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

Halloween Trays 2014

We are all set for Halloween 2014!

Malaysians generally do not celebrate Halloween.

Unless you are a fun, crazy mom like me :p

If I were to celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival, it would totally freak MIL out.

Since she thinks of Halloween as a costume party...it's A-okay.

FYI, my dear Little Dragon is Princess Sofia this year.

As I am typing this, the package arrived.

It looks small...

*gulp*

Hope it fits....fingers crossed. 

Tiger is going to be a pirate because he had refused it

and ended up wearing a friend's Batman suit last year

 =.="

He still doesn't want to be pirate this year. (God, grant me patience)

So, I bought a set of pirate toy from Daiso (sword, compass, eye patch, earring)

and I made this toy-based learning center with his pirate hat and a glow in the dark sword

FYI after one week, he still hasn't touch the books...

The kids like this Spooky center more.

His fav is The Haunted House by Kazuno Kohara

Dragon loves Witch's Kitchen with it's two-ways flaps

 Science

We learning about the human Skeleton

I printed the 3-parts cards from the Montessori Print Shop bundle

that came with Montessori At Home ebook.

I made a book for him, just for fun.

Fine Motor

 (Pincer grip)

Some bunny clips to match to bunny stickers

Tweezing orange pompoms.

Practical life

Sifting spiders from a tub of rice.

I didn't dye the rice so that they are still edible after washing.

GST coming, must be more money conscious :)

Added a long tong so that they learn to play peacefully.

Finger play

Some creepy crawlies rubber bands to put on the paper tube.

Patterning

Ice cube tray, round tablets from Froebel Gift 7

Math

Stole this idea from a friend.

One-to-one correspondence with the number chips and purple pumpkins

Then insert the correct number of googly eyes into each one.

Scissors skills

DIY some cutting strips with some Halloween stickers.

The pumpkin worksheet is from Kumon

Safety scissors from ELC

Our very popular sensory bin.

Any activity you can make a mess with, she's onzzzzzzz! 

Added some spiders to the spooky corner.

Dragon girl hates spider....

"Eeeeee...spy...spy"
Just like a real princess.

 

Happy Halloween!

A New Rhythm

Suddenly realised I have not updated on school recently.

Honestly, it's because we no longer have a structured system with nice themes and trays.

And it's all because of this fireball.

This is how she looks like on any given school day.

How to attend a real school like this? 

Whenever I say no painting, she screams and starts painting the whole room orange/red.

 I pity her future teachers and I am expecting regular calls from them.

 

Her rhythm is paint, markers, trays, walk around the room, 

disturb Tiger and wander off.

When she is very quiet, it's because:

1. She's pooping in a corner

2. She has drawn something, somewhere (bed/wall usually)

3. She found food or some crap to eat

4. She has destroyed something and she is frantically trying to fix it.

5. She is flipping a book. Weird but true.

I personally like option number 5 only.

For Tiger, we are still doing his regular school work:

1. Workbooks (Math & English)

We use stickers, crayons, markers, magnets, dry erase, etc so that it's fun.

 Or he does whatever strikes his fancy.

2. Peter & Jane. 

We are still at book 6A because I limit it to a page per day.

It's a compromise because MIL thinks I am torturing him.

He does read more fluently now.

3. Chinese

Baobei and Odonata Flashcards (yucks)

Odonata books

Chinese Picture books

4. Lots and lots of games

Connect4

Tangrams

Checkers

Marble run

Blocks building

5. Toy Based Learning

This week: Moon & Cats

I hate to say it but he doesn't really like picture books.

Which makes me mad because they are so expensive.

Oh, except this Pete the Cat book we borrowed from the library

Here's a video on this book. I totally rock the chorus, which is why he likes it.

He prefers books about space with little tiny words

that I have to read repeatedly in an Indian accent.

We are starting some project based learning and here is what we did for moon/space:

A globe (earth), 

 Torchlight (Sun), 

Tennis ball as the moon  

(The moon is actually a quarter of Earth's size. 

