How?

I am in a bit of a fix now. I am so haphazard in my lessons with Sonshine that I don't even know what I'm doing nor do I feel he's learning anything new. Right now, we are just doing assessment books. But that's mainly revision and sometimes he needs to be taught before he can work on the books properly- especially for Mandarin.

 

That's why this post is born. I am trying to sort out my thoughts here. I find I think better when I am blogging- or writing it down.

 

For Mandarin, there are a few areas I want to tackle; writing (not just spelling but also composing sentences), vocabulary, Hanyu Pinyin, comprehension and oral. I know there are alot more, but that's overloading my plate already. While I know what are the areas I want to work on but, my problem is I don't know How. Here are some of my possibilities:

 

Writing

 

 

1) I read that the most traditional way of teaching writing is using 扑部 ( Sorry, I don't know if I'm using the right term). I can see why so. I think it is a reasonable way to teach writing (and word recognition too). It gives good visuals to the child; how the words can have the same 扑部 but form different words and meanings.

 

I could supplement 扑部 methodology with these visual aids I own which means I can incorporate some fun learning.

 

2) Or I could teach by theme. He learns to write the words within a particular theme like body parts, things in the house, school etc. I think this is good way too because it helps in learning new words more meaningfully.

 

3) Or I could rely on this other assessment book. I like this because it is a quick way to teach writing. The lessons are planned in such a way that it builds on each other, the words he learn can eventually write in sentences. Good way to learn sentence building too.

 

Vocabulary

 

1) I could use the famous SWKD. I like it because the lessons have been nicely planned out for me. Each lesson is built on the previous ones therefore enabling the child to read in sentences and later paragraphs. I also like that Sonshine can learn a lot of words in a short time.

 

2) Again, I could use thematic approach. I can teach vocabulary by things in bedroom, classroom, playground etc. I think thematic is good because it helps him to compartmentalise the words into different categories. Again, hopefully that would be helpful in his oral.

 

Hanyu Pinyin

 

I have no doubt how i want to teach this. I'll use this as the base of my lessons.

 

And do alot of assessment books! HA!

 

Comprehension

 

I reckon there is no other way to practise comprehension than to work on assessment books?

 

Oral

 

I bought an oral assessment book and notice that most of the picture exercises go by theme like a picture of a classroom, living room, birthday parties etc. That made me realised it is important for Sonshine to know the words relating to each scenarios.

****

Next, comes the big picture question. Do i use different approach for each areas or use same approach for all areas. Like I could use thematic approach for all areas. For example, he could learn to new words (vocab), write words (writing), hanyu pinyin and read comprehension passages all relating to a birthday party. But that means alot of homework at my end. I have to source out the related themes under each category- ok that thought is making me tired already. And if do use the all thematic approach, it means alot of things have to go like SWKD and my other teaching aids- what a waste of money. 

 

But if i use all different approaches, would that confuse the boy? Yet, I think it is also a quick way to up his vocabulary if he learns writing say relating to body parts, while he learns vocab relating to the zoo and so on. The good is, I have everything planned out for me. No homework is needed on my part (ooo, that sounds SO good).

 

Lastly, my greatest challenge of all. How do I teach all these systematically when I've to consider other subjects as well? And I only have about 20 minutes tops with him everyday (not willing to compromise anything else).

 

*Shrug* I don't know.

 

And the morale of my story? Don't buy too many assessment books and teaching aids. You'll end up more confuse than ever! That's where I am right now! And I haven't even talk about English too!

Draw & Write

I have been neglecting the drawing lessons. I really didn't think it was that important, okay more like I was being lazy. Also, Sonshine is NOT good at drawing, even though he's following instructions. SiGh. It is not pleasant teaching him to draw.

 

Anyhow, during the past weeks, he is asked to draw animals after animals for his Mandarin, YAH (?!), Mandarin homework! Obviously, he's clueless and I've to invite Mr Youtube to come play at our house. It has been quite tramautising (for me)  getting Sonshine to follow step by step drawings accurately.

