Homeschooling – 20th & 21st Week (28 June -11 July 2010)

It has been a busy week for me, thus I din have much time to update my blog. Javier was down with flu and cough AGAIN!!!!! Arggggg… and with a fluctuating mild fever. He was very cranky throughout the whole week. Screaming and shouting was a norm in our household for this week. War break out during meal time for him, he refuse to eat anything (which includes his milk), except chocolate…… I got so angry and smack his backside. But after I cooled down, I did explain to him and he did eat his meal… Phew~~~ But his recycle will repeat during every meal!

Although we took 2 weeks to cover the letter N, however not much activity was done during these 2 weeks. Reason being that Javier is not in the right mood for the lesson and he only prefer to play with puzzles and read books, and this week he was not feeling well.

Theme for this week: Nest I got my printable materials from here. Based on the Nest Theme, I introduce them Nest and Twigs (which is a small thin branch of a woody plant.)

* For our daily revision, I would get Javier to pick the right word card to put it underneath the picture. For this week, he is not too sure of the words, so I need to give him some assistance.

Beside these words, I also introduce some new words to Javier which begin with N: Newspaper, Nail and Noodles.

Learning Alphabets:

On Wednesday: We did a Letter N tracing. Javier doesn’t like me to hold his hand to trace anymore. He prefer to trace himself or rather some of the time, scribble himself. :)Trying his best to trace the letter N. He is doing great, but I still try to hold his hand to guide him in some of the ‘spot’ that is curvy, although he don’t like it.

On Thursday: We did a Spot the Letter N. Firstly, I get Javier to show me the uppercase N and I would colour it. Next, he find all the lowercase N and insist on coloring himself. I try to include some different activity sheet for Javier, as to refresh his interest in doing the alphabet worksheet. And he enjoy this new worksheet alot.

On Friday: We did a Dot a art Letter N. He can handle the dot marker very well now, and the whole activity sheet is done by himself. “clap clap” :) He is a very cheeky boy, he like me to praise him, so whenever he finish dotting a spot, he would stop and ask me “ Mummy, correct or not?” He continue to ask me throughout the worksheet. We also did a Bird nest puzzle to further enhance on the letter N and Nest learning.

On the following Tuesday: We did a Spot “Letter N”. After doing this type of worksheet for a few times, he is quite familiar with it now. Now he prefer to circle the letter himself.This is the worksheet done by Javier himself. I can really see the effort by him trying to circle the letter himself.

On the following Thursday: We did a Sticker pasting on the “Letter N is for Nest”. He seems to have lost interest in sticker pasting now. He would quickly do it and seems to be in a hurry to finish it. Sometime he even ask me to do it for him. :( Nevertheless, I still encourage him to finish the worksheet himself, although I did help him to paste a few stickers.    

Doing Craft: We only managed to do 1 craft for this theme. Seems like our craft activtity is getting lesser by the month. :(

Macaroni Necklace:

Materials Needed: A string and some macaroni

Method: String all the macaroni together. As he was stringing the macaroni, I realize that the macaroni hole is too small and the string is too thick. Resulting that he has a really hard time doing it. He need very good hand eyes coordination for this activity. During the midst of his stringing, he almost gave up a few times. But I still encourage him to continue by giving him some help and keep praising him.

Although he feels discourage at times when he can’t do it, but he really enjoy this activity and insist on stringing all the macaroni which I have put inside the bowl.

Our Necklace made by Javier hardwork… Really really hardwork from him. :)  Wearing his necklace

Poem we read:

We read a Here’s a Nest poem. Javier hates this poem, whenever I tried to read this poem to him, he would show no interest and try to take it away or worst still, he would tell me not to read it. :(

Books We read:

The Nose Book by AI Perkins

It is a funny book about noses. It tells about the different type of noses and what they are used for. Although I cannot say that Javier loves this book, but he would get me to read it to him before he sleep.

Poppy and Sam’s Nature Book by Stephen Cartwright

This book tells through the story of a famer Mrs Boots showing and explaining to her 2 children the many type of bugs or insect, flowers, trees and habitat which includes Bird Nest (our theme of this weeks). So after going through the book, we understand better of the nature around us. Both my boys are very interested in this book and Daddy is the one who read this book to them every night. :)

Other books which we read are:

Little Mouse wants an Apple by Yoshio Nakae

Both my boys loves this book. It is a must read book for them everyday.

This story is about a little mouse who is envy of other animals’ ability which he don’t have. However through a sea lion, he finally understood that each of us have our own strong point or skill. I think it is a great story to impart the knowledge to the kids. “Instead of hoping to be like someone, we should concentrate on our strong point and put it to great use.”

Zoo Ology by Joelle Jolivet

The very very large size of this book appeal to us (me and the boys). :) I met Lucas Mummy at the Woodlands Library and saw her getting this book for Lucas. Upon seeing the cover of this book, I knew it will surely be a hit with my boys. Luckily there was still 1 copy of this book at the shelf, so i quickly grabbed it!!! :P

Indeed my boys love it to bits…..it has beautiful illustration and and the animals are grouped in some general themes. It has very little written word except the name of all the animals in it.

Learning Numbers:

This week we are learning 6. I showed him many example of 6 objects and get him to count it with me.

Recently, I have been spending great amount of time for our number learning. I have seen a great improvement in Javier’s number recognition. He knows 1-7 now!!! :)   Some examples of 6 objects in a group, and we would count it together. Pasting stickers for a number 6 card. Javier playing a number puzzle game. (Yvette mummy was so kind to lend us this puzzle home). I believe playing with this number puzzle also help Javier is his number recognition. :)

Learning Chinese: We read a 诗歌, 唐诗 and a story book

诗歌- 燕子盖新房

Tang Poem: 夜宿山寺 

We read a book on 小猫当当 “让我荡一会儿吧”.This is a very funny and cute story to teach the kids about sharing. My boys like this book. I am glad I got this series of book for them.

Practical Skill

We did paper cutting for this week. Javier is improving alot in his motor skill with regard to paper cutting. He can now follow the line and cut.

This is the worksheet which I have printed for him to cut. He can follow the dotted line and cut, although sometimes I need to turn the paper for him.

Other Activity:

Doing Puzzle: Playing with puzzle is a daily activities for Javier. He enjoys all kinds of puzzles. He never gets tired from playing the same old puzzles everyday.