Saturday, August 7, 2010

Tally marks, pictogram and charts Part I

When I did research on the things that Den need to learn before Grade 1, I realized nowadays kids actually learn Tally Marks, Pictogram and Bar Graphs in K...at least according to US and SG syllabus they do, not sure about MLY.

I think that is so fun to do. So right away, I taught Den about Tally Marks (...I only learned this in Secondary School...in Drama club...when we counted votes...). After that I let her counted the color of cars on the road on our way to SG immigration. This is the result:


After that I ask her to count it to the nearest tens (the number in ( )). Then I help her drew up a bar graph:

I should have taught her pictogram before bar graph but I totally forgotten. I intend to continue to let her work on a few assignment on these few areas. While researching online, I found this supper cool site for making Bar Graphs, Check it out: -

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6 & 7 Aug 2010

This two days we finished Sonlight Week 11 Science.

We learned about Birds and checked out some of the interesting website for bird if you are interested:

1. Different type of feathers - I have to admit that I did not realize there are different types of bird feathers - Down, Body and Flight feather until I study with Den.

2. Short movies on bird migration.

3. Game about bird migration.

4. Coloring page about birds.

We also read from The Usborne Book of Science Activities and watched the DVD (both under science) about moving through air. Coincidentally, last week in SG, we went to a Science show and in the show it also demonstrate about moving through air, so Den was very interested in this week experiments.

We did three experiments -

1. I took out two same size A4 paper and I screw one up into a ball. Then I asked Den when I drop this ball and this paper at the same height, which one will reach the floor first? Den remember last week in the Science show she learned that all object heavy or light will drop at the same time, so right away, she answered: " at the same time!"....but she forgot about we are not in space! So need to take the air into consideration. More air push against the bigger object (flat paper) than the smaller object (ball), so the ball will fall faster than the paper.




2. I used an A4 paper make a pyramid, drop the pyramid in different way and see which side will land first. The pointed end will always land first because the pointed end can move faster through air.








3. We make a parachute using plastic bag (cut into circle), thread, tape, a light/heavy toys. Den had fun playing with that.





For Bible, we continue to read about King David. Den asked me later on, did David sin? I told her about his adultery and his repentance.

She continue to do her daily devotion. She make this picture as one the activities suggested from her Bible. The man and woman are Adam & Eve in the garden of Eden (don't ask me why they are wearing clothes), the serpent is on the tree on the left. The tree of knowledge is the one full of cereals.   

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

4 Aug 2010

We were awoke by the noise from the apartment upstairs again at 830am. When is the reno work going to finish?

I asked Den if she wanted to go to park but she choose to go eat breakfast with grandpa instead.

After breakfast, we went back to my mom place and we actually had an hours or so before we need to leave for her therapy appointment. So we had school in my mom place.

It took us a long long time reciting the Sonlight Week 11 verse - Isaiah 45:22. She was not concentrating at first, playing with this and that. After I put down my foot, she progress much faster. We also sang the Psalm 119:11 and learned John 14:15 (read why we need to learn so many verses here.)

After that, we work on two pages of grammar using Enchanted English Age 5-6. I bought it awhile back from MPH, quite costly RM19.90 for less than 30 pages of workbook. But it is full color and looks interesting. Just now while I was looking for a cover photo of this book, I realized there is actually an online free version at http://viewer.zmags.com/htmlCat/index.php?mid=rwwhdp&pageid=0. No idea who put it there, but if you are interested, you might want to check it out before it is gone.

Any way, we worked on the first two pages. At first I thought Den might think it was too kiddish - sorting alphabets, putting A to Z in order - guess what? it was actually challenging because she had to keep singing the ABC song from A! hahaha! That was quite funny!

After that we went out for lunch and her therapy. She has a new eye exercise that we need to do at home every day.

