Our letter "B"

Theo enjoyed the leapfrog alphabet DVD that it became effortless in teaching the sounds of the 'letter'. The song was so catchy both of us sang it through the day.

First, we traced the letter "B" on paper and coloured a Bird. Then we did some pre-writing activity which he did so well, it surprised me. This was the first time that he tried it and I had always thought this to be a 3yr old activity. Then we went out and blow our bubbles. Though not the first time he is playing this, it is amazing how creative and observant kids are. We went to a playground to blow bubbles and he tried to put the bubble gun through the holes and watched bubbles float up all the way to the tree tops.






Today, poor Theo was running a fever. His fever went up and down for 5-days.



















Though he was lethargic, his spirits were high. So I got out some fun but less physical activity. We printed bears! Kids loves painting and Theo is one of them. We did up to 3 drawing blocks sheets and then we ran out of it and print more bears on teh newspaper until we run out of paint. Look how he is getting better each time. Neat. We decided to cut one out and send it to Theo's cousin, Chika in Jakarta. Theo chose the bear and cut it out. I helped to trim the edge to fit it into the envelope. Then we went to buy stamps for the envelope.

The best time we had was to make a boat. We were reading his list of favourite transportation book and we stopped to look at the sailing boat. Theo loves all kinds of transports. He has a big book of trucks, trains and boats which he begged us to read every single night before bed!

Theo was running a low-grade fever but that did not stop his enthusiasm. I prepared the materials and Theo put on the scotch-tape and taped the boats. He was thrilled. We took the boats - 1 big and 1 small to the waters. I explained the sail boat needed wind to sail and we pretended to be the wind. Theo blew the sails and it went sailing. Then he wanted some people on the boat. Later some water got into the boat and it sank, so we talked about 'floating' and 'sinking'.

We did craft work and made a "Bee" out of the letter "B". He loved the goggly eyes and took the bee for a fly around the living room. (see a child's craft at Sharon's Lavender Courtyard)

we sang the song "5 little bears jumping on the bed" and read "We're going on a bear hunt", "jesse bear, what will you wear" amongst other books.

I got my helper to help cut a baby pillow and make it into beanbags to play! It was fun fun fun, throwing and catching the beanbag. Theo is learning to catch. He often laughed uncontrollably whenever he sees me throw something to daddy or my helper. He stretched out both hands and gets ready to catch, then he squeals with laughter when he catches the beanbag.




We did more printing, this time the lower case 'b' in 'blue' colour to go along with our "B" letter.

Theo matched bees to flower petals. At first I thought it may be slightly difficult as there are 2 groups of colours on each object. But it turned out too easy for him. Anyway, he had fun and returned to this game himself a few times. We ended up playing various versions of it.




















Theo did some pre-writing exercise and were pretty good. This wasnt my focus but I wanted to see where he stands. It turned out quite well. I was tempted to put a star but I praised his effort all the same. Its an intentional effort on my part to always emphasize the effort regardless of the results.

We also did a Family Devotion together. We used Exodus to talk about God giving the 10 commandments to Moses. We told the story from a childrens Bible and watched a short cartoon on the same passage. Then we do role-play. I had a costume ready for the role of Moses & God. At first, Daddy was God and he gave the Bible to Theo, then they swopped. Later I was Moses and Theo was God. We prayed and thank God he gave us the Bible and ended with a sweet dessert. White fungus and lotus with red dates, wolfberry & huai san. 2 days later, I asked him casually, "who gave us the Bible?" He answered "God". Initially, he was hesitant to try on the 'costume' but asked to play this again 2 days later and asked for the costume.

This is our first family devotion together, rather simple but the message got through. Praise the Lord!

So "B" is for Bubbles, Bear, Boat, Bee, Bible. I printed all the pictures of him playing and got him to stick it in his 'My big book of letter sounds'.

Some random free play photos:



















Nature's beauty. Theo spotted a unique leaf during one of our morning walks.

Theo helps mummy clear papaya seeds. Servanthood starts here.















Dreaming up of a big traffic jam? (is this jakarta?) - Better than playing on a pre-designed road-maps for kids, is one that a child can imagine and build all by himself. That's thumbs-up for creativity and imagination. Theo tells me "Mummy, this is the road, its long!





