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

Grit & Determination

Some people are very driven for success.

They are focused, they do not give up easily and they are goal-oriented.

I am not.

I would be miserable if I had to live like that.

Tiger is terrible at failing. A sore loser.

If he fails, he would give up and walk away.

I will have to encourage him with words, hugs, kisses...the works.

With whatever intelligence he has, it will all account for nothing if there is no drive.

On the other hand I have this little fighter.

She may be only 2 but she is probably more determined than all of us put together.

Doesn't back off.

Fearless.

'I will try until I die' attitude.

This is her with her 26 blocks, last night.

With about seven blocks left and I had to grab my camera.

I forgot to switch off the flash and it annoyed her.

She pauses and readjust the blocks when needed.

 

 At this point it was already taller than her.

Tiger is at the computer, watching phonics video meant for her.

The blocks were to supplement the learning but...nevermind.

This one is a creator, not a reader

The last block

And.....

...it crashed onto her face and body.

She was shocked and a little disappointed.

I could tell.

She walked towards me and sat in my lap.

She hugged me tightly and sniffled a bit.

 One minute later, she was back to trying again.

It's the same when she is playing golf.

She tries and tries even though she couldn't.

She inspires me to try harder.

To put in a little more effort.

You only need to be extremely good in one thing in life.

Jordan, Trump, Madonna, Phelps, etc.

I bet not everyone I mentioned is on the Dean's list.

Find their niche, harness their magic.

Nurture their gifts.

Whatever else, just try their best.

Here's a TED talk on grit by Angela Lee Duckworth

on the importance of grit for success.

PS: In case you are questioning my sanity on her fashion choices,

she is her own fashion consultant.

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!