Sonshine's school year

I had no idea that this primary school journey would be this challenging emotionally, mentally and physically. This first year in our primary school journey wasn't quite what I had expected and it certainly taught me loads. 

One of the things I learnt is that school grades isn't an indication of how intelligent a child is. It also depends on how conscientious the child is, whether he's the careful or careless sort, is he too complacent, does he have performance anxiety etc. If an intelligent child is lazy, unmotivated & complacent, he may still do well but probably not as well as those who may not be as intelligent but are a lot more diligent. This is what is I'm witnessing. Sonshine is clearly ahead of his peers (I say this factually) but he's careless & tends to rush through his work so he always makes one mistake that cost him the full marks. While other kids who struggles to learn at home, ultimately gets ahead of him because they are more conscientious & careful with their work. 

I also discovered a bit of myself & Sonshine this year. I realised I'm morphing into a true blue tiger mom. That tiger mom silently crept into me & slowly but deceptively took over me with each passing term. It has become quite bad & it's taking a toll on Sonshine. I'm quite glad that it's nearing the end of the year. I can take a break to rethink & reflect what I want & expect from Sonshine. Do I want to be a mom who bring out the best in him AT ALL COST or do I slide back and let the winds take him? This is indeed a very difficult journey.

The other thing I noticed is Sonshine's strange habit. When I tell this to other moms they think I'm being ridiculous or maybe they think I'm just being sore that Sonshine is not getting the full marks & hence making up excuses for him. But I can't help but notice for most of his tests, he makes ONE mistake. Not two, not three but one mistake. The odd thing is, those mistakes aren't something he doesn't know nor is it very difficult. On the contrary, harder questions he gets it right but the easy ones, he gives illogical answers. Term after term, he loses a mark for most papers. It almost feels like he sabotage himself. 

Before you jeer at me, let me take you back when he was a toddler. Even at that young age, he gives the people impression that he doesn't know he's stuff. I remember a teacher asked him questions that he knows very very well but he always give the impression to the teacher that he doesn't know either by giving a blank look or simply ignoring. Those times, if I step him and demanded him to answer the teacher, he would immediately sprout out the answers without a glitch. This continued in his preschool years. He seemed to fly under the radar as best as he can. Again when teachers or friends ask him something that he knows very (and I really mean very) well, he'd instinctively answer 'I don't know'. Then, I would brush it off and tell myself he's a kid and he will come out his shell when he's older. Now at primary school, he seems to be doing it again. This time on his school papers. Term after term, I look at his papers & I get baffled at how he CONSISTENTLY makes one, only one mistake on his papers. 

I can't say he's consciously doing this. But it does seems like it's a habit he has since he was a mere child. Moreover, even as a young child, he hates being at the center of attention & will do everything to avoid attention. Once He cried, no I mean bawled, when he won a race & everyone cheered for him. That's also why he refused for us to throw any birthday party for him. This year on his birthday, I lied to him that all the people at an indoor playground were there to celebrate his birthday! He freaked out, kept saying 'I don't want I don't want' and didn't want to enter into the premise. Until I told him I was teasing him, he relaxed and entered into the premise with ease.

So I don't know. If one just look at this year, one can easily say I'm just being a sore parent. But if you look at his past 7 years collectively, there's an apparent pattern & one can't help but wonder what's going on? And is it possible for someone who self sabotage like that? It may appear that I am after that full marks but more than that, I worry that he's passing out on all the opportunities. As a parent it is extremely frustrating to see children with lesser ability surpassing him while he's being sidelined.

As one can see this is quite an emotionally charged year for us. Lots of bewilderment and lots of questions to investigate. To make it more 'colorful' we have one of the worse teacher I ever known. :( I really do need to take a step back and consider what happened this year and how should we move forward. But hey, parenting is a learning journey right? 

DIY Montessori Pink box (Tweak)

I love Montessori Pink box activity! But I always find collecting the small objects & finding a place to store them a HUGE hassle. It is also not easy to find the objects individually as most of the time, you are required to buy them in a set amongst other things. It just makes no sense especially when I find no use for the other items in the set. Finding a (large) box is one thing and storing that box is another!

 

I know there are mothers who set up the box and sell them in a set. Still, I find it too costly to purchase particularly if its something that I can easily duplicate myself.

