Homeshooling - 18th Week (31 May - 06 June 2010)

My boy is finally better this week!!!! He even asks me to do homeschooling with him, both my boys likes these lesson alot, especially reading poems and doing crafts. Whenever I told them "craft time", Javier would dash into my study room and take out paints, dot markers, pom pom.... the list just goes on. That shows how he is looking forward to the craft. :)

Theme for the week: Ladybug I get most of my printables material from here.

Based on the ladybug theme, I introduce them a new vocabulary: Antennae (which means the feelers on the head of the ladybug.)

Beside this word, I also introduce a few words that starts with L: Lollipop, Leaf, Lock and Lemon. Towards the end of the letter L learning, Javier is able to recognise the word to match the picture card. (I am not sure if he is just lucky.. but he managed to get it right all the time when I ask him to choose the word cards when I point to a picture card).

I first saw this song at yvette mummy blog, and I like it alot. Even my boys loves it. Nice music and the song teaches about the different body part too.

Learning Letter L:

On Wednesday: We did a letter L Tracing. Since now is school holiday, so Jaydne is joining us for all the lesson. Sometimes they fight to do the worksheet which I have prepare.

Look at teary Javier, he just lost out to gorgor, Jayden blocked his hand from colouring the pictures.

On Thursday: We did a dot art letter letter L. Javier is very good in using the dot markers now and enjoys using it. He told Daddy he do 'dot dot'... :)

On Friday: We did some sticking pasting for the letter L. The 2 boys also fight to paste the stickers. Hiazz.... they seems to enjoy fighting for everything.

On Saturday: Another Letter L writing using marker. I laminated the printed L practice sheet for Javier to practice writing his letter L. I find that this is a good letter writing method, cos it can be erase and reuse again.

Alphabet Game:
(1) Mix and Match
I dig out the old drawing of the letter which I have outlined and let Javier use the magnetic alphabet to match to the letter outlined which I have drawn. Although he has played it many times, he still enjoy it.

 

(2) Uppercase and Lowercase alphabets Matching
Javier did not enjoy this activity at all, after matching a few letters, he starts to give me a tired face. When I tried to make him do a few more, he even pout his lips!!! :) In the end, poor mummy got to match the remaining letters for him.

Doing Crafts:
Since it is school holiday, so we got ample of time, and we did 4 crafts this week.

Craft No.1: A paper plate ladybug

I pre-cut all the materials the day before to save time. So basically for this craft, the boys do the painting of the ladybug body red. Follwo by pasting the dots and the head. I pocked 2 hole to attach the pipe cleaner as antennae.

Craft No 2: Ladybug Hat

This is a very simpel craft. I let Javier use pom pom to dipped the black paint to print the dots on the red construction paper. And after the paint dries, I add 2 antennae for the ladybug.

Craft No.3: Spotty Leopard (I got the idea from here.)

This craft requires abit more preparation work.
(1) First I need to draw a outline of a Leopard.
(2) Then I cut out many irregular shape from foam for the leopard spots.
(3) Next I used aluminium foil to wrapped up my rolling pin.
(4) Then I paste the shape cut out from foam and paste it on the wrapped up rolling pin.
(5) Now it is my boys turn to do the work. They applied paint on the spots and start "rolling".
(6) Finally after the paints dries up, they add the nose and the eyes.

Craft No.4: Fingerprints Ladybug

This is most simple craft among the 4 crafts that we did. The boys just dipped their thumb in the red paint and print in on the paper to make the ladybug body. Next I add in the spots and antennae for the ladybug.

Poem we read:
We read a poem "Ladybug Ladybug". This week poem is not to Javier liking, as he doesn't shows interest when I read it to him. But for Jayden, he likes it alot, he even make up a song for this poem. :)

 

Books we read:
I only managed to get 1 book for the ladybug theme as I don't have time to go to the library to source for any books. I reserved online for this book and collect it upon receiving the sms notification from the library. So I am glad that both of them likes this book.

The Grouchy Ladybuy by Eric Carle

The grouchy ladybug is mean to all the other insects that he meets. He does not want to share the aphids on his leaf with the friendly ladybug. He ends up making no friends at all, and the animals he is rude to are getting bigger and fiercer as the book goes on. In the end the grouchy ladybug ends up on the same leaf he started out on, and shares the aphids. This story exposes the child to different kind of animals. When I read the books to them, they will exclaimed as to which animals would appear next!. From this story, my boys also learnt that ladybug feeds on aphids...

Others book which we have read:

Bear's Busy Family by Stella Blackstone

This book teaches about family. Javier likes me to read this book to him. Actually Javier like this series of books. I have borrowd 3 books from this bear series, he loves it all.

Learning Colours: Black

I show him a colour book which display things which are all black and shows him things that are black.
I also let him colour the 'heart shape which we learnt for this week' black.

Learning Shapes: Heart Shape

I can't find anything in the house which is heart shape. But finally I managed to find a tiny cut out foam which is heart shape and show it to Javier.

See the tiniest heart shape, that is the heart shape cut out from foam.

Matching Shape Game
I printed these ladybug and cut it into half for Javier to find the matching shape to match

Learning Chinese: We read a 儿歌, 唐诗 and a book for our chinese activity.

儿歌：玛莉有只小绵羊

They like this song, cos they are so familiar with it. Javier will keep saying ' sing again' when I finished singing the song.

Book we read: 尿床了

This is a story about a group of animals wetting their bed. When I read the story to them, they can still laugh out loud at the animals. Actually they themselves also wet the bed. :(

Tang Poem: 古朗月行 by 李白

My efforts to read tang poem to them has pay off. They have develope a interest to it. They would take this book for me to read to them every night. Jayden has recite all of the tang poem which I have taught them. Whereas for Javier, he can also recite the poem togather with me when I read to him.

Practical Skills

(1) Scooping water and pouring
Anything that has to do with water, my boys will sure enjoy it. :) He was feeling cranky and keep wanting me to carry. But after I let him do this activity, his mood improves tremendously and he did this activity for almost 20mins.

(2) Removing Ice cube to the ice box

Other Activity:
I draw some outline of the kitechen utensils for them to match. Although it is a very simple activity, but they were fighting to do it again. Each of them did a numbers of times for this activity.