holiday!

We have decided to make this week our holiday (Den said, "but we have to go somewhere!" hahah!)....reason...

the official reason: we have been working really hard since we came back from Langkawi in April, so we deserve a break.

the unofficial reasons: we get bored, and a break is good for both of u!! hahaha!

So no school = no blog.

Shall resume next week....unless we enjoy the holiday too much... haha....

BTW, if u follow my blog regularly and think it is too much hazel to check here, you can sign up as my follower and I will send the blog to your email account right after I publish it.

Material I used when Den was 2-3 years old

This is for those of you who have been asking about the material I used with Den when I first started to homeschool her. JL, this is for you. :)

Some background first:

1. We started when Den was 2 years and 3 months old and stopped right before she turned 4.
2. We = 2 moms (MA & me), 4 kids (Den + EE + WE, 2 girls 1 boy all same age as Den, and also a little girl, WH who is a year younger. She joined us when she was almost 2.)
3. We meet twice a week. MA and I took turns teaching.
4. Sometimes we break for a week or two here and there due to sickness, vocation, visitors, busy schedules, etc.

This was our usual timetable:

10:30am -11am Outdoor activities which include chores like washing the turtles, watering plants, and also exercises.

11am-1130am Bible story, Bible verse, Bible application, Bible song, Prayer (Mostly from Gospel Light, will explain below)

1130am-Noon Games, crafts, Science, and dramatic play that were usually related to the Bible story (Mostly from Gospel Light too)

Noon-1230pm Rest and their favorite- 15 min of Fun Song Factory! (VCD, a BBC program with lots of songs and nursery rhymes)

1230pm-2:30pm Lunch, free play

2:30pm-3pm Extra learning that covered Science, Language (English, Malay, Chinese), Social Study, Math, etc.

We need more time because they are 4 of them. Taking turns to go to the toilet also took up quite a bit of time. :) Lunch was a super major event!

We used Gospel Light's Bright Beginnings series called "Exploring God's World". It is actually written for Christian preschools. However, it was not hard to make it work for homeschooling.

I got the set from Cannanland (the nearest and best one is in NZX) for RM450. It came with a Teacher guide, Devotional Bible, Bible stories Postal (one per story = total 48 postal), Bible Verse Postal (one per month = total postal), Activity Postal (one per month = total 12 Postal), CD (2-3 songs per month = around 30 songs).

The curriculum has 12 units (One unit per month). In each unit, it has:

1. four Bible Stories (share the same theme) with four Bible Postal
2. one Bible verse with one Bible verse Postal
3. one activity postal
4. 3 songs - One Bible Verse song, One activity song, and One Bible Concept or Application Song
5. Prayer ideas, games ideas and activities -Art, Block, Dramatic Play, Game & Science

For us, we only told one story per week. So let said if we told story A on Tuesday then we would review the same story on Thursday. All the activities for Tues and Thurs were about the same stories. We did not start it off this way. In the beginning, we would teach story A on Tues and story B on Thurs. But then later on, we realized it was very hard for the kids to understand and remember the whole story in one telling. Repetition works for kids this age. They have never complained it was the same story, in fact, they get very excited because it was a story that they were familiar with!

Works for moms too! Less work!

The good things about the curriculum:

1. The CD. Kids learn better through songs at this age and I really like the CD, especially the concept song that applies the verse in their life.
2. Postal - colorful and bigger than A3 size postal are very good visual aids for kids.

The not-so-good things about the curriculum:

1. Lots of planning. Since the activities are for the whole month, most of them are not story specific. So we need to pick and choose and also modify them. For some of the story I can't find any activities that is really related to it, so I depend a lot on other resources. Like the Play and Pray Bible for younger Children.
2. Some of the activities are for school settings so it is almost impossible to play at home due to the limitation of space and also the number of kids.
3. Gospel light has stopped producing this, so if you are interested, then you have to search the bookstore for the old stocks.

In conclusion, it served its purpose for us during that time. It might not be the best out there though. I was very new at homeschooling at that time and that's the best that I can find at the local bookstores. Since we had 4 kids, it kind of worked for a small school setting.

For those of you who are only going to homeschool one kid at home, I suggest you look into www.heartofdakota.com . I have never used it but it comes highly recommended. I check out the website and like what I see. It has a curriculum for 2-5 years old (I think it is more suitable for 2-3 years old) that comes with a daily simple activity. If you purchase the curriculum please remember to buy the books and the CD that you need too from them too. Because some of those are hard to find in MLY.

If you have any more questions, feel free to write to me or post your questions here or call me up. :)

MA, you are free to post your input here too!

21 May 2009 ice skating

We went ice skating in Sunway Pyramid today. First time for Den.

We skated for close to 3 hours. I'm so proud of Den. She fall down so many times but she never gave up. This is a huge improvement compared to when she was younger.

When she was younger, she dislike taking risks and refused to try new things. She would only do things she was sure she won't fail.

She almost never baby talk. When she started to speak, I can understand at least 90% of what she was talking about.

For a long while, she refused to speak in Chinese because she can't pronounce the word properly (She spoke like a foreigner! All in the first intonation!).

We kept encouraging her and told her she can't learn unless she is willing to take risks and fail. We all learned from our failures.

She is getting better and better and today she makes me proud.

At first, she can't even stand in her skating shoes. Yet she was willing to let me hold on to her and we skated for quite some time before we were told there was something wrong with her shoes.

We changed shoes and this time she can stand (not stable). But only 2 hours later, she can kind of walk without keep falling down. Too bad that ST forgets to take any photos/videos. :(

She was tired and starving by 330pm. So we decided to call it a day. We are definitely going back there again. I was thinking maybe we can make it a monthly event. Even my mom is interested.

I was exhausted! I did not even realize that until we came home. I fell asleep taking bath! I think I was too tense making sure she won't hurt herself plus trying to balance myself.

20 May 2009

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

I didn’t sleep after I finished writing 3 blogs last night.

I think I desperately need to do something for myself. Not for Den, not for the family, not for the church, just for myself, something to please myself. Something useless yet made me happy.

Usually, a novel will do that job but I’m out of that and my ebook site is not working properly. I ended up watching 2 hours of an HK series on the net. :)

At 5am, Den woke up and got me to sleep.

It was a totally wasted 2 hours, nothing was done but it made me happy.

We slept until 11am this morning! :)

MA was here with EE and I just woke up! Den was awakening by the doorbell.

