Preschool Series June 2013

On our shelves at the moment

I found his little blue box with compartments in the closet 

during a recent deep clean.

Bought it when I was pregnant with Tiger to organize

 his wee little mittens and socks.

I think people use it to store underwears or ties....not sure.

It was begging for some attention, so I put it to good use...

to display his markers, colour pencils, crayons, paint, etc.

Bigger items like palette, sponges, rollers are still in the drawer.

He likes the little whiteboard that says 'Draw'

At the moment, we are loving the little containers of Crayola paint on the far right.

Most of the materials are bought during sale. Don't pengsan, okay?

I had to stash them in the study or outdoors because.....

Invitation to Read.

We display his books, Dolch words, alphabet stamps, magnetic letters, etc here

His 'work' for the week:

Not sure you can call it work but I like to use the word 'study'

Left:

On top:  PlayDoh Ice Cream Store   =.="

Math:

Subitizing with Smarties

Patterning

Math beads

Right:

Sushi Restaurant & Tea Making/pouring

Left vs Right

Making Chicka Chicka Boom Boom props

I can betcha that his fav will be the Smarties tray.

 >.<

Update:

Got the little gumball machine froma sweet kiosk.

Puzzles

Used this 2 piece puzzle for linking memory as well

Preschool: Trying to stay on track

This morning, hubs saw my work desk and commented,

"Are you not stressed with all these rubbish on your desk?"

"That is a few months worth of paperwork." 

And I hate myself for letting it mount.

Surprisingly he said, "I help you clean tonight?"

I wanted to say, 

Cannot, I have class with Tiger but oh well. Let's see what happens tonight

Here are some stuff we did officially as preschoolers (3 YEARS OLD)!!!

MATH

Patterning

SMART puzzles from FRANK

More patterning with Duplo printables I shared on our FB page.

We used the unifix cubes

READING

Got this cool stamp storing idea from Prekinders

The original M&D box was so snug, it was difficult for him to extract the stamps.

 PHONICS

Word Families {-at}

As in cat, hat, sat, mat, vat, flat, bat

We are using the books from Kohwai & Young since that was his choice.

Books 1 was letter sounds

Book 2 is what we are using right now.

Complemented Dr Seuss's The Cat in the Hat with some props.

We used a LEGO Duplo cat as a pointer (just for fun)

SCIENCE:  Life cycle of the butterfly

Printables from Sparklebox

I used The Very Hungry Caterpillar storyline to complement the lesson.

I jogged his memory by asking him questions like,

In the light of the xxxx? What happens next?

What did caterpillar eat on Monday?

Prompt when necessary is our motto :)

He was super excited about the life cycle since I drew arrows on the floor using 

a whiteboard marker.

He looked at me wide-eyed, "Can draw? Really?"

We made Father's Day cards for Grandpa

 Abandoned Father's Day card for hubs ;p

CHINESE

He can recognise several simple words in Chinese but for some reason

he does not want to say it out loud.

He will point out the words a the book and say, "Teacher teach this one today"

???

I don't recall laughing at his Chinese.

*shrug*

Can't wait for him to bring home some flashcards from Bao Bei

(they get to keep the words they are able to read)

Lil Dragon: 11 Month-Old

11 months ago, I was probably depressed about my expanding butt.

Now, I am grateful that my large butt is good for cushioning hours of breastfeeding

and play.

Speaking of play, this girl is a PLAYER!

Her dedication is crazy; she can play all day & all night long

 Tiger's golf set, his tricycle, his puzzles, much to his dismay...

Her current obsession:

This Melissa & Doug set I got from Mothercare (during sales lar)

It was Tiger's but he did not even touch it. Weird kids.

You can get similar one here.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this set.

Shape, sizes, fine motor all in one.

She enjoys spinning the the top hexagon piece 

Oh, it is also excellent for gross motor when the kids start fighting.

Tiger will sibuk and help her, "I win"

She? Not so thrilled.

11 months old and she hits her brother...sigh..

Now, it's cute but in a few more years...

I have to pray more often.

Definitely, a fighter.

Almost a runner, soon.

She is walking very steadily and way too fast for our liking.

A tease.

A little more friendly with strangers but still generally shy.

A dancer.

Gave her a small taste of Vitagen the other day.

Guess what she loves now?

A book lover.

She has a favourite book already :)

Girls..such darlings, right?

If I say CAT she says /c/ /c/

 

 She can fake-cry for hours until I bring her upstairs to 'study'

In return, I get this.....okay la...totally worth it.

 

 

 Cheering for herself as she avoids wearing pants.

In Malay, we call this "Syiok sendiri"

Behind her is our new kakak.

The kakak who accidentally spilled hot water onto her left arm while making milk last night

She rarely cries in the shudder-snot-shoulder shaking manner.

But  last night was one of those rare occasions.

Kesian my baby.

I was nearby so I grabbed her, removed clothing, and

placed her left arm under running cool water for one minute

Then I applied toothpaste since hers is a minor burn

(a no-no for 2nd or 3rd degree burn)

Then, after she slept,

 I dab off the toothpaste and applied some antiseptic cream.

The only thing that crossed my mind was, "What will hubs say?"