Looking at Vincent Van Gogh's painting of a bedroom and talking about it. Theo asked "how come there are two doors, one for going out, one for coming in issit?" hahah, perhaps, yes. He said I don't like to sleep in this bedroom because it is too bright."

Worshipping by the keyboard. As usual, Theo runs for his guitar. We sing "God is good, all the time" amongst others.

Play

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Setting the table

Theo learns to set the table to the number of people having a meal. I do it first and then he asked to do it himself every dinner. We start with
spoons. That night we had Aunty Sien Sien join us for dinner.

So Theo laid 4 spoons on the right side of the placemat. One for daddy, one for mummy, one for Aunty Sien Sien, one for Aunty May, our helper, and a baby spoon for Theo on his highchair. Altogether there were 5 spoons.

Learning Math was fun this way. Ever the helpful boy, his servanthood spirit was evident.

Last night however, he took 2 adult spoons, but daddy was in U.S so I had to ask him to put one back.

Budding scientists?

Zach & Theo are childhood friends, I mean friends since they were both babies. :) I hope they become good friends for a long long time. Zach & Theo also had lots in common, both a cautionary kids, likes playing with older kids, likes to play with girls (so early???). Zach is a gentle boy, much like Theo. They both like to put things back in an orderly fashion and keep things very neat. Very well-behaved and lots of fun for Theo to hang out with. Don't they look like they're seriously having fun?

(sidenote: Unlike in the U.S where they have science exploration meant for kids, the Singapore Science centre is not really tots-friendly, we think its the sights & sounds they take in, with lots of explanations from parents. I try to expose him to more hands-on stuff and the gears (above) is one of the few 'scientific' stuff kids can touch.)




Here's Theo at 11months old and mummy at Pala Alto Junior Museum. Their tots-friendly structure means kids can really touch and manipulate all on their own! It is not a museum at all, it even has a small outdoor enclosure to see some small animals!

Bowling

We've played bowling umpteen times at home (bowling ball and painted toilet rolls as 'pins'), but here comes an opportunity for the real bowling and Theo was thrilled.

He also enjoyed watching how the pins got knocked down. I was told boys like to know how things worked.

colouring with both hands

Something we do to keep occupied, and training both right and left brains. Look at the riot of colours he created. Theo does it with dexterity with both hands. :) I usually hang up his works, but now Theo does it on his own.

Thanksgiving in Oct

Although thanksgiving day is hardly celebrated in our country, we felt that it is a good tradition for our family to have. Making it an event is hardly an excuse for not giving thanks the rest of the year, but a way we can re-focus as a family and not take each other for granted (ironically, its the people we are closest to that we most likely do!)

This year is our first and I wanted to include everyone under the roof. So that's inclusive of our helper.

I read aloud to Theo and sang Psalm 118:1 from Steve Green album - Hide 'em in your heart. We play this almost everyday cuz Bible verses are best remembered this way with kids. We start with memory and then do object lessons for comprehension.

Then I printed out leaves with a verse on thanksgiving. Then we had everyone colour the leaf and we went around asking each one to:

1) name something they want to thank God for
2) to name a person in the family they thank

Theo moved us by saying "I thank God for wisdom" and I thank papa for strength and helper for strength. I thank God for Theo who is generally an obedient child and husband who take time to cook western food for the family (check over at: I also thank Him for being involved with the kids daily. David thank God for my support so he can finish and graduate in his Masters in ministerial studies.

Our helper thank God for healing her backache and allergy and thank God for understanding employers (hee hee). We thanked her for her hardwork and patience. (hint: its so good for employer-maid relationship and it cost us nothing!)

I then print out thanksgiving points and have them stuck to the leaf. Then we stick a cork coaster beneath and tada! we made a thanksgiving coaster out of it. It serves as a reminder who and what we are thankful for.

by the way, did I mention, I love art the way Kid's do it. Not something that was a teacher's work but made to look like a kid's. ;) Here's Theo's creation.
















We played sequencing with symbols associate with thanksgiving.