We went back to my parents' house after the therapy and we continued our school there. We read two chapters of week 11 Science - Mammals and Baby Mammals. Did the worksheets and game. After that we also checked out the internet links. If you want to see some short video on Mammal, check out the following website:

1. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/videos/videogallery/ - lots of short videos
 2. http://www.sandiegozoo.org/videos/index.html - live cam on Panda, Polar Bear, Ape and Elephant...however the location is San Diego Zoo, so please take the time different into consideration, or else all that you can see just darkness.

Den also had lots of fun playing the online jigsaw puzzle here. That's all we did today...well the day is not done yet. ^^

New Bible for Den

We forget to bring Den's devotional Bible back from SG. Since I had been planning to get her a new Bible (the one that she has been using was a bit too young for her, read more about the Bibles we used here.), this was a good time to do so.

Today was busy Tuesday, she had ballet and Yamaha and usually I wont put any other activities on Tuesday. However, there was a very noisy renovation work at the apartment above mine (we have been praying for them to work very smoothly, so that they can finish as fast as possible!), so it seemed like a good reason to get out of the house.

After a quick lunch at home, I suggested we go to a Christian bookstore near by to get her a new Bible ( I tried to call ahead and see if they carry the Bible that I want....but they cant even hear me properly because of all the noice from above!!!). The was not much time to spare, so I was a bit worry we might be late for ballet.

Den said, "It is more important for me to get a new Bible so that I can have my devotion right? So it is ok if we are a bit late for ballet." ^^

So we went.

I was looking for The Beginner's Bible but then I found another one that look equally interesting. I let Den look at both and choose the one she want. 30 mins later (no idea how many stories she read), she decided on My Read and Rhyme Bible Storybook.

I kind of knew she was going to choose that one. She loves story that rhyme. All the story in this book is written like poem and all of them rhyme! Another good thing is there are activities that she can do at the end of each story. The not so good thing - it has only 37 stories...compare to 95 stories in The Beginner's Bible!

I bought The Beginner's Bible for her friend Wes (his mom asked me to help look for a Bible). Hopefully when they both finish reading theirs, they can exchange.

Memory Verses

Den has 5 memory verses to memorized in these two weeks - one from Sonlight Week 11 - a not so easy verse:
Look to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God and there is no other. ~Isaiah 45:22
The other 4 verses are from the Sunday School she attends whenever she is in SG.

There is no way she can remember all these verses in such a short time. So I need to let her sing them. I did not like this particular song in Sonlight CD, so I have decided to let her memorize the Isaiah verse by saying as many time as possible and I also let her write the verse as part of her handwriting homework (long verse, so split into 3 parts).

I did some research tonite and found some interesting songs for the other 4 verses -

1) John 14:15 - I found a mom teaching her daughter this particular verse using a very easy and familiar tune - Are you sleeping:

If you love me, if you love me
you will obey
what I command 
John 14:15
John 14:15
You will obey
what I command

You can see her cute little girl singing this song at http://superfunmama.blogspot.com/2010/01/if-you-love-me-you-will-obey-what-i.html

2) Psalms 119:11 - this one is easy, I will use one of my favorite Bible verse CD - Hide 'em In Your Heart, Bible Memory Melodies Vol 2 (under Bible & Christian book). I taught this song in Sunday School when Den was around 2 years old. She actually can sang the whole song at that time. So now is time for revision.

3) 1 Timothy 4:12 - very very very long verse....then I found this super cool song version in Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI-P0uRIcPQ and love it! Still very very hard to sing and memorize but I am sure at least Den will have fun learning it.

4) Deuteronomy 6:5 - found a simple song version in youtube again - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN0q4QmayOQ

Youtube is very very useful in finding Bible verses song! Thank God for youtube! ^^

Btw, recently through a friend's recommendation I am now hooked with pastor Jaeson Ma's hip hop version of I Corinthians 13 - what love is all about - you can check it out in youtube too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73kZ6wBoqTk. This is like a free advertisment for Youtube! haha!