 

 

So the husband has been nagging at me to drop Math & focus on teaching our son how to draw properly. That's why I made him do this today:

 

 

 

Draw & Write. I wrote about this before. The child follows step by step instructions & after which write about what he's drawn.

 

No guessing which was drawn by me and which him. The circle thing with a stick hanging below it, is apparently a balloon (Doll says its lollipop), compliments from Sonshine of course.

 

Then, he composed his sentence. First, we break down the 4 Ws and then string the sentence. He didn't write this down but we talked about what adjectives he could use to describe the elephant- he used 'horrid' (all thanks to his favourite book now, 'Horrid Henry').

 

The end product was: The elephant is pushing another elephant today because it is stuck. Okay, I know it can be better but..

 

Actually, I failed to share the other time that for each drawing lesson, there are 3 sections. First, you draw the elephant, then you fill up the blanks in the cloze passage.

 

The second part is what Sonshine did today. The third part, as with the previous section, you draw the elephant- this time without the step by step instruction.

 

Then you composed a short story according to the instructions.

 

I bought this book from Kinokuniya or was it Open trolley? I cannot remember. But I ordered in online so I am not sure if this book can be found on their physical shelf. Do call to check before heading down.

What is success?

If I were to describe myself as a mom it would be ill-tempered, impatient, irritable, prone to outburst, mean and demanding. Does that surprise you? I won't be surprise if some readers (I hope there is none) hold the opinion that I am patient & nurturing. There, I hope I've debunk any wrong ideas about me.

 

This side of me stems from juggling everything on my own & especially when things don't go my way. But I also realised I am most impatient & demanding whenever i Think Sonshine does not conform to as the society expects him to, I'll get stress, worried and therefore push & (angrily) demand him to measure up. If you don't, you'll be labelled as abnormal or even a weirdo, stupid and doom for failure. Like any parent, I fear that Sonshine will be out casted if I don't push him. I notice that the more I worry, the harder I push him. And this would result in the worst treatment he will get from me.

 

But that's so typical isn't it? We are all racing to get our children to be society's definition of a successful child. A child, the society says, is successful only if he scores well in school. An adult is considered successful when he owns private properties & flashy cars. And so, we are pushing our children to get those full marks and ourselves to get those costly materials under our belt. But, we all know that these are but shallow measurement of success. It is not necessarily true that a child with poor grades would never succeed. Neither does it mean a man with no properties and expensive cars is not successful. As long as he is healthy, happy & does not tie his joy with money, who's to say he's not successful?

While pursuing these definitions of success, we (well, at least I) lose sight of what is more important: our relationship with our children. It is very apparent to me that when i drop the pursuit, i drop the angsty nagging & I begin to enjoy my relationship with Sonshine. What is most odd is, during which, I will see more of his strengths than his weaknesses. Suddenly, he doesn't seem to be that bad after all. The thing is whenever we use yardstick set by the society, we will immediately see the shortfalls in our children. That's when we panic and start to push our kids to be and do beyond what they can. Oh, and how we fail to understand that whenever we use one-size-fits-it-all yardstick, there will surely be children who will fall short just 'cause every child is different. But once we throw away this yardstick and start to measure our child's success by his own abilities, we will instantly see that there will be a place in this earth for him & he will succeed in his own right. That takes alot off our shoulders and we begin to chill which results in better performance in our children since the pressure's off.

If you think this applies to the rat race in getting good grades, well it is not just that. How about those times when we push our kids out of their shells? When they are introverts, we hanker them to be extroverts because society says introverts are oddballs. When they prefer to play to learn, we push them to sit down in a rigid classroom instead because otherwise they are labelled as one with poor attention span. Oh! Isn't it tough to be our kids these days? Or even us women who strive to be thin & beautiful because, well society says they are more 'acceptable' and maybe even 'better'?

Yet, it is SO hard not to be suck into this rat race. Everyday, we are told either through television, commercials, newspapers,  Facebook and even friends & relatives of what the society's measurement of success is. It takes a conscious effort to step out of this mindset and make a point to think & believe otherwise.