Since the house was a bit messy, I decided to let them play while I vacuumed.

After that, we studied together.

Today I told Jonathan & David’s story. Theme: Friendship, which was very appropriate. They fought like hundred times for that one hour that I vacuumed. I use Pray & Play Bible for Young Children. One of my favorite pictures Bible. I used that a lot when they were younger. I think it is one of the best resources available locally.

After that, we pray for each other. I wanted each of them to come up with ways to help their friend when their friend is angry. They both thought the best way was humor. They both agreed when one of them was angry then the other should say or do something silly to make the angry person forget her anger. Not a bad idea, I shall see if it works.

I also practiced something I learned recently from one of the homeschool blogs - Retelling story.

I used to do something like that when they were younger and we have 4 kids homeschooling together. MA and I make them sit in their destined places and placed their bowl in front of them. Then we taught the lesson. When we finished, we asked them questions about the story we just told, if they can answer then we put cereals in their bowl. It was a good way to keep their concentration.

Now since I homeschool Den alone, I seldom do that. The blog reminded me it is very important for her to repeat to me what she learned so that I will be able to know how much she absorbed and what things she gets confused with. It will help her to remember the lesson better too. When she is older then she can write it down in her scrapbook.

This will help her build up paraphrasing and summarizing skills too.

Both of them can repeat the stories to me while looking at the pictures in the book - Pray & Play Bible for Younger Children. Den was a bit more articulate than EE.

After that, we sing a funny song and play hide and seek. One of them chose to be David and the other was Jonathan:

(Tune: Where is Tumbkins?)

Jonathan: Where is David? Where is David?
David: Here I am! Here I am!
Jonathan: Do you need my help, friend?
David: Yes, I need your help friend!
Jonathan: Run and hide!
David: Run and hide!

Then “David” hide while “Jonathan” counted to 20. They took turns playing the roles and did not want to stop.

After that, we make a heart shape using an inkpad and the sides of Den’s right hand and EE’s left hand (curled up fingers a little bit) to remind them LOVE requires two parties.

Their take-home project is to write a love letter to each other.

Then I let them work on 2 worksheets about animals – differentiate the animals who live on the land and animals who live in the sea; match animals with their food – while I cooked. We have fried noodles today.

They ate for one hour! I purposely left them alone after I finished my lunch. I wanted to let them practice self-control plus I need to make a few important phone calls.

Finally, I still had to be in the kitchen with them.

We had a good discussion about “teasing” though. I told them teaser only teas if they respond to it (get angry, get mad, etc), the best way to do this is to treat it like jokes and laugh with them and very soon the teaser will forget about teasing. I had this discussion with Den last week when she was teased by her friends. She listened to my advice and has been working really hard not to respond to teases. But then it is always easier to say than done.

We also talked about words that we should only use in private. EE has a habit of shouting out and making jokes about private body parts in public. So we talked a little bit about we should only whisper if we need to talk about private parts in public and should never use them as jokes.

After lunch, they only have 30 minutes to play before EE had to leave.

Den was quite dejected after that. She did not want to study. She said she already study and now she only wanted to read books. I let her be. She took a whole stack of Berenstain Bear books and sat down and read.

She did not cry but I can tell she was really sad that her friend leave. Finally, she told me she wanted a sibling because she was lonely. That’s the first time she actually asked for a sibling! We talked more about it and I told her she might feel mommy and daddy love her less when the baby is born even though it is not true. I also told her I might not have time to homeschool in the first few months. She said it is ok as long as it is temporary. She also said she is willing to share everything.

Hmmm…..interesting! God’s sign? :)

19 May 2009

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

Den woke up early today. 9am. No ballet today so we had lots of time to study and do crafts.

We started off with the verse. I just need to supply the first word "Honor" (it is not phonetically correct!) and she knows the rest.

Then we read another interesting story from Stories From Africa. Today's story is a true story about a little girl called Titi who lived in Nigeria. She was a believer (going to a school run by missionaries) but her parents were not. Her dad asked her to steal a chicken from their neighbor one day. She refused because she didn't think Jesus will like that. Her dad beat her and confined her in a goat house. Every day she only had a little bit of food to eat and yet she knew she was not alone. She sang about the love of Jesus every day. Finally, her dad gave up and let her come back to the house. Later on, her mom and sister accepted Christ as well.

A wonderful story to go with our verse of the week. We discuss how Titi disobeys her father and yet at the same time honors him.

After that, we read Mother Goose, Animals Animals, and Children's Book of Virtue. There is no Art this week. So I decided to let her look at clothes in First Word Bank. We also make a scrapbook of different patterns. I draw the clothes and Den color them.

Subsequently, we worked on Math. Nothing new, I let her work on 13 addition questions. But this time questions are like these:

6+5=

6+6=

6+7=

6+8=

6+9=

At first, she used the counters but after awhile she got smarter and realize she just had to add 1 to the answers. :) That's the objective of today's lesson, I'm glad she gets it.

Since she worked so hard on math, I rewarded her with Dr. Seuss' ABC while I cooked lunch. We had fried spaghetti again because I want to finish off the sauce.

After lunch, we did sand art. It is a present for my mom. Her 60th birthday is this Thursday.

Before today, I always have to help her take out the sticker (using a toothpick, part by part, very tedious.) But today, I was surprised! she did it all by herself. So I left her be while I happily prepared dinner. My mom & aunt coming for dinner, and I need to prepare more. I was so thankful that I have such an independent daughter. We worked separately for like an hour.

I should have known better.

While I was not looking, she decided to mix all the colored sand together. So now instead of having 8 different colors in 8 different containers, we have 8 the same colors in 8 different containers! I was so angry when I saw that! I tried to calm myself down and told myself she had to suffer the consequences anyway (now she only has one color to use).

Despite trying, I still scolded her. :(

Wish I could act cool.

Her final product did not look too bad but just the thought of how we had been saving up all the colors from previous sand art projects made me mad.

God is the gardener for my garden

Today in my devotion reading - Deuteronomy Chapter 11, God gave me a promise that make me cry.

He promised if I diligently keep all His commandments -- love Him, do what He tells me, stick close to Him -- then He will

• personally tend to my garden (Sweden). He is the gardener, He alone keeps His eyes on her all year long;
• He will drive out all these nations (world, temptations, evil) much bigger and stronger than me that stand in my way.

