April 2015: Farm Animals Week

Our 'homeschool' is back in full swing after Tiger has fully adapted to his life as a kindergartener.

That means no longer crying.

He likes ALL of his teachers. Happy dance

He is able to converse in Chinese now. Break dance

And most importantly, he has a best friend in school. Yay! Twerking

Why do we homeschool when he is already attending kindergarten?

There are many reasons.

Firstly, it has become a routine for us. It's school time after dinner.

It is also MIL's rest and TV time.

We use this time to explore whatever question Tiger asked when I was busy.

"Why is there wind?"

"Why is night dark?"

"Why dinosaurs die?"

I enjoy it, the kids love it. Why the heck not?

In April, the weather was lovely in the evening, so we hung out in the park mostly.

One of the days, Tiger noted a blanket of pink flowers on the ground and we had the best time

tossing and collecting them. 

It is raining so much now in May, my kids are going bonkers.

"Park! Park, park!!" 

I swear they are turning into little icky monsters without outdoor play.

I don't love it personally, but I do it for my sanity.

 My almost three year old.

Can't reach the ground yet?

No problem, I'll just half sit and half slide off .

I know I should trust her but she really pushes all my panic buttons 

=.="

  

 So cute, ain't she? Hehe.

 She walks around with this hat and bag. ALL. THE. TIME.

My little stylo mylo girl.

Hat: A kiosk in Sunway Pyramid

Bag: rm6 from China (gift from Winnie)

Shirt: Uniqlo

Pants: Cotton On

(Haha...fashion blogger in the making :D)

 She doesn't just walk around, acting all cool and cute.

Sometimes, she reads too.

But ONLY if the book has animals or Mickey in it.

This is still one of her favorite book to date.

The others being the four Words, Words, Words books from Grolier.

Lift-the-flap Farm Animals Book: From BookXcess

Dress: H&M

All of her hair accessories are from China.
Winnie buys so much, the people there thought she has a hair clip shop.

She adores this 3D animals magnetic puzzle.

She erms...slices the animals apart and puts them back together thousands of times.

It is quite brutal to watch.
She says stuff like," Cut, haha, cut cut cut!"

 

 3D magnetic farm puzzle: Benho (china brand)

PJs: Only RM16 from Facebook seller. Love it!!

 She also learned some threading that week with this Froebel J2 set.

The only reason she could string so many was to make a snake to drag up and down the stairs.

I'll accept whatever motivation she has, as long as she is cooperating,

 

 Froebel J2: From groupbuy. Currently closed.

Shirt: Guess

Pants: Mothercare

(I am so enjoying this. Feel like a fashion editor already)

Of course, farm means pretend play extravaganza!!

I had grand plans of creating a mini farm plot but no time laaaa.

So, this Farm Shop is close enough la and a more realistic setup.

 

They were sooooo interested for 3-4 days. =.="

Perhaps it was because there were not enough customers. Only kakak and I :p

Dragon is most uncooperative because she dislike sharing anything with Tiger.

 

 Toy cashier from ELC
PJs: Mothercare

 One of the more peaceful days.

Dragon was cheerfully saying "Thank you" to Tiger the whole time.

Only happens once in a blue moon. Will treasure this moment forever.

 

For their printables and play money, I used Twinkl.

We only accept Euros, sorry. 

 

 For fine motor and practical life, I created a 'milk' pouring activity from white Crayola paint.

By preparing only one set, they were forced to take turns without any eye poking or hair pulling.

 A 3D book from Enfagrow that provided a backdrop for our mini animals

  

Mini Farm Animals from ELC

 We also used them with this Farmyard Families printable from The Helpful Garden.

There are loads of free Montessori printables there, so please check it out.

 We read lots of farm animals books but my personal favorite was 

the Rabbit Problem by Emily Gravett.

Science

He asked me about plants and animals and why we eat?

So, I thought he was ready for a lesson on Living vs Non-living.

I was right.

It is a breeze to teach a child who is ready to learn.

When they are ready for a topic, they just sponge it up.

Wish someone had told me this when he was one.

They do not sponge up everything you flash to them.

They absorb what they are interested in. Something that strikes their curiosity.

Do not let those moment slip past.

