The Quiet Book Giveaway by my playshcool.net

Myplayschool.net is celebrating their 400 likes on their Facebook page and is giving away "The Quiet Book" suitable for kids of age 18 - 36 months old, hand-made by Pauline.

I think is is GREAT for all parents!

By reading this, you will stand a chance to win too! Simply click on the above link and like their page on Facebook!

This book is ideal to carry along to keep the ever active toddler engaged in it's activities.

Find out more about this book here.

Homeschool - Puzzling Fun

Challenge is always there when trying to coach my little man. He doesn't abide by the so called "rules and regulations" that I set for him. I take it easy, as he is still too curious with almost anything to I expose him too.

One activity that makes him play for hours(yes, he can put puzzles repeatedly for at least and hour and more), puzzles and building blocks.

I always have to play around these 2 items to make him learn. We do randomingly. I used to plan, ended up, I irritated him for insisting he do something and I get frustrated with his unwillingness to oblige.

Now, we are both happy! I use alphabet cards to help him with phonetic sounds, numbers learning and the magnetic board at times to do drawing and teaching him simple strokes.

He now writes "H" and "I" to make Hi-5!

Every little thing counts. He may not speak very fluent sentences, but with every additional word(s) he adds in to his short sentence, simply makes me lose sleep over.

I will miss him when he goes to school next year, though he is a menace when he is home!

Learning From Home

A decision I made for Brayden after measuring the pros and cons since the PTM we had before school ends.

A change in 2 main teachers, triggers the concern. At the same time, we also realise he did nothing much in class. Teacher S told us he will be roaming about when the older kids (his class is mixed with N1 students) are doing their work. If not, the PG students will be seated at a corner to play.

I was wondering, besides letting them just play like that, can't a teacher be there to coach them probably transferring beans or coaching them in mastering their fine motor skills etc. In my opinion, just leaving the kids to sit there, letting them play on their own isn't ideal.

This decision came ever since I am more actively doing my research online. I love what Pauline and Rachel did, My Playschool.

After scouring through their contributions, I have decided to teach Brayden from the comfort of home. I am the least creative person on earth. I am bad with crafts, but for the sake of helping my little one and coaching them from home, I guess I need to start somewhere.

Next week will be spent planning the curriculumn for Brayden and Ethyl. Yes, Ethyl will be involved as well. For Ethyl, the main focus is on Mathematics and Science and doing reading reviews aka reading journals on the books (English and Chinese) that we borrowed weekly from the library.

My only challenge is how to get Brayden focused. Let me trial and error on some methods and share with all after the first week.

Our Adventure Book

Shy to say, my lazy butt has been on my comfort lounge for too long. It is finally time that I start doing my job as a Mom, a teacher and learning partner for her.

I have dedicated my evenings for her. A maximum of an hour on getting the materials online, preparing the teaching materials a week in advance, and next she will get to start to surf online for information twice a week, and each session will last for 20 minutes.

We went to Popular to get the materials and books few days back, I started letting her keep a diary, an attempt to start her on writing proper sentences and creative writing.

I got her a jotter book with an empty cover to let her creative juices flow.



We worked together on the theme this week - herbivore. This particular assignment is actually in line with the theme in school.





This is the simple assignment. I am planning for a trip to the library this weekend and borrow some books related to this theme and we will do a small project for her to submit to school when the assignment is due.




Next assignment is carnivore, followed by omnivore. Currently I am cracking my brain for her chinese homework as well. I hope we can help create a funlearning environment at home.