23 & 24 Oct 2010

We did it! We managed to make 22 cupcakes yesterday!! This was the first time we make cupcakes and frosting, so we were a bit worry how they would turn out! They turn out quite cute, like Den, pink! ^^ Den ate 2 of them and we sold the rest to family members and church friends and we manage to collect RM281. That is like RM14 (USD4.10) per cupcake!! DH and I promised to match every dollar Den collected, so all together today we have RM562 (USD165.30) for Mission India!

We almost did not ended up in church today to sell the cupcake. My SIL had premature labour contraction last night, she was admitted to the hospital and I spent the night accompanied her since her hubby, my dear brother is currently working oversea. Thank God that every thing is all right and she was discharged this afternoon.

This morning when Den woke up and realized no one was going to church (I was in the hospital, my mom was exhausted, etc), she started to cry. She really really wanted to bring her cakes there to sell. So my mom ended up brought her to church and she sold all of them in like 15 mins. ^^ She was very very happy she manage to collect so much money for the kids in India.

Yesterday when I praised her for putting some of her weekly allowance (on top of tithing) into the collection suitcase for Mission India, she replied, "This is more important than keeping money to buy toys." ^^

Yesterday we managed finished Sonlight week13 Science. We learned about butterfly and flowers and how the insect carry the pollen from one flower to another. We also did copywork, Yamaha homework and practiced piano. We spent better part of the days making cupcakes.

22 Oct 2010

I am still sick. I was getting a lot better (almost totally well) before I came back to MLY. Then after I came back, I got worst. Today I was running with slight fever but still we managed to school.

We are in Sonlight Week 13 and 14 for the last couple of weeks. Week 14 Bible verse is really hard - 

No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)

 So I decided to teach Den the same verse in Chinese using the song "一个人不能事奉两个主”instead. She managed to pick it up after I sang it to her a few time .

A sister from my SG homeschooling group has recently attached a copywork file in her blog which coincide with Sonlight K Bible verse. I was so happy when I received it, because I have been thinking of how to teach Den to spell. In her blog, she wrote about how her kids learn to spell simply by doing copywork.

Den did two of her copyworks this week - the first one is Matthew 6:24 but not the whole verse. I just let her copy "No one can serve two masters". Then today she read a short story(included in her copywork)  and copy "It is unwise to treat friends badly".

This is how the sister arranged her copywork (For Den, we don't do copywork everyday):
•Monday – verse(s) from the Bible

•Tuesday – short story
•Wednesday - famous quotes
•Thursday – part of a poem
•Friday – journal page
 
I really like her idea of when you do copywork, you don't just rip a sentence from somewhere. Instead let your kid read the short story or poem, then copy the sentence. You can read more and download her copywork in her blog Teaching Our Own.
 
We have been studying about Native American, the pioneers, the move from East to West (America) both in History and I heard Good News Today (under Bible & Christian Stories). Today after we finished all the history about this era, we make a tepees, following the instruction given in Living Long Ago (under History).

 
 
We also listen to some of cowboys' songs here.
 
We did not do any new topic in science today, instead we did some of the Internet links on creepy crawlies:
1. Let's Talk about Insect: This one give you a very very lengthy and in depth information about insect. It is suitable for kids but we find too lengthy.
 
2. Brain Pop On Spiders: A very short animation on spiders.
 
I also let Den repeat the short vowels sounds lesson in Starfall (if you have never heard of starfall, you should really check it out. It is a free site to promote reading in phonics) because we had started using CLP's language art 101 recently and the first topic is short vowels sound.  
 
After many many months of thinking and rethinking, I decided to buy some workbooks from CLP (Christian Light Publications). It is much cheaper for me to buy workbooks from the local publications, however I cant find one local publication that have a systematic workbooks that cover from K to Grade 6. So I have been buying from various publications and I find this really inconsistent. So after much thought, I finally decided to go with CLP. CLP workbook come with Teacher Guild which is a great help for me.
 