Sometimes when I see how the world is going- when I watch the Youtube Video about how the Muslim numbers are going to be more than Christians soon, when I heard about water issues, and environmental issues, when I see the political situation in MLY -I felt helpless and regretted I brought Den to such an imperfect world. It is like I know the world is going to a very bad end and yet I bring her here to suffer.

God's promise warmed my heart. It gave me hope. It does matter if I homeschool her or not because God is going to protect her from the world even if I send her to school. What I need to consider now is only which way is the best way to raise a Christ-centered young lady. An effective Christian.

18 May 2009

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

Den slept 12 hours again! :) Woke up at 11am. We hug hug for one hour then breakfast. Only started school at 1pm!

We have a new verse today. We reviewed last week's verse and Den can say the whole verse without prompting.

This week's new verse is very easy to remember but hard to do:

Honor your father and mother. Ephesians 6:2

I explained "Honor" as making your parents proud. Not sure if there is any better explanation?

Then we read 3 Bible stories. Den was so happy! All 3 were about Elisha -

• helping widow (2King 4);


• healed Naaman (2King 5): Den still remembered this story. Mary and I told this story last year during one of our homeschool lessons. I put lots of dots on Den's big plastic doll and then wash away the dots to show that God heals Naaman. Until today she still calls the doll "Naaman";


• Elisha prayed for his servant so that he can see God's army surrounding them (2 King 6)

After that, we practiced phonics. She is getting more and more comfortable in reading, even normal books (words that she read in Teach your child to read in 100 lessons are written with special symbols, she will only learn to read the normal word in the later part of the program). It required a very great effort on her part to read and she can only do it for a short period of time before she gets too tired.

After that, we read SPY's email. We asked her some questions about fish and she finally replied. She also included some very good internet links. I went to those links and downloaded some pictures and put them into Den's scrapbook.

We also replied to a long long email to our friend in Germany. We met this catholic family in Langkawi, they have 2 daughters - 3 & 6 years old. Den became good friends with them even though they don't speak English and Den doesn't speak German!:)

After that, we read What's Under The Sea. We studied animals in the North & South Poles as well as the divers! These are some of the interesting things we learned:

• Penguins have waterproof feathers (I explain waterproof - Den had fun playing with my waterproof watch!)


• Most of the penguins live in the southern polar seas!! (I thought most of them live at the North Pole!)


• Seal is also a mammal that lives mostly underwater. (I thought only whales!)


• Polar bears live near the North Pole and are strong swimmers (I didn't know they can swim!)


• Deep sea divers wear hard suits that protect them from the water pressure. They breathe oxygen from tanks inside. There is also a pump that supplies hot water around the suit to keep the diver warm!

We also learned about the underwater archaeologists who explore shipwrecks and look for relics including jewels and stuff. Den's eyes lighted up when she heard jewels! She is now seriously consider become one of the underwater archaeologists. Sometimes I wonder if she is really my daughter, how can she loves jewels so much when I dislike them so much.

After that, we practice Chinese Flashcards. She still has problems with last week's words but I decided to go ahead with the new words anyway. Just continue to flash those she doesn't get. The new words are - 过，到，得，了.

She did a lot of worksheets today. Some she did in the afternoon and some she did at night. She did 1 math worksheet (addition to 20), and 5 from Sonlight Developing The Early Learner Book 2. We are a bit behind so I am trying to catch up.

17 May 2009

For review & info of all the books I mention here, please goes to http://www.squidoo.com/ahomeschoolingmomjornel (updated today)

We SKIPPED church today!!

Out of the blue, we were sick. I got flu and Den has low fever since yesterday. We could have made it to church today but...

1. Since the H1N1, some parents might be a bit cautious and would not like to see a sick teacher (me!) near their kids;

2. I prefer to keep Den indoors and not out under the extremely hot sun. Since ST taught in Secondary School Ministry today, I need to stay home with Den.

That gave us a bit of time to catch up on school.

We were a bit behind on the Sonlight workbook - Developing The Early Learner. We are supposed to have finished Book two by next week but we are actually only halfway through it. So we did 6 worksheets today.

I especially like the listening exercises. I have never seen anything like that in any other local publication. It started off with 2 instructions in Book 1 to 3 instructions in Book 2. This is how it usually goes in Book 2:

Three pictures in the worksheet - for example, a cow, a rope, and a tree.

Then I will say something like "draw a blue line circle around the rope, a red line under the tree, and a green x on the cow." Then Den has to wait for 1 minute before she does it.

This is by far the hardest exercise for her. So I taught her to imagine and see the pictures in her mind as well as repeat what I said. Today she has no problem completing all the exercises.

I also let her work on 6 math questions -- adding to 20 using a counter. She was still slow. I will continue to give her more drills throughout the week.

I was tired after one hour of worksheets, but she seemed alright. So we watched Toy Story together. Usually, on a sick day, we watch cartoons. :)

ST came back just when we finished the show. We ate, and rested.

Then we practiced piano. She is learning to play with 2 hands.

She seemed quite alert, so I decided to teach her some language art that we usually don't have time to cover - forming sentences with Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives.

I got this from the Internet (I love the Internet!) a few months ago. Quite interesting. It comes with

helpers words like: "The", "the", "a", "and", "was" and ".";

nouns with pictures - "boy", "girl", "dog", "ball", "monster", "dinosaur", and "apple";

verbs with pictures - "kisses/kissed" "kicks/kicked" "eat/ate" "hugs/hugged" "hurts/hurt" "tickles/tickled";

Color with pictures - "Red" "Yellow" "Black" "Blue" "Green" "Brown"

Emotion with pictures -"Sad" "Happy" "Surprised" "Angry"

With the cards, we took turns to make sentences like:

The yellow monster ate a dinosaur.

The angry dog kicked the sad cat.

We had fun!

After that, I asked Den to work on a Learn to Read magnetic word board (so that I can rest). I brought this last year, it seemed like a very good idea at that time but Den was not too interested in it because it is quite tedious to find all the words. She played for a while then gave up.

She wanted me to play Bingo game with her instead. This is one of those game we brought from the cheap make-in-china store.

I don't even know why is it called a bingo game when it doesn't look like bingo and doesn't play like bingo. It is a good game though.

Taking turns to drop counter into the slots, whoever gets 4 in a row (vertical/horizontal/diagonal) wins!

Den likes to play but she only makes defensive moves. Whenever she wins, she did it accidentally. :)

After that, we went out for a simple dinner with my mom. I was exhausted when we came back home. So ST played UNO with Den until bedtime. I read a chapter of Milly Molly Mandy to her before she sleeps.

