Tot Trays: A Little More Structure

Frankly speaking, I am a little bored with the un-schooling method.

You know, when Tiger gets to choose what he likes. Puzzles, etc

After 4 months of doing that, we were not getting anywhere.

He was getting a little more playroom than study room.

Not challenging enough, I guess.

So boring.

So not for us.

So, we are adjusting our 'curriculum'

 A little more focus on language, music and math.

A little less on motor work.

Still the same amount of creativity and fun, I hope.

Chinese

I am still searching for the perfect box to present these.

For now, they are on a tray.

1. Game/activity: A spot the difference book. Instructions to be given in Chinese *gulp*
2. Reader pen: First 600 words
3. Odonata Book One (Again, I know. So inconsistent). The little black box is for him to keep the words that he can read ala Bao Bei Reading Wonderland.
4. Story Book: This is a pop up book from his fav series.

Math
Doman cards: If you have been following Tiger's progress, you will know he dislikes the red dots. I am just trying again because he is starting to count instead of subitizing.  *Gasp!*

He loves this mooncake box from Lavender (purple!)
In it, some flashcards:

1. Dots (1-10)
2. Spanish (1-10)
3. Numbered cartoon mini pegs

English/Vocabulary/Sight Words
In addition to storybooks, we started this sometime ago.
Ladybird Book 1A with flashcards
He didn't really enjoy plain reading, so we added actions for each illustration/page.
Great fun for him to watch mama go crazy with exaggerated actions...hehe.
Words that he has mastered gets to be in the box :)

Alphabets

Of course, I have to indulge him with some ABCs.

He re-stickered the box and I gave him some wooden alphabets to match

Music
We are starting with Middle C again

A little Christmas inspiration....

Fine Motor: Tweezing ribbons

I marked the muffin tin tray with bits of corresponding ribbon for a little more challenge.

Sorting colours:
Some IKEA cups, cheap ice cream spoons, and the drink holder from Chatime
LOVE the pop of colours



Sensorial

A Christmas sock stuffed with bells and drums.

Tiger is supposed to feel the object and tell me which it is. The ribbon is just to poke fun at him.

Flashcard center:
Since he is so keen on cards now (which explains the earlier trays), I removed his art material and created this in its place.

HIs art stuff was 'boxed' and placed nearby. **After I switch some old things around, suddenly he develops the passion for colouring, markers, dot painting and worksheets....pfftt.
Note to future Tiger: See the time on the clock. That would be 12.30 AM. The things I do for you.....

Now, if only I can toilet train him on a tray..hmmm...that's a thought....



Celebration: Christmas Tree

On Monday night,

Tiger and I excitedly dug out the RM 12.90 Christmas tree from the storage.

When I removed it from the bag and held it upright, the tree 'patah'!!!

Exactly mid-tree, the trunk had snapped into two.

I just stared at Tiger, speechless.

Finally, he said, "Mama, tree fall down, die ah?"

Not to be beaten by a broken tree, I duct taped the menacing thing.

Here it is, a little crooked, shorter but more character, I think :)

Ok-lar I am too cheap to buy another one..haha. I love you, tree!

I requested, "Smile for the camera please?"

Tiger said, "NO!"

"Hmm, smile for the tree?"

There you go!

A kiss for the Star..muaks...

which nearly broke the tree again.

Hmm, think I should make a FRAGILE card?

Ho! Ho! Ho!



*Christmas tree and ornaments from Fun & Cheer

Tot School: 29.5 Months

Tiger did not get new trays for the week.

Instead, we just extended his tot tray activities to keep them fresh.

Okay lar, mostly because I was lazy and wanted to spend more time with Fifty Shades.

FYI, I am on book II already. *Cheeky grin*

 *Clear throat* 

Back to Tot Schooling stuff....

We added his 'taking pen'/flags to his Geography lesson.

Some figurines from Happyland.

He requested for this Grid Memory game from Popular Bookstore.

Yay, money not wasted :)

Another extension.

We added some three-piece puzzles to his vocabulary/animals set

Some time last week, Little J joined Tiger's class

Tiger went bonkers because he simply loves having J around.

There is a little bro-mance going on cause Lil J ask for Tiger too

So cute!

It is really funny to watch the two of them since there is a language barrier.

Little J is primarily a mandarin speaker and Tiger is practically a banana.

Last week, I caught the two singing Oppa Gangnam together...LOL!

Who needs words when you have Oppa?

Fridays are Messy Arty Days since I usually return home late.

By the way, late would be eight-ish.

Yeah, once upon a time, 'late' was 3-5 AM. *wistful look*

Just kidding, wouldn't trade motherhood with noisy strangers,

 intoxication, secondhand smoke, hangover, etc.

Here he was feeling very artsy, hence the expert brush pose with palette in hand.

I was going to give him the plain art paper but he kept gushing over the cover.

"Wah, so nice".."Mama, nice"

So, I just said, "Nah, use the cover lah"

Environmental friendly, yes we are.

Most of the time, he did puzzles simply because he wanted to.

Like this one which is a copy-copy from M&D.

I LOVE this pic because he was bending his back so much, he looked pudgy,

Haha, like a 9 month old Tiger.

Human body puzzle.

Definitely not a hit. Infact, his exact words were:

"Mama, no nice. Keep."

I switched his art material from his art center with flashcards.

While I was doing that, he was doing this.

"Tiger help mama clean, nice hor?"

I just smiled at him but inside I was going, "Yes, my love...so nice."

We are going easy on the compliments.

