(2003) Calling all 2003 babies

Hi Ky,
You're right about models in pri schools. Was told something like you are required to draw your model for tests/exams, and you will be penalized for wrong model and right answer (if you made mistake in drawing model)
 


Hi ky,
Thanks. You are very right. Frankly speaking, I think I'm the one who will be getting shocks. Things are so drastically different since I left. I think I'm the one that needs to adjust fast.

Hi Sarah/ky/Pris,
I heard abt the importance on Models teaching too. Do you know of any classes that teach parents on it? My hubby is asking me to read up on the primary school textbooks... Being a parent is so difficult nowadays.
 
Hi Sarah,
There's one Eton's House close to my place but its compound is rather small. That's why we are unlikely to consider it. When I called them up last month, there was still vaccancies for morning sessions. Not so keen on it cos they are using Letterland Phonics. Have you heard of Chatsworth? It's using the latest phonics software from UK now.
 
Apricot: better late than never, congrats!

Sherlyn: I am staying in Jurong East, maybe we can meet for our kids to have playdate. Me a FTWM though..so can meet only weekends.

Serenade: welcome back!

Do kids in kindergarten falls sick lesser than those in the childcare?
 
Serenade,
Are you referring to Chatsworth International sch? That's the only one I know which is located in the East. Actually where are you staying in Sg?

Per what I know, the school conducts such classes when models were first introduced few years back. Perhaps Lena able to share more.
 
KY...I using place value and also counter which is small balls for ones and big balls for tens. There are lots of maths manipulatives in schools and it all depends whether the teacher teaching are using them. I used them alot when I was teaching in school. And now homeschooling Kai, it helps Kai alot.

Serenade, model has been there for many years. It is very easy to use. As far as I know it has been more than 15 yrs using models to teach problem solving in problem sums.

Yes, I archive all my lessons and artwork.

Fabian used to conduct courses for parents.
 
Serenade, there is a preschool and kindergarten under Julie Gabriel at the old turf club, heard the program is very good
 
Here's some sharing about songs I used:

Farmer in Dell (Modified.)

The chicken laid an egg..
The chicken laid an egg..
Hi-ho the dairy o
the chicken laid an egg.

The cow ate some hay..
The cow ate some hay..
Hi-ho the dairy o
The cow ate some hay...

The sheep said, "baaaaa"
The sheep said, "baaa"
Hi-ho the dairy o
The sheep said, "baaa"

The pig squealed and oinked
The pig squealed and oinked
Hi-ho the dairy o
The pig squealed and oinked

The rooster chased the hens
The rooster chased the hens
Hi-ho the dairy o
The rooster chased the hens

The farmer plowed the field..
The rabbits jumped and hopped...


Follow the tune of the wheels of the bus
The hens in the farm go cluck, cluck, cluck
cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck (x2)
The hen in the farm goes cluck, cluck, cluck
All day long.

follow by
The cows in the farm go moo, moo, moo....
The pigs in the farm go oink, oink, oink...
The ducks in the farm go quack, quack, quack...

Also Old MacDonald has a Farm.

For chinese I am using poem too, when I have time will take a photo of my first chapter poem and share, Kai also far has master the all the words in chapter one.
 
hi pris
don;t tell me your hub is the assessment bk writer fabian ng!!??

hi serenade
model approach is encouraged but during PSLE, students can use other methods to solve problem sums, not necessarily part-whole models approach.

Chatsworth is quite pricey since it;s an int'l sch,abt $1500 per term if i am not wrong. i heard that there;s not much focus on mandarin, u might like to find out if they do mandarin daily or just 2-3 times a week.

Since brandon can read, why worry abt the phonics prog used, mel's sch is using letterland too and i dont support the method at home, not a fan of the prog also cos; the letters are too fancifully hidden by letterland characters, yes, it prob makes learning fun, but for a while only, kids have to blend the sounds by looking at the plain letters at the end of the day, too much 'clutch' there.
and brandon is aleady learning addition, for most schools here, the N2 syllabus for math only covers counting up to 20, at most.
no worries, dear friend, brandon is definitely well equiped academically to face the challenges here.
Looking forward to meeting u!!
 
