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!

Simple yet entertaining

 

Last week, I managed to dig out some treasures from our local library. These mandarin books were easy to read and entertaining for my 6 year old.

 

Sonshine will get bored if the mandarin book is too lengthy so I look for books that are not so wordy and yet have a captivating storyline.

 

 

This is an easy to read book and an interesting storyline. However, I think it may be too simple for a 6 year old. Still, it was good enough for Sonshine to stay glued until the end of the story. 

 

 

A peek inside- you can see the pages are filled with huge illustrations and short sentences.

 

 

One look, I can tell it is a Julia Donaldson book! Like the rest of her books, she didn't fail in entertaining us in this book!

 

 

It is a humourous book about a rabbit who doesn't know what animal it is, what it should eat and live. Look out for a twist in the story and a hilarious ending!

 

 

This book tickled Sonshine's funny bones. He loved this book! I think it was originally written in Japanese. (I love Japanese children's books!)

 

 

 

It is rather a simple book with short phrases. It's about a boy who couldn't fall asleep and how he tried counting pigs, moms and stuff to make himself sleep.

 

If you, like me, are looking for simple but interesting mandarin books to prick your kids' love for mandarin then, these books are great reads!

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:

Teaching Subtraction

I was looking through my old blog for ideas to work with my  soon to be 3 year old doll. I couldn't help but gawk at the things my then barely 3 year old Sonshine was learning! I cannot imagine teaching the very same stuff to doll. It was as if I was reading about someone else's kid! You can say I was a crazy mother then, but I say I was merely following my child's pace of learning. If I wasn't then by now doll would be learning at the exact same pace! But no, I am following doll's pace and she's not at the same page as her brother was. I am still sticking to my belief in following the child.

 

Anyway, I wrote too much. Here's an old post on how I taught 3 year old Sonshine subtraction, without any visual aids, books, long lectures etc. Just over a meal time and the lesson was done in 5 minutes.

 

{blast from the past}

I never intended to teach N subtraction this early, not until he somewhat masters the additions. But i accidentally found out that he was actually learning it from our daily ongoings.

It happened one day, in my desperate attempt to make N eat faster, i promised to 'free' him from the table after he finish 10 more spoonful of his food. As i fed him the 10th spoon, i heard him asking me '9 more?', and on the 9th spoon, he asked '8 more?' and so on until the last spoonful, he would declare 'no more!'. This went on for many weeks until it struck me that there in my face was the perfect opportunity to introduce to him subtraction!

And so, i began to teach him subtraction...during our next meal. Yes, i decided to go without any visual aids and go verbal and be informal. So as he ate his 10th spoon, i would simply ask him 'how many more?' and he would reply '9 more'. And i would say so '10 minus 1 equals 9!' and so on. It didn't take long after he got the hang of Subtraction. Subsequently, i wrote the equations on the some cards so he can have a visual on what subtraction equations look like.

Since then, he is able to do any subtraction equation (i.e. X minus 1) even for higher numbers like '100 minus 1' or '300 minus 1'. I think what made it easy to teach was that he could count backwards prior to this and he understood that minus 1 means going down a number by one.

*extracted from my old blog http://toddlercanread.blogspot.sg/*

Giving thanks

I try to raise Sonshine to be as independent as he can be. He is not there yet, there are loads of things I have to help him still. But I try to be conscious of what he is capable of doing. My philosophy is, as long as he is more than able to tackle a task then, do it himself he must.

 

It started when he was in Kindergarten 1. Back then, I had an infant to mind and there was no other adult at home in the day to help. You can say circumstances forced him to be independent. From then onwards, I only gave verbal instructions to him and expected him to follow up. It was then he started a wee bit of independence, he learnt to put on & buttoned/unbuttoned his uniform (which help us greatly now since he's primary uniform is also button on), he even watched the clock & would automatically put on his uniform when it was time! Gradually, I got him to pack his own bag (though there was nothing much to pack), I held him accountable for remembering things to bring to school and follow up his own homework. Even for spelling revision, I didn't sit down and teach him but made him learn on his own.

 

All these are catching up with us today- in a good way. These habits are still in existent now that Sonshine is in primary school. It does not matter that it is 6:30am in the morning, everyone is bleary-eyed and the sky's still dark, I still make him put on his uniform, shoes, socks on his own. He carries his own bag to and from school-rain or shine. I casually told him he should pack his own bag and I was pleasantly suprised when he actually packed his bag without my prompting! Today, he is still learning his spelling on his own while I merely spring a suprise test on him every now and then.

 

While it is natural and normal for 6-7 year olds to be forgetting their homework, instructions from school, losing their belongings etc, Sonshine is sparing us from all of that. I suppose the little independence training he had helped him to be on the ball i.e. he brings back what he's suppose to bring back and hands in what he's suppose to. He is fully aware that he is responsible for his own school matters- not mummy.

 

I am humbly thankful and grateful. Because of him, I get to help other mothers with kids in the same class (yes, he makes me look good). It spurs me on to make him as independent as soon as possible- then my life would be so easy! LOL!