God's Timely Reminder for Me - The Desired Outcomes of Preschool Education

I am very thankful to God for His timely reminder. A great reminder much needed.

I've always have a heart for education and when I became a SAHM to Han, it was natural that I invest my educator training to teaching her. One question that keeps hanging on my mind: What must she learn in her preschool years areas such as language, math, science etc. My educator mindset immediately launch me to a hunt of learning milestones that I assume Han needs to have and how best to help her reach these milestones. I do not believe in "hot-housing" my child by sending her to extra classes and I determine in myself that an underlying educational principle to uphold is to instill in Han a lifelong love for learning.

Tonight I stumbled upon this from the MOE website:

Desired Outcomes of Pre-school Education

At the end of pre-school education, children will:

• Know what is right and what is wrong
• Be willing to share and take turns with others
• Be able to relate to others
• Be curious and be able to explore
• Be able to listen and speak with understanding
• Be comfortable and happy with themselves
• Have developed physical co-ordination and healthy habits
• Love their family, friends, teachers and kindergarten

Nothing about whether preschool kids should have learned how to count from 1 to ?? or to be well-trained in phonics and reading, much as all these are important.

I found myself reading through the paragraph again and again. It was God's reminder to me to always remember more than just knowledge my child has to gain,there are definitely more things that matter much more. Beyond helping her learn what she needs to learn, I must remember to teach and train her moral character.

E and I would of course add in another desired outcome to our own list. That Han would know, love and serve God always.

Thank you Lord for speaking:)

How our kids amaze us sometimes

Today she was fiddling with these 3 objects when she arranged them and asked me," 这个是什么？＂

Not giving me a chance to answer, she said "人！口！一！"

What she has learnt: Definitely more than what is taught.
What I have learnt: Never underestimate what you teach and how they learn (even though they may look miles away while learning!).

Being Back and Some Thoughts on Learning Chinese

Thank you for all who showed concern during my self declared almost 4 months break from blogging! Exciting things have happened.

I'm almost 18 weeks preggie with number 2! Praise God for this and it has been an amazing journey of His grace, strength and providence. I had a very challenging first trimester morning sickness, so bad to the point that I avoided watching TV and surfing the net as the bright moving flashes of images would make me really nauseous. This is partly the reason why I have not blog for such a while. Another was simply the fact that I was too zonked out being pregnant and taking care of Han by myself. Challenging! Thank God for His grace and strength each day!:)

We've decided to send Han to preschool nearly 8 months earlier than what we planned. Having 3 hours to myself to take a breather and to prepare a decent lunch and dinner for everyone in the family maintains my sanity and is a huge blessing to a preggie homemaker. We are so thankful that God provided a place at a Christian preschool just 10mins walk from our house. He gave us the last place available. Wow praise God!
Han is adjusting well to school so far and we are thankful for that. She really looks forward to going to school and talks about her form teacher everyday. :)

We still do our daily learning time at home in the afternoons. Recently I've started to teach her chinese words recognition.  Han is able to speak chinese quite fluently, but I think it's a different matter all together to learn to recognise chinese characters. I feel she's quite ready to start at this age.

I'm using this set of books, Si Wu Kuai Du. 

 It's a set of 7 books and you can order them from dangdang.com. Usually it takes 4-8 weeks to arrive. Alternatively I think a local bookshop (Ma Ha Yu Yi) at Bras Brasah Complex Level 3 sells it.

It works pretty much like the English Peter & Jane series where you teach word recognition from the most simple words and then graduating to the more difficult ones. I've started the program for about two weeks. For the first week, I taught Han 3 chinese characters and added 1 more character for the second week. It's quite an effective method and Han can recognise 4 characters now and read them when they appear in the chinese books we are reading. We are currently reading 1 Scroll chinese reader a week. You can get the Scroll readers easily at Popular bookshops. Of course you can accelerate the process by introducing more words each week. The pace is determined by you as a parent.

The books come with small hard paper cards with chinese characters on them that you can laminate and use to teach your kid. What I like about this series is the author seeks to explain the importance of learning to read chinese and introduces many creative methods of teaching chinese. It's not just a book on methodology. Please note that all the books are written in chinese.

Overall I think it's not just about methodology. We try to surround Han with a rich chinese auditory and spoken environment and make it fun for her to use the language!

Please feel free to recommend any other great resources!

Have fun watching the kids learn! :)

Alphabet Boxes

I can't wait to use these for Han's learning time! Alphabet boxes are simple and not costly to make and you can use them in many many ways!

I got these nice orange containers from Daiso. They have lids that are easy to open for toddlers and the plastic feels quite durable. It's important to choose a reasonably sized container. I don't like them too big because of storage issues (all 26 of them to store!) but they can't be too small because of the items we need to place inside. It's up to your creativity and personal preference what kind of containers you would like to use. It can be lunchboxes of your toddler's favorite character too!