He said plenty, from WHY, HOW, JIIIORR but most surprisingly was

YOU SCOLD HER OR NOT? NOT CAREFUL AT ALL!

If it was Tiger, he would never have said so much...

Fathers and their daughters... no play play.

I surprised myself too when I calmly handled the situation.

Years of medical training does come in handy.

And kakak? I know she really loves Lil Dragon, a lot.

A reminder to be careful, for all of us.

Dragon is still her bubbly self today, a very minor incident.

No worries.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Tiger

Tiger is officially three.

I hope we can focus more on his emotional and social skills this year.

I am gifting him with Bao Bei Reading Wonderland classes. Honestly, I expected waterworks for 2 weeks but he surprised us all by handling the situation well. Tiger surpassed all expectations, ours and the teachers.
Hubs said that at day 4 when he stopped crying, he removed his own shoes, placed it on the rack and washed his hands. Then he waved bye bye and ran into the classroom. Worth my every cent, y'all.

Classes are not cheap at Bao Bei. More costly than regular preschool at RM 410 for 20 days per month and no meals. I expect results!

Anyway, to sweeten the deal, I bought some party packs and a cake for him to celebrate his birthday in school. Positive reinforcement! As suggested by Pavlov.



I also prepared these for the teachers to present to him :)

I don't care what people say about bribing the child. Birthday celebration is legitimate and he stopped crying after that. Three days to overcome preschool anxiety for the scaredy cat.  

*Mommy blows nails*

Three days.

Okay, okay, I admit that he started showing interest in social situations involving children. Social skills starts developing at three, more so for boys. So, there. The reason for our successful introduction to preschool.

If I had sent him maybe a month before his third birthday, I might have blown the thing.

 

 I will give him credit for passion and desire to learn. Even in Chinese. Oh wait, I should credit myself too.

*Blows nails on other hand*

After school yesterday, he was singing to Grandma, "Eat papa, mumble mumble, eat papa"

Grandma was all ??????

It was a song for Father's Day. At night he stood on the bed between hubs and I and started dancing while singing the Eat Papa song. It was 'I have a good father' Song in Chinese. =.="

Halfway, he shouted, "Fang Pi!!!!!"

The Lil rascal farted and started rolling on the bed, laughing. Maaaan, it stank....like worse than hub's gas bombs!

So much for social skills....

Present from papa and Grandma (my mom)
 

Dear Tiger,

I hope you enjoyed your birthday.

Even more than that, I hope you enjoy learning because life is a long journey. You will make it meaningful when you never stop the yearning to learn, to discover, to question, to love.

I hope that I can be your rock, your support, your guide, your friend, your teacher for a long long time.

I love you so much,

Happy 3rd Birthday, my son.

Mama.

Now I have to go brush up on my Tang Poems.

Consonant Blend {ck}

I chose -ck to start with because it is easy.

Jolly phonics also recommended this blend in their introduction.

On top of that, Tiger was having a brief fling with nursery rhymes.

We started with lesson Hickory Dickory Dock.

After reading we searched for words ending with -ck.

 

He spelt the word out using letter blocks

Spelling clock as COCK

@.@

I cry....

I sounded out the word for him and he checked .

Correcting his own mistake.

I printed blend booklets from Sparklebox 

Got this water colour mini set from ToyRus Warehouse sale.

We painted CK purple (of course)

There were some glitter on the table.

So, he wanted to roll some dough over them.

I used the ugly mixed-colour ones

They were perfect for making /ck/ monsters

He went to bed with them.

The activities were meant for 1 week but he finished it in one night.

Homeschool rocks, no?

Then he was too cool for blending and ended the fling with nursery rhymes.

We moved on to word families.

Kids nowadays.

Messy Play: Flubber!

Tiger requested for 'cooking' out of the blue

as he dug out his measuring spoons.

Since I just returned from the bookstore with a bottle of white glue,

the first thing I thought of was FLUBBER.

The main ingredients are white glue, warm water, food coloring and borax.

We used the recipe from here

Borax, oh borax....where art thou borax?

Did I get that right?

To find Borax in Malaysia, I had to turn to Google.

Lifesaver was this blog which taught me to say 

Peng sha (硼砂) which is Boric acid in Chinese.

So, I went to several Chinese Medicine shops and finally found some.

I lied and said I was making fishball. Peng Sha is used to make them bouncy.

People always give me weird looks when I say, "For my son to play"

 It stayed in the drawer for 1 year cause well, I was scared to use it.

What? No KKM sticker.

So, I tested it on the grass and my neighbour's cat to see if it was safe.

No laaaa. No cats died in the process.

So, here is Tiger in action.

Mixture A : Mix 2 cups of glue with 1.5 cups of warm water, then add food coloring.

Tiger always ask for green.

 ?????

I have proof. Later I show you.

  

Mixture B: 1 cup of warm water with 3 tsp of Borax

Mix A into B

No stirring  required. Veeery cool.

Play!

See the kiasi?

Testing, testing 123 again!

It bounced a little.

Tiger said it was geli 

Other stuff we made:

Blow up a balloon with baking soda and vinegar.

Make a mess with gold dust. Again with baking soda and vinegar.

The green dough at the bottom is home made.

*so proud*

When he was 1 year 5 months old, we played with green goop.

All green!

Linking up Splashin Glory