I hope we are up to schooling tomorrow since I intend to catch up on lots of stuff this week...if we are too sick to study...more cartoons...Den would love that.

Last week, 2nd week of May, we did 5 days of Sonlight, 2 phonic, 2 Chinese, 1 math & 2 piano.

Numeral Rhymes

I found out why was I in such a bad mood a few days ago. I was getting sick. I am sick now. Running nose :(

Anyway, that's not why I'm writing the blog today.

I chatted with a friend who used to teach Kumon Math last night and he was surprised that Den learned subtraction in one short lesson and has no problem with the concept. He said most kids have problems with subtraction at the beginning.

When I think about it, maybe it got to do with all the numerate rhymes that we did since she was 1 year plus. These are some of our favorites:

A). This is our first and favorite, we learned it from playgroup and it is a finger play too:

3 little monkeys hanging on the tree
teasing Mr. alligator,
"You cannot catch me! You cannot catch me!"
Along came Mr. Alligator hungry as can be and ....."SNAP"

2 little monkeys hanging on the tree....(repeat)

1 little monkey hanging on the tree...(repeat)

(end) No more monkey hanging on the tree.

B). Another favorite, can be sung:

5 little ducks went out one day,
Over the hill and far away.
mother duck called "Quack! Quack! Quack!"
only 4 little ducks came back.

4 little ducks went out one day.....only 3 little ducks came back.

3 little ducks went out one day.....only 2 little ducks came back.

2 little ducks went out one day.....only 1 little duck came back.

1 little duck went out one day.....no little duck came back.

Mother duck went out one day,
over the hill and far away.
Mother duck called "Quack! Quack! Quack!"
5 little ducks came back.

C). This can be sung too:

5 current buns in the baker's shop
round and round with the cherries on the top.
Along came _____(a child's name) with a penny one day,
buy a current bun, and took it away.

4 current buns in the baker's shop (repeat)

3 current buns in the baker's shop (repeat)

2 current buns in the baker's shop (repeat)

1 current bun in the baker's shop (repeat)

D). This can be sung but we are not sure how, so we only said it:

3 little monkeys jumping on the bed
one fell down and bump his head
Mama called the doctor
and the doctor said, "no more little monkey jumping on the bed!"

2 little monkeys jumping on the bed (repeat)

1 little monkey jumping on the bed (repeat)

I started saying or singing all these rhymes to her again and again since she was 1 yo because we both loved them. Later on, I would ask her how many monkeys (buns, ducks) were left? She would give me the correct answer. She started singing the songs by herself when she was about 2 1/2.

Singing all these rhymes might have helped Den understand the concept of subtraction. At first, when she didn't understand what is 5-2, but when I told her "if you had 5 candies and you gave 2 to your friend then how many do you have now?" she answered correctly right away without any problem.

15 May 2009

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

I'm in a much better mood today even though not enough sleep.

I went to sleep around 5am on Friday morning, and Den woke me up at around 6am. She fell asleep the night before at about 8pm. So she was wide awake at 6am. She told me she need water, so I took water for her, then she told me she was hungry. I gave up and woke ST up to take care of her since it was about time for him to wake up and go to work.

I continued to sleep until 9am! ST went to work around 7am, so Den had been playing by herself for like 2 whole hours. Later on, I realized she called my mom because she was lonely!

We started teaching her our telephone numbers when we were in Langkawi. For emergencies and that kind of thing. She memorized mine, ST & my mom's hp numbers. That's when the trouble started. She would pick up the phone and call us anytime she feel like it.

I told her today, I am going to make her pay for the calls that she made. She told me she would make calls when I'm not around so that I would not be able to deduct her money! I told her I can track it on the phone bill. She was like, really?!! OH, NO! Hopefully, that will stop her from making unnecessary calls.

We practiced the Bible verse and she almost got the whole verse now. Then we read a Bible story - Elijah was taken to heaven. She was amazed. This is the first time she realized people can go to heaven without dying first.

Then we read 2 poems from Animals Animals and a short story from the Little Golden Books. With that, we actually finished all our Sonlight program for this week.

After that, we read a Chinese book together. It is part of the Odonata first 100 words program (红蜻蜓幼儿100字亲子互动故事系列）It is an interesting series. I read part of the stories (background, etc) and she read what the characters say. Too bad there are only 5 books in the first 100 words series. I wish they will come out with more.

Subsequently, we practiced Chinese flash cards. She had a very hard time learning these few words - 很，就，这. We learned this last week and until today she still doesn't get it. I make her rewrite 这 again since I don't see any other way. That's the bad thing about the Chinese. You just have to memorize the word.

After that I let her play in the bathtub for more than an hour. We have been so so so busy for the past few weeks, she had not been playing in the tub for a long long time. She was very happy about it.

We have bread and fried eggs for lunch. As well as Milo+milk.

I wanted to get her to nap after lunch but the renovation at the apartment under mine was still very noisy, so we decided to make an Oreo Cookie Pie for CG tonight.

It is very easy, and pretty straightforward from the box. No baking. Make and put into the freezer.

After that, she did one worksheet on the Clock, and 2 from handwriting without tears before we nap.

Jump forward a few hours later, after CG before she slept, and she actually read a whole Chinese book all by herself. This is a very good series called Basic Chinese 500 ( I found a good write-up in a blog here). It consisted of 5 books (at least 5 books for now). It introduces one word in one chapter and the next chapter will build from that previous chapter's word.

Let's say, chapter one introduces the word "mountain". Then chapter two will introduce "Tall" and put the two words together - "Tall Mountain".

Every book has 20 new words.

It comes with Ping Ying and English translation too. Very convenient for those who are not so well verse in Chinese.

Den read the whole Book 1 all by herself before she sleeps. That makes me very happy.

14 May 2009

I woke up feeling depressed.

I had enough sleep. Den was not around to disturb me. She spent the night with my parents so that I can get some work done today.

Yet I was depressed. May it got to do with the fact that I need to clean the house today. I don't know.

Or maybe because I had not had any days off since we came back from Langkawi in April. I felt sad because finally had a day off but have to spend it doing cleanup and Sunday School planning. Maybe.

Or maybe because I have not been drinking coffee?

I finally forced myself to function by around 1pm. Cleaned the house. It was time for the monthly cleaning so took me quite a bit of time.

