3rd week of oct 2009

For review & info on most of the books I mentioned here, please goes to http://www.squidoo.com/ahomeschoolingmomjornel & http://homeschoolingmombookreview.blogspot.com/

We intended to start homeschooling this week but I got sick. So we went a bit slower than what I had planned. This week, we did 2 phonic lessons. She is getting better and better at decoding the words now.

We also did Chinese flashcards with 4 new words - 什，么，出，来。

We have not been using Qdees math for some time now. I stop at book 6 (lost book 7 when my friend SH past the system to me) about 2 months ago. For the past 2 months, I just drilled her with lots of worksheets - plus & minus (below 20). She is getting quite good with that, so I decided to continue the lesson this week. We did book 8 and almost finished the whole book in one lesson.

Book 8 introduced the larger number - to 100. She already knew her number til 100 but I think the book introduces the numbers in a very easy-to-understand way, so I decided to go through with her.

Book 8 introduced counting quickly in tens. For example, 40 is 4 tens. 42 is 4 tens and 2 ones. I think after the lesson, she understood the numbers better now. I think the next book will be adding double digits.

We also finished off Sonlight week 28 and started week 29. The bible verse this week is "Husbands, love your wives. ~Ephesians 5:25" I find it interesting that they actually included this verse in kids' memory verse.

Besides all these, she did phonic, math & Chinese worksheets. I was very happy with the phonic worksheet she did today. She was given 9 pictures and she need to write down the spelling for each object - bat, tap, bag, hat, cat, fan, rat, van & hat. She only missed one-she wrote baC instead of baG.

Her phonic is getting better and so is her handwriting. Having said that, there are still lots of room to improve. I decided to go online to find an alphabet guide. I found some good free guides from the handwriting without tears website http://www.hwtears.com/. I saved them and printed them out and put them in her homework helper lapbook. So that she can use that to write and complete her homework.

We have been using handwriting without tears (refer to my previous posting here) but I have never gone to the website until today. Hm...should have done that earlier, can even download most of the songs that it mentioned in the book! Ok, late is better than never.

When I was in SG two weeks ago, I met a pair of parents with a 2+ DD. They were amazed at what Den can draw. I kept telling them Den was only able to draw like this recently but they don't seem to believe me. hahaha! So I decided to put some of her previous drawings here so that you can see the progress.

activities during holiday weeks

For review & info of most of the books I mentioned here, please goes to http://www.squidoo.com/ahomeschoolingmomjornel

We had too much fun on holiday! haha!

I decided to give us some break time these two weeks for 2 reasons:

1. Giving Den some breathing room. I think I might have pushed her a bit too hard, she needs some time off to play and just be a silly 4 years old;

2. I want to take time to rectify and catch up on some of the things that we usually don't have time to do: like practice piano, etc.

One of the thing that I want to take time off to do is writing. I have never taught her how to write. She did a lot of coloring on her own (sometimes a few pages a day) since she turn 3+ because she loved it. I also let her write some Chinese words but that is all. I have never really taught her how to write ABC or 123.

Recently she has made a lot of mirror image mistakes when she wrote, I know it is a command mistake among kids her age, but I still decided to take some time to teach her how to write, starting basic.

I brought "Writing without tears" from Sonlight but I never seriously looked into it until this week.

I realized that I should have done it earlier!

This is the way that Den holds her pencil (Left Pic), and I always thought she hold it wrong and I wanted her to hold it this way (Right Pic):

Handwriting without Tears ensured me that both ways are the correct ways of holding a pencil. What is even more surprising, when I told my dear hubby ST about it, he said he has always held the pencil the same way Den holds hers!!!!! Hmmm...and we were celebrating our 10th anniversary this year!!!

Anyway, I also start with the basics -using wooden blocks and mat man like what the book suggested. I did not want to spend money buying the wooden blocks, so I use the template in the books and use cardboard paper to make the blocks. Ok, it took me the whole night but saved a lot of money and they looks pretty good to me!

The idea is before a kid learns to write, let her form the letter with the block first. This will help kids to form each letter correctly, systematically, and without reversals.

Besides that, we can use the block to make mat man which will help kids to develop body awareness, drawing, and counting skills.

So far we had fun with this and the best thing is Den did not realize we were studying! haha! She thought we were playing a game! :)

The other thing the book suggested is to use the play-doh to form letters, we have not tried it yet, and that's our activity for tomorrow.

Besides that, we also did some reading at a very slow pace like one story per day. That's very enjoyable.