 

So, I put off this activity for a long time. Until, I had a light bulb moment! And here, I present to you...my own version, a very tweaked version of Montessori Pink Objects.

 

Here's my set up. I have longed set up my own movable alphabet box using the cut out letters from our Melissa and Doug set.

 

 

Instead of the small objects, I placed the above puzzles (within the same word family) in the pink box. First, to set the play, Doll build these puzzles.

 

 

 

After she is done with the puzzles, I have her play on our Leapfrog word builder. She had to match the letters from the puzzle to the word builder. It would sound each letter out and read out the word for her. I have her repeat after it.

 

 

After she figured out each word, I gave her my word labels and have her match to the puzzles. I am pleasantly surprised that she immediately recognise these words. Looks like it's working!

 

This is something I intend to do with her later. Here, I want to help her differentiate similar sounding words like 'fox' and 'box'. She will use the cut out letters and identify the beginning sounds of each word.

 

Lastly, again using the Melissa & Doug cut out letters, I will have her spell each word. I hope that by this way, it will also help her see the difference between similar words like 'box'.

 

This will probably be my focus for the next few weeks. I find that Doll is in the sensitive period now in picking up new words and I plan to size this opportunity!

 

 

Pre Handwriting activities

I observed that Doll is ready to hold a pencil and do some tracing. Thanks to the brother, she has been inspired to pick up a pencil and just doodle away. At first, I left it as it is until I told myself I better cease this sensitive period before it passes me by.

 

 

Most of the time, I just give a pencil, paper and simply let her doodle away! I want her to be comfortable in holding a pencil and experience the thrill of seeing how she can draw something just by holding a pencil.

 

 

A Montessori activity, tracing Metal insets, except that mine is the cheap cousin of Metal insets- its wooden inset & smaller than the authentic ones. But it works just as well! According to Montessori, this is a prelude to writing; the child is to trace the inside shape of the inset.  (No she didn't trace the ones on the right of the drawing, it was done by yours truly)

 

If you don't own one but want to do this, you can always find those stencil rulers that come in differing shapes like circle, triangles and of different sizes too. Those work just as well and its CHEAPER! :D

 

 

 

I have also started her on writing her letters. Just to interest her and to get a feel of the letters shape, I printed out the Dot-a-dot printable from Confessions of a homeschooler.

 

If you don't have the dot a dot markers, don't fret. I also used these printable and have Doll traced over them. What I did was to number the circles for her to trace over. The numbering on the circles help her to write her letters in the correct direction.

 

 

 

Alternatively, you can also write out the letters using highlighter and have the child trace over it. It works as well and at no cost! :)

 

 

 

I splurged on the Leapfrog Mr Pencil. It's not costly, but I find it's an unnecessary buy. Still, it did help Doll to learn her letterings. I have been letting her trace the letters and from here she learnt how to write the letters 'E', 'I', 'F' etc. 

 

I say its an unnecessary buy because I think there are many free apps out there for the kids to learn how to write the letters albeit without a pen. I find the Leapfrog pencil a little annoying because one needs to place the pencil in a certain position in order for the censor to pick it up. It can be frustrating & disruptive for the child when the app does not sense pencil motion.

 

I say don't buy because there are many cheaper and equally, if not more, effective than this pencil.

 

 

Another typical Montessori activity.

 

I let Doll trace the letters on sand. Instead of fingering, I gave her a brush to 'write' the letters or draw shapes because I find it rather messy if she use her fingers to trace.

 

That sums up my handwriting activities for my 3 year old!

 

 

 

Random stuff

I have been relaxing for weeks now but as usual I try to do things with Doll whenever I can. Such random times, I love to rely on everyday things or materials I've prepared eons ago. :P

 

 

 

 

Sensory play with Ikea beads (those type you can form a shape and then iron them on to make them into a coaster)

 

I was never into sensory boxes although I know of them like 6 years ago! But out of lack of ideas and energy, I decided to whip out one for Doll. I was happy that it entertained her for a long period of time, I was not happy that she insisted I played along with her (I wanted to just fade into the background while she entertains herself).

 

These heart buttons were made when Sonshine was a toddler. I took it out for Doll to practise her buttoning/unbuttoning skills. Actually, it was more to entertain her than anything. She is already buttoning and unbuttoning her pyjamas!

 

Another material I had stashed in my cupboard! This was printed (sorry forgot the site) long ago for the then toddler Sonshine. It is a simple activity of arranging the pictures from the smallest to the biggest.