When I was cleaning Den's room, I was thinking maybe I should not have scheduled my monthly cleaning when she is not around, that way she never learned how much time I need to spend cleaning up...but then if she were around, I need even more time.

Another thought came to me, if I can teach Den to read successfully, maybe next time I can trade with others - I teach her son/daughter to read while she cleans my house...I can always dream....:)

Why do I hate doing housework so much? I don't know. It's just not wired in my gene somehow. I can spend hours preparing for one short lesson but hate to even spend 1-hour taking care of the house.

Then I cooked dinner. Took bath. Read an old book. I hope it would help pick up my mood. It didn't.

Den fell asleep in my arm at 8pm while we were still out with my parents entertaining a guest from overseas. She seldom falls asleep this way nowadays. Must have been really tired. We took her home, changed her and she never woke up.

To prepare for the CG lesson tomorrow, I read a chapter about motherhood from Dennis & Barbara Rainey's Staying Close. Barbara homeschools her 6 kids. She advocates for mothers to stay home and see motherhood as their career. I agreed with her but am a bit worried when I share it in CG tomorrow, some might take it as a personal attack.

I like what formal USA President Teddy Roosevelt once said,

When all is said, it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen than the soldier who fights for his country. The successful mother, the mother who does her part in rearing and training aright the boys and girls who are to be the men and women of the next generation, is of greater use to the community and occupies, if she only would realize it, a more honorable as well as more important position than any man in it. The mother is the one supreme asset of national life. She is more important, by far than the successful statesman, or businessman, or artist or scientist.

Wow! that is really high praise and yet a lot of mothers are willing to sacrifice their jobs as a mother to be successful stateswomen, businesswomen, etc.

Barbara reminds us that as a mother we have to give up a lot of things. Things that we like to do, we love to do, we are good at, etc. Time with friends, reading, painting, movies, etc. May be also time to be left alone? haha, I don't know.

I think one of the hardest things about being married and a mother is I no longer have the time for solitude. I carve solitude. I need that time to be alone. To hear my own thought. Maybe that's why I need to stay up so late. So that I can be alone. I have not been doing that the whole week...been sleeping really well... maybe, I don't know.

No matter what is the cause, I am feeling much better after writing the blog. Writing is truly a good therapy. Maybe you should try it sometime.

13 May 2009

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

Since I have been sleeping very well every night, I have been waking up a bit early (for me!) around 8-9am. So Den also wakes up at about the same time....which means she has not been having 12 hours of sleep! Around 10 hours only. She is still functioning well though. I think I need to let her sleep early if she is going to wake up early.

Today, W&W were coming over, so at first, I thought we wouldn't be able to do much. However, Den woke up early so we actually have time to homeschool.

We practiced the new verse. She still can't really get it yet.

Then we read two Bible stories - both about Elijah - no rain for 3 years and contest with the false prophets.

After that, we practiced phonics. A short lesson today. Finished quite fast.

Then we studied math. I skipped through Book 4 because I think she already grab the concept of 11-20 (11 is 10+1; 12 is 10+2, and so on). We started adding to 20 (Book 5) using a counter. She has no problem with that either just a bit slow. I will give her more practice this week and next.

W&W came at around 1pm. We had fried spaghetti for lunch. I cooked.

Then they play a creative wooden block game called "brainstorm" for about an hour. Kids need to use all the weird-looking blocks to build 2 or 3-dimensional patterns. My uncle brought this for her 1-year-old birthday. I kept it and brought it out when she was 3 years old, it was too still difficult for her, so I kept it again and took it out again today. Working together they can build some of the easier puzzles. Good! (Give me time to update my blog too!)

I signed up for this homeschooling group in USA a few weeks back. Every day I have to read through like 60 emails but the good news is I get to know a lot of the free information out there. It is pretty amazing! Today, I found out that there is actually a forum that come with activities for Sonlight!!! I'm at week 18...hmm...late but at least I know it now!! Very happy still...haha! cup half full. :)

We read the Mother Goose books, Children's book of Virtues, and Golden bookk together after they watched a Chinese cartoon.

12 May 2009

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

We had a very short lesson today since it is a Tuesday. A day I can't go without coffee. Dr. House, I'm an addict too!

We started off with a new verse this week. Very short but kind of hard because of all the new words:

Only fools insist on quarreling. Proverb 20:3

I've to explain "fool", "insist" and "quarreling". It kind of came in handy though since recently her favorite game is playing "fighting".

Then we read What's Under The Sea. She really like the book, and actually asked me to read it. We studied Whales and Corals. We learned:

1. Some whales (like the humpback whale) have no teeth, only baleen. They eat Krill (small shrimps).

2. The Blue Whale is the largest animal in the world

3. Some whales (like sperm whales) make clicking noises out and if they bounce off any animal and send back echoes, the whale will know where the animal is.

4. Dolphin is the smallest whale!!!! (That's why I always confused these two animals)

5. Coral is actually built up from the stony skeletons of tiny animals called coral polyps.

Then we read a Chinese book. 公主王子系列-我从哪里来 (Where do i come from?). A little princess wants to find out where is she from.

Dandelion told her they were air bound and landed on the ground;

frog told her he was a tadpole,

chick came from an egg,

one of her friends told her she came from the rubbish can and the other one said he came from the hospital (why, oh why all Chinese parents tell their kids they are from the rubbish can?)

and finally, her mommy told her about sperm and eggs.

Den was not too interested in the question of where she is from since she always know she is from my tummy!! haha!

After that, we only have time for Chinese flashcards and she finished 3 worksheets while I cooked.

11 May 2009

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

I have been sleeping very well at night...thus no blog update! Hahaha! :)

Ok, this is what happens on 11 May 2009:

We had a replacement ballet class again (the teacher is going to Beijing next week...thanks to Airasia, everyone can fly!).

I did not finish last week's target so we carry forward the things that need to be done last week to 11 May (Monday).

Last week we finished 5 days of Sonlight, 2 phonic, 1 Chinese, 1 math, 2 piano, and 1 craft. Not bad for a busy week. Den had 3 play days. :)

Anyway, last week we learned the "Happy are those whose hearts are pure for they shall see God" and I found a song/dance in one of the Praise Dance DVD (赞美操) my mom gave me that is about a similar theme - a pure heart. Psalm 51:10-12.

I wanted to let Den learn this but could not find the time. So finally we did it on Monday. It was a bit too slow and the steps were a bit complicated. She followed and dance twice but was not too interested.

