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!:)

Creation Week #3! God's Creation of Man

We are still focusing on God's creation of Man. I found this WONDERFUL series of books at the library. This series of "Let's Read About Our Bodies" books has titles featuring the ears, eyes, feet, hair, hands, mouth, nose and skin. There are photos and a simple sentence or two on every page. I like them because the photos are eye-catching and Han was very engaged when I read the books to her, some up to 12 pages long. I also like the fact that the pages contain no more than 2 sentences. Fantastic series of books to teach about God's creation of our bodies!

Sample page of "Hands"

Another book I read to her along this theme is "Barney Plays Nose to Toes" It'sa really fun book and I get Han to participate in the activities inside. She loves it!

I still reiterate the question to Han, "Who made our hands, feet etc?" She will answer, "God." :)  I also figured that in teaching her about the parts of the body, it will certainly take more than just reading books. Therefore, we talk about the parts of the body as much as we can. For example during bathing, changing etc. Another example is when she's running about, I will then ask her who made her legs etc. So it's really about creating an awareness and building that truth into her learning. I pray she will always be in awe of the Creator !

Some other activities for this week:

1) Spooning activity

She's been doing a lot of this since a few months back.  I observe a level of improvement when we did this again this week. I must first say that I am extremely thankful for the Friso 3 milk scoop! It's the BEST spoon so far for Han as it is not too big and has a spoon depth that is perfect for this activity! Han used to give up after a while the last few times we did this activity using other spoons, so she resorted to using her hands. This time round, there was no such problem. So yay!

Beads, ice tray from Daiso. Friso 3 milk scoop.

2) Pipe cleaners slotting activity

Han found this relatively easy as the opening of the container was quite big. This activity trains her fine motor skills. I guess it's time for me to make it more challenging by using cut uncooked spaghetti and a salt shaker!

All materials from Daiso

3) Pre-printing practice (Line tracing)

I downloaded this activity sheet from the Kidzone website. They have loads of free pre-printing practice printables! Han has been practicing this for almost 2 months now. As you can see, the tracings on the first line were drawn with my holding of her hand. For the past two weeks, I allowed her to do the second and third line by herself. I think she is improving, but the cute thing is she gets kind of impatient towards the end and she will want to just get the activity over and done with! I'm still trying to train her to hold the crayon the non-palmar way. At the end of this activity, I'll allow her some free time to colour the drawings. Note how she can colour roughly within the sun? That took weeks of practicing!

4) Memory Card Game

I was a little hesitant to start Han on this until E's brother and sister-law gave this Ravensburger Disney Memory Game for her second birthday. I was very happy that the cards have pictures of Pooh, Tigger (especially!) and Piglet etc. That certainly motivated Han to play with them! I decided to start from six cards of three character pairs. Today is the first time Han is doing this and she needed much prompting. Nonetheless we were giggling a lot because when she turned the wrong card, she will start giggling herself! On a side note, I realised placing the cards on the table made them quite difficult to take and turn for Han's tiny hands. So when I saw a recyclable store product display "shelf" kind of things, I took it and it proved to be perfect for propping up the cards! Wonderful! You could make your own version using cardboard I believe.

Cheers!

A Nice Complement to A Great Book

One of Han's favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar (by Eric Carle). I read this book to her when she was just a few months old and it still remains as one of her much-loved books. She loves to say "tiny caterpillar" and "big caterpillar" when the story is read, and she goes into an excited frenzy when she sees the big and beautiful butterfly at the end. A few weeks back, I found this fantastic The Very Hungry Caterpillar Colorforms 3D Deluxe Playset at the Robinsons Expo sale.

Left to right: Book and Playset

Contents of the playset

It costs less than $9 after a 50% discount and I thought it's a super good buy! I really really like how this playset complements the story. What I did was to read the story once to Han. After that, I read it a second time, this time passing her the colorform pieces that represented the respective part of the story I was reading. They could represent the tiny caterpillar, the different food it ate, the big caterpillar, the cocoon etc. She then stuck the pieces onto the storyboard included. She was very engaged throughout the whole process and I felt that Han's handling and sticking of the colorform pieces really helped to illustrate the growing quantity of food that the very hungry caterpillar ate progressively! It was a visual effect that became more obvious compared to just seeing the book illustration, I feel.

I think it's a great idea to have complements to the books you are reading to your child, whenever possible. It does not mean every complement has to be stored-bought though because we can be creative in coming up with our own versions using existing materials or toys available. For example, if I am reading a story of ducks, I could make use of the bathing rubber duckies as complements. If I am reading a story of a bus, I could use a used tissue box to make a bus as a complement. The stories will be so much more alive when children can take part in and have more than their visual or auditory senses stimulated.