Grab it. Explore. Ask questions. Search for answers.

And learning becomes a natural process. 

For math, he is still doing some simple additions.
I just introduced skip counting by five to him.

For Chinese, I have no idea what he is doing in school.
We just read lots of picture books before bedtime.

In keeping with the farm theme, here's our pitiful effort at farming.

But then again, it grew into a mini kailan :)

He is still not very comfortable with the idea of getting dirty but we are improving.

Mud pie kitchen will have to wait a while.

We got this set of Usborne from Winnie because she unknowingly bought two sets.

*rolls eyes*  I know...she is a true shopaholic.

 Tiger went through it and he was appalled by the number books he already owned.

They remember whatever you say or read to them.

So, don't say things you do not mean and be mindful of the promises you make.

 Our pictures may paint a deceivingly sweet and organized homeschool life, 

but most of the time, someone is crying or yelling, 

someone is blinded by glitter/paint/saliva,

someone lost a finger,

someone's hungry,

someone just wants to yell for no reason.

And I only have 2 kids. *sweat*

 Here's to keeping it real.

We learned about farm animals briefly when Tiger was 14.5 months old. 

You can read about it here

And our visit to Farm In The City here.

There is no part 2 to Farm in The City because I got lazy :p

Read & Play: The Billy Goats Gruff

Can't see properly?

Here, let me help you with that.

*blows dust off the blog*

Hehe. It's been a while.

This is our second Read & Play,  the first being the Three Little Pigs

Any books with animals are the best for my kids at this age.

We listened to the The Billy Goats Gruff CD a month ago.

It's part of this Audio book series if your are interested.

Then, Tiger got into the whole McD's Happy Meal toy and 

I commented that his Boovs looked like trolls.

He asked, "You mean like in the Billy Goat story?"

Yup, that was my inspiration and hence the invitation to play.

He wanted to build a bridge from his Lego instead of using the wooden bridge from his train set.

So, we designed a simple one together.

We have plenty of goat miniatures, so that was easy. (Yay!)

As we read from the books, he acted out the scenes.

There was a signage that read, 'Warning Goats Beware'.

I asked him if he would like to copy and he agreed.

This is how writing and spelling is done in our house.

Never mind that it's all wonky.

 

 He had a blast knocking Oh off the bridge.

Then he created his own storyline where Oh fought with all the other animals in the Kingdom.

My Little Dragon?

She was just a few steps away, with more important things to learn than Trolls and Goats.

Like physics :)  

For worksheets:

3 dinosaurs have a pack (free)

We are using some from Twinkl

After I wrote this, it got me thinking about 2 things:
1.) What is the meaning of Gruff in the title?
2.) Why is '3' used so repetitively in fairy tales?

I turned to Google and it seems,
The goats' surname or family name is Gruff!
Haha, never thought of it that way before.

And "three"in fairytales are discussed at this forum.

Basically, three represents a pattern and complete form of beginning, middle and end.

Outdoor learning: Farm In The City {Part 1}

We visited Farm In the City after a friend posted some pictures on Facebook.

Truth be told, the visit was inspired by hubby's night out with his friends.

Hubs: I am going out with xxx

Me: (Insert sullen face and bad mood) Where?

Hubs: Just KL

Me: I want to go too. But I can't. I have to 'work' (breastfeed)

 Hubs: Of course you can come too (knowing damn well I could NOT)

(Insert choice of mental profanity) Then......inspiration striked!

Me: (insert evil look) Well, don't get too drunk or come home too late.

We are going to Farm In The City Tomorrow.

Hubs: I was going to ask you the same thing 

( Bah...as if )

So, off we go to Sri Kembangan on Sunday.

Entry is free for children less than 90 cm.

Tiger is 92 cm but I flashed a "pretty/flirtatious" smile and he got in for free.

Adult's RM 30 each with Malaysian ID.

My Indonesian maid was charged RM 30 too.

Go 1Malaysia!

We reached at about 1 PM, in time for the bird show.

 

The red parrot is Jordan.

Cheeky fellow kept disturbing the others.

 The show was great mostly due to Mr Zul's excellent showmanship.

Everyone was smiling despite the heat.