 

AH! I had wanted to brush up her chinese, she's way under exposed. So I made these cards and have her match her toy food to the cards.

 

 

True to my style, I made her match cards. She took a super long time to remember the words and I blame it on the lack of exposure. I don't speak in mandarin to her nor read a lot of mandarin books hence, its a no wonder that she had difficulty remembering the words! But with constant and persistent practise, she finally can read these words! PHEW! As a follow up, I read to her a simple chinese reader that covers most of these words.

 

Ice cream Vocab

Recently, I discovered that Sonshine's vocabulary is rather limited. The other day, I was shocked to my bones when he told me he didn't know what 'capture' and 'relatives' means. *Slap head*

 

It sent me on a panic mode, to say the least.

 

So, I came up with a quick activity with him, hopefully we can do this on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. My goal is to build up his vocab quickly and in the shortest time possible.

 

The fortunate thing is he's got a fantastic memory; he is able to lock down a concept or word fairly quickly and retain it for good. That's why I came up with an activity to expose a number of words at one go because I am quite certain the words will stick deep into his head. For Sonshine, the activities/lessons cannot be too long winded. It has to go straight to the point (no introduction, no fanfare) & the lesson must be conducted clearly & accurately & speedily. So for this vocab activity, this is the best 'to the point' way I can think of...but for him I think it was alittle too long winded for him :P.

 

 

 

Anyway, I made these ice cream cut outs. On each of the cones, I wrote a word. Each cone has 3 scoops of ice cream and on each of them there is a word with similar meanings to one of the 'cone words'.

 

First, I jumbled them up and whilst trying to explain the game to Sonshine, he was already busy connecting the cones. I had to stop him and slow him down.

 

I let him joined the words he knows and for words that he didn't, I will make a sentence with that word and have him infer what it means and then join that word to the correct cone. For instance, I may say ' I ADMIRE her painting'  and he had to decide which of the 4 words closely describes 'Admire'.

 

I refused to spoon feed him with the answers and I want to make him use his God given brains! I think this helped to make the game more interesting for him too.

 

'Hey mom! Ice cream cones!'

 

After the first round, I mess up the words again. And this time, as he joined each word, he now had to make a sentence using that word to me. I do this to make sure he truly understands the meaning of the word and knows how to use them.

 

I hope to do this as often as possible!

 

 

Beading for her mama

It all started when I bought this cheap DIY necklace box from Daiso for $2!

 

 

I saw that this was a good opportunity for Doll to work on her pincer grasp. However, she couldn't connect the stars together at first. It works like a paper clip; to connect one only needs to join each star through the small disconnected loops on each star. IF you can understand all that...anyway!

 

I did a necklace for her nevertheless & she fell straight in love with it. She wore the necklace for the entire day. But I wasn't comfortable with it because the stars have rather pricky edges. So I bought her a gorgeous beaded necklace & of course she ADORES it (I have a girly girl here)!

 

I pretended to sob and grumble that I don't have any necklace & no one got me one. She immediately comforted me and assured me that she would make one for me! AWWWWW

 

 

 

Doll knew I bought another beading jewellery from Daiso and bug me day after day to let her do it. (She REALLY wanted to use this to make a necklace for me) AWWWW

 

I finally let her do it and oh boy, did she work it!

 

As I watched her string bead after bead, I saw how a simple (and cheap) activity unknowingly taught her (and me) many lessons.

 

Obviously, she learnt how to use her pincer grasp. As she strung each bead, she became more and more efficient and skillful. Also, I let her decide which is her master hand ie which hand to hold the string and which the bead. From here, I could tell she will be a right hander.

 

The other thing that left me in awe was how patient and persevering she was. She set herself to finish the beads and didn't want to stop until I had to interrupt it as we had to pick Sonshine up. I love her working attitude- I hope it will translate into her school work next time! :P

 

 

 

Later, she tried her hands on the stars again and to my delight, she did it! She made herself a full bracelet with the remaining stars. I am so proud of this girl!

 

Our final masterpieces! The bead necklace was mostly done by Doll and she actually presented it to me! How sweet!

 

This beading activity is absolutely cheap and satisfies the 3 Ps:

 

1) PLAY

2) (hones) PATIENCE

3) & PERSEVERANCE

 

LOVE IT!

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!