Alphabet of the week: Letter B for body

This week is for letter B. For Body! We had a really fun week and my boys are exposed to a topic that is very new and interesting to them. Initially, I am a bit worried that they will not be interested in biology at such an early age, but I am wrong. And I am so glad that the materials I prepared are put to good use this week.

 

As usual we did our work on letter B curriculum from thisreadingmama.com. And I wont be going into details for them.

First, I brought out all the books on human body to them, and introduced this new topic to them.

 

 

 

Our favorite book of all is by scholastic My Body book. It is the prefect first book to introduce this unit as the texts are simple and concise. Images are attractive to the kids and they enjoyed it very much.

 

 

Aidan and his ugly face and his favourite book.

 

 

Next, I pulled out 2 pcs of parchment paper and taped them together into a huge piece and invited Allen to lie on it as Aidan and I traced him onto the paper. This pc was then taped to the wall for later lesson use.

 

Next, we worked on our body 3parts card which I downloaded from http://everystarisdifferent.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-world-around-me-all-about-me.html.

Her blog have many free unit studies resources, do check her out!

 

 

Next we had a discussion of the many different hair colors people have and practiced our colors again at the same time.

 

 

Next is the sequencing of life stages.

 

 

A little exercise game. They have to take turns to choose the numeral cards and action cards and do the action that many times. I used our Chinese numeral cards for this. Nasty and cunning mummy...

 

And we had a fun time singing and dancing to the song: Head and shoulders, knees and toes.

 

 

We are fortunate enough to own lots of the leapfrog educational leap reader materials. And we used the set of human body to reinforce what we have learnt. Mostly on the digestive systems as that is what big brother Aidan is interested in since we read My Body book from scholastic. Child led learning hor, mai siao siao.

 

 

Body parts self correcting puzzles by learning journey.

 

We watched the magic school bus episode on digestive system on youtube. The boys first time watching magic school bus shows and they loved it.

 

 

Next we build our body map. The organs images are downloaded from confessionsofahomeschooler blog. The boys have to color in the images first then we taped them to our body.

 

Allen trying to put the large intestine at the head -.-"

 

 

And finally a cut and paste worksheet I got from the internet. Forgot to save the link down, so sorry...

 

For numbers practice, Allen used the flashcards and learnt counting and sequencing to 20.

 

 

And we worked on the counting puzzles from learning journey as well. We snatched up many sets from ROSS at $5 each during the Christmas sale last year.

 

And we also revised on our at and an family words using Melissa and doug wooden alphabets pcs.

 

We did many more activities but I did not have any nice shots of them. A very fun week indeed and it makes me miss my work back in Singapore. (I am a nurse:)

 

Ok. gtg... thanks for stopping by.

XOXO

Ashley

 

 

Alphabet of the week: Letter D

 

 

Time passes by so quickly. We haven get to enjoy the letter D week fully and it's over. The boys loved this week as D stands for DINOSAURS! Many of the dinosaurs materials we already had at home as they have been Aidan's favorite since he first watched Jurassic park movie years back.

As usual, we always start off with the mini alphabet books from this reading mama reading the alphabets curriculum. Thank you so much for your free curriculum printable. They are especially helpful for us new to homeschooling.

 

 

The sightword of the week is 'my'. This sightword maze worksheet is for Aidan.

 

 

And this sightword poke is for Allen.

 

 

Sightword search worksheet printed from overthebigmoon.com for Allen. We will say the sound of the letter D when he found it. Allen still tends to confuse the letter b with d. So I made a note to work on it.

 

 

Letter D do a dot worksheet.

 

 

And letter D tracing worksheet.

 

 

Working on their gluing and fine motor skills with KUMON sticker workbook. Kumon series are great and fun, I brought many of their workbooks for the books from amazon.com first as back in Singapore their books are sold at an even higher price. Better to stock up here first. LOL. Typical kiasu mummy.

 

For maths concepts, Allen did the sequencing of 1-10 with the dinosaur numbers from confessions of a homeschooler blog. We also practiced our colors with the dinosaurs.

 

Next up is the sequencing of the sizes of dinosaurs. Allen gets the concept of big and small. But he still have difficulty understanding the instructions of arranging the dinosaurs from small to big. I had to show him once how to arrange then he gets it but when I asked him to arrange from big to small, he will blur again.

