Kindergarten: The Days Before School Starts.

Yesterday, I brought Tiger to the Kindergarten (again).
Third time. Ahem. I know. Psycho.

A tired looking teacher greeted me at the door at about 5.45 pm. Our conversation was carried out in my elementary Chinese:
Me: Hi, I would like to register my son.
Tired teacher: How old is he?
Me: Erm...five.
Tired teacher: Why didn't you register in the beginning of the year?
Me: He said he wasn't ready. So I wanted to give him some time.
Tired teacher nearly rolled her eyes at me. Instead, she took a deep breath and said:
They adjust quickly. Don't worry. *Oooooo....Chinese Military Style teacher. Okay.*
Me: By the way, we are only starting in March.
She gave me another silent eye roll and said: Here, fill up the form.

There is a column for "Special needs/requirement". I contemplated.
I may need another piece of paper for that. Haha. But I left it blank. There is no need for preconceived notions about him, right?

So, we left with a new bag, a cap, 2 sets of new uniforms, a lunch bag filled with 3 bowls, 3 spoons and a heavy heart.
My baby is going to school and I cannot read the instruction manual that came with it. *cries*.
So last night, we worked on our Chinese before our Tutti Fruitti date.

Things you see in the picture:
Green sandpaper Chinese 'pi hua' aka strokes
Blue sandpaper Chinese character parts
Chinese strokes magnetic puzzle (as a guide for ME)
Samsung S3 for my pleco app which is not as useful as my MIL.

This morning, Tiger woke up real early. Usually he will come into my room for a cuddle. Today?
"Darling, baby, sweeeeeetie, honey pie?"
SILENCE
When I went downstairs, gone was his cheeky but shy smile. 
I gave him a bear hug and said:
"Darling, you are not going to school today. You are going to Bao Bei."
He replied softly, "It's okay. I just want Nai Nai. (grandma)"
"You want your milk?"
"No. I am not hungry. I want Nai Nai."
"Okay. She will back in a jiffy. I love you. Do you want to play outside?"
"No. I just want to lie down here."

Great. Depression. At 5 years old. I really hope he enjoys this kindergarten I picked. Play-based, Chinese speaking, no homework, no emphasis on writing, lots of pretend play, etc.

Or....it may be the uniform he's dreading. I mean the kindy attire is seriously ugly. I cannot even look at it without cringing. I am going to note that down in my feedback form. After all, under the column for Mother's Occupation, I wrote 'fashion designer/doctor'. Usually, I write housewife or sexy secretary. Or executive chef. Or air stewardess.

Chinese: Bao Bei Reading Wonderland Update

Tiger is currently 3 years 4 months

We started Baobei when he was exactly 3

I call it his birthday present.

(You'll thank me later, kid)

For those of you who are not familiar with Baobei Reading Wonderland.

It is a reading center for children 3-6 years old.

They specialize in teaching Chinese via singing, movements, poems, etc.

They use rapid flashing method (1 second per card) to flash the words.

Which makes sense because Chinese words are pictorial. 

(The method is very Shichida-ish)

At RM400 a month, comparatively cheap la.

Tiger was a Chinese snob before we started Baobei.

Yet, he has completed Set A (about 100 words) in 4 months.

When he flashes the cards to Grandma or I, he uses perfect enunciation.

(copy the teacher la)

But, when he speaks in Chinese, he has a weird 'banana/english' slang.

Cracks me up, all the time.

So, here's to celebrating a milestone in being Chinese.

Note: 

Tiger loves his Baobei flashcards and he 'test' Grandma at least 5 times a day. (Pity her)

We are using Odonata and Er San Kuai Du sparingly at home

Preschool: Sept-Oct Setup

Keeping a blog is not easy, especially when you are not being paid :)

I guess this is what people call labour of love.

 By writing, I get motivated to keep up with homeschooling because

I know I am helping others to discover the joy of teaching.

So, a big thank you to you guys for reading my ramblings.

Besides, I need this for blackmail later on when my

kids decide on which old folks home to send me.

Better be a 5 star one, you munchkins!

Back to schooling business.

After reading this, my main concerns are:

1. Balancing learning with play

2. Should I challenge Tiger with more advanced materials as I have done previously?

3. How do I bring more communication & harmony into the room?

Taking baby steps...

Work Appreciation.

Everyone deserves some, no?

I have displayed Tiger's Apple week work for his other classmate to admire.

I used to chuck his work in the bin after he is done, secretly laaa

 

SAND ART

Picture No.1

He has no idea that this was Mr Bean. 

To him, it was just an uncle driving a car.

As you can see, I had a lot of say in the Mr Bean one ---> boring

Picture No.2

This other picture, he chose his own colours.

From the colors, I think he wants to be an American.

Writing station.

"Why you write on the cupboard? Dirty laaa"

I am labeling for you 

Ooooo. Thank you mama.

Can you read what I wrote?

Let /S/ roll

Face palm myself. Write, Let's write

Wahahahaha. Ooookay....write

Made a mess-free writing bag for him.

I saw some blogs using hair gel but I didn't have them on hand, so

I used some white glue mixed with water and some blue coloring to match the cards

Chinese Station

Still using Er San Kuai Du

This week, we are focusing on colours.

