

 

And then HD finally emerges from the King's throne. True enough, he was made whole again because:

 

LUKE 18:27 says

 

"And He said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."

 

:)

 

Yes, it ended with a Godly twist. The 'King' in this story is our Lord Jesus. The typology is that when we feel broken, hurt and it seems so impossible to mend us back. We can always go before our King who will no doubt, make us whole again.

 

I LOVE IT!

 

The words aren't as complicated as I had made it out to be. IN fact, it rhymes just like like the usual Humpty Dumpty rhyme. It is easy for the kids to read. I took this golden moment and shared with Sonshine that whenever he faces a problem he deems impossible to solve, he can always go to God in prayer. And like HD, what was impossible to fix in our eyes, it will is possible with God.

 

Christian moms, this is a great book read to your child! GO and grab it now! :D

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.

 

More ranting

Sonshine is going to primary school in a few months time. I told myself that the real rat race will inevitably begin (maybe not in lower primary yet) and I need to put thought as to how I am going to manage it. To be honest, I think I already have one foot in the race that is why it is even more important for me to think it through. Here are some of the things I want to remind myself.

 

1) Education is not a race

 

Unfortunately, here in Singapore, we see education as a competition. We are way obsess with who knows more than who, who's doing better than who, who has that 1 mark more than who, who is the number one. My own defination of education is simply put- learning. Not learning competitively and  not learning to compete. I want to remind myself that Sonshine is there to foremost- gain knowledge, how well he does against his peers is secondary or even unimportant. I shall simply rejoice at the knowledge he gain- PERIOD.

 

2) Right response

 

I want to be careful in how i respond when he hands me his results. I don't want him to feel that he needs to earn my affirmation & recognition through good grades. Neither do I want him to think that I would love him lesser if he brings back lousy grades. It has to be well balance and end up with affirming him with my love regardless of how well he do in school.

 

3) Comparing him with himself

 

Every child is different, has different talents, different learning pace. It is very unfair and even absurd to compare one child with another. It is like comparing a monkey with an elephant. They each have different strengths and a place in this earth. It is near impossible to pit them against each other. So, I want to remind myself that it is not right to compare him his peers. Instead, I'll compare him with himself and celebrate more of his improvements rather than how 'better' he is against someone else.

 

I don't know if I will be this steadfast when the time comes. I am easily influenced and affected by my environment and what people say- yes, I am weak that way. But even if we get sucked into the competitive waves, I want to make sure it is healthy and that his self esteem is protected. So hopefully, the day when I feel swayed, I'll check back on this particular post and remind myself again!

The hot topic- Tuition

The word 'tuition' is abuzz these days. I can't help but join in the party and put in my 2 cents worth. But I am not targeting at tuition per se, read on.

I read that a boy who is top in his school, but still opt for tuition just because he wants to maintain his position. I cannot help but find fault with this at every level.

First up, I am not opposing parents who opt for tuition for their kids who are struggling to keep up. Personally, I would do the same if my children are doing poorly. I think it makes perfect sense; render help where help is needed.

But, to have tuition so that the child doesn't slip down to number 2 in school is way absurd for me. Excuse me, what is so shameful about being number 2 or 10th or 30th in school or just being an average? I fear that such students think that being number 2 or lesser is equivalent to failing. This belief is so warp! And there you have students struggling hard to even make it to the passing mark! Ridiculous!

The other thing that puts me off is that there are kids who obviously feel that they can't get to where they are without tuition. Their trust is not in their own abilities but in the tuition. The danger of it is that, if you take away the tuition, you are also taking away their belief in themselves. I was a below average student, almost failing or sometimes failing student. I had tuition but it didn't help me a bit. Until, one day, I was determined to buck up. Picked up the books and taught myself up to the top few positions in my class. In other words, I depended on no one but myself. Even if you gave me tuition, took it away, I would not have faltered because I knew how to get the respectable grades on my own. Little did I know, I taught myself a lesson then. That, I can carve my own success myself. And as I enter into adulthood, I became resilient even in my working life. But I worry for these kids; they probably would be in absolute lost and chaos the minute you cut tuition off from them. Again, I am not against tuition. But I think it is wrong when the child puts more confidence in tuition than in himself.

Morover, this is just Primary school! Can we just chill alittle bit here? Being at the top in Primary level is by no means a measurement of success in later years like Secondary or even adulthood. It makes me wonder, how would these students take it if one day (which I am quite sure would happen) don't make it to the top in other phases of their lives? How would they see themselves? What would happen to their self esteem? You would think being at the top is a glamorous thing. But I think these lot may be in danger for having low self esteem especially if they tie their self worth to their grades. The higher they are, the more pressure they may have to stay up there and the greater their fear of failing. Of course, I may be making an assumption here- but it can & probably has happen(ed).

What kind of kids do we want to have? Those who believe they can't carve success on their own? Those who are fearful of not being number one? Those who are fearful and not resilient to failures?