MH
Mel falls sick about twice a mth since she started nursery in jan, so i am not sure abt kids being 'healthier' at kindy.
 
ky
does republic poly organise concerts regularly?
i went there once to eat at 'house of lobsters', famed for lobster porridge and seafood, but too salty for my taste buds.

btw, what;s san zi jing? is it chinese poems?
any good for our kids? havent explored those yet.
 
moshimoshi....no lah...Fabian Ng in fact is a teacher who left MOE to start his own business, a friend of my ex-colleague.

In fact, model for solving maths was introduced in Japan many years ago and one of the retired NIE lecturer incorporated it in Singapore and try using it to teach maths to primary school pupils then and those pupils' maths result improved alot so they incorporated into Maths in school.

There are
Part-whole model
comparative model
multiplication model etc

then in PSLE, pupils can used different methods to solve like working backward, trial and error etc
 
mommies
if u have excess bread, paint on them by using a clean brush and 'paint' made of milk and a few drops of food coloring, toast it and viola, an artistic snack!
 
i still can't figure out how time-out will work on mel, she is the type who would only stop crying if i hug/kiss her to assure her that i am no longer angry, u know, we must reconcile first b4 crying stops.
so what happens if she doesn't stop after 5 mins or so? care to elaborate more?
 
hi hi

Moshi,
just went to Republic Poly for the concert. fantastic. it can be considered my first proper SSO concert. The conductor Darrell Ang did an intro of each piece before it's played and that certainly helped music-ignorant people like me a lot. The 13-yr old violinist is very impressive ... too bad hubby missed the best piece as he was out at the toilet with Ben. It's the first time RepPoly host this concert and I'm hoping more would be hosted there soon (coz the facility is new). There's another one at Woodlands this Sunday if u r keen, but I'm not sure if the content would be the same.

SanZiJing is like what Pris said, but it's quite 'old-fasioned' chinese. today, I saw "di zi gui" - another similar but more modernized chinese which stress more on filial piety. I like the Tang poems one actually coz the music pretty nice.
 
Hi Sarah,
Which school will Hannah be attending? Not sure abt Chatsworth cos we are not considering that. :p

Hi Pris,
Yup, JG is also under consideration. Main problem is the transport. I don't want Brandon to spend too much time on transport. Things will be easier once I get my driving license.
 
Wow, all these talking abt home schooling and learning maths, models, etc etc made me worried.

Kristin's mom, it is not all the time he can sleep at 8 plus .. usually without a nap, he can last till 10pm too if he is playing (ya plus all the crankiness) . It was me, who push him to bed by 9 if he doesnt take a nap. Furthermore he wakes very early like 7 plus or sometimes 6 plus, i am afraid too little sleep is no good for a growing child. Furthermore like you, i also need to have a quiet time for my gal to nap, else i will always have to watch out for my boy going into the bedroom to disturb my sleeping gal. And like you say, it really depends on the activities on that day and probably also the amount of sleep and activities of the day before.

Serenade, you are welcome. It is just typing .. and i m quite good at it since i often chat online at night. hahaha. I also have driving license leh, but hor, it was years ago, and only passed after the 6th test ... so till now i have not got my hands on the wheel, which is y i m really a "stay at home" mother.

ky, Mayspring is smwhere bukit panjang .. so i thot u attended the PG there.

MH, playdates at weekend would be a little inconvenient, cos my dh will be around .. and he is kind of shy guy haha. But i guess, things can be arranged.
 
Hi moshimoshi,
Actually I am hoping Brandon can experienced other forms of phonics besides Jolly & Letterland. He's quite familiar with both. Also, I'm interested to find out how the latest phonics software works. It's pretty costly and I am not sure how good it is. Am gathering as much knowledge as I can on phonics. Perhaps can go into phonics teaching :p Looking for alternative career mah...

Thanks for the encouragement. Sometimes I get cranky too, not just the kids. From what I see, my kids will have some catching up on to do on Chinese (as expected). Feel much settled after all the sharings. Thanks to all the mommies. How's Mel on addition & subtraction?

And I like it - country life sure is charming but the city allows u to meet friends like us!
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For san zi jing, I think it's something like "ren2 zi1 chu1, xing4 ben3 shan4", "zi3 bu4 jiao1, fu4 zi1 quo4"... Mommies, correct me if I'm wrong.