After the show, the kiasu mom, ahem, wanted an up close and personal experience.

For Tiger, not me. I hate birds. The beaks and the claws...geli!

See my veeery natural hand pose?

Trying my best to be nonchalant while guarding Tiger with the other hand.

 Mr Zul, patiently giving Tiger instructions in a very calm, adult manner.

I think he attended a RIE course...hehe.

As he spoke to Tiger, I could feel he was listening to every word and trusting him.

Let's just say that at that moment, I wanted to 'buy' Mr Zul :p

 

My mama bear instinct was in overdrive mode:

What is Tiger 'throws' the bird?

Worse, what if he shouts, frightens the bird and it bites back in fear?

Should I protect his huge ears? They do look yummy, no? 

I bite them all the time. 

Without realising it, I was gripping his elbow, hard.

Mr Zul was saying, "Ooookay, let go now...."

I looked at Tiger and said, "Uncle let go, okay?"

Mr Zul raised an eyebrow and said sarcastically, "Mama, YOU let go lar"

:p

Oopsie

Taada!

You can probably tell I was over the moon

The birds left some red marks on his hand.

He rubbed and rubbed but surprisingly did not whine.

We went to see the horses in the stables and he 

maintained at least 1 meter distance from them at all times.

 Since not many kids wanted to hold the birds, Mr Zul invited the hero again.

This time, on the shoulder.

I forced a smile for moral support. God knows I was cringing inside.

Brought Lil Dragon along for cheerleading.

 

 

After that he was so brave, he asked "Can I go inside the snake house?"

I was like, "Yeah, sure. Just let me get the keys. They are hungry anyways.

And they love to eat little boys"

Tiger's eyes went @@ and he replied, "I kick snake aaah"

Yeah, right.

To be continued...

Tot School: G is for Goat

‘Un’schooling Tiger Week 7 (1- 10th August) @ 14.5 months

Alphabet:G is for Goat

Theme: The Farm

We are linking up to Tot school :

Pretend play

I wanted to go to a real farm but the thought of animals in captivity does not appeal to me. Therefore, we have a pretend farm.  

This is actually the train table to which I added some farm animals, props and a digger.

  

Tiger enjoyed playing with the DIY barn i made from a box. You can see it is not very well made cause the pieces were coming off..haha..

   This is the back of the barn.

The roof can be opened to see the animals inside and for storage later

Printables for DIY barn here

I printed & laminated some pieces from this gorgeous farm life printable from Lawteedah here for singing:

• Old Macdonald Had A Farm
• Farmer in The Dell

Learning letter G:

He really likes the EVA foam letters

We have started our sandpaper letter tracing. Tutorial for sandpaper letters here

He makes the letter sound for 'g' everytime he traces.

He goes gak, gak, gak

The Leapfrog fridge phonics and Playskool Alphie makes my life easier for phonics

 

Tot trays

Playing with the 3 part magnetic farm animal puzzles.

He is trying to make them stand, which he can't.

Spent a good 15 minutes doing this while sitting cross legged

Seemingly threading buttons but he was just pulling the thread :)

My little magpie likes his new sparkly pom-poms from Daiso

Playing with the small-pegged numbers puzzles.

 Pre writing worsheets:

Using markers on worksheet from 1+1+1

He stamped on it first with a free 'Gigabyte No. 1' stamp that Mommy nicked from Daddy's desk.

G is for Gigabyte too...LOL

We did a lot of paperwork this week. Will post our 'art' as soon as I get Daddy to put up the new Ikea rail.

World study

Still enjoying his continent map.

Art

Painting on 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' by Johannes Vermeer 

Music:

Signs 'listen' and hum whenever I play a note.

Ask for the piano by signing 'listen'

~~@@@~~

We had a rather quiet weekend cause Tiger's down with a mild case of flu. Mommy did some shopping for Tiger's Tot School though.

My finds:

1. Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center

2. Crayola Beginnings. I am a sucker for Crayola, especially the pig in this set :p

 

3. Desk and Chair from Ikea

4. More picture books from Borders. I found The Rainbow Fish. Yay!! 

5. Water table. Yay!! Not exactly Tot School but I've always wanted one. It's for sensorial..hah

.