My 2 Little Darlings Jayden & Javier: Homeshooling

Finally bring myself to update our homeschooling for Letter K. As the post would be very long for my weekly updating of my homeschooling. It really takes time to upload the photo and writing this post, giving myself lots of reasons to postphone updating this post. :(

Theme for the week: Kite. It is quite easy getting the materials that I need for this theme. I get most of my printable materials from here. Javier likes the kite theme alot, actually I was planning to bring him for a kite flying activity, but due to time constraint, I did not bring him. But I would definetly bring him for kite flying soon.

Based on the Kite theme, I introduce them a new vocabulary word: Spars (which means the sticks which hold the kites shape against the wind)

Beside this word, I also introduce some new words which starts with K: Kitten, Keys, Koala and Kangaroo. When he saw the picture cards, he was so excited, keep telling me kangaroo and Koala bear. On the 2nd lesson, I would pass him the word cards to match to the picture. Although he is not sure of the words, but he likes to paste the word cards on the learning board.

Learning Letter K:

On Monday: We did a tracing of letter K. Normally I would hold Javier hand to trace the letter for the 1st time to show him how to write the letter correctly. But recently, he is not keen for me to hold his hand to trace the letter, he prefer to trace the letter himself. But he still let me hold his hand to trace for 1 time unwillingly! :(

After tracing the letter, he like to colour the pictures below.

On Tuesday: We did a poke-the-letter activity. I would let Javier poke the letter using a small thumbnail. This activity is a joint effort between Jayden and Javier. As Jayden really likes to help out didi, so in the end they did the activity togather.

On Thursday: We did a painting o letter K. I cut out 2 k's and laid it on a piece of drawing paper for my boys to paint. So after I removed the 2 cut-out k's, I would have a outline of 2 k's on my drawing paper.

This activity is mostly done by Jayden as Javier is more interested in dabbing the paint all over the paper.

On Friday: We did dot-a-dot paint of Letter K. Javier is really good in using this dot marker now.

Doing crafts:

We did 3 crafts this weekly which consists of a kite, kangaroo and Koala.

Craft 1: Colourful Kite

I just print out a simple kite shape. Then I cut out 4 triangles for Javier to paste on it. This craft is 100% done by Javier himself. Now he prefer to do alot of things himself. He wants to apply the glue himself, although he will make a mess on the table!

Craft 2: Koala
He was already pestering me to let him do this craft when he saw the pieces which I have cut out and stored in a ziplock bag. But I managed to distract him and told him we will be doing on the 2nd day. I don 't wish to overload him with too much craft on one day.

Craft 3: Kangaroo mummy with the baby.
This craft was done by my 2 boys. I never offered any assistance on it and giving them instructions on where to paste. Thus the end result was a bit "funny". But as long as the boys enjoyed the craft and recognise that it is a kangaroo, it is good enough for us. :)

Poem We read:
We read a poem " Come fly a kite". Javier likes this poem alot, he likes me to read it to him everyday. After hearing it for a few times, he can read some part of the poem with me. Whenever I read the poem, I like to leave out the last word of each sentence and let Javier say it out, and he knows all the last words for each sentence. :) In this way, I feel that he is participating in the reading of the poem too instead of just me reading the poem to him.

Books We read:
Kite Flying by Grace Lin (Javier favourite book for this week)

It's a simple story that effectively combines brightly colored illustrations with an easy-to-read text. It uses Chinese names for each of family members Ba ba- dad, Mei Mei - little sister, Jie-Jie older sister and Ma Ma - mother which I find it very unique. In a way, it teaches the child chinese while reading this book. When I flip to a particular page, he could point and tell me who is the person (like jie jie or ba ba...)

I think I read almost 4-5times a day for this book. Whenever he saw me sitting down, he would ask me " where is the dragon kite book?" I would say" Oh, it is in the book shelf. " He would quickly rushed there and find the book for me to read. After finish reading the story, Javier likes to flip to the last page of the book and discuss with me about the different types of kites feactures there.

Kitten's First Full Moon by Keven Henkes

The artwork is very nice displaying clean black-and-white illustraion with the strong lines. And at the same time, the pictures are cute to attract the attention of the child.

The book tells the story of a little kitten who sees a full moon for the first time in his life. He thinks it's a bowl full of milk and with humor and a lot of charm, proceeeds to try and get to that bowl by jumping, climbing a tree, etc.

Jayden enjoyed this book much more than Javier. I think Javier still doesn't understand that the kitten 'sees' the moon as a bowl of milk. Thus he did not get the fun of this story.

Learning Maths: Sorting Size

I let Javier arrange the kites from smallest to biggest. He needs some assistance from me with some of the size. But he is doing great for his age as he can arrnage most of it himself.

Learning Colours: Blue
I gathered some blue items to show it to Javier. In this way, I hope that he is able to relate blue to these blue items.

Colour Game:
I let Javier matched the tail of the kite to the body of the kite with the same colour. He can match all of it himself. He would give himself a clap when he finished matching all the kites. :) But Javier is still not too sure of the colour which I point ana ask him for the colour of the kite. I guess I have to do more colour activities with him..

I let Javier colour the diamond blue, as this week, we are learning "diamond" shape

Learning Shapes: Diamond

Since this week, our theme is Kite. So I decided to teach Javier Diamond as it is the most common shape of a kite. I borrowed this book from the library "Making Shapes". What I like about this book is that the child can trace along the shape which provides a sensory approach to the drawing just by touching and feeling the shapes.

I make use of the shape to let Javier draw the diamond. I put a paper on top of the diamond and let Javier colour on it. And what do we get....' diamond shape'. Javier loves doing it.

I also traced some diamond outline to let Javier form the shape by placing sticks on it. By using 2 differents coloured stick. I can revised the 2differents colour with Javier again.

Learning Chinese: We read a 儿歌 and story books for our chinese activity.

儿歌：懒惰猫
My boys likes this song alot. They are so familiar with the song now, they can sing it with me. Although Javier can't pronounce some of the words clearly, but he knows the rhythm of the song very well now.

Books we read:
找妈妈
This is a story about a chick looking for its mummy after it hatched from a egg. Javier likes this story... he would pretend to cry and act like the chick looking for its mummy.... :)