 

Recognizing the 'big' , 'medium' and 'small' sight words.

 

 

We had a fun time working on our Melissa and Doug dinosaurs puzzles. Their puzzles are of very good quality, able to stand up to the violence from my boys. I have also purchased their solar system floor puzzles as well for our future solar system unit study.

 

 

 

Next, I pulled out our dinosaur toobs and the 3 parts cards which I made for it. Unfortunately, my laptop crashed shortly after that and I have lost the printable for it.

 

 

Next the boys turned into Paleontologists and had fun digging for T-Rex tooth and poop in this T-rex dig kit which my husband scored at a toy store in Scottsdale shopping center.

 

 

 

 

For art and craft, I remembered I still had this foam kit I brought last year from Walmart craft section. And we revisited it this week. The building of the foam dinos are done mostly by ME of course, they are too lazy to try, but the decorations are all sticked on by them.

 

The books used for this week. The boys loved Dinosaurumpus the most as it is very fun to read and you can even sing it too! I borrowed it from our local library and Aidan asked me whether I can buy it for him instead.-.-" Ok darling, I will order it from amazon for u ok...

 

 And that concludes our letter D week.

thanks for stopping by.

xoxo

ashley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our struggle with chinese and a free 3 parts cards printable

 

 

First of all, our family wishes all the Chinese a prosperous and happy lunar new year ahead! Buy 4D win 4D and buy TOTO win first prize! LOL.

 

Although my husband and I mostly converse in Chinese at home-like 99%, my 2 boys Chinese are super duper lousy. When we moved here, Aidan was 3 and Allen was 1, both of them only started picking up language (from the television and school) after we moved here. So now they speak English even better than my Singlish (Singapore version of English with mixed dialects...) and with an accent too.

 

And since we will be moving back to Singapore this year September, I started to panic, especially for Aidan, whereby he will be having Chinese language as his second language in schools. I tried to google for Chinese teaching resources online that is available in United States (which is super limited and expensive), asked my dear sister back in Sg to help me purchase Chinese books and paid for their ridiculous shipping to here. Below are the few reviews on the Chinese materials I got:

 

 

Firstly I got hold of this: Er San Kuai Du which is recommended by many bloggers.

 

This set consists of the following:
-   1 guidance book (tips/instructions for parents to follow when using this kit in Chinese)
-   1 guidance DVD book (tips/instructions for parents to follow when using this kit in Mandarin)
-   279 sets of matching word with picture cards
-    2 sets of matching plate :1 for word/s (字 / 词) and 1 is for phrases/ sentences (短语/ 句子)
-    5 word toys (follow the instructions and these toys can transform into animals)
-  100 words stickers

 

It is supposed to make Chinese learning fun with all the hands on materials provided. BUT!!!! Not suitable for my boys yet. When I tried the first lesson with them, they dun understand what I am talking at all. Then I tried translating in English, they both got confused and ran away-.-" So, now this set is chucked in storage and still waiting for a chance to resurface again.

 

Next I got this MY FIRST CHINESE WORDS teaching set from betterchinese.com.  It consists of 36 mini story books and an audio CD. This little books are far more 'effective' for my books as they are catered mainly to English speakers (like my boys standard now) and expose them to speaking the language first. Aidan and Allen spoke their first full sentence after reading the first book from this set. Wo ai wo de mama... Aarh so sweet... LOL!

 

Highly recommended! (But a bit high end though, I couldn't bear to purchase the other supplement materials. So I got to try to diy them instead.)

 

 

A good Chinese educational online video resource is 巧虎. Most importantly their videos on youtube are free! (Just search for qiao hu on youtube and many free episodes will pop up.) Everyday I will let them watch 巧虎 on youtube and both of them enjoyed it very much and will pester me to play it for them. Their videos coves a wide range of topics, even things like good manners and potty training. Allen started mimicking the potty training part after watching for a few times and initiated to go potty himself now. Good right? No need me to teach... LOL.

 

 

For handwriting part, Aidan started to learn to write Chinese strokes and simple Chinese words in his ci zi book. This little grids writing book flew all the way from Singapore to here de hor. Exp na. LOL. He will learn 2 strokes and 2 new words every week. After learning the new words, I will put them up on the wall and review the reading with him everyday. Thinking of making 3 parts cards for him too when I have time.