My niece was reciting the entire verse and some Tang poems at 4.5 years-old. Doubt Brandon can do that anytime soon.
 
Hi Sherlyn,
So you are night owl too! Hmm, and here I thought I'm the only one besides kristins_mom, heehee.

I can understand your fear on bringing 2 kids outdoor. Seriously, me too. I keep getting wild thoughts on what will happen if I bring them alone on MRTs/buses. Kudos to those parents who can manage that. Already wondering how I can flag down a cab with both hands holding the kids...
 
Hi kristins_mom,
Feeling better? The weather is pretty dry, remember to down more liquid. I have a bottle of water by my side for quenching thirst in the middle of the night. And the vapourizer was left working throughout the night. We find that very helpful. Or are you sleeping with the windows open?
 
Looks like my boy is the youngest here - he is a late December kid.

San Zi Jing was being taught during my parents' days and they were required to memorise them by heart. The starting goes like this - ren zhi chu, xing ben shan, xing xiang jin, xi xiang yuan - I am sure some of you might have heard it before. It is actually quite interesting to recite San Zi Jing and these days, they even have VCD version and I think there is at least one primary school here which uses it to impart Chinese values to their students.

Primary schools now use manupulatives to teach maths and the students are taught to draw models to solve maths problems. My older boy who is in P1 says they have a Maths Room in school where they conduct maths lesson using manupulatives.
 
Hi Serenade!

Finally got this dug out!
After having heard you complain about not having a license for the umpteeth time, here's the driving instructor's no. 98528858, Mr Neo Eng Soon. A friendly old chap! He told me there's a web page on private instructors, like grading them of some sort with the passing rate of their students. Never visited it... maybe you can search for it and see if Mr Neo is really that good. My hubby and my cousin did the learning with his buddy. They both passed on 2nd trial while I finished mine off at one trial... hehe, so you can guess who's the better instructor there... or who's the better student... haha!

Weather's been fabulous! But throat is so sore... but the doc finally gave me antibiotics today! So things should be better soon. But poor Kristin is still so cranky and has no appetite at all.

Hmmm... how do you teach Brandon to add? Do you use items first and then introduce the numerals accompanying the items and then subsequently the addition symbol? Maybe Pris you can share more here. Till now, I've not taken it any further even though Bryan's been counting quite well these days. I'm hoping to wait till fall this year when Kristin goes to the 2's class and that will really leave my mornings free... haha, now the children are in for it! Mommy will be so well rested that I will tire them out every day!
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I can understand the imminent breakdown about packing up and going back to the fast paced Sg life. I feel very laid back here, esp when it comes to children's education. Every mom or teacher has been telling me that Bryan's advance enough already. But I tell them that kids in Sg his age can read and count! And you should have seen all the jaws dropping!!! Here I don't really feel the pressure to push him at all. He's so laid back. Now I'm wondering if he'd be able to adjust when it's time for us to return to Sg, esp not with seat work for him.

Have been spending very little time on the blog this week, trying to catch up on sleep actually. Will chat with you online soon.
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Hi Pris!

Do you think you'd be comfortable sharing some of your lessons online with us? e.g. counting or reading stuffs?? Heehee, trying to tap on your experience as a pri sch teacher here.

My friend, who's also a pri sch teacher, told me before that in the past, kids weren't expected to know anything at all when they entered P1. They would learn reading and writing then. But now, even if the teacher chooses to start afresh with the children, the syllabus/curriculum will not even leave the teachers time to dwell long on the basics. So what are P1 kids expected to do?
 
Hi Sherlyn!

Yeah you are right... I always think sleep is very impt for the children... for both physical and mental growth. But then again, I was told that geniuses don't sleep alot either!

Relax sometimes... I find that the harder I fight to get them to sleep, the more frustrated it will become. There was a period of time when Kristin came back from Sg and she refused to take her nap... Thus she fell sick and still is right now. But luckily when she had her stomach flu, her routine went back to normal again... And now every morning, I work very hard to tire her out so that she'll sleep in the later part of the afternoon. But this usually doesn't happen on weekend with Daddy around. It's another routine with her... and she knows it.