Have fun complementing your reading!

Creation Week #2!

This week we were supposed to focus more on God's creation of man. However, there was a quite a change in our schedule as E was away at a camp and I substituted 2 days of Learning Time with outings instead (I had to get out of the house!).

The first outing we went to was the Borders clearance sale at Suntec. My good friend JR came along with Han and me and I was very thankful for her company! There were many books on sale and I managed to get 7 books for $32. My favorite buy is Waddle! : A Scanimation Picture Book which I got for $5.

It's not normally a book that I would get for Han as it does not focus on reading and it's a pricey book without the discount, but I thought it's a good buy for a book that can capture a curiosity of a toddler ! I was very proud of Han because she managed to queue along with us for close to 2 hours for payment (yes, the horror of clearance sales!). She was pretty grouchy at the end of the queuing, but was quickly pacified with a warm delicious dinner that filled all three of our cold, hungry stomachs. It was a positive experience to bring Han out! Thanks JR for being a great babysitter and company!

The second outing this week was a play date with Han's close cousin, Ian. I always enjoy bringing Han for play dates with Ian. They share great chemistry as they are regular playmates every week at my in-law's house. My sis-in-law, Ian, her helper, Han and I had a whooping good time (for the kids especially) at the roof top playground of Vivocity . It was a nice fellowship chatting with my sis-in-law and we ended the evening with a great dinner. I thank God He held the weather for us throughout the whole time, especially when I was making my way back home from the train station! Han was sufficiently tired out by 2 consecutive days of outings and she slept early and well :)

I thought these 2 outings greatly tested Han's patience in staying on her pram, our good trusty Maclaren Techno XT. She had to stay on it for at times long stretches of time as I was alone travelling with her to and fro venues via the train. She did very well and I am very thankful to God for that! 

For the rest of the non-outing days, we resumed our  Learning Time. I made an extra effort to keep asking Han the learning thematic question, "Who made everything?" Now she answers quite accurately, "God". :) I decided to shift the focus on God's creation of man to next week instead as I wanted to reinforce the idea of God creating all things.

So in everything we did this week, I made special reference to God being our Creator. These are the learning activities we had this week.

God made the fruits and vegetables!

Fruits/ Vegetables sorting (all materials from Daiso)

God made mice and flowers! Han is doing puzzles daily now. Found this great puzzle which has a replica picture at base for guidance. I love it! It really encouraged Han to enjoy puzzles more! I drew the outlines of the puzzle pieces using a marker as I think it facilitates the process for Han better.

From Toys R Us

God made colours and shapes! This set of shape recognition and matching is simple and encouraging for toddlers. Great for them to experience success.

From Toys R Us

Lastly, the most memorable and satisfying learning she had was the Alphabet Train activity.

Alphabet Train Puzzle (Bought 2nd hand )

 Previously, she could not have enough patience to last through piecing all the 27 (26 alphabets + 1 train head) pieces together. Today, she showed remarkable improvement by piecing together all the pieces in 1 sitting! I discovered the secret to sustaining her interest was to make a song out of the whole activity : " The letter A is in the alphabet train, place the letter A next to here.." Repeat for all letters with my own silly tune that amused Han greatly. Haha.

I decided to improvise on this learning by bringing out her wooden alphabet blocks.

Alphabet Wooden Blocks (bought 2nd hand)

 Han successfully placed 8 matching alphabets on top of corresponding alphabets on the alphabet train. She really enjoyed herself and so did I! We ended the activity by marching around the long alphabet puzzle, to me singing the ABC song for several times! Han loved it and kept giggling!

Cheers to learning!

Creation Week!

The theme for Han's Learning Time this week is the Biblical theme "Creation".

I did a couple of learning activities with her, in line with the passage in Genesis 1 which tells us about how God created the world. Firstly, there was no memory verse for her this week, but rather a memory statement, "God made everything.". Throughout the week, when I talked to her about the creations of God, I would teach her this statement. It's a simple 3 word statement, so I guess it rested pretty well on her. I would then proceed to ask, "Who made everything?" The answer is supposed to be "God." For the first few times, she said "Mummy!" or "Hannah!" It was really funny. Eventually she learned that the answer is "God." :)

We learned that God created the sky, moon, stars, clouds etc. So one of the art and craft activity that we did was a drawing-sticker craft. I drew the moon, stars, clouds and the 3 stick figures (representing our family). Han placed the star stickers by herself. This trained her fine motor skills a lot as the star stickers were pretty thin and small. A few months back, she could not have placed them so well, so I was very proud of her that she improved a lot in placing the stickers on. I topped off the activity by giving her Barney stickers to decorate her art piece. Needless to say, she was very happy!

