Homeschool Room For Kindergartener and Preschooler

Some quick updates for March 2015.

It is an evolving process since I enjoy organizing so much.

I will post updates on the playroom and outdoor classroom later.

 Because lovely Hubs stole my "grass" carpet for the living room, I've had no choice

but to use this ELC alphabet tiles because the others were too small.

Initially they looked haphazardly cheerful, like this.

Last night, I rearranged them.

So. Much. Better.

Why didn't I do this earlier??!?

I've replaced the doors on the lowest levels of the bookshelves to reduce clutter.

And I've also removed the dangerous metal door handles and replaced them with some 

DIY pipe cleaners and XL pony beads.

So much nicer and child-friendly.

Those are currently the kids' treasure cupboards. One each. No fighting.

This week's Toy-centered Learning:

Cars

Playset from Enfagrow milk powder.

There was a broken toy car for Tiger to take apart but it's missing now :p

Some big machines books and his fav Usborne Look Inside Cars.

 

Space

Inspired by this Toobs set.

In the study room itself, the biggest challenge was delineating the 'zones' for my kids 

to reduce friction. The two aren't exactly best friends right now.

And the room is really tiny.

 Dragon Girl's Baby School Area is mostly to the left of the room.
Their artwork are proudly displayed no matter how, erm, creative they look.
The trays are created with a late 2 year old in mind.
Nothing advanced for her like what I did with Tiger. 

Left (top to bottom)

1. Peep Inside Zoo with miniature animals for matching

2. Two-to-three pieces animal puzzle

3. Froebel J1 for sorting.

Middle

1. Magnetic puzzle

2. Sponges for threading

3. M&D stacking blocks

Right

1. Clock

2. M&D letter stamping with ink pad

3. Our construction sensory bin

 

The creative area. 

This is mostly used by Dragon girl only.

The cart can be rolled off to gain access to the materials behind it.

Occasionally, Tiger tries to be artistic too :)

Tiger's kindergarten skills area

Math area

English and Chinese reading area

Music and science area

A 'secret' writing area that's placed higher up to hide our sand tray from Dragon :)

Last but not least, their small little games area just outside the study.

The marble run is surprisingly very, very popular and well used.

I've placed more board games on the bookshelves since they seem to enjoy those now.

Alright, that's all for now, folks. I am grateful to have the resources to teach my children in a loving, protected environment. I cannot imagine doing anything else in my evenings. Have a wonderful weekend!

PS: Just leave a comment if you are curious about the materials/toys used. If I do not reply here, please pm me on Facebook.

A Week in October 2014

The last week had been one of our low-production weeks.

Mondays are usually no school days since I usually work till late.

Mid week, we were distracted by Dragon's Halloween costume.

Sneak preview of the back only :)

She loved it even though it was a tad tight around the belly.

 Tiger and I went to the toy store after his music class to buy the amulet and crown for her

and he conveniently bought two more Pixar cars, Bob Cutlass and Darrell Cartrip.

He chose Bob for completion of book 7A.

I hid Darell in my underwear drawer since he is refusing book 7B right now.

Everyday, he'll ask, "Mama, do you remember where u keep Darrell?"

Imagine if someone overheard..Is Darrell her stepson? Or goldfish? 

At the toy store, he was also asking for this 

which is a repackaged version of this.

*raise right eyebrow*

Sneaky toy makers, I know watcha trying to do.

 I said no to buying replicas and when we got home, 

I gave him this and it was the first time he moved on from C-V-C words!

I don't know about you but I've never studied phonics or silent Es in school.

I learnt it from Alphablocks...haha.

When he spelt ICE, the very intelligent toy dog named Scout said

I

sssssss

E is silent in ice

I was like, "WHOAAAA"

But I'm not very smart, so, you be the judge la.

Worthy investment, in my humble opinion. And you can skip the two toys above

We painted some plaster with the girl.

She is naturally comfortable with paint

The boy's all grown up.

The first time we painted plaster he was only 19 months old.

*Sniff*

Since they were in the mood for Halloween, I made some "blood" for pouring.

She poured non-stop for 30 minutes.

 

I made it more difficult for Tiger by asking him to pour an approximate amount

like 100 mls or a quarter.

We use this Spot-the-Difference book from popular fair for our right brain practice.

He will memorize the picture on his Left for 10 seconds.

Then I will fold the book ask him to circle the 10 differences on the page to the Right.

If he answers correctly, he gets to stamp "Good Job" on it :)

I also introduced some simple subtraction to him this week using

some free Halloween worksheets from Royal Baloo.

I think he was saying 'four' in this picture :)

We also did a lesson on odd-vs-even.

This time, I told him odd is one-syllable, hence the last cube has no partner

E-ven has two-syllable, therefore the last cubes are in pairs.

 Then, I pointed out the pattern to him on the 100 board.

One is odd, so all numbers ending with one are odd.

And I repeated with all the odd numbers.

Now, when I ask 97 or 67 or 34 is even or odd?, he could answer me very confidently.

