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!:)
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