I bought the LA 101 -110 for Den but I did not buy the Learning To Read series that are supposed to go hand in hand with the LA because I find the Learning To Read series too easy for Den. So far she enjoy doing the workbook and very excited about the quiz! Hahah! She heard so much from her friends about quiz in school that she still does not want to go to school but very looking forward in doing quiz.
 
She did lesson 3 in 101 today and she is going to do lesson 4 tomorrow. After lesson 4, there is a short quiz (like a review). She cant wait for the quiz, begging me to let her do lesson 4 today. I refused since we were running out of time.
 
We also did review on some of the Chinese words she learned and read some Chinese books.
 

For the past few weeks we also have been using a program called My Passport To India. It is a 5 weeks program (every week 2 lessons) by Mission India and Sonlight.  After we signed up (free), we received a "passport" (workbook) and a "suitcase" (donation box).

 

 

In every lesson, we watch a short video, then we see photo and read facts and stories and testimonies about India and about how God has been working in India. It has been an eye opening experience for Den. She knew some people are poor but she had no idea how poor is poor until she saw how the kids live in slum and 7 people live and sleep in a small one room hut. The testimony from one of the girl who is forced to steal to support her family filled her eyes with tears.

 
Den really want to help. She has been putting her weekly allowances into the donation box and asked her grand parents to contribute. She also tried to ask her best friend EE to donate but her explanation was too lengthy and EE ran away before Den could finish explaining! ^^
 
We are going to make some cupcakes tomorrow (1st time making cup cake, so have my fingers crossed!) and will bring them to church on Sunday to sell. We are not going to make much, may be 10 or so. So we don't expect to get much from the sale, however I think it will be a very good experience for Den. I have promised to match every dollar she collected in  the donation box. Besides that, Sonlight also going to match every dollar that kids send, up to the USD $167,00 if we send our donation before 17 Nov 2010.

15 Oct 2010

I'm still sick today. It did not seem to get better...

My throat is better though (even though headache and flu are getting worst),  so after piano practice (45 min), I read 3 Chinese books for Den, including 我把哪个部分弄丢了？(What Is My Missing Part?).

This is part of the bilingual books I bought a few months back. I read the Chinese printed text for her, after that she pasted the English text stickers into the corresponding pages. You can check out my previous write up for the other two books from the same series -纸飞机飞到哪里去了？ (Where Is The Paper Airplane?) and 凯文在大海中旅行 (Kevin travels in the sea).

Today's book is about Shapes -圆形(circle)， 三角形(triangle)，椭圆形(oval)，六角形(hexagon)，正方形(square)，长方形(rectangle) and 菱形(Diamond).

She knew all the name of the shapes in English, except for hexagon but she only know 圆形(circle), 三角形(triangle)，正方形(square)and 长方形(rectangle) in Chinese. Still need lots of revision after this. I'm still think on how to keep track of all the things that I need to drill her with.

After that she read a lesson from Disney Princess' Reading Comprehension (see the write up here) and answered the questions. She still made mistakes. Looking for answer in the story by her self is still a new thing for her.

After that she did a lesson on Capital Letters (when to put capital letter) in Enchanted English Key Stage 1(read more about that here) and a 3x2 Sudoku. She was much faster in the sudoku today but I still have to sit with her. She spent about 2 hours working on school works today.

I did not ask her to read her reader today because she had been reading a book I bought from garage sales called Magical Stories For 6 Year Old. She read 63 pages already. I think that's enough for a day's reading! ^^ She is obsessed with reading recently, basically will read everything and anything (too bad only in English! When she sees a Chinese book, she will just turn and walk away!!!)

Last night, my DH showed her my blog (she did not know I have been keeping a blog about her schooling), her first reaction was "DELETE ALL OF THEM NOW!!!" After my DH told her it cant be deleted and we did not put her real name in the blog, she was OK with that. Then she started to read my blog! DH said, from now on I got to be even more careful of what I write!^^

Lessons with a 3.5 years old Part 4

Lesson 6: 23 Sept 2010

1115-1135: Bible Lesson: I’m Precious in God's eyes

• Bible Verse Psalm 119:73 (Learn how to find the book of Psalm in the Bible)
• Im precious little book (Den read)

 • Rhymes & Songs:

（Rhyme 1)

God made me special.