I think the successful student would be one who has a healthy self esteem regardless of his grades. No gleaming grades can pull him up neither can rotten grades put him down. Schools, media, the Ministry and especially us parents should be constantly there to remind our children that no matter their grades, their positions in school,  they are champions in their own right. That each of them have their one uniqueness with which they can carve a successful and meaning futures for themselves not their glorious report books.

New words!

Yahoo!

 

Doll learn more new words!

 

 

 

She learned to read additional words on colors. These cards were printed from this awesome site.

 

Say me. correct me, disagree with me all you want, but I am pro- flash cards. Both my kids learn to read through flashcards- I always get results from these sessions. I find it a fast and easy way to get them to read.

 

With all the words doll has learn, she now can read short phrases like 'red apple', 'pink pig', 'orange ice cream' etc. I am grateful that like her brother, once she learn the word she rarely forgets it. YAHOO!

 

 

Open ended activities

A recent discussion in one of my FB group got me thinking about open ended play. At first thought, I was aghast that I have not purportedly gave any thought about this. But upon further analysis, I realised my kids have lots of open ended play everyday. The best part of it is, I rarely dictate or plan it that way. It just happen naturally.

 

I decided to share some of my 'unplan' open ended play/toys here. But I hope to add more on to my list as I research for more ideas.

 

1. Free play

 

The best open ended play is Free play. I know I always blog about my kids home learning to a point that it seems we are one sided. Truth is doll gets about 10-15 minutes of home learning and Sonshine only 20 minutes a day. The rest of their time? Free play.

 

I don't have the habit of sitting down and have one on one play with my kids. I feel like a horrible mother but 24 hour of babysitting is enough to tire me out. So my kids learn to find their own entertainment since they were very young like crawling infants. The good that came out of that is, both have learnt to find ways to keep themselves occupied in the house. I have to add, I rarely entertain my kids with TV shows. My kids can clock 0 hours of TV a day and still find things to play with (and STILL complain they have not enough time to play!).  They can coop up at home 24 hours, a few days straight and won't complain of boredom. I credit this to their independence (in play) & ability in finding their own entertainment. {As I am typing this, doll is finding much joy & amusement just by playing with one sock! How apt!}.

But be warned! Free play also means a topsy turvy house!

 

2. Lego/Duplo

 

This is redundant to say really. But one thing I like to add is that I try to avoid buying those pre-packed theme Lego. I don't see how these stimulates creativity. I don't understand how hard is it to follow step by step instructions to build that magnificant looking structure? I rather my child use his own imagination to build his tallest building, racing car, bus stop, the entire township, angry bird structure. Heck that it looks less than glorious but at least it was born out of his creativity. I think anything that he builds on his own is 100 times more awesome than those pre-packed boxes. So, in my house, we have boxes of assorted Legos and Duplo, three kid-size tables lined up in a row and they are free to build anything they desire. Sonshine loves to build a small little town from scratch and than destroys the who town as he pretends that there's an earthquake. LOL!

 

3. Playdough

 

Let me declare here that I HATE PLAYDOUGH! It is so messy! But like all children, my babies LOVE them. Doll ask to play with it EVERYDAY. But yes, playdough is one of the great open ended play- you don't need me to elaborate on this do you?

 

4. Drawing

 

Sonshine loves to draw and will ask to do it frequently. I can't say he's drawing is fantastic (looks more like scribbles actually) but it helps him to express himself and let loose his imagination. Nowadays, I buy drawing paper in bulk because it runs out too fast. Doll is picking this up too and love to doodle whenever she sees her big brother drawing away. I have to admit though, my art & crafts corner is not accessible- because I am afraid doll would scribble at the wrong places (and she already has). So I would like to explore and see how I can make this more available for the kids.

These are my kids' daily dose of open ended play. We have other stuff like cooking. cashier and stuff toys for pretend play but my kiddos aren't too keen  though they do play with those toys once in awhile. I am not sure but I get a feeling that it isn't enough and we need to add abit more spice. Hence, I have been researching more activites that can provoke their imagination and creativity- especially for Sonshine.

Some of the ideas (for older kids) I found feasible & doesn't take much time/preparation work:

- Drawing games: You draw a squiggly line or a circle and show how by adding more drawings it can turn into something else like the someone's eyebrow or a happy face. Invite the child to do the same.

- Creating a story: Together with your child work out a story about anything and everything. Once while driving to school, Sonshine and I created a story together about a boy and what happened to him etc. It was quite funny and fun!

- Ask open ended questions: What will happen if people could fly? Brainstorm as many ideas as you can with your child.

When doing these activities, the last thing you want to do is to shoot down his ideas. Welcome all his ideas, though ridiculous they may sound. The objective of these games is to let his creative juices flow NOT to find the politically, technically correct answers.

I am still searching for more ideas, I hope to be inspired!