Our letter "F f "

Bible theme: Sharing
Story: Parable of 5 loaves and 2 fish
We watched an animated cartoon online and mummy prepared the five loaves and two fish.




















This was an excellent picture that showed a "Before" and "After" the miracle of Jesus. It presents great opportunities for talking about what happened after the boy share his food.

The picture remained on our show-shelf as a visual reminder for talking point. We counted the loaves of bread and fish and stick them into the basket for fun.

Talking points include:
1) God created a miracle by adding more when there is only a few.
2) God can use what you give to bless others.

This lesson coincide with our habit training for this season. It also coincide our everyday training for sharing between the KB and his younger brother.


Art and craft
We pulled out a rainy weather project. reinforcing shapes recognition and having fun creating something out of heart-shapes. These different size of heart-shapes pieced together to form a fish. He decorated the fish with glitter glue afterwards.

Alphabet craft
Making "Fox"

Alphabet picture
Sticking photos of things that starts with "F".


KB started spotting the letter "F, f" from everyday things such as this.

"F" is for feelings.
We took out the felt to play again and this time we were able to talk about feelings. The first time KB played this was about two-years-old.


Fine motor skills - Montessori (Basting)

Basting is a skill that requires one to release before squeezing the dropper. I filled cup with yellow paint and the other with blue paint. By letting him transfer one cup of paint to the other allows him to see how colour mixture can achieve another colour. Absolutely fascinating! He did it with right and then left hands and completed the entire cup with little prompting. A game that trains precision, patience and fine motor skills.

Large motor/Outdoor play

We spent so much time biking every morning we did not even do anything indoor except reading storybooks. This is him on his forth day, speeding on his new balance bike. More on learning to ride a bike at ibike. A balance bike is suppose to be small enough for the child to manoeuvre, complete with appropriate height for the seat and handle. KB was able to take his bike all the way from home and back all on his own, giving him a great sense of responsibility and independence.

Math
we play AB pattern using fresh flowers amongst other counting exercises in both language.

Imaginative play Pretending to be a frog

Science
we were so blessed to be able to play sand for 2 whole hours one morning because of a single incident. We were shoving our shovels in the sand when we saw a bird fly past us with a twig in its beak! So we got excited and watched the whole scene over and over. It was unbelievable in concrete jungle we live in. But it happened before our very eyes at a park near our place. unfortunately, I didnt have the camera with me at that time.



Service
KB had successfully mastered the habit of keeping after himself every morning. He drinks his milk, puts the bottle back in tray, take his diapers out and throw away, then change into shorts and then put his pajamas into the laundry pail and back to make his bed. (He has been on only 1 diaper per day for since January and is not wetting the bed. Hooray for another milestone!) He has also developed a habit of helping Di Di up the bed (by pushing his bum, a very cute sight!). He also cleans his bike tyres when we're back from cycling. This is Theo washing rice. He now helps to wash rice once a day for dinner and sets the table.



Socialisation
He also is in habit of paying the cashier whenever we are out and now learning to pay the taxi driver and saying thank you. KB's gym class has come to an end and it was sad for him as it was also for me. He had the opportunity to do so much in class and to be more agile. He also had the chance to learn to be courageous and tell everyone his name at every session. I was so proud of him when he was the only one who spoke in full sentence when asked what was his name. "My name is Theophilus". Another breakthrough to praise God for. It was also in this class I was able to seize teachable moments to teach him how to share. I thank God that this was a parent-child accompanied class. He would be taking a break from Gym for awhile as we focus on other areas.

Field Trip
Visit to the Fire Station. Theo & Elias was Firemen for a day. Mummy made a simple fireman costume using red colour tape from DIY shop. Daddy helped to print a badge and have it laminated to stick on the front of his t-shirt. ;p

Chinese
He finally got the hang of spoken chinese language. All because KB spent 3 whole days in Ah Ma's house. His spoken mandarin improved in the way he can answer simple questions all in mandarin! Yipee... we also read at least 1 chinese books per day. (Starting slow).

We will be focusing on conversational mandarin and storybooks for the next few months until he grows to love the language. This is the time I think he is ready to transit for full mandarin conversation for at least once a week. Until he is ready, mummy will increase it to twice a week. We are using the language immersion method.