On driving: I drove less than 5 times in Sg after I got my license. Coz I got pregnant with Kristin and morning sickness was terrible. WIth both my children, I always had morning sickness for a great part of the pregnancy.... it never went away after the 4th month like I was told by many moms. I only started driving a little more frequently over here in Germany. Just a tad more, only on days when my husband is out of town and isn't using the car. I think for a start, just drive very slowly... keep to the left lane and don't bother about what others behind you think of you. Safety first, coz you've got children on board mah!
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It's really a practice on building up confidence. The more often you drive, the better you get and the more road experience you'll have. My driving instructor told me this: Usually people drive very well upon getting their license. The worst drivers are those who have been driving for years and they start taking rules and speed limits for granted.
So ask your hubby to let you drive slowly...
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Hi Serenade!

Bryan was rattling off san zi jing when he was 27 months old till the verse "dou yan shan you yi fang, jiao wu zi ming ju yang". He only spent a few days watching the VCD with grandma and repeated what grandma told him every morning.
But he also quickly forgot it by the time he was 2.5 years old. No context for learning Chinese here at all. Now, he's not even interested to watch the VCD on San Zi Jing.

Brandon and Cheryl will catch on Chinese quickly when they are back in Sg. That's for sure coz they'll need to play with their cousins, neighbours, and communicate with grandparents.
 
Hi ky!

It sounds like children were allowed to watch the concert. That must have been a fun experience for Ben.

Did he go home pretending that he's a conductor???
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Moshimoshi!

Wow, the Expedit shelves you got from Ikea sounds reasonable. I paid 59 euros for ours here... that would be about 120SGD.

Finally there's an Ikea within Frankfurt. That's where we had our dinner tonight. It's always so convenient for families with kids. No need to bring cups, plates, cutleries, bibs, hot water, baby food...

Previously we used to have to drive either 45 min eastwards or westwards for Ikea.
 
Hi Sarah!

We'll be back for about 2 weeks+ starting from Jul 1 - that's when we touch down coz hubby is expected to work the next day.

So will you be around then?
 
Hi Meilan,
Thanks for letting know the seminar and I shall discuss with DH to bring Aston attend.

Thanks to all also for your great concern and best wish for my 2nd ones. It was very difficult, cos I keep having nausea feeling, vomit, tired & want to sleep more. I am now 5mths. Thot these discomforts will slowly eliminated but they are still around. I keep taking sweets stuff to curb the nausea discomforts & this is where I know sour things don work for me this time. Luckily nothing happen to my glucose count for last few checkups.
I lose weight in 1st trimester, make me worried but why worry when I am not eating much and keep throwing out. Finally last sat checkup, I gain 3kg..silly me, I actually was so happy.
Later we are going to watch Finding Nemo at 330pm at Spore Indoor Stadium and Aston is so excited. Now he and Daddy are having hair cut.

Sarah and Lena,
Sorry miss out the Ikea date. I will drop by later cos I wanna eat its chicken wings !!!
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Hi Serenade, Dont worry too much, Brandon will be joining in the N2 syallabus without worries!! U have been doing a great job with him and meimei.

MH, Think when their spent more times in school, the tendency of getting sick is much more higher.

Sherlyn, hi5. My hubby and your hubby can shake hand wor..

moshimoshi.. YA, I saw the SanZiJing in Expo. Produce by 372 shop.

Serenade/Kristin's mom, Yr 2003 table updating.. Paiseh.. is all stolen from Serenade hardwork previously. Serenade the credits shd goes to you.

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Jess, Need me to update more details from you? Think will be great if you can share with us how's ur boy in Pri 1. TIA

Keikei, a bit confused here.. u mentioned u stay Sengkang right? But u mentioned also Rachel attending N2 at Bukit Batok??!!

KY, I really salute you!
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All the way from CCK to so many places for the playgroup?
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Priscilla, thanks for kristin's mom suggestion.. do you think can work out some lesson plan in your blog..

Aston's mom - CONGRATULATIONS....

Mummies, here in the latest update ... with inclusion of Jess.