 

For encouragement, I will draw a star on the last grid and he will paste a sticker on it when he finished writing the other grids. Copy the hooked on phonics award system for their workbooks. This system really works!

 

For little brother who loves his 3 parts cards, I made this Chinese numbers 3 parts cards for him to match. He loved it and asked to work on it immediately after I just finished cutting them up. You can get the free printable pdf here: chinesenumbers3part and just print them on cardstock and laminate them for durability.

 

There are many ways you can use this material, the traditional Montessori way, as flashcards, matching with Montessori bead bars and sand tray tracing control card. I will take more pics and blog them once we got to it.

 

Hope you all will enjoy this free printable and do drop me a comment on it. Thank you all so much for dropping by:

 

XOXO

Ashley

 

Alphabet of the week: Letter A

 

 

We finished our letter A study 2 weeks back and I finally had the time to post about it today. So much things to do yet so little time. As usual we started off with the reading of the letter A book by thisreadingmama.com. Then I pulled out the tactile letter for Allen to trace with his fingers. The Montessori way of tactile learning is an excellent way to teach letters recognition and preparation for writing. I got mine from ideal school supply which is cheaper than the traditional montessori sandpaper letters. The cards are sturdy so they should be able to last well and so far both my boys love them.

 

 

 

As for big brother, we used kumon wipe-off alphabet flashcards to reinforce the writing.

 

I printed this handwriting worksheet for Allen, he tried his best to trace 2 to 3 letters and started to scribble after that. I am more than happy to see him starting to hold a pencil or marker now:)

 

 

The sightword of the week is 'at'. This is big brother doing the sightword maze worksheet. Easy peasy. Sometimes Allen will ask to try it out, then I will let him at a go.

 

 

Allen working on the tracer page and drawing the apples.

 

For number recognition 1 to 20, instead of the usual marker coloring, I pulled out our sorting pie and used the tongs and apples. Allen gets to practice his fine motor skills and places an apple at the number when I randomly called it out. This sorting pie is also a great hit among homeschoolers. And as usual, I got them from the trusty amazon online.

 

 

 

Allen and I started on the Montessori maths books that I purchased from taobao.com. Dirt cheap for the books but the shipping can kill!

 

Upper case and lower case alphabets matching using hooked on phonics flashcards.

 

And beginning sounds matching as well. OKOK! I admit, I spend a LOT! on the teaching materials. At least it's for their education right? So is worth it man, really, the difference in them is so huge that my husband also think that they are worth the money investment. HEHEHE.

 

 

(Pardon the chocolate stain on Aidan's mouth) Both of them finished their sightword search.

 

Ok, enough of the worksheets, now to the fun portion. Letter A for apples! This is a apple sequencing puzzle which I downloaded from here. Good for introducing the 'whole' concept.

 

And this is Aidan sequencing the apple cards according to size and labelling them. Picture cards are downloaded from confessionsofahomeschooler blog.

 

For counting, I printed this apple tree from confessionsofahomeschooler blog and the boys will draw a number and to count and place the correct number of apples onto the tree. For more budget wise, you can just draw your own tree. I am plain lazy that's y.

 

Next up is the apple life cycle 3 parts cards which I printed from helpfulgarden blog. Do check her out, as she has tons of amazing free Montessori printables.

 

 

And the parts of the apple puzzle. Laminated it so I can chuck it aside and pull them out for revision.

 

Then, we did a little craft and revised the apple parts and life cycle.

 

 

This worksheets for actually both for little brother, but Big brother saw it on the table and just started to work on it along with Allen.

 

Rhyming cut and paste.

 

 

A is for asia. I pulled out our leapfrog world map and talked to Aidan about Asia... He listen till blur blur and just keep talking about the airplane. I even went to the library to borrow a book on our hometown, Singapore. Tried to read it to him, but he is not interested at all and ran away... Sad, chuck the map and book back on shelf... Maybe next time...

 

This is Allen second try on his name writing worksheet. If you wanna me to help you customize it to your child's name, just drop me a comment below and I will get to it asap. As you can see, Allen's handwriting still has a long way to go, well, at least he can recognizes his name well and can spell it out orally. Jiayou!

 

And this concludes our letter A week. Luckily, we had our Chinese new year celebration last week,  we got very slack in our homeschool so it will be a super short and sweet post.

 

Thanks for dropping by

XOXO

Ashley