Starbucks Bear not related to the theme.
He just loiters around because he is homeless.

Creativity

Added a Craft Bin

This is where I stash materials that we can use to create whatever they can imagine.
Very convenient for pieces of scrap I do not feel like wasting.

 

Montessori

1. Magnetic playset to create pictures
2. Geometric solids with cards
3. Three pairs of sensory balloons. (I filled these with salt, Styrofoam balls and rice)

• Broad stairs (Mama, you cannot keep my brown steps)
• Blue and red rods
• Balancing scale with some blocks ( For More or Less Lesson)

Reading

P&J

We are also trying This Reading Mama's curriculum which is 

for more advanced preschooler's who can recognise letters and their sounds.

A god send.

Trying out our first set this week

Happy Preschooling!

Our Shelves @ August 2103

This would be Lil Dragon's Baby School setup combined

 with Tiger's Sensorial and Math materials

The past week, the study was chaotic to say the least.

 I blame Captain Jayden Koo {Triumph in The Sky II}...slurrppp :p

Got my act together to rearrange, tidy, refresh & re-energize the room.

As usual, I observe my children's interest to decide on the materials I display for them.

When I asked Tiger to check out his room this morning.

He barged in, turned around and said, "Wow....so nice"

Then, he gave me a thumbs-up.

This is the main area

Broad stairs and binominal cube

Red rods and sandpaper numbers

Geography: Continents and animals

These are on top of Lil Dragon's shelves, so that they are out of reach

The mini knobbed cylinder and insets.

For Lil Dragon, we are focusing on shapes and scooping

and some fine pincer movements.

She has taken an interest in feeding people with pretend food lately.

The pink tower. This mini sized one is created at a ratio of 0.7 to the original set

Then we have a box with the mats.

A little bag with wet tissues, a cloth and a dustpan for clean up.

Tiger is still into Geography at the moment.

I initially printed these to be super imposed onto our World Map but the northern parts were too small.

So, I used magnetic stickers from Daiso and placed them on the white board instead.

The labels are attached with velcro.

I was going through a Montessori manual for Practical life and as much as I would like to,

I will not be able to follow through with a full Montessori program.

I would like to think I am supermom, but I am not.

My solution?

We will be using John Bowman's Montessori At Home as a guide.

The Continent Map above came with the E-book. 

I blew it up by 120% before printing.

I will do a more complete review as we move along.

Brillkids

We will continue with this since Little Dragon is showing some progress.

She does 'Laugh' whenever she sees the animated character

She knows head, hair, eyes, nose, shoe, teeth, cat, dog....

We only do one session a day.

Chinese

Odonata flashcards was all we did last week.

He combined the yellow and green series cards and hugs them to sleep.

@.@

I am going to be more consistent with er san kuai du

I bought these too already :p

Math

I bought a giant Snake and Ladder game to introduce him to 100 Board

Right Brain

As usual, if Tiger is not keen...I will not force him.

Sometimes, he likes to perform for his Papa who is cheap with praises

Mandalas remain his favorite

Music

Still enjoying his YAMAHA classes :)

This is our current plan of action at the moment.

Thanks for reading!

Preschool: Teaching Chinese

Yup. Me. Teaching Chinese.

Ha ha...

Must try laaa.

So, 

Send to enrichment class. Checked

Chinese stories books. Checked

Chinese app (Pleco) for banana mom. Checked

Graded learning box (er san kuai du). Checked

After we did Lesson 1 of Er San Kuai Du

I wanted to do more Chinese BUT he wanted to do math.

Stickers to the rescue!

I gave a sheet of art paper with numbers written on the side.

He was to find the words and then stick the correct number of dots

He was more environmental friendly than I was.

"NOOOO, you count from top. See two dots?"

Oh, correct also >.<

 

Then, I wrote numbers in Chinese *evil grin*

I know my writing is worse than Primary students

Forgot how to write five. Had to check the book 

Wrote eight wrongly also   =.="

My drawing skills is on par with my Chinese

Luckily my child is willing to overlook all those shortcomings.

I think my handwriting is confusing him between man (ren), eight (ba) and head (tou)

He wanted to play with Scout and build his own words.

We used his Word families book with this toy.

EXCELLENTO!

Buy it! 

Little Dragon yelled for a good 30 minutes from bottom of the stairs
 before I carried her up to the study.

Can't imagine what her therapist will say in the future....

She gets the phonic sound Scout.

Also an excellent investment. Buy it too!

She messed around usual but did not get hit by Tiger for once.

Tiger was probably tired.

We schooled for 3 hours straight and didn't even notice.

I blame the alphabet stickers 

She is so cute, aite?

Sorry, I can't help myself....hihi.

Do suggest some good Chinese resources to me if you have some. 

Till then, visit Tamarind for good Chinese books and ideas

Our Chinese is crappy, so I need to start from toddler stage

If your chinese is very good, you can skip er san kuai du and go straight to
shi wu kuai du as suggested by many blogger moms

You can purchase either one from:

Gift2kids on Facebook to pre order locally

or

www.taobao.com to purchase straight from China