Learning Multiplication

I decided to do some Maths learning with Javier since he isn’t going to school today. We explore Multiplication, he has memorized up to x6 time table currently. I wanted him to learn the theory behind the time table instead of blindly memorizing it.

Rice for Scooping

It has been some time that we did this activity… so I decided to let Javier have a go today. Actually he was feeling very cranky as I did not let him watch his DVD, but I managed to divert his attention to this activity. Soon he was enjoying his rice scooping, and totally forgot about wanting to watch TV. Materials needed: Rice, Scoop, Ice cube Tray.

Colour Pattern

I have found a more interesting way to teach Javier about colour patterning. He is not very good at it yet, I got to give him some hint when he is doing it. But at least he is showing interest in it as he can actually placed the lego pieces onto the board. :) We did 4 sets of pattern for our 1st Lego patterning session.. I don’t want to overwhelm him too much. While doing this math activity with him, he is also sharpening his fine motor skills as he need to grasp the small Lego pieces and slot in into the board.

Update on Jayden Learning Journey

Beside his homework, normally I would spend sometime doing some assessment book with him. I find that this book who focus on the high frequency words is quite good, in terms of teaching the child to learn Chinese. Through this, Jayden learnt many new characters.

Every chapter, there would be a few sections. The first part would be introducing 4 new words, follow by sentence reading.

Books I borrowed from the library

I went to Woodlands Regional Library to borrow some books for my boys. I like going there as there is a wide selection of books for me to choose from.

I got this Usborne Farmyard Tales for Jayden. The story is very simple, but I like the artwork and the simplicity of the story. Jayden like this book very much... Every night he would ask me to read it for me.

The simple story

This is a book which who can train the observation skills of the kids.

A book on colour, haven't start to show Javier yet.

The striking illustration of differnt colour... This page showing yellow...

A yellow sun
A book on numbers

Very cute pictures, when I was choosing the books, I was attracted by the cute graphics

The train book... Jayden like thomas and his friends alot.

Flashcards

Recently I have stopped the flashcard activties with Javier. He doesn't seems interested when I am flashing the cards to him. Although he is looking at me, but don't seems to be concentrating looking at the cards.

But I realised he is interested in picture flaschard, whenever i flash, he will look and concentrate, unlike the word cards, he will look here and there. So I got the idea of self making flashcard for Javier thru a mummy blog.

This 1st set of card for different type of occupation

The 2nd set of cards for the differnt type of sports

Since Jayden started his reading on Peter and Jane books, I have been making the new words flashcards for him. Sometimes I will used these flashcards to revised the words with him

Example of the flashcards for the new words in Peter and Jane books

Some Daily Activities

Normally after dinner, I would do some activities with the kids. First I would do some revision with Jayden for either phonics, numbers or chinese. As it is really not easy to get Jayden to do his workbook. The only way is to reward him with a tv show after he have completed his work. (This method works all the time. hehehe....)

Doing puzzle used to be Jayden favourite pastime, but since the mischevious Javier keep disturbing him when he is doing his puzzle, he have stop playing with puzzle for quite sometime. Jayden is really very good in doing puzzle, he can do keep on doing a few without stopping. Today I ask him whether he want to do puzzle, his response is a loud 'Yes', and he did 3 sets of puzzle at one go... of course the little disruptor keep wanting to take away his puzzle lah.

Whereas for Javier, doing puzzle was really not his thing lah... he has no patience and interest at all. He is more interested in throwing the puzzles around. :) At least today he can sit down long enough to do a few simple 2 pc puzzle with mummy help.

I guess I have to let Javier do more puzzle to build up his concentration skills. His attention span in doing anything is really short. He is a really active boy.....

Progress of Jayden home study

Since I started Peter and Jane series with Jayden, I bought this assessment book for him to do as a revision. I would say he can do pretty well. He can do most of the worksheet himself.

Circle the correct words

For the Part"E", I need to assist him to fill in the correct word. Other than that, it is all done by himself.

Actually Jayden is doing quite ok for his age, but unintentionally, we tend to be stressed by our environment and people. Of course, every parents hope that their kids would do well in their studies. I guess sometime we really have to take things slowly. Everytime I would tell myself to relax and stop stressing him. It is not that I hope he will be a scholar or anything like that. But I wish that through my coaching, he will have a good headstart in his schooling life.

The fact that the society now is giving us so much stress that if we don't well prepared our kids, they won't be able to catch up with their peer. And life would be so much harder for them.

Teaching phonics

I got this method of teaching phonics from one of the mummy blog.. Its is quite a good idea and it is easy to understand. And most important it is fun.

First i would teach an, ax, ap and as... Next i would teach him how to blend. For example... C- at become CAT.. I would point to each of the card and ask him to read out to me... After he have completed all the cards. I would choose a few cards and read out the word and ask him to pick out the correct words.

He did very well for all these cards.

Children Book Centre at Bras Basah Complex

There is a shop at Bras Basah Complex (located at level 4which sells really cheap brand new children books. I bought quite alot of books there for my boys. There is still a further 30% off on the price shown.. I think it would become one of my favourite hunt now. hehe....

Just would like to share some of the books which i have bought. My kids like the book alot.

Javier really like the book ' The world around me' very very much. He would bring the book to me everyday for me to read it to him. It is a very interesting book, you can turn the wheel on each page, it teaches colour, numbers....

There is a button on the top left hand corner, when you press it, the fireworks will light up.

For these books, mostly is chosen by Jayden himself. One of his favourite characters is clifford the big red dog, thus he bought quite a number of clifford books.

Some Crafts for teaching colours and sorting

Recently i started to do some crafts using felt cloth. I thought it would be rather interesting and fun to teach the kids using this craft.

I have already show javier these crafts. I wanted to teach him colours, sorting of colours and numbers. He is quite fascinated with these, keep wanting to play with it. He even told me ice cream can 'mumm mumm'. Kids are really very cute.

The Fish felt cloth to teach numbers and sorting.

The different ice cream felt cloth board, to teach colours and numbers.