Delight-learning
This season, we learn about surface and its 100% child-led. KB was interested in various surface of things and we were able to introducehim the following materials based on his leading. He would ask "mummy, what is this made of?" and I will tell him and introduce simple properties of the surface such as "it is made of glass, so it is easily broken.". At one point he touched a very hot kettle and cried. I had to comfort him and tell him, the kettle is made of metal, we just boiled the water in there so its very hot. Discovering what things are made of is so much fun.

Free play
Lego is such a timeless treasure. He has learnt to build some things based on imaginations. This is a horse.











Navy Open House - family on Larcfive! (Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo, 5 ton).

This vehicle is commonly known at "duck tour". It is known to be able to float in water like a boat and have wheels like a truck. So it is both a land and sea vehicle.










A bee in the flower!
On one of our walks, this time near the Botanical Gardens, just outside NIE, we caught many bees pollinating flowers in the trees. It was so amazing sight to see many bees fly in and out of the flowers. It was low enough for us to see, yet not so near to intrude on the busy bees.








Service : Fixing goody bags for friends
KB having fun putting items in goody bags for his 3rd birthday.
















Bali holiday





















KB have been asking about sun-rise and sun-set and we finally got to see it. KB rode on camel, turtle, touched a tiger, rode in a glass-bottom boat, swam, played with his cousin, saw how batik was being made and learnt how rice came about! He also had the chance to get a glimpse of the cockpit in the plane - super! (check out the picture of KB washing his hands. can you see a lion behind him?

Theo's 3rd birthday

This free slideshow made with Smilebox

The Little Gym

We enrolled Theo in The Little Gym about 4weeks ago. He has been seen jumping around, walking on beams in playgrounds and public places and developing bits of his large motor skills, so we figured, its time for a safe place where can really take risks, tumble, have fun and learn. So we scouted the The Little Gym @ Forum The Shopping Mall. Teacher Renee, is a really sweet teacher who is polite and nurturing. Teachers there are also very well-trained and has excellent communications skills.

Theo took to her quickly. I learnt alot myself too, he was learn pre-cartwheel skills and pre-hand stand skills, forward roll, forward flip, balancing and more cool stuff I could never have imagined. He was able to manoeuvre the monkey bar better, and tumbling has never been more fun. (Mummy: I wish I was a kid!) Here're some stuff he did in the class and his practise at home.

Easter Celebration 2010

Easter was special because this is the reason why men has HOPE. The objective of the lesson/activity was the message of the cross. We wanted to make the lesson so simple but impressionable and applicable. This is what we did.

We read from Theo's childrens Bible which details day 1 - day 7 of creation. Then I repeated the story in minicards http://www.biblestoryprintables.com

Bible Story printables happened to have creation story told so simply, kids can play story sequence from it. Great for logical thinking skills. We did this during our morning devotion.
We explained that Jesus died on the cross to take away our naughtiness but he is alive again so we can be good boys and girls.
During breakfast, we had hot cross bun. We pointed out to the 'cross' symbol on the bun, but I think he was more interested in the bun! ha... he gobbled it up.



















After that we proceeded to the kitchen and play pretend. We pretended to be naughty by snatching toys. And then Daddy and mummy took turns to come up with illustration of pushing, interrupting during conversations, not sharing toys, hitting others and not saying excuse me etc.
The person who is naughty gets a black paint on his/her legs and hands. Soon, Theo wants to join in and then he pretends he is naughty.















When we have enough black marks, mummy say "Oh oh... look we are ALL naughty! What should we do? We need to ask God to help us be good boys and girls !So we prayed, and Theo prayed after us "Dear Jesus, Sorry that we are naughty. Thank you for dying on the cross to take away our naughtiness. Please help us to be good boys and girls. In Jesus name, Amen!"

Then we went to the bathroom to wash ourselves in the 'blood of Jesus" and we say that only Jesus blood can clean us all. I said, we pretend this is the blood of Jesus, see this is red colour. Only the blood of Jesus can wash all our naughty marks away. And we sang, "only the blood of Jesus. What can wash my naughtiness away, nothing but the blood of Jesus."

After lunch, we do some light craft. KB cuts the cellophane paper in odd shapes and sizes. I took out a double-sided tape and he sticks them on each other randomly. When the piece of mosiac is big enough to contain the cut-out of the cross, I stick the cross on the back and front of the cellophane paper, while he plays "see-through" with cellophane papers. I trimmed off the excess of the cross and viola! We have a stained-glass cross to catch the sunlight! We hung it at the window but later decides that it is safer outside the room, away from rain.




