Did you know that? No? That's why you must read more)

I used Nobita (from Doraemon) to represent Tiger

"Mama, I don't wear glasses. This is not me!"

"Ermmm, it's okay baby. Mama and papa also wear specs. This is you in 10 years time"

He stared at Nobita for 2 minutes while considering my words.

I waited.

"This is not me. This is kor-kor."

Okay. Whatever...We stuck Nobita on Malaysia, on the globe.

6. Art

We paint a lot more because of Dragon girl.

Sometimes we just paint the whole night.

They have a little art corner with all the materials displayed, 

except the glue gun and glitter.

He helped me with the frames for the PLAY, READ and HEART at the reading area.

We upcycled them with some poster colour from Buncho.

Msde confetti with some mini punchers from Mr DIY for rm1.80 each

7. Music

Practicing do-re-mi, mi-re-do at home.

 

8. Outdoors

We spent waaaay too much time outdoors.

Whenever I don't smell the bloody haze, we run outside and celebrate.

Dragon girl in her Jerry shoes. Tiger has a blue Tom pair.

You know, Tom & Jerry, since they are always fighting.

Running in the field.

 

 In our outdoor classroom with some green aquarium sand just for variation.

Nope, I do not have kinetic sand. Sand is sand la...

 If you cannot make a mess with sand...then, don't play with sand!

My 2 cents. I'd rather buy lots of paint with rm239.

 

Holiday

Visited another animal farm over Raya break.

Poor boy was on the brink of crying cause the little duckling is scary.

Still forced him to smile :)

Only the ears grew from 2013.

Bwahahahahaha......he is taller, hihi...but that's not so obvious in pics.

Gangster girl and the poor rabbit.

She literally force-fed the poor bunny by stuffing feed into its mouth.

You should have seen our faces.

 We were like NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

We stayed at Thistle, Port Dickson for a night.

It was a last minute thing, hence we could only get this gigantic, overpriced room

 

   

The kids really enjoyed themselves. Obviously, since they are not paying.

Tiger wants to move to a hotel for the rest of his life.

Any hotel. Preferably no ghost one.

Last year, Dragon girl had post MMRV fever and rash, so we avoided the sea.
Tiger was disgusted with the idea of swimming in murky waters.

This year.....

 

  Guess who thought she was a mermaid?

One aunty commented, "She swims in the sea all the time? First time ! She is fearless!"

Haha, we've noticed :)

 

Tiger was a scientist as usual.

He threw the coconut into the sea ....lo and behold, it floated!

He was absolutely fascinated. 

Nothing like learning naturally.

It really made me think about project based learning.

Thank you, coconut.

And finally,

One for the album, for, you know....

 me, to look back at my 22 year old self when I am 30.

What, I was 22 last year? 

No laaaaa....I am 22 years old EVERY freaking year.

 It rained the next day, so we asked for lots of bath gel and did this :)

Mama is reading up on these:

Problem-based learning

Froebel

Reggio

So, what exactly is our rhythm?

Our homeschooling style is never fixed.

It changes with the nature of the children.

It follows their interest and that has always been our rhythm.

I can't say for sure that ours is the best method,

but I believe my children are capable beings,

they think,

they feel,

they are curious, 

they want to learn.

BUT

I do not believe children are empty vessels,

they are not waiting to be filled with information.

Hence we are moving away from right brain/rapid flashing.

Dragon is not going to read anytime soon,

so, paint and play she will.

Tiger is all about space and cars,

so that we will read about space every night,

weird accent and all.

There shouldn't be a standardized version of school for the convenience of adults.

I believe my children are special in their own ways,

as do you in your precious ones.

Why stifle their natural style with school?

Learn, play, love.

What is in store for us in years to come?

I have no idea.

But I am looking forward to it.

Goodness, I sound like I am 50.

I assure you I am 22 in internet years.