Homeschooling -14th week (26 April - 02 May 2010)

My energy level is starting to go down again. Sometimes, I really feel tired having to prepare the materials every week. But I still have to make myself do it, cos at least by having these lesson with Javier, I would feel that I am spending worthwhile time with him. By homeschooling him, I can see that he learnt alot from these lesson.
Theme for the week: Horse

Just the day before we started our lesson, I brought the kids to the Zoo to see real horses.

Although Javier already knows about horses, but I would like to take this opportunity to refresh his memory of it again.

Based on the horse theme, I introduced him a new vocabulary related to horse.

New Vocabulary: Mane - the long hair growing on the neck of a horse

We also learnt a few new words starting with H: House, Hen and Handphone. First, I would show Javier the actual things, follow by the picture cards and lastly the word cards.

Learning Alphabet H:

On Monday: we did a letter H tracing. At the moment, I need to hold Javier hand to guide him in the tracing. But after the first try, he would want to hold the pencil and trace the letter himself.

The worksheet for the letter tracing, below is some of the things which start with H. I would go through with him and normally he would colour or scribble on the pictures.

On Tuesday: We have a sensory activity on Letter H. I pour some sugar on the baking tray to write the letter on it. Javier like it alot, keep licking the sugar off his hand and splashing the sugar all over the floor.

The expression says it all... Javier is having a really fun time for this activity.

On Thursday: We did a sticker pasting activity on letter H. Halfway through the activity, he is not keen to continue, keep asking me to help him to paste the stickers. So the completed work is a joint effort between mummy and Javier.

Javier can paste very well now. Initially he couldn't paste on the circle, he can't control his hand coordination then. But now he can paste on the circle without and guidance from me.

On Friday: We did a poking activity. I pass Javier a pin to poke hole on the letter H. Of course, this activity need parents supervision as the pin is quite sharp. So I would sit with Javier while he do it.

On Saturday: We did a stamping activity on letter H. Javier used a horse stamper from crayola to stamp horses on the letter. He prefer this activity as compared to the past few letter activity we did on the past few days.

Alphabet Matching Game:

I printed a Uppercase and lowercase letter H matching game from a homeschooling blog. I need to assist Javier in this game as he tends to get mixed up between the uppercase and lowercase.

Javier is analysing on which side to put the card

The Hippo Matching game

Doing Crafts:

The number of crafts we are doing is getting lesser as compared to last time. But I still managed to do 2 for this week.

Craft 1: We did a horse craft. I printed the horse template from here. I would cut the template the day before so that I would not waste time cutting while doing the lesson with Javier. Cos toddlers tends to get impatient and lose the attention if they are requried to wait.

This craft is mostly done by Javier himself, I only assist him to paste the feet of the horse. The 3rd picture of Javier is so cute, he is admiring on the horse which he have made.

Craft 2: Letter H House

Javier like this craft alot, he insists on doing it himself when I volunteer to help me and guide him.

Poem we read:

We read a poem on "My Horse". As I always act out when reading rhyme or poems, Javier really loves it and enjoyed it greatly during the poem time. For this poem, after reading 1 time to him, he keep asking me to read it again and again.... He loves especially the gallop part.... keep asking me to gallop with him around the house. I was really panting after this poem reading. From this poem, he learn the word gallop... He would tell me horse gallop!

Books we read:

Clip Clop by Nicola Smee

Friendly Mr. Horse offers rides to the other barnyard animals. One by one, cat, dog, pig and duck ask to be included, and then to go faster, FASTER!! They start to fall, Mr. Horse "skids to a halt"-- and over they fly, into a haystack. Mr. Horse is worried, but his friends are fine-- and want to go "AGAIN!"

This is one of the books that I wouldn't get tired of reading over and over. I enjoyed this book as much as my boys. Every night, Javier would take this book and ask me to read it to him. The rhymes are very fun to read out loud!

Blue Horse by Helen Stephens

The new girl in town, Tilly, plays alone, lonely in her room until a stuffed animal, Blue Horse, begins to talk and becomes her companion. Not only do they have a terrific time together but Blue Horse also encourages her to make friends with a girl in the park. In the end, Tilly befriends all the neighborhood children and their own "special friends" like Blue Horse.

For this book, I read twice to Javier. But he doesn't seems interested in this book, I think he does not really understand what the story is about. Although he will sit through the book with me, but he doesn't seem enthuastic when I am reading this book to him. For the book he likes, he would says alot of things when I am reading and would tell me what is going to happen next. :)

Learning Shapes: Triangle

As what we did for the square, I used the sticks for Javier to form on the outline which I have drawn on the paper. I feel that he learns better this way and he enjoyed doing this activity also.

Sorting colour Triangle:

Learning Colours: Brown

I show Javier some pictures of brown items. Next I show him the actual things which is brown. Of course, he is eyeing on the chocolate and can't wait to eat it.

I also let him colour the triangle with brown. But Jayden seems more interested in the colouring than Javier. So gorgor volunteer to colour it for him.

The 2 boys colouring the brown horse togather.

Colour Sorting Activity:

We did a colour sorting of the bear. Javier hates this activity, after much coaxing from me, then he started to do this activity. He can sort all the colour by himself... it is just that he is not keen to do it. Partly might be due to he is not feeling too well.

Learning Chinese:

We read a Tang Poem, 儿歌, a short story book for our chinese learning activity. I try to read it to him everyday. So far, he enjoys the story book which I have chosen for him and the 儿歌which I have prepare. For the Tang Poem, he can even recite part of it togather with me.

儿歌：小马儿

I read this 儿歌 to him everyday. But he only managed to recite the last 2 words of the poem when I read to him everyday. But one fine day, he suddely recite this 儿歌 to me, although he did not recite the whole of the poem, but he managed to recite 90% of it. I was so surprise and feel so encourage when I heard him. I guess we shouldn't underestimate a child. :) Kids learning ability is really very very great!!! Our chinese story book: 睡觉

This is a really simple book, but my boys enjoyed looking at the cute illustration. As I read the story to Javier... He would keep saying "Shhhhh" meaning keep quiet. Cos he says all the animals are sleeping already. So cute of him!!!!

Tang Poem: 静夜思

This is a really popular poem. I guess alot of people would heard of it before. When I recite 2nd time to Javier, he was able to follow me through part of the poem. Maybe his teacher has already taught him this poem. I also try to explain the meaning of the poem to my boys when I read to them. I am not sure whether they understand it or not. Through reading this tang poem to them, I am also learning it as well. I was not exposed to tang poem when young, so I would take this opportunity to learn as well.

I feel that tang poem tells a really meaningful story which is a great knowlege to teach the kids.

Practical Life Skills:

1) Using Tweezer to pick up beads to transfer to a bowl.

I guess I am a little too ambitious to let Javier do this activity. I can see that he is having a reallly hard time doing it. As the beads are so small, it really needs very good eyes and hand coordination.

But he still did a really good job, he managed to pick up a lot of beans and transfer them into the bowls. Initially he doesn't really knows how to control the tweezer, he keep dropping the beads when he picks them up from the table. But after practising for a while, he managed to gasp the technique.

I won't be letting him do this activity again at the moment, cos I find that it is quite tedious for him to do it now.

2)Hole Punching

He likes to do this activity, but he doesn't really know how to use a hole puncher. Cos we need to slot the paper into the middle of the puncher and the metal plate. I got to show him a few times before he understands how it works.