We also did phonics and practiced piano. We learned a new sound, "V".

After that, we had lunch (Fried Rice) and went to ballet in MA's car. EE & Den were sooooooo noisy in the car.

Den is quite good in listen and following the music. She can remember the steps quite well.

After we came home, we had some bread and cold milk. I had a very very bad headache. Had to have a cup of coffee. I am trying to cut down my caffeine intake and was not planned to take any on Mon. :(

Afterward, she did 2 math worksheets while I cooked. She mixed up "+" and "-" again!!! hmm...other than that she did well.

After dinner, she played UNO with ST. Won again!

Since she looks quite alert and not sleepy, I decided to let her study a bit more.

We read "What's Under the Sea". We studied Fish. Interesting to find out that:

1. Fish can stay afloat because they have a balloon (called Swim Bladder) in them;

2. Most fish have a line along each side called a "lateral line". It's their 6th sense to sense movement.

3. Gill takes in the oxygen from the water and lets the water out.

Hm...I must not have paid any attention in Bio....since all these seem new to me!! I love homeschooling.

But then we had questions:

1. Since Sharks and Rays have no swim bladders and must keep swimming or they will sink, then how do sleep?

2. How do fishes swim down to the deeper part of the sea since they have swim bladders?

I can't answer these questions, so I sent an email to my friend SPY. She studied Bio at Uni, hopefully, she will have an answer for me!

I drew a fish outline in her scrapbook and she added the eye, gill, scale, and fins and label them accordingly. I spelled out the words and she wrote them down in a mixture of capitals & small letters! I was thinking to myself: should I correct her? Decided to let her be. Build up her confidence first then will correct her.

She was having so much fun studying that I decided to read another book to her. We read a new book this week - Stories from Africa. It is under social study but it is written by missionaries. Six stories of God 's faithfulness to His people in Africa.

We read the first story about a little boy who likes to grumble. Like us, he grumbled about all kinds of things, especially about "if Adam didn't sins we now don't have to pay for the consequences". His dad, a preacher decided to challenge him on it. His dad showed him a red box and told him, he didn't have to help out or work for anything as long as he didn't open the box. Of cause, he opened up the box at the end. He learned his lesson and asked God for forgiveness.

Den has always been sensitive to mood since she was little. She refused to listen to any stories that involved anyone getting hurt or got scolded, etc. I had to tone down stories and told them in a more casual manner and not so intense. We could never finish any feature film with her around.

Recently she was getting better. She can handle most of the stories and cartoons. Even though she cried after watching SHREK. She was sad because princess Fiona choose Shrek and now the bad prince is going to be sad.!!! At least she finished the movie! So recently I had not been toning down the story much. I pretty much read them out and dramatized them any way I see fit. Until I read stories from Africa.

She ran away when I got to the part where the dad showed his son the red box and told him not to open it. Den realized the boy will open it and he would get into big trouble! So she ran away. It took me quite some time to get her back to listen to the story and I had to promise not to make it scary! After the story, she wanted to color the pictures from the book. So I made a copy of the picture and let her color it.

Why do I choose to homeschool?

In a Dec 22, 2008 report, <http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20081222-109613.html> Singapore's Minister of Education said that 19 out of 26 homeschoolers in the country met the ministry's PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) benchmark.

A Malaysian Christian homeschooling group that I belong to started a discussion about this and asked everyone's opinion on whether are we measuring up to the standard? Do we need to measure up? Etc.

My question is why should it be a BIG surprise that some of the homeschoolers failed to measure up? Are we operating on the presumption that homeschooler is academically better than those attending national school? Is that why we homeschool our kids?

Maybe that is the reason some people, but not me.

I have never thought I am a better teacher than those who are academically trained. I did not choose to homeschool Den because I think I can teach her better than a kindergarten.

I choose to homeschool her because I want her to build a strong foundation in God. For knowing God is the beginning of wisdom. I want her to be wise instead of knowledgeable.

I choose to homeschool because I want to help her build up good attitudes and habits that can last her for life:

• Love for books
• Thirst for knowledge
• Self motivate
• Perseverance

There is always pressure from those around you, everyone seems to think since you choose to homeschool it must be because homeschooling is better than normal school, so your kid must be better than others, that kind of crab.

I have to admit from time to time, I will compare too. Is she doing better (academic-wise) than those who go to school? But very quickly, I will give myself a mental shack. That's not why I choose to homeschool. Come on, if I choose to send her to school, she would have learned to read by now. Instead, we are struggling together with phonic (but loving it!).

If I fell into the trap of trying to keep up academically, I will start to worry about maybe I need to teach her this, maybe I need to teach her that and slowly and slowly, homeschooling will just be another smaller scale school.

Please don't get me wrong, I have no problem if she can keep up academically, but never at the expand of losing focus on the important things.

When you focus on faith and character building, then you would not mind so much about not meeting the academic targets, missing lessons, etc. A day out with friends is a good day for learning too. At the same time, you got to withstand the heat too. Your kid might be slower academically.

It is easier said than done. If not for the support of ST, I will never begin this journey. I have to tell myself again and again, what I am doing now is planting a huge tree. The root need to be buried really really deep and one day, it will become a big tree that lasts for a long long time. My hope and my prayer.

07 May 2009

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

Den spent the night with my parents. We went over to my parent's house to pick up some stuff last night, and she refused to come home with us after that because my brother (who works in China) & 3rd Aunt (who lives in Seremban) were both there.

This morning all of us went out for brunch.

We started school at 230pm... these two weeks our schedules are really really unstable...

First, we practice the verse. Her phonic is getting better and she can kind of guess the word by looking at the verse I wrote on our whiteboard.

Then, we read a good story from "The Children's Book of Virtues". Today's story is about the little boy from Holland, who put his finger in the dikes to stop the seawater from flooding the country. Even though he had to spend a night in cold (no one realize he was there) and his hand was numb, he was willing to hold on as long as it took to get the job done. His bravery and perseverance saved Holland.

A good lesson for today's children. Everything comes easily nowadays. So even when a tiny bit of hardship came along, they will just give up. This is a good lesson to remind Den whenever she thinks something is too hard for her, she should not give up.

In fact, I always like to make it a bit hard for her. At least from time to time. We went to Langkawi 2 months ago. I purposely packed a small bag for her to carry. It is kind of heavy and I could have put everything in my bag pack, but I want to toughen her up a bit. Don't want her to take things for granted. She carried it without any complaint.