Yay for homeschooling!

Just when I thought I was a good teacher..I have this monkey girl who teaches me humility.

"Cat, dog, cow, duck, horse, horse..."

"Ehhh, that's a goat"

"No, horse!"

"goat"

"horse!!"

"goat"

"HORSE!!!"

Okay...horse..

She was pissed with my behaviour and busied herself by spinning this hippo.

She loves these and many a time, goes to bed with one in her chubby palm. 

Sometimes, school is interrupted simply because they had better things to do.

Like riding Kater Katoo, the stuffed caterpillar

School was also cancelled again on Friday when we rotated his toys.

Despite the fact that I had to duct tape the tracks together, he was so happy :)

Princess is in a stack-everything-in-sight mood. 

She stacks literally everything...blocks, paints, shoes, stones. 

Here she was playing with hubby but I cropped him out for indecent dressing.

The blog is rated 13 PG.

A couple of her cute/funny expressions

She has shown some interest in golf.

I hope she chooses to excel in golf instead of say, carom :p

Low contact sports with proper,nice clothes AND big prizes...what's not to love?

If she becomes the next Michelle Wie, could you guys please note that her mother (me)

had nurtured her gift and she shall not place the mother (me) in an old folks home no matter how senile the woman becomes. Thank you.

 

If she chooses to be an artist...can also la...

My wallet was crying after I bought some charcoal and 

a huge bag of  Crayola art supplies from Art Friend in the Gardens.

Anywhere else selling Crayola with discount?

The kids spent Sunday at Ekids where a few hours of running around cost me rm 100 (wtf?)

But that meant dating and shopping time with hubby :)

He kept whining while we were at the Baby Fair, I ended up with nothing to buy.

The boys in the 3D ride before we went home, exhausted.

I am learning to let go and let them learn at their own pace.

So, that's basically our week in pictures.

 Oh, we also spent a lot of time at the park but I never bring my phone anymore.

Must distance myself from Facebook when I am with the kids :)

Baby School: 2 years 2 months old

Dragon girl is finally settling into our homeschool style. Hooray!

Every night, around eight pm, she will ask to go upstairs, just like her brother :)

Mind you, Tiger and I are STILL bending backwards to accommodate her but 

it's been worth our while and many efforts.

When she is around, most of Tiger's requests will be met with a standard answer, 

"Wait. After Mei-mei sleep, then we can do (insert request)"

First on her to do list is always artistic expressions.

Sounds so pro, right?

But honestly it can be very stressful when she decides to redecorate.

After we've gotten this IKEA easel, she has been pretty kind to the walls in general.

Here, she was demonstrating finger printing to Tiger.

He just watched. Too dirty.

 

She literally brings art to new heights :)

 

Just to encourage her creativity, one side of the study room is reserved 

for her art materials, playdough and loose parts.

Everything is freely accessible to her except glitter.

I hate playdough but they love it, so I just do deep breathing in a corner 

and chant to myself,

"You can clean later"

 

I've also moved the trays outside to make more space for movement and dancing.

Sometimes, they'll bring materials into the room and play peacefully together.

 

At times, she plays alone.

They still fight a lot.

With kicking, punching and scratching actions but what to do?

Like how Winnie and I used to 'play'...haha...but we are best of friends now.

Just fight la.

See her ugly Kim K crying face?

Froebel's

The Froebel gifts are accessible to her at all times at the reading area.

Her favorite is Gift 1.

We left her to play with Tiger's planetarium model for awhile and when

we came back, she'd already taken out the balls from the box.

Coincidence? 

Or she related the planets to the yarn balls?

I prefer to think that she connected the two :)

A tossing game they created.

  

They did this to my pretty fairy lights

 

 A shopping game.

When Tiger was holding 4 yarn balls and Dragon only had 2, I asked him:

"How to make it equal?"

"I need to give Dragon one ball."

And he proceeded to assist her.

Impromptu math :)

 

Tiger and I revisited the water cycle and Dragon was very interested in this model.

She probably thought it was food or we were making ice cream...hihi...

I love her focused look when Tiger was explaining the process to her.

Feeling the heat (light) vs cold (ice)

I saved the most fantabulous update for last. 

She is in a letter sensitive phase.

READING!!!!

In the young ones, pre-reading is just:

1. Holding the book upright.

2. Looking at the pictures intently

3. Telling the story in their own words.

4. Pointing to words from left to right.

5. Pretends to read.

 

Caught her 'reading' so many times in the past 2 weeks.

Here, she was demanding for her Brillkids session.

The system gels really well with her and she is learning so quickly.

Seeing how much she enjoys herself is pure happiness to me.

I made Tiger her 'teacher' and he was in charged of the computer and repeating the words to her.

Since Dragon loves copying her brother, it was a win-win-win situation for all 3 of us.

Sometimes, I really hit the jackpot and I see this:

 A quiet morning with the kids reading by themselves. 

The Reading Area is my all-time fav spot.

 

Or like this morning, reading on the swing :)

Have a wonderful weekend, folks!