My alphabet labels are from Activity Village . I like the kiddy fonts and bright colours. Just print out, laminate and cut. This is the part which is the most labour intensive, but it's the most satisfying! At this point, I must thank E for being so supportive to lend his hands and support to help me with this part of the process:) Alternatively, you may purchase alphabet font stickers which are cute and convenient! Just remember it's good to label with both upper and lowercase alphabets.

Activities you could do with the alphabet boxes:

1) Alphabet Sorting (letter recognition)

Give 3D alphabets/ alphabet cards to sort into the respective boxes. I use one half of our Kohwai & Young alphabet matching puzzle for this as puzzle pieces are thicker and thus easier for Han to handle, as compared to alphabet pieces made with laminated paper.

2) Alphabet Matching with Items Starting with The Respective Alphabet

For these, you could make up a list of say 5-10 items that start with the respective alphabets. Google the pictures (I prefer to use real photographs to aid better recognition and learning), print and laminate to make small cards for your toddler to sort them into the correct alphabet box. For me, I would add in the other picture half of the puzzle as mentioned above.

3) Alphabet Box of the Week

I modified our curriculum such that we will cover 1 alphabet in 2 weeks instead as I realised 1 week to cover a Biblical theme and an alphabet is way too rushed. So on the 2nd week of learning, we will have the Alphabet Box of the Week where Han will be encouraged to find things around or outside of the house which starts with that alphabet and she may put that item in the box as a collection. Of course,  this would involve some "planting" of items on my part and some deliberate planning. For example, for Letter B, I may cook bean soup and allow her to put a Bean into the B box for that week, or I may allow her to collect a blade of Green Grass to put in the G box. There are endless possibilities! This is really more fun than just flashing cards or reading books I think:)

4) Alphabet Sequencing

We'll also play alphabet sequencing by lining the boxes in the right order or even lining up some boxes with missing alphabets and getting Han to place the right ones in.

5) Play Dough in Alphabet Boxes

We may put some play dough in each box and encourage Han to mould the alphabet.

Keep the ideas flowing! Most importantly we're going to have fun because that's what learning should be! :)

Week 1 Part 1 Learning - God's Creation and Letter A

Han did the God's creation module before so I had to make this one a little different this time. We started off with our daily Supermarket Learning Time in the morning, this time focusing on fresh produce such as fruits and  veggie. These are God's wonderful creation and yummy food for us too. I'm quite hesitant about teaching animals in the supermarket as the dead and supermarket packed poultry and fishes are not my idea of a true representation of what they are. So I'll leave that to zoo trips or books.

For our Learning Time today, we did some of these: (this is also the main flow of Han's Learning Time, with changeable activities)

1) Alphabet Cards

I usually start off with alphabet flashcards and we're currently using the ones from BabyBumblebee. Han is now reciting both the alphabet and the object herself as in "A for apple, B for banana." I'm very proud of her! It's a progression from last year when I would say "A is for?" and she would reply "Apple". I realised this is a good practise because recently she has started to alphabet name some things she would see around. Just today she pointed to my shirt which had the word "BAY" and she said "B for Barney, A for apple, Y for yacht" Amazing! We must keep on coaching our children because they really are learning all the time and surprises will definitely come! We end off with singing the alphabet song together. This year, we started off with Han singing the whole song herself and I'll just clap along!

2) English Readers

After alphabet cards, I follow on with English Readers. Han has completed the JOY Readers Level A last year. These are great readers! I bought them second hand as I think the first hand ones are too pricey. I'm still hunting for Levels B and C, so this year we start off with the Sunshine Books Early Emergent Level One. This series seems to be out of print now as I got them from a second hand bookshop. You may try the newer series of Sunshine Classics. I feel readers are very good for Han as it contains simple words and simple short stories. The short story length of the readers ensure minimal straying of attention.

Since this is the week of the Letter A, we read through the A book of the Sunshine Books Alphabet Pack. I got this at a secondhand bookshop too. The book focuses on words beginning with A.

3) Chinese Readers

We're still using the Novum Pre School Chinese Readers. You can get these easily at Popular bookshops.Excellent and attractive illustrations and simple stories.

Our curriculum is such that we stick to the same readers for one week so that Han can be familiar with the stories and words. This is also hinging on the fact that toddlers love repetition and certain amount of it does help them to learn. Depending on the child, I think this is not a hard and fast rule. Some would prefer a new reader everyday!

4) Thematic Story: God's Creation

We then read a story of God's creation from the Flip and Tab Bible. Among all the resources we have, I felt this one has the best illustration for the story. Han was taught our thematic sentence for this week. "God made everything." We then run through the animals in the book and reiterate the fact that God created each and everyone of them.

5) We did an animal puzzle and fruits threading for God created all animals and yummy fruits too!