<table border=1><tr><td>FORUM NICK</TD><TD>Name / Gender</TD><TD>Mth of Birth</TD><TD>Name / Gender</TD><TD>Mth of Birth</TD><TD>Home Sweet Home</TD><TD>Status </TD></TR><TR><TD>Ky</TD><TD>Benedict</TD><TD>Feb.03</TD><TD>Keith</TD><TD>Jan.06</TD><TD>CCK</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>KeiKei</TD><TD>Rachel</TD><TD>Mar.03</TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD>Sengkang</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>AMum</TD><TD>Aston</TD><TD>Apr.03</TD><TD>??</TD><TD>EDD Aug07??</TD><TD>Punggol</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Irene</TD><TD>G</TD><TD>Apr.03</TD><TD>Bryan</TD><TD>May.05</TD><TD>?</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Joanne (jojoscs)</TD><TD>Benny</TD><TD>Apr.03</TD><TD>Bryan</TD><TD>Jan.05</TD><TD>Bt Gombak</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Sherlyn</TD><TD>Tew Jing An (B)</TD><TD>Apr.03</TD><TD>Tew Yu Xin (G)</TD><TD>Oct.04</TD><TD>Clementi</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Sarah (densar)</TD><TD>Hannah</TD><TD>May.03</TD><TD> </TD><TD> </TD><TD>Changi</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Serenade</TD><TD>Brandon</TD><TD>May.03</TD><TD>Cheryl</TD><TD>Jun.05</TD><TD>Hillview (France)</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>MH</TD><TD>Wei Shuen</TD><TD>Jun.03</TD><TD>Li Shuen</TD><TD>Jan.06</TD><TD>Jurong East</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>BlurPooh</TD><TD>Shawn</TD><TD>Jul.03</TD><TD>Shanon</TD><TD>May.05</TD><TD>Joo Seng</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Emily</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>Aug.03</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>Mar.05</TD><TD>?</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Kristins_mom</TD><TD>Bryan</TD><TD>Aug.03</TD><TD>Kristin</TD><TD>Aug.05</TD><TD>Tiong Bahru (Germany)</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Moshimoshi</TD><TD>Melody</TD><TD>Sep.03</TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD>Ang Mo Kio</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>WorryMum</TD><TD>Benjamin</TD><TD>Sep.03</TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD>Bt Gombak</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Ku</TD><TD>G </TD><TD>Sep.03</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>EDD May07</TD><TD>?</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Priscilla Neo</TD><TD>Kai En</TD><TD>Sep.03</TD><TD> </TD><TD> </TD><TD>Toh Guan (Vancouver)</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Yasmine</TD><TD>Zo En (G)</TD><TD>Sep.03</TD><TD>Zo Ze (B)</TD><TD>Sep.06</TD><TD>?</TD><TD>? </TD></TR><TR><TD>Meilan</TD><TD>Jay Kai</TD><TD>Oct.03</TD><TD>Jay Cin</TD><TD>Dec.05</TD><TD>Sengkang</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Pooh</TD><TD>G</TD><TD>Oct.03</TD><TD>G</TD><TD>May.06</TD><TD>Joo Seng</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>moo87</TD><TD>Zavier</TD><TD>Oct.03</TD><TD> </TD><TD> </TD><TD>Hougang</TD><TD>FTWM </TD></TR><TR><TD>Sunflower</TD><TD>Cedric</TD><TD>Nov.03</TD><TD>Denzyl</TD><TD>Dec.05</TD><TD>Punggol</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>miracle_bebe</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>Nov.03</TD><TD> </TD><TD> </TD><TD>Henderson Crescent</TD><TD>SAHM </TD></TR><TR><TD>JessChan</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>Dec.03</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>Yr '2000</TD><TD></TD><TD> </TD></TR><TR><TD>Minnie</TD><TD> </TD><TD> </TD><TD> </TD><TD> </TD><TD>East</TD><TD></td></tr></table>
 
Worry Mum , yes i stay in seng kang but my mom looks after Rachel when i am at wrk. Therefore, Rachel attends N2 at Bukit Batok.
 
Hi Kristin's mom,
Hooray! Finally antibiotics for your throat. Sure hope we get to meet this Jul. Look forward to seeing you & kids.

Hey, you lucky woman! First time and you got your licence! Only if we know each other earlier, can learn from your instructor. I just got my licence last year. It's a nightmare to drive with hubby next to me. Did you hubby complain when you drive? I get 'kan cheong' when parking, with the cars behind me, worse, start horning at me.

