For review & info on most of the books I mentioned here, please goes to http://www.squidoo.com/ahomeschoolingmomjornel (updated 10 Oct 2009)&
http://homeschoolingmombookreview.blogspot.com/My almost 5 years old DD, Den had surgery to correct her squint one month ago. (For the detail about that, please refer to
my previous post).
When I looked back at the past month, we had not been doing much. For the first two weeks, we took it easy because I did not want to add any stress to her body. I just read aloud a lot of stories for her whenever I can.
3rd week was Hari Raya and we went out almost every day with families and friends. It almost felt like Chinese New Year just minus the Hong Pao.
28th Sept, we went back for an eye check and her ophthalmologist was satisfied with the result. Praise the Lord for that. After the initial 3 weeks, Den did not complain about double visions or dizziness anymore. Her eyes still tend to get red at the corner whenever she is tired though.
Most probably, we are going to bring her back to the orthoptist for a detailed check-up to make sure she is really using both eyes now. She is also praying that God will take away her astigmatism so that she does not need to wear glasses. ST & I have been trying to build up her self-esteem - she thinks she is very ugly when she wears her glasses - but that is another story for another day.
From 30th Sept to 4th Oct we were in Singapore again. My DH, ST accepted a job there and we were down there scouting for a good area to stay.
I brought along a few tiny books for her to practice reading - Scholastic Phonics Reader 2 & Brand New Readers Green Set
(both under Review - Language), and worksheets for her to do - Disney Princess Addition & Subtraction (
under review- math)& My Bible Activity Book
(under review - Bible & Christian stories 2).
To entertain her in the long car ride, I brought along the lacing toy that she enjoyed very much during our cuti-cuti MLY & SG trip (read more about it
here) and I also found a wonderful series of CD books from MPH Midvalley - Usborne Young Reading
(under Review-CD Book). I bought one of the titles before the trip -
Stories of Prince & Princess. She loved it so much that I went back a few days ago to get another 3 titles -
Pinocchio,
The Princess & the Pea, and
The story of Castles. There are still many many more titles available at RM19.90 each (20% off if you go on Wed, member-only til the end of OCT 2009). I have not given the new books to her yet. Maybe I will wait til the next long car ride.
When we were in SG, we visited a kindergarten. It is run by a church and has a good review and according to the parents on the SG parenting board, it is not so academic.
I was playing with the possibilities of sending Den to K1 kindergarten in SG for 2 reasons - 1st, once we move there she is going to miss all her friends in MLY, this is the fastest way for her to get to know new friends. 2nd, everyone bugs me about how good SG's education system is, and think I should not miss the opportunity for sending her to a SG school. So we decided to check it out.
It was quite a disaster. It was a big school with hundreds of kids. We went there during the supposed to be "fun time" - exercises before the class. The teacher leading the exercise on stage had no expression on her face. In fact, none of the teachers there (except for the principal) smile!! There were a lot of class works and they even have Spelling homework for the K2 kids every week!! The principal explanation - is so that kids would be able to get used to going to Primary!! Yes, I'm sure those kids whose start going to school at 3 years old will be very well adjusted for Primary, so well adjusted that they will be totally bored with school by P2!
The scary part is this is supposed to be the not so academic driven kindergarten!!!
Ok, at least that is an easy decision - I will continue to homeschool Den. Just have to find ways for her to get to know more friends ... a bit difficult...looks like all SG kids are in school...shall pray about it.
We did not do much fun stuff this time around. We had a free day on 2nd Oct, so we decided to go to the Science Center near where we stayed. We worried it would be a bit difficult for Den and she might not enjoy it as much as the zoo and bird park. Surprised! She loved it! We spend close to 8 hours there! She especially enjoyed the optical illusions section since we talked about this before (I thought I wrote about this but I don't seem to be able to find it anywhere in my blog! ).
I loved the futuristic section, where you could control the screen without touching it, played harps without strings, and had a fake pond that moves when you "push" the water. If our environment continues to deteriorate, we might need that soon.
ST loved the F1 stimulation race. He was no 1 in the race!
We had to miss one of the fun sections- water work - playing with water!! because we did not prepare a change of clothes! :(
Den think it is even better than the zoo & bird park! Haha!
After we returned from SG, Den begged me to start homeschooling her. I love homeschooling because Den begged me to school her instead of the other way around!!
So this week, we did 2 lessons of Teacher Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
(under review-Language). She did not forget any of the sounds, just forgot one or two sight words. In fact, I think she is getting faster and faster at reading.
We also practiced Chinese flesh cards - only forgetting 3 words. Very good.
Besides that we also finished one week of Sonlight program and a new Bible verse - Pride goes before...a fall. Proverb 16:18.
She also did some math and Chinese worksheets. As a whole, I think she did not forget anything important even though we stopped school for close to a month.