When I went on to teach her how God created the flowers and plants too, we did 2 other activities. One was a simple flower arrangement activity. I got some bunches of fake flowers and a ash-tray with many holes from Daiso. You could also do this using a big salt shaker with many holes. This allows Han to practice her motor skills as she places the stalk of flowers into the holes and at the same time allows her to be creative in arranging her flowers.

 She asked me to take a picture of the finished product.

I wanted to show Han how plants grew. The fastest and fuss-free way was to germinate some beans. By the second day, they grew visibly. By the end of the week, they were so tall that they protruded out of the container. Han greets her precious bean plants good morning every day and she lovingly holds the container of plants sometimes to just look at them. I like the gentle way she handles the plants!

We also read some books on animals when I came to the part of how God created animals. Two of her all-time favourite books are Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Eric Carle) and The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle). We also did a few animal puzzles. I am very happy to see Han enjoying puzzles more and more! I hope she can enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles next. For now, I really must flame up her interest in puzzles first.

When we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I also incorporated these 2 puzzles for Han. Both items only cost me $6 in total. Han loved the magnetic puzzle very much and she did it repeatedly. She was also able to put in all the pieces well too for both puzzles! I thought the 2nd puzzle (below in picture) captured the life cycle of a butterfly very well. I got this for less than $2 at a clearance sale.

We also started on reading a Chinese book every day, using Novum chinese readers. I really like them as the books have bright and attractive pictures and the chinese words are large. I got them for $2 each at Giant sale.

 By the 3rd or 4th day, Han was conversing to us in Chinese sometimes. So I was very encouraged by that! I must persevere in teaching her Chinese!

We also managed to make a trip down to a fish farm with my parents on Friday and that topped off our week of learning about God's creation. Next week, our learning theme will still be on Creation, focusing more on the creation of man. Looking forward to more fun learning to come!

For the Love of Reading

I am a self-confessed book junkie! My favorite pastime of all is to cuddle up on the sofa or bed with a good read and it's my fantasy that I can do that for a whole day. (but with a kid, that fantasy will have to hold for now!) So I do my best to impart this love of reading to Han.

I once asked a friend of mine (who teaches languages) which is the best way to teach a child to read. She just replied, "Instill a love for the language." I think it is so true! It's never about reading methodologies or secrets, but it's about surrounding the child with the language and instilling in her a love for it. I feel this liberates me, as a first time parent, from having to find out what are the various methods to help Han love reading! I just have to share my love for reading with her!

So I do unashamedly declare that there's one thing I would gladly spend money on for her. You've guessed it, BOOKS. Han has a proud collection of many books and our family bookshelf is near bursting since her own books joined ours. I am still considering whether to install a bookshelf for her in her room. Hmm.. will have to consider some factors like budget and space.

Books need not be expensive at all. Of course, there's the good old library which I visit once a week and which I try to bring Han there at least once in a fortnight. She understands the concept that a library is for borrowing books and she does enjoy going thankfully!:) But being a book junkie mum, I can't resist buying books for her too. I try to go for books warehouse sales each time they come along, mostly in the holidays. I remember the best one I went for was the TIMES warehouse sale where every single book was going for $2! Thick or thin. I lugged home 40 books in all. I would have bought more if not for the fact that I did not drive there that time.

Just this week, I thank God that I bought some really good Chinese readers! Spotted some at the Suntec Carrefour sale, some going for $1.50 and $2. A few days later, I spotted another batch at Giant sale going for $2. I also manage to buy some English books at $1 each! It's been a week of good books buy!

Besides letting Han read a lot and reading to her, we speak a lot to her and we realised this has greatly helped her to articulate and express herself well. There's really no secret behind it! Just lots of reading and talking (which I love to do haha.)We also allow her 5 mins of personal reading time everyday. This is when she sits in her highchair (while I am doing some minor chore) and read 1-2 books. I hope to increase the length of her reading time come next year. I feel this is very good in instilling a sense of self-discipline to focus and read.

Encourage you to read to your child everyday if you can! Even 5 mins a time will go a long way:)

Best Parenting Books I Read when Han was 0-2 Years Old