6) One of Han's favourite puzzles is the Melissa and Doug Animals Mini Puzzle Pack. I think it's age appropriate and it allows experience of success which I feel is very important for a toddler to continue to want to keep on attempting and learning. God created animals!
 
 7) Animal Sticker Fun!

I bought this at a Malacca Popular bookshop and it only costs less than S$3. It's a sticker book with large pictures and the child is supposed to spot certain things in the picture and be awarded stickers of those items when they correctly identify where they are found. They then place the stickers on the book. We did a picture identifying animals and it was fun! Han needed some guidance on finding some animals as they were pretty small.

8) Fingerpainting

We ended off today's Learning Time having a blast with finger painting. I printed out a reproducible God's creation handout from Teaching Children Memory Verses (Ages 2 & 3). I placed some Crayola Washable Fingerpaints on a paint palette and allowed her to free paint the handout. I was very tempted to coach her that red has got to be for apples and green for trees (I started off with some demonstration for her and this explains why part of the picture seems to be coloured by an adult), but decided against it and allowed her to express her own creative. After she completed the handout, we had super duper fun just fingerpainting on a blank paper until she has to be dragged off to wash her hands as Learning Time ended for the day!


Overheard a certain cute little girl talking to herself, somewhere along the rest of the day...

"Who made Barney? God.."

Ok.. time for some fine tuning!:)

Weekly Themes and Learning Categories for 2011

Rolling out the weekly Biblical themes for 2011:

1 – God’s Creation

2 – Noah’s Ark

3 – The Birth of Isaac

4 – Joseph’s Colourful Robe

5 – Moses and The Burning Bush

6 – Pharaoh Letting the People of God Go

7 – The Ten Commandments

8 – God Says, “Be Holy.”

9 – Giving To The Lord

10 – The Battle of Jericho

11 – Serving The Lord

12 – Gideon's Battle

13 – Ruth

14 – Hannah’s Prayer

15 – Samuel: Growing Up To Serve

16 – David and Goliath

17 – King David Praising God

18 – King Solomon Asking for Wisdom

19 – Elijah and The Ravens

20 – Elisha Feeding 100 Men

21 – God’s Forgiveness

22 – Stand Up and Praise the Lord!

23 – Job and His Friends Learn

24 – The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23)

25 – God’s Word Is A Lamp Unto My Feet

26 – Queen Esther

27 – Daniel Part 1

28 – Daniel in The Lions Den

30 – The Birth of Jesus

31 – God’s House

32 – Follow Jesus!

33 – God Cares for Me: Do Not Worry

34 – The Lord’s Prayer

35 – We Are The Lord’s Sheep

36 – I Can Believe, Have Faith!

37 – The Ten Lepers: Remembering to Give Thanks

38 – Well Done Good and Faithful Servant!

39 – God Is My Savior

40 – Jesus and The Children

41 – Jesus and His Triumphant Entry

43 – John 3:16

44 – Jesus Washing The Disciples’ Feet

45 – Telling The World About The Good News

46 – God Sends The Holy Spirit

47 – Sharing With God’s People

48 – Peter Heals A Crippled Beggar

49 – Helping Others Learn About The Bible

50 – Knock and The Door Will Be Opened

51 – Paul: A Changed Man

52 – Jesus Is Coming!

These themes are inspired by these two books:

The Beginner's Bible

This is the first Bible we bought for Han before she was born. She has been using this for her daily evening Bible reading and devotion too. In my opinion, this is a really good children's Bible! Comprehensive, superb illustrations, easy to read yet not missing out any truths. A definite recommend!

Teaching Children Memory Verses (Ages 2 & 3) 

Another amazing book which we bought at SKS Books Warehouse. Contains crafts suitable for 2 and 3 year olds teaching Bible truths and to encourage simple Bible memory verses. A good buy!

I think the teaching aid section at SKS is simply amazing! I do hope I can have a luxurious few hours there alone to source for more materials!

These learning categories will support the weekly themes and thus form the structure of Han's learning for this year.

- Reading: English (Daily)

- Reading: Chinese (Daily)

- Alphabets and Numbers (Daily)

- Penmanship (Daily)

- Bible (Daily)

- Puzzles (Daily)

- Montessori and Life Skills (Daily)

- Supermarket Learning Time (Daily)

- Worship and Music (Daily)

- Outdoor Play (Daily)

- Nature (Weekly)

- Art and Craft (Weekly)

- Math Montessori (Weekly)

- Science (Weekly)

You may want to add or subtract your own learning categories. Mine is the result of 6 months of trial run this year so although it may seem like a lot of categories, it's really not that much as these are evenly spread out throughout the day. They're not cramped into a short hour of learning. I really believe learning is a constant thing throughout the day and it has to be fun!

I'll try to blog the various activities! Meanwhile, I think it'll be great if you can first craft out a curriculum best suited for your child before diving into just doing lots of activities. It'll really help to organize and scaffold learning and at least for me, organized = happy :):):)

Have fun planning!