He made you special, too!
He gave me ears so I can hear.
He gave me eyes so I can see.
He gave me feet to tap, tap, tap.
He gave me hand to clap, clap, clap.
He gave me legs to walk, walk, walk.
He gave me a mouth so I can talk.
God made me special!
God made you special, too!

(Rhyme 2)
God made people special.
We start as tiny babies.
Then we grow bigger.
Soon we can walk and talk.
And we grow,
and grow,
and grow until we are all grown up!
God made people special!

Song 1: (Tune:London Bridge)
I’m so glad that God made me
God made me, God made me.
I’m so glad that God made me.
God made me special.

I’m so glad that God made hands (hair, feet, etc),
God made hands, God made hands,
I’m so glad that God made hands.
God made me special.

Song 2:
你很特别
管人怎样看着你的脸
你很特别
神爱世人没有分别
你很特别
自信花朵开满心里面
只要相信神造我们
就是很特别

1135-1145: Chinese Lesson: 凯文在大海中旅行：Learn body parts in Chinese

• Read 凯文在大海中旅行

• Sing 头发，肩旁，膝盖，脚趾 (Tune: Head and shoulders)

• Play -Chant: 手对手（脚对脚，肚子对肚子，etc） Boom Ti ada boom, boom (x2)


11:45-12:30 Science: Nature - Read from the Berenstain's Bear Big Book of Science and Nature (under science)


• God made vs Man made
• Craft: Went out door to look for things are made by God and cut things that are made by man from magazines

12:30-12:45 English Read Aloud: Poem, books


12:45-2:15 Lunch Break

2:15-2:45 Individual Time:

• Den: Work on copying Bible Verse and Math worksheet

• XE:

o Sudoku -I used Den sudoku game board 2x2 to teach her the game.

o Worksheet - I started her on Sonlight Developing the Early Learner Level One (under workbook)


Lesson 7: 24 Sept 2010

11:15-Noon Review Bible & Chinese Lesson

Noon-12:45 Using Shape to paint  (introduce Shape name in Chinese)-  正方形，长方形，三角形，圆形:

Den's artwork

XE's artwork

12:15-01:00 Clean up

1:00 Lunch and Library

14 Oct 2010

I am sick. We were supposed to have school with the 3.5 years old XE today but I got throat infection and cant really talked. So we had to cancel school last minute.

Instead, Den and I had a quite day at home.

She practiced her piano (45 min) and did 3 homeworks (about 1.5 hours)  -

1. Reading Comprehension - Using Disney Princess Reading Comprehension. I bought this last year but it was too difficult for her then. Now is just nice. She read the story her self and answer the written questions her self.

She has no problem in understanding stories but this is a very good practice in learning to answer question in a proper manner.

2. Grammar -Continued using Enchanted English Key Stage 1 (you can read more about this here). Today is a review on what we had learned for the past few lessons - alphabet order, plurals, present tense, ck ending, magic e (or silence E) and past tense.

3. Sudoku- I recently found a good sudoku for kids in Book Xcess (Amcop Mall, PJ). I cant remember the name of the book now. It cost RM12.90, a bit expensive for a sudoku book...since the one I'm using only cost me RM1!

But I like it that it came in 3 levels - starting with 2x2 boxes, then 3x2 boxes finally normal 3x3 boxes. In each level, the difficulties increased with each puzzles.

Den just started doing the 3x2 boxes. She is not very good at it yet. She understands what need to be done and how to do it but she keep making mistakes, so most of the time I need to work with her.

After that we make a craft (1 hour) - using colorful crystals and make a wind chime. I bought it from a homeschooling garage sales in SG.  It only cost SGD1!! This is the 2nd time we worked with these colorful crystal beads, I think we did a good job.

We only had time for the activities above. I planed to let her work on Chinese and Reading but we never make it there....tomorrow is another day! Any way, we had fun staying home. When I asked her can we have another quite day at home tomorrow, just like today. She agreed eagerly. ^^