I assigned house chores for her too. Since she is still quite young, she mainly has to learn to take care of herself and her things - change herself (I lay out the outfits), dispose of her own diaper, put dirty clothes into a basket, put back her shoes, clean up anything she played/studied, etc.

Besides that I also let her clean the balcony and main grill and door. Today, she helped me snap french beans for dinner. I want to increase the things that she does at home. I am thinking of putting her in charge of collecting all the rubbish from every dustbin in the house. Maybe is time to teach her how to do dishes and wipe the dining table too?

After the story, we prayed.

Then we read another story from "A family treasury of Little Golden Book". We almost finished all 46 stories...kind of sad. We started off hating this book then love it and very soon we have to leave the book...(read the review in Squidoo).

Today it is a short story about different kinds of houses that people live in. That got us interested in looking for pictures of different houses. We found interesting pictures of igloos, tree houses, cave houses, mud houses, trailers, traditional Japanese houses (with paper wall), castles, and tents (I love internet, I told Shu Teng I can homeschool without Sonlight as long as you give me internet!), and of cause when I asked Den what house she wants to live in -- CANDY HOUSE! We printed out the pictures and pasted them into her scrapbook. Maybe later she can draw a house in there too.

We had to break for tea (hmm..more like coffee & milk) before we continued our phonic.

Phonic was better today. Either the "tea" help or she finally getting used to "H" sound. Either way, I am grateful. Today's paragraph is much shorter too.

Since we finished phonic early, we had time for math. I started her on Book 5 (Q-dees mathematics foundation program). We learn the concept of 11-20. As in 11 is 10+1, 12 is 10+2, etc. I like this program because it emphasizes the concept part. I think it is very important. Every kid can recite 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.....100 but do they know exactly what does each number stands for? Q-dees is very slow at the beginning but I think is very good in the long run.

Btw, this is a very very old program. I'm not sure if the Q-dees nowadays still use the same program. It passed down from my Pastor's daughter (who is going to do her master's in Aug 2009) to a sister in Christ and then she passed it to me when she moved to Singapore! I like it very much and decided to use it on Den even though 1 of the books is missing (Book 7, I intend to improvise!).

After that, she helped snap beans and then work on 2 math worksheets while I cooked. I didn't get to check her work until 8pm, after dinner. I realized she didn't finish one of the pages and the other was all wrong because she did addition on a subtraction sheet!! That's the first time this happened!

I think she was too eager to go play UNO with her daddy (he came back early today) and just tried to get everything done as fast as possible. I made her redo them and finished before she go for a night swim with ST.

This is part of her reward. She used to refuse to poop in the toilet (she usually doesn't wear any diaper, she would then ask me to put a diaper on her before she want to pass motion. It is really quite ridiculous, putting a clean diaper on so that she can poop there!). So I put up a poster up, every time she popped in the toilet she get one star. For every 3 stars, she gets a reward. We discussed and let her come up with reasonable rewards like playing in IKEA, ice cream (if she is not sick), going to bookstores, swimming at night (when the weather permits), etc.

Now she only gets a reward for every 5 stars. She is no longer passing motion in her diaper but she refused to let me take down the poster and insist in continue the reward system...hmm...I need to think of some way out of this.

06 May 2009

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

OK, things don't always work out the way I plan. Hmm...come to think of it, it usually didn't turn up the way I plan. :)

Today I had four kids in my house.

I babysit Wes (same age as Den) & Whit (one year younger) once in awhile while their dad has a photo shoot in the afternoon.

EE is Den's best friend (they are the same age) and we usually meet up at least once a week for them to play (either at my house or hers). On top of that, they are in the same ballet, Yamaha class, cg, Sunday School!!

MA(EE's mom) & I homeschooled all four of them together in 2008. We used Gospel Light Bright Beginnings "Exploring God's World". If any of you are interested in knowing more about the program, let me know, and I will try to write more about it when I have the time.

This year, W&W start going to kindergarten. I started Den on Sonlight PreK and it is a bit difficult to homeschool EE & Den together with this. So now MA and I pretty much do separate things and meet up once a week to let them play.

Anyway, today all of them were here with me. EE came at 1030am. I planned to let two of them play for a while, then read books, sing songs, etc. Theme: Mother's day. All should be done before W&W come (since they went to school in the morning, I thought they should do more activities in the afternoon and not sit around for lesson).

But then Den & EE played so well together (no fight! what a surprise!) and begged me to let them continue to play...so I did. They played for 2 hours!

W&W came around 1pm and brought along yummy lunch. We ate lunch.

After that, we baked a cake. I always like to bake with more kids around. More fun! Of cause, it is messier but when I see the way their eyes lighted up, it is all worth it!

After the cake, we make a mother's day card. I got the idea and pattern from the Internet. There is a tea bag in every cup and the words say:

"Here is a gift for mother's day

I'll try my best in every way

But when you get upset with me

Relax and have a cup of tea!"

You can tell their different personality through the way they color. :) From Top Left - Wes; Top Right - Den; Bottom Right - EE; Bottom Left -Whit

MA came right after we finished the cards. We had a great tea time - drinking milo, and eating cake that we baked. EE had to go after that and of cause, Den cried.

After that, they three took a quick bath in the bathtub together. Usually, I let them play for a while in there. But today we were a bit short on time, so they just took a very quick bath. Followed by a Chinese Cartoon (Goodtv).

After the cartoon, I decided to see if they are interested in listening to a story. They were!

At first, they were a bit reluctant to follow me to the study. But when I start reading, they were hooked. We read "What Mommies Do Best" and 4 pages of mother goose rhymes from "A treasury of mother goose". I didn't read the other book that I prepared because I think it would be too difficult for Whit.

After that we learn a new song:

(tune: Are you sleeping or Frere Jacques)(it took me a long long time to figure out Frere Jacques is Are you sleeping...)

"I love mommy, I love mommy

Yes I do Yes I do

and my mommy loves me

Yes my mommy loves me

She loves me, I love her"

They got it after we sang it for like 3-4 times and W&W promised to sing it to their mommy, I wonder did they do it?

After that, they played for a few minutes before W&W have to go home. That's the end of a very fun day. I did not finish all the things I planned to do with Den today but I think she had a fabulous time with her Friends. That's good enough for me.

