23 July 2010

I realized we have been studying individuals stories in the Bible and I had not linked them up for Den for sometime now. So this week we concentrate in retelling the timeline of the Bible stories that we had read so far (we are at King David now).

I also realized there are some important individuals that are not covered in the Word & Song Bible (under bible) - Gideon, Deborah,Samuel and King Saul. I decided to add in the stories of all this important figures during the retelling.

It took us hours for the retelling from Creation to King David! So we used a few days to finish it. These are some of the Bibles I used to help me tell the stories that are not covered in Word & Song Bible (If you want to read my review on each individual Bible, please click on the title of the Bible)-

Pray & Play Bible (under Bible)- Again and again, I can say enough good things about this book and the Vol 2. Love it.

 People of the Bible (under Bible part 2)

The Young Learner's Bible Storybook (under Bible part 2)

My Book of Bible Rhymes (under Bible)- I bought this from garage sales a few years back. Only starting to used it. We enjoy reading the rhymes after we read the corresponding stories.

Since Den is reading now, I wanted to build up her daily devotional habit as soon as possible. I wanted to buy the Beginner's Bible for her (from Sonlight Reader 2) but before I can get the Bible, I decided to  looked through my kids Bibles (I had quite a collection...worked in Children Ministry for 10 years) and see if I can get anything for her to read at the mean time. I  found one that was given by a friend a few years ago. It is very simple and it cover most of the people in the Bible. It is called God Loves Me Bible (under Bible part 2). Den love the idea that she can now read Bible her self and has been doing it everyday this week.

She has finished all the Reader 1 books except for the last one. No! I did not push her to read! In fact, I have to keep the books hidden so that she cant get her hand on them. Every time I took a new one out, her eyes lighted up as if she see a new candy! If this keep up, hmm..we have another book worm in the making! This week so far she finished

 A Fly Went By

and A Big Ball of Strings.








A friend from Church is going to lend me her Sonlight Reader 2 intermediate this Sunday. I will see if it is too difficult for Den. If it is too difficult for her then I will have to go find some other readers for her.




*Updated Book For K today.

16 July 2010

I've been sick for more than a weeks. I was too weak to take care of Den during that time. So she stayed with my parents most of the time. Needless to say, we have to stop school for awhile.

Today is the first we resumed school. We are in SG. So instead of our usual books, we decided to read the books we borrowed from SG library the last time and have not had the chance to read.

We read 2 Chinese books and 3 English book. The one we love the most is the one that talk about probability! It is called "It's Probably Penny" (under Math). It talk about a teacher using Jelly beans to teach kids about the concept of probability - Will, Might, Can't, Tiny chance, Impossible, Equal Chances and Unequal Chances. Later on, homework is given and we follow Penny (one of the students) home and see how she come up with examples to do her home works on probability! Den and I did the homework together too. This is what we have come up with:

A) Predict three events for this weekend:

1. One that WILL happen - We will eat dinner every night.
2. One that MIGHT happen - We might eat in S11 tomorrow night
3. One that CAN'T happen-  We will have dinner in MLY this weekend.

B) Think of two different evets:

1. One has a TINY chance of happening - We will go to library this weekend
2. One is impossible- den become an angel.

C) Write about an event that has three or more EQUALLY possible outcomes - May be we will go to a Mall or Swimming Pool or stay home tomorrow.

D) Tell about an event with several possible out comes that are NOT equally likely. Put them in order from the MOST likely to happen to the LEAST likely - What we are going to do on Sunday?

• Go to church (most likely)
• Go to a mall (next most likely)
• Go to a zoo (least likely)

This is a fun and interesting way to learn about probability. I just loves all this math books in SG library.

Besides that, Den started another Dr. Seuss book for her Sonlight Reader 1 - One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (under Sonlight Reader 1). She read 27 pages, might read more tonight. I wont be surprised if she finish it by tomorrow.

We also looked at some of the internet link for Week 10 science. This are some of the interesting links:

1) Games about animals:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/living_things/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/wild/games/

2) Slide show to learn more about animals, click here.

3)Games that teach about germs, click here

4) See the animals/plants/virus/bacterias' cell here.