Heehee...Today, I drove to watch the play 'The Ugly Duckling' with Hannah. It was my first time on a 'long distance', about 30mins drive. I was actually very nervous. Made sure I had enough time to drive, and most important, to park. Oh, the play was good, puppetry.
 
WorryMum

yes, Seng Kang to Bt Batok daily... Rachel's doing fine now. altho she's still hvg fever, she was active when we fetch her home yday. She even sang alot of songs on our way home...

Sarah

I dislike driving when either my dad or hubby is in the car. I tend to get vry stressful esp when hubby nags at me and I tend to drive recklessly.
 
mummies,

wat enrichment prog do u recommend huh? i want to enrol DD for some enrichment prog so tat she doesnt spend her time watching TV and playing education games on PC.
 
Hi Ladies

Will not be able to put up lesson plan in my blog since I do not plan lessons like during a observation and just jot down in the early morning what I am doing for the day before anyone is awake and also I hardly have the time to type. From what I learnt from you ladies, I have to say that the things you are doing are great and like Serenade had mentioned before, for learning of maths, can make it like a game. And in fact, many of you can be come very great teachers since you do not have any training at all even some of those trainee teacher cannot achieve what you have achieved.

It is tougher for me to teach younger children since I am always taking the graduating classes. All I can say is never to force learning to a little child, make it fun for him and cheer him on when he master a little and it helps in a big well. Like for maths, can use any counters as manipulative to encourage learning if it served the purpose well. I do not do more than 4 questions a day unless ds asked for more and he thought we are playing.

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This picture was taken months back when I first started ds on addition. Manipulatives are been used and since then, ds are quite ok with single digit addition without manipulative that he is able to call out the answers. So now working on 2 digits additions.

I do not have a fixed time to teach but I do plan what I want to do daily and I teach according to ds's timing. He choose when to play, study, etc.

For reading, we are revisiting sounds of alphabets again and this time to my surprise, ds was able to give all the sound when I asked him. We are using leapfrog DVD - The letter Factory to teach him phonics. There are all 3 DVDs - The Talking Word Factory, and the last one that I could not recall the name. And he is beginning to string more sound together to form more words and it is the beginning of an emergent reader so what I do is to suppose his learning when he read the word right or repeat to him the correct pronounication if he got it wrong instead of telling him it is wrong. I asked him, is this what you mean?

And yesterday, he was like reading all the alphabets on the noticeboard and sounding each letter and stringing the sound together to form words which surprised one of the parents of a older boy attending the same preschool but in different class since he can recognise all the alpha and also their sound when he told the parent he is 3 yr old when asked how old he is. In fact, in canada, they do not expect children to know anything when they go to elementary school which I find the system is too lax compare to back home since from what I have gathered, children his age are reading, doing maths, attending shicida and kumon enrichment (some from as young as 6 months old onward), etc.

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Stringing letters to form words, which is a continuing process as we are going. He enjoys this activity.

I used a lot of flashcards to teach especially reading for the common appearing words like
Sight words that always appear in storybooks or texts,
1. the
2. to
3. and
4. he
5. a
6. I
7. you
8. it
9. of
10. in

For language art, We will look at grammar, vocabulary, and a little comprehension to see how much ds understand the story that we read. And also getting ds to pretend play to act out the story and also to retell the story. I also incorporate lots of singing. And I do archive some photos if I remember to take pictures of them when ds is doing and if not then there are nothing to show.

And for us, a theme will keep us occupied for 2-3 weeks.

And I believe all of you will understand that as a sahm that need to ferry my ds to and fro from school, entertained when my dh's research counterparts when they are here, resourcing for teaching materials and preparing materials for homeschooling is not a easy feast for me too that I wish I have 48 hours on my hands. And sometimes I am like a single parent too when dh is too busy doing his research and analysis or when he is away from conference. I do not have anyone to fall back on. I do hope what I have shared give all some ideas what I am doing with ds.

K's mum, Serenade, KY and Worry_mum, care to share your teaching at home too? And other mummies if I missed out your name, please share as well so we can learn and discuss with each other.
 