I then think it is important, we sit down and think about our own definitions of what success means to us. A friends asked me once, 'What is my measurement of success for my children'. Wow, that was a tough question that needed weeks to ponder over! I couldn't find my answer so I turn to myself. At this point, I think I am successful. Yes, I do not bring in the money, but I still feel that I am as successful, or even more, than that female CEO in that multinational company. Because, I get to change my kids' diapers, pick & send them from & to school, be the one to teach them the ABC & 123s- because I get to be hands on with my kids. That to me is success but another woman may deffer- but that's okay. God made us differently & gave each of us different dreams & talents. Which then, brings me back to my definition of success for my children. I think it would be that they live according to their own measurement of success, according to the gifts & desires that God has planted in them. Yes, even if it is a lowly executive, a cashier but if that makes them feel like a million dollars- then that is success.

What is your measurement of success for your children? Take time to think about it. And when you find yourself suck into the rat race, pushing your kids to measure up to the society, point yourself back to your own definition of success for your kids. Hopefully that helps you to get out the rat race, relax and have a more successful and meaningful relationship with your children. That reminder is also, if not, mostly for me. :)

 

Linking up

 

 

Word Recognition

Whoo-hoo! The girl is on the road to reading! Whoopee!

 

She's late as compared to Sonshine but okay, better than never.

 

Babydoll learns better with hands on activity, she is not particularly good at just looking at flashcards. Sonshine could learn both ways which made my life really easy & that also meant he learnt alot of words in a short time. No repetition is needed for Sonshine- just showing him the words once or twice and they stick in his head for good. Whereas for Doll, she takes a longer time and she needs repetition.

 

Now a word  about toddlers being able to read. I know there are experts who say that it is impossible for toddlers to learn to read and even if they can it is just memorising & they may end up being poor readers (especially if they learn by sight and not phonetically).

 

I don't know about that neither am I going to debate with the experts. Who am I to? I am only a MOM. But I reckon that if the toddlers can 'memorise' pictures say of an apple, plane or shoes and identify these pictures, I don't see why they cannot do the same with words. I mean, people accept it when the toddler can yelp 'bear!' on seeing a picture of a bear. But they cannot accept it when the toddlers do the same for words. I know English words are phonetic and not pictorial like Mandarin but still, it is an image, it is a form of symbol, a picture. So I don't understand what is so abnormal about a toddler reading.

 

And for the 'dire consquences' of reading by sight, well, I don't know either. But Sonshine learn by sight-mostly (and so did I), and he is far from being a poor reader. However, i would admit he doesn't spell very well on his own. So, I would buy the pro-phonics argument when it comes to spelling but not reading.

 

Anyhow, i wrote too much. I started this post to share the activity i used to help Doll read.

 

 

I discovered she learns faster and better through matching games. So, I set this activity up for her. (Before I go on, do note that the child should be able to identify the colors before working on this word recognition activity.) For a LONG time, she didn't and couldn't read the two words. But, recently, she could recognise the two words. It was an overnight phenomenon!

 

I wanted the words to edge deep into her mind and kept going through these words over and over and over and over again until I was sure that she can read. When i say 'sure', I mean she can instantly read out the words to me even when she sees the word on different mediums, be it one cards, books or my own writing.

 

 

Once I was certain, I then moved on with a new word. Again, using the same activity.

 

I let her match the red and yellow first ('cause she knows them) and the new word 'blue' the last- so there is no way she can get it wrong. With one lesson, she instantly recognised 'blue'.

 

And I repeat the same with the remaining words.

 

The other day, we had an impromptu play using Duplo blocks. I wrote the color words on a board, she read on her own, pick up that particular colored block and aim before throwing it into the basket. She had a lot of fun with that & it also serves as a feedback to me that she knows her words. :P

 

The moment she could read those words, she also suddenly took to flashcards like a fish in the water. These were the cards I flash to her (over a LONG period) and she finally recognise them.

 

I try to make it a game. I gave her our animal toys and have her match them to the cards. And just to make her think, I also gave her Mandarin cards to match to the English words. She could do it, possibly because each time I read a mandarin word, say 狗, I would follow up with an English translation, here I'd say 'dog'.