 Being the oppurtunistic mom that I am, we did these as well.

We traced A to Z, every single card.

These cards are available in MPH & Popular.

A nice alternative to sandpaper letters

Or you can use glue and sand to make them more tactile.



See the bulging diapers?
Reading, tracing, sounding phonics like a pro but still in diapers
Tsk, tsk, tsk, shameless.

He is seriously a phonics nuts.

Proof:

 

He went to bed with these and then complain that the letters were coming out.

They were homemade, DIY!

That meant they were cheap, hehe!

This week, Christmas?

Oooh, rub hands with joy

Phonics: We Made A Coconut Tree

He made me do it!

Literally.

For real.

I present to you our very own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom coconut tree.

 

He still smiles by squinting.
This picture is also the reason why Tiger will never be a model.
Unless China is looking for a Welcome to China face.
Then, please, call me.



His dance moves are not for the faint-hearted. 

Tot School: 29 Months

When I typed 29 months, I realised it has been 20 months since we started

our early education journey.

*pat own shoulder*

I am still enjoying being the busy teacher mama.

Tiger is still the ever happy learner.

So far, his cognitive abilities includes:

Knows all 26 alphabets and their hard phonic sounds

Reads simple words

Counts to 100s (Counting to 20 was the hardest hurdle)

Able to quantify objects

 {I kept saying, don't count, use your camera eyes. Nope, he still counts}

Of course, there are children who can do a lot more.

Bear in mind we only do 'learning' an hour a day, 3-4 times a week

Sleep and nap takes 11 hours.

The other 12 hours, he indulges himself with the Ipad, 

TV (sigh, those damn frogs, I'll explain later) and toys,

bugging grandma, disturbing his lil sister or bullying the maid.

Typical busy 2 year old :)

Another benefit of 'school' is time-out for Grandma.

Recently, she has been telling Tiger to go study.

Haha, my lil chatterbox is driving her nuts.

These are some of our activities for the past 2 weeks.

Language

Spelling

Our cheapo version of movable alphabet :)
There are some pictures chips of cat, dog, tree, etc.

 So, I ask him to choose the ones he wants me to spell out.

Playing with alphabets made him think of his book and stickers

Reading.

He still enjoys the Brillkids books, especially Going Places

Pre-writing/Tracing

I saw this fun tracing idea on Pinterest.

Nope. Didn't work.

Logic thinking/puzzles

Unifix puzzles

Fine motor

Pin rolling playdough.

I moved the dough stuff to his playroom since he wanted to play with it daily

Geography
He showed interest in flags recently, so we are focusing on those

He calls the map "earth"



Practical Life

Clothes pegs

Vocabulary

After I showed him the flashcards, he did his usual OCD thing.

During this lesson, he was to match the names

Nerd boy enjoyed finding the matchy matchy miniature animal as well.

Math
We did not do a lot of math work lately, except on this particular day.

He requested for, "Green one, I want put cards"

After he was done with the 20 cards, I asked "Can you count 1 to 20 for me?"

Tiger replied with a grin, "One, two, twenty!"

LOL!

He was right!

Funny boy is into dancing as well but that's a post for another day.

Little Tiger: 29 months old

My baby boy is growing up way too fast.

Has it really been 29 months since he barged into my life?

Speech

He is speaking with confidence and slowly moving away from signing.

His leftover 'baby words' are fuu-fuu and wa-wa.

He can say shoe and water respectively but he does it just to clown around.

I find his baby words endearing and I will miss them, a lot,

when they disappear altogether...

It is so fascinating when out of the blue, he said stuff like, 

"Mama, who throw all the leaves down?" after a storm scattered some leaves

"Oopsie, I fang-pi (fart) oh"

"Mama clean, kakak (help) clean and Tiger clean."

After a pause.

"Tiger clean so nice"

He is learning his pronouns, which is really cute,

"Nai-nai, Mama scold you"

Huh?

"Wahaha, no, mama scold ME"

During a short break to Penang, I asked him to name some sea animals.

"Dolphin"

@.@

Mind you, I was expecting fish.

"Mama, I want to bwush teet"

This is his code for splashing water all over the bathroom.

After 5 minutes, " I help you wash glass"

NO

"Okay"  Proceeds to wash glass

SIGH..

Socially

Still slow to warm up to strangers.

Non-confrontational.

Sharer.

]On two occasions, I caught him snatching his toys from his peers.

Wonderful big brother, he loves the sister to bits.

Smothers her with kisses.

Must have caught the kissing bug from me >.<

He has a habit of holding his sister hands and calling her name.

Can't express in words how that simple action melts my heart.

Toilet-training,

well, let's just say we made zero progress.

Names 50 animals but he cannot control his bladder. Go figure.

Gross motor

Climbing stairs

Water sliding!

ALONE!

My scaredy cat..hehe

Daddy's waiting at the bottom, of course.

So much of difference from the boy who wouldn't go near

the slide last year at Hard Rock hotel.

This year, the sand is evil.

He is starting to drive me mad with his sassy two year old attitude.

Thank God grandma's with him 24/7 and not me!

To date, I have lost my temper at least 3 times.

By this, I mean, screaming at a helpless toddler for something that

he has done which totally defies reasons by my standard,

not his. Like climbing book racks, etc.

After each outburst, I end up ashamed and sorry.

I am not proud of myself but I am only human.

And as humans, we will screw up.

Motherhood is such a steep learning curve.

I am blessed to have a forgiving child who readily loves me back

each and every time....