We wanted to go down to the playground but it started to rain, so I let Den read from one of her favorite reading site http://www.starfall.com/. It is one of my favorite too because it is free! haha!

*Book for K is updated today.

06 July 2010

We finally finished Sonlight Week 10 last week and started week 11.

For Bible, we listened and sang about Samson, Ruth and David & Goliath (The Word & Song Bible).

For history we learned about Christopher Columbus, the new world, Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and Native American. From I Heard Good News Today (under Bible & Christian book), we also learned about Bartolomeo Las Casas who was the first priest ever to be ordained in America and he bought the gospel to the new land. These are some of the internet links we found interesting:

1. Christopher Columbus, click here.

2. For the voyage of Mayflower, the daily lives of the Pilgrims as well as the Native American at that time and the First Thanksgiving, check out this interesting site here.

Den was not too interested with this part of the history. It took me lots and lots of retelling before she can remember the story. For us the best time to review what we have learned is during those short pocket of time - waiting for bus, travelling, lining up to clear immigration, etc. It is too short for her to draw or do anything else and yet too bore to be do nothing. So she usually participate in the review willingly (doing something is better than doing nothing! haha).

To spark her interest with the Native American, I let her watched Pocahontas. This is the only Disney princess movie she had not watched. I told her she can watch it only after she can tell me about Christopher Columbus, Pilgrims, First Thanksgiving, etc. She did, so she watched the movie last week.

One night when she was drawing, she decided to draw a picture of a Native American couple. From the picture, you can tell she especially fascinating with their head dress.

For Science, we learned in week 10, the 6 features of all living things (Need air, need food, make babies, can move, sensitivity and produce waste); we also learned about different type of animals - Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, creepy-crawlies and water life. I was going high and low looking for the Wee Sing Animals Animals Animals CD because the first song in the CD talk about different type of animals! But I don't seems to be able to find it...may be I lend it to someone...I don't remember! (In fact, after I typed those word, I started another search! Still cant find it!)

In week 10, we also learned about animals and plants cells. To remind Den about this, we reread the interesting science book we read last year What's Smaller Than A Pygmy Shrew? (under Science 2) that not only talk about cells but also molecules, atoms, electrons, protons, neutrons and quarks! I know it sounds crazy to talk about all these with a 4-5 years old but the book make everything sound so interesting. Believe it or not, this is one of Den favorite book to read.

Any way, this year we learned a bit more about the differences between animals and plants cell (I didn't know about this! Must has been daydreaming in science class!!!) - animal cells have a skin called membrane, inside the membranes is watery gel. While plant cell has a tough cell wall that give them a fixed shape.

To explain this better to Den, I decided to do 3D models of the cells suggested in Sonlight IG. I cooked the jello, put it into 2 plastic bags. I put one of the bags into a clear plastic container. I also added some cereals into the jello to represent organelles within cells. I put the jello in the refrigerator and took them out 2 hours later and let Den played with them. The jello inside the plastic container representing Plants' cell (with tough cell wall), the other one is Animals' cell. Den loved this, not only she get to play with Jello, she get to eat some too. ^^

For week 10 science we also looked at the Science Activities and the DVD that goes hand in hand with the book. We love the experiments we were supposed to do - making craft dough and bread! but I don't see how it related to what we have learned in science this week. We ended up did not do the experiment last week because we were out of flour and our yeast was expired!! We plan to do it this week...if we manage to buy flour and yeast.

We started week 11 Bible verse.

"Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. ~ Psalm 34:13"

We already know this verse from Hide 'Em In Your Heart Vol 1 (under Bible & Christian), so it was not a problem for Den to remember the verse.

We also read 4 poems from The Llama Who Has No Pajamas (we were supposed to read two but every time we read this book, we just don't seems to be able to stop! I finally decided we might as well finish it before the schedule and read another poem book later on) and 3 pages of Mother Goose (both under Poem).

On top of that, Den did a few pages of math & writing worksheets. We also played our Mercy Watson Chinese games. Den finished reading another 2 books on her own - Little Bear & Put Me In The Zoo (both under Sonlight Reader 1).

This week did not start off well...I have been sick since Sunday. Den also have slight fever yesterday. So to prevent her from catching the virus from me, she has been staying with my parents...so we have not done any school since Sunday.

* I updated Review for K Books today*