 

Yes, I admit, I am very eager for Babydoll to read. Why? Because I feel reading is the basis of most, if not all, skills. Once she is able to read, it will unlock many doors for her & it will enable her to acquire knowledge, yes even Math. Sonshine learnt alot of Math concepts just by reading books. That's why I wanted to get reading out of the way so that we can move on. :D That said, neither did I push nor force her to read. I only expose reading (through books, cards & activities) to her but did not made it like it was do or die. Anyhow, I am excited! YIPEE!!

Parts of Speech- Montessori

I Love Montessori method; I love using Montessori to teach my kids. That is why when i read up on Montessori's part of speech lesson, I just had to do it for Sonshine.

 

But I hesitated for a long time because, Sonshine was learning most of them through working on assessment books. In a sense, he already knows most, but not all, of them. I didn't want to bore him because Montessori recommends we teach each parts of the speech separately which means it involves multiple lessons. I didn't want to repeat what he already knows nor did i feel comfortable in skipping. So, in the end, I decided to tweak the lessons and combined them into one- tailored to his learning pace.

 

 

 

I made the word cards to describe each part of the speech for his reference (3 more cards are not pictured). Just a short explanation, each parts of speech is represented by a symbol. For a verb, it is represented by a big, red circle, a preposition a green crescent and so on.

 

First, I wrote a short phrase "The cat". We placed the grammar symbols after identifying which word is the article (small, blue triangle) and which is the noun (big black triangle).

 

I then explained to him we can expand the sentences using adjectives and that we use adjectives to give more description about the noun. In the above exercise, Sonshine & I brain storm on what adjectives we could use.

 

He chose to use 'horrid' as the adjective for this sentence. Again, i told him we could further expand the sentence with a verb. He chose to use 'pushing' and again, indicated the verb with the grammar symbol.

 

Again, we beef up the sentence using an adverb. This is where I briefly explained to him what an adverb is.

 

 

We did a few more sentence just to practise.

 

I enjoyed this activity alot. Yes me!

This takes away the boredom and technicalities of learning grammer.

 

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When it comes to choosing a diaper, 3 criteria comes to my mind

1) Minimal leakage
2) Comfort
3) Easy on our wallets 

 

 

 

Drypers Dry Pantz fit the bill!

One of the things I really love about Drypers Dry Pantz is that it rarely leaks on us and it is long lasting-ALL thanks to their newly designed absorbent core!

 

 When I am rushing for time or just being pure lazy, I tend to stretch babydoll in her diapers for long period of time. Amazingly, Drypers Dry Pantz still hold up during that long hours neither does Doll complain of any discomfort.  Despite delaying her diaper change, I always notice that her bottom is always kept dry, never wet nor damp. This, I attribute to Drypers premium soft layers that drives the urine into the core thereby preventing flow back.

 

Doll taking off the diapers herself

 

I am so confident that her Drypers would not leak on me that i never bring out extra clothes for her. Not even when she was an infant- i kid you not. This gives me more room space in my bag and allows me to travel light whenever i go out. Awesome!

 

Also, recently, I learnt that we are not suppose to put on pull up diapers on our kids at night because that is a recipe for leakages. Well, not for me! I use Drypers Dry Pantz even at night and I have yet to have a single rude awakening in the middle of the night. Whoo hoo! So this pretty much tells you how 'powerful' Drypers Dry Pantz is!

 

 

Because I don't have to worry about changing her diapers on time, I get to put my mind on other more important things like home teaching her, playing or even spend quality time with her. And while we are doing these things, we never have to break our concentration and momentum just to change her leaking diapers.  

 

 

 

The other thing I love is how soft the Drypers Dry Pantz feels. That gives me instant assurance that my girl is comfortable in the diaper.

I also especially love its soft waist elastic. It doesn't eat into her skin nor leave marks on her. The waist band is soft such that it is easy to tear off at the sides during a diaper change. Yet, it is durable and it holds on despite being worn by an active toddler.

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If your current choice of diaper is doing you more wrong than right, then consider switching to Drypers  & enjoy a peace of mind like me! You can hop over Drypers FB and request for samples. Try it today!

 

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.