Hi Pris,

I begin to spell out the words in the car when sending him to school and Aston will read out but he look at the pic by the side page to know what that word is. If I hid the pic, he is puzzled. Some common ones like apple, orange, lorry, doll, baby he will be able to read them after I spell them. So was thinking wat next can I do to strengthen his words recognitions. Therefore I will work on forming words with him , just like what you shared.

Flash cards on words either Eng or Chinese do not work on him anymore and I have to pretend play like recite my own stories and get him find the words. This can be quite tiring.
 
Hi KeiKei,

I am thinking of enrolling Aston to phonics lessons in I CAN READ center located at Hougang Heartland Mall. There is one other center in Rivervalve Mall so you can chose either one of them.
 
Hi Sarah,
Talk abt driving..DH is encouraging me to learn after I deliver. But I am not keen cos I am very used to be driven & I am also a reckless driver. I learn before and give up halfway. I think he encourage me to learn driving is becos he will travel out more often & the car will be idling around. I need more more time to convince myself.
 
Apricot, i am also used to being driven but i try to pick up my confidence in driving ard so tat i can brg DD whenever DH cant make it. It's indeed more convenient...
 
Yah, indeed it's more convenient and save money.
Few weeks back our car was bump by a lorry driver when we come out from Causeway pt. Car was sent for repair for 3 days & we realised we are so dependent on it. I took cab to send Aston to school then to work.
 
Hi Pris

Thanks for all the sharing. I'm reading up on place values from the internet after knowing more about how you do it. Hope to share more but I'm not as organized as you. After reading abt archival of lesson plans, I realize I've not done that, except scribbles on diaries what I've done briefly each day. I'll try to share more soon.

Driving : Sarah, practise more. I've got my license more than 10 yrs ago but only start to drive when Ben's almost 2 yrs old. Hubby converted to a automatic car for me coz I tried manual and couldn't manage the gear. Yes, I don't feel comfortable with hubby beside me. He'd rate me a poor driver and said I didn't watch out for this traffic or that. But now I'm beginning to love driving coz you can get to run errands quickly with a car. For me in this ulu part of sgp, getting to a place fast and back is very critical coz I have to pick Ben up each day at 12.30. I'll take 1.5 hrs to go to Orchard by public transport and I don't take taxi ... that will easily cost $15-$18 one way. Have been thinking about getting another car when Keith's older ... I remember initially when I first drove with Ben, he actually managed to get out of his car-seat at the back, and climbed all the way to the front! That was quite scary and he was crying and screaming his lungs out, that was when I'm without a helper ... so now I'm not so gungho coz Keith's got a stronger character. I'll probably wait till he's older before I put that plan into execution.

Keikei, how abt just switch of the TV/PC and spend time with her ... even taking stroll downstairs or playing bubbles would be fun for them. Ben's doing gym and starting music soon (if u r keen on enrichment).

.ky.
 
im keen to let dd start on gym and chinese enrichment class. it's amazing on hw u mummies managed to spend quality time with ur kiddos. i dont quite hv tat luxury except on wkends.

guess tat's the benefit of being a SAHM...
 
I actually quite enjoyed driving when Kai was yet to be borned. In fact, after he was borned, I tried driving him around but he cried his lung out so instead of having 2 cars, we switched to one and dh has the car for work and Kai and myself used the public transport. And when dh was away I drove and kept talking to Kai to keep him quiet. I remember that I got to keep telling Kai before we go out to the airport to fetch my husband that he needs to be a good boy.

And I supposed it takes a while to get used to driving with a child or even a baby in the car, Kai has no problem with seatbelt, he just want company with him and sometime, I would just get my mum to go with me by going to pick up my mum and then we go out together.
 
Hi Serenade,

Ya I m definitely a night owl, else i wouldnt be able to keep in touch here... but once a while i will MIA for a few days cos i got to catch up on sleep .. cant survive on 4 - 5 hours of sleep daily for too long.
 


I would like to thank all the mommies who are already sharing and those who will be sharing how and what you do when you homeschool so that people like me can learn.

I do not homeschool thou i m SAHM (so i hv nothing to share, sorry abt this), but i guess sometimes i can copy some activities to be done with my kids since i m really not the creative type. So I still like to say THANKS.

cheers
 

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