The Easter story sequencing cards can be replayed again anytime. Today Theo asked me to read the story again for him and when I asked him, where is Jesus? He said Jesus is alive. That is good enough for now.

Visit to Fire Station

Mummy organised a visit to Fire Station with homeschool friends on 27 march. Here're the two little firemen. Mummy made our little firemen costume by just sticking red tapes to our old t-shirts!

Theo had a blast! Elias was doing the "oooh...oooh" sound of a fire engine siren all day long. Super cute!

Our letter 'C'

It was Chinese New Year, so we jumped straight into festive celebration. We read a few stories related to Chinese New Year and made a dragon puppet out of paper bag! Theo stick the dragon tongue, coloured the dragon and stuck on its googly eyes. Easy to make, nice!

Then Theo helped to sort sweets and counted them.














We also 'toured' Chinatown on a WEEKDAY, can U believed it was still crowded. Well, I guess weekends were worse! We got this traditional costume. we learnt so much at Chinatown, Theo was so excited looking at all the "Cun Lian", "Pao Zhu" and all the traditional chinese new year decorations.

And when Chingay came to the heartlands, we caught it. God was good to us. We were dining in nearby restaurant at the time Chingay was due to start. But it rained and the whole event was postponed till we finished our dinner. haha, what a day to thank God for. :)























We Started our traditional letter craft, and attempted to make a "polka-dot" caterpillar. This was really good for fine motor skills that Theo was good at. He stuck on the googly eyes, (kids just lurve googly eyes!) and ta-da, easy peasy!
He counted some 1-cents coins.




















Then we did writing on shaving cream. I know, such a mess! But he liked it. I love it when children don't mind getting their hands dirty, its a way to learn and serve. Of course, which child can contain their curiosity and excitement with SHAVING CREAMS on their hands? I applaud Theo for his patience. He had to write "C" on the wall, a few times. Then it was freedom; cream here, cream there, cream everywhere!















Then we did some experiment making clouds with cotton wool. We read that rain happens because the cloud were so full of water that it fell from the sky, creating a drizzle, a shower and a downpour.

We also did some cotton wool painting. I think he was probably so enthralled by the sight of water fountain that we had pictures of water foundation in all forms; magic ink, paint, chalk, cotton wool painting. I like it!

We had a breakthough this month. Theo and I finally progressed on our bilingual program! Mummy spoke mandarin on some days and Theo had learnt to sit and listen in to Chinese stories, and recite a mandarin prayer all by himself. We also added 1 mandarin song into the creation theme. In addition, we read "Mao Mao Cong" (A hungry Caterpillar by Leo Lionni) and made a Mao Mao cong craft. Sorry, didnt have pictures to show, cuz we got too busy doing stuff!

Our Bible theme this time was : Creation
We read our Bible for days of creation and mummy narrate from picture cards from file folder fun while Theo will take the 'created items" and place it on the sheets. Mummy took some time to conceptualise this so that it could be hands-on, interesting and memorable for the child. (See more on Creation craft). we also did God made me and God loves me activity. We sang songs from "God made the moon and God made the stars..." etc. This game can be played a few times and we could also do simple story sequencing.




















Free Play

Theo's got a scooter! yippee... Theo had it everywhere he went... zoom zoom zoom, and our little baby had to be a part too.



















We caught some ants carrying food from one point to another at the stairway near our flat on one of our morning walks. (Sorry, no pictures to show cuz mummy didnt bring the camera on that day). But it was a really nice opportunity to observe and appreciate nature and animals. And mummy had to suppress her "eeeeeeeeeeeeeee... let's get out of here" impluse. So we could have a REAL lesson on ants and their dilligence.

Lots of playground & running around time for boys who need to be in the action!

































Time of learning-to-share-and-not-fight-over-toys moment! This has got to be a one special moment I love. Theo was so spontaneous in sharing his yakult drink, he had to hold didi head to let him drink. Very very cute!









Theo is fully into pretend play. He even has an imaginary friend named, "Go Go". He has gone on the plane, and on "mission trip" to help others build houses and cook for the poor. of course, our little one had to be part of the team. He is learning very fast as well.














He is also curious about sun-rise and sun-set, why it is dark and why there is light. A coincidence that we are doing creation to explain why there was day and night.