05 May 2009

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

I continue the "taking it slowly" mood. We woke up by the renovation noise at around 930am. Today was actually not too bad, hopefully, all the heavy metal major stuff is already done, and now is just all the lightweight drilling, etc...I can always hope...

I prepared lunch while Den ate breakfast and played. Then I had to fix a table lamp that she accidentally broke. By the time we started school, it was Noon.

We recited the verse and prayed. We finished all the Bible stories for the week....it is ONLY Tuesday!

Then I read 2 Chinese stories book for her:

1. 公主王子成长绘本系列 "我要我的牙齿" (I want my teeth).

It talks about a little prince who was very sad because one of his teeth fall off. He went around looking for his fallen teeth. While he was at it, he realized everything in nature loses some of their 'old things' in order to gain something new -- Leaves fall off in Fall and New leaves in Spring; Swam loses her feather then grows new father; Fruit drops from the tree and then new fruit grow, etc.

Finally, he accepts this and looks forward to his new teeth.

2.红蜻蜓幼儿首100字第5册 "小鱼". This is part of Odanata publication's first 100-word series. I am using them like storybooks. Den can read 40-60% of the words in there. I think very soon I need to purchase the first 200-word series.

I tried using this to teach Chinese words but find it very dry and boring. Reading as a storybook makes it much more fun.

After that, we practiced Chinese flash cards. We learned 4 new words today - 家,头,就,这. She already knows 家.

Then she worked on 1 page Chinese worksheet, 2 lines of writing (write 这), and 2 pages of subtraction and addition.

4 May 2009

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

I can't remember much about what I did last Friday. So, sorry, no blog about it. All that I can remember is I was sick and Den was obsessed with UNO. For the past few days, I think she played close to 100 hands of UNO.

She is actually getting quite good at it. What is even more amazing, she wins most of the time!! We never try to let her win, in fact, we are having a hard time winning!! When she first brought the card, I was thinking to myself, oh no, we are going to play this really slow and boring UNO for a long long time. What a surprise!

Back to today:

Today I woke up with a headache. Not as bad as last week but definitely not myself yet. I decided to take it a bit slowly as in no cooking and studying less than what I planned.

Den woke up at 1130! (No renovation today, yahoo!) I let her play for awhile while I chat with my brother in Australia (yahoo chat).

Then we went down to eat the unhealthy brunch -- Roti Teloh for her and Fried Kueh Tiao for me. :)

We finally started school at 2pm.

A new verse today: 

Happy are those whose heart are pure, for they shall see God. ~Matthew 5:8

Of cause, we read 2 Bible stories - King Solomon asking for wisdom and building the temple.

I asked her, "If God asks you what you want, what will you say?"

She answered, "I will say, I want mommy to live forever and ever."

I was surprised!

We talked about death, heaven, etc since she was 2 years old or younger. I brought her to quite a few funerals plus my father in law past away last year. Despite all my explanations and everything, she used to have this fear that I will die one day and leave her. She has always said she wants to die with me.

I thought she is kind of over it already, as in not so worried about it anymore. Maybe I am wrong. I really need to read the "如何与你的孩子谈死亡" (Helping your child understand death) that has been sitting on my bookshelves.

Maybe it is because recently ST and I talked about writing a will. We asked last Saturday, who would she rather have as her guardians if anything happened to us. hmmm...

After that, we spent close to an hour on phonic. She kind of mixed up "h" and "th". Plus, there was a very long paragraph for her to read today:

He said, "Can I eat cake?"

She said, "Go sit with the cow."

He said, "No. I will not go."

She said, "Go sit with the cat."

He said, "The cat has cake."

She said, "Go sit with the cat and eat cake."

So he ate cake. He said, "this is fun."

Ok, it is a lot of repetitive words but still, long. At least for her.

After that, we read 2 new books:

1. Stories From Around the world, replaced "things that people do". Today's story is Puss in Boot. I didn't know it is from France. The language is very simple and interesting. A good book for reading aloud.

2. Usborne Starting Point Science "What's under the sea?" replaced "The year at maple hill farm". Very thin book but not easy to read. A lot of new concepts for her. The equator, water bed, food chain, current, etc.

I am starting her on scrapbook. While we read the book, we looked on the Internet for extra pictures. When we found any interesting pictures, we printed them out and pasted them into her scrapbook. Today we pasted 5 pictures -

2 from the red sea - the salties sea in the world, people can float without any float; Den was really fast, and she said right away, "that's the sea Moses opened!" haha!

1 from Hawaii - the tallest mountain on earth is Mauna Kea which forms the island of Hawaii (I didn't know that!! I thought it is Everest!!)

1 from the Great Barrier Reef.

After we pasted the pictures, she decided we should add some painting on it. Haha! I like it. Hopefully, we can keep this up.

After the lesson, she watched "Shriek". I had been wanting her to watch this for a while but could not find my DVD, so finally let her watch it online. I think she is too obsessed with all the Disney princesses. Shriek would be a good change.

Princess Fiona is super cool, she can fight, can cook and she doesn't mind being ugly and she sings for her food (haha! my favorite part!!!)

After the movie, Den asked me, "mommy, so it is ok to be ugly?" I was like :) Im expecting more conversation about the movie for the next few days.

At nite, Den played rounds of UNO with ST and won again!!!

30 April 2009

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

Reason for not updating my blog: SICK! SICK! SICK! No worries, not H1N1. Anyway, this is backdated to last Thursday:

We had a very short lesson today but still doing much better than I expected.

We were supposed to go out with my friend SY at around 12:15pm.

We were ready at 11:45am, which gave us some time to study. We did not do any Phonic, my sour throat plus the noise from the unit downstairs had pretty much make it an impossibility.

We read 3 Mother Goose rhymes, and 2 pages of Eric Carle's "Animals Animals" and finished one of our favorite " Things people do". We were kind of sad because we finished the book. But quite looking forward to the new book next week. I think it is the "Stories from around the world". I will tell you more about it when we read it next week.

Right after we finished, my friend arrived with her very cute 1-year-old boy.

We went to the curve because the noise in my place make it impossible for any quality conversation. Anyway, we had a good time chatting. Will tell you more when I have the time.

After my friend left, Den and I went to Borders. Den "read" in the children's corner while I looked for books nearby. I overheard her making a conversation with a jie jie. The jie jie is around 8-9 years old.

She said "Hi" to the jie jie and drew the jie jie into a conversation. What was even more amazing, she got the jie jie into reading for her!! hahaha! Who said homeschooling kids have problems in socializing?