I Taught Nick his Phonics and Now He's On The Way To Reading! (Part1)

Am so happy!! Nick can finally READ!!

  

I first taught the sounds of the alphabets. A-Z.. Wasn't easy and i played the Phonics song the whole time when the kids are home.. Grace can also memorize the sounds after a while. 

Then, i taught him the "a" words.

  

at
cat sat bat fat
pat mat rat hat

  

an
can fan ran ban
man van pan
  
ap
cap tap gap map
  
am
jam ham
  
ag
bag lag nag rag
sag tag 
  
ad
bad dad had mad
pad sad
  
ab
cab jab tab
  
as
gas has
  
ax
fax tax max wax

Then, the "e" words

en
ten men hen
  
et
pet met wet let get
  
ed
bed red
  

eg
leg

  

Then the "i" words

it
bit fit hit kit pit sit

in
bin fin pin tin win

ig
big dig jig rig

ip
dip hip lip sip tip zip

id
bid did hid lid mid rid

ib
bib nib rib

im
him dim rim

is
his

ix
fix mix

  

Then the "o" words

ot
hot pot cot dot got lot not rot

op
cop hop pop top

ob
bob job mob sob

od
pob nob rob

og
fog jog log dog

or
fog

on

  

And the "u" words

ub
tub rub
  
ud
bud mud
  
ug
bug hug
  
um
gum hum
  
un
gun bun sun fun run
  
up
pup cup
  
ut
cut hut
  
us
bus

The Decision is Final : Grace is Out of Childcare!

Yes.. You read it right! 

After battling for months with the pros and cons of not sending Grace to school, her having friends and mixing around, the aftermath of her skipping school for 3 days a week, mummy has decided to withdraw little Grace from school and mummy is taking up the super duper big and heavy task on home-schooling her!

This also means, mummy will be super busy entertaining this little girl the whole day and if you are thinking of dating the mummy out, please google the weather forecast before doing so since mummy seldom brave the rain with the little kids!  If weather's too hot, mummy also is very lazy to go out.. Oh, and afternoons, also can't go out anymore since little Grace needs her afternoon nap.. 

And, yes.. Mummy is STUCK at home.. :P

Grace and Her Lapbooking Journey

Recently, seems like every home-school kid is in a way or another embarking on lapbook-ing journeys.  Grace is no exception since mummy has decided that she is so done with all the flash cards flashing and decided to chuck them aside for now. 

  

Little girl is currently into her 5th lapbook and some friends have been asking us how we go about doing them as some of the samples from other blogs seems pretty much for more older kids.. 

  

OK.. this is what i have to share.. Please do let me know if you have any other ideas on how to improve on them.. 

- Grace's lapbooks are meant to be more of little picture books rather than a book with plenty of details since she has just turned 2yo and barely can recognize words.

- What mummy does is she look for pictures related to the topic / theme we have for the week, drop them into a zip lock bag, and Grace will paste them in either a mini scrapbook or vanguard sheet. 

- Once that is done, mummy will stick a sheet of plastic over the page to ensure that the pictures don't fall out or the paper doesn't tear easily. 

    

For little Grace, it seems like this method of learning works better than the flash cards since she is able to tell me the names of the flowers and leaves for this little project (i am able to see almost immediately results rather than flashing and not knowing if anything really goes into her brain or not).  

  

The best part i like about these little lapbooks that Grace does is she learn to take great pride in her little work and will fight her brothers off just to protect her "books" and she constantly take them out to admire her own work.. :P 

Grace having fun with the Tangram

I have looking around for another toy similar to the Tangram, but as it's a Montessori kind of toy, the original version would be very expensive and difficult to find in Singapore. The imitation china made ones would usually come in poor quality like rougher corners so i didn't want to take the chance of Grace getting pricked by the wood.  I chanced upon the chinese tangram while window-shopping the pasar malam a couple of nights ago, dunno where was it manufactured, but the quality was decent..  With that, i made up my own cards for Grace to play around with it. 

Sample of the cards that i DIY for Grace.

Grace trying to fix the right piece into the right place. Seems like a simple task, but not so for the little girl. She needs to get the colors, sizes and directions right.