All about planes

KB asked about learning the aeroplane. He wants to know how a plane flies, why a plane can fly, what type of plane are there and what is inside the plane etc.

We read The Flyer Flew by Lee Sullivan Hill, On the Go: Planes by David and Penny Glover, I love Planes! by Philemon Sturges.

Creating a scrapbook about planes
We put together photographs we took at our recent airshow , our visit to The Philatelic Museum which had lots of child-friendly history about things that fly and planes, print off the interior of an airplane and various airlines. We learnt about the first inventors and their attempts at flying a plane and made it into a scrapbook.


































Science Centre Omni Theatre: Legend of Flights.
It was certainly the most inspiring documentary about airplanes as the world watches the revolutionary aircraft Boeings 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus 380 make its maiden flight into the skies. KB enjoyed it tremendously, sat through the entire film with eyes zooming in on every single shots. (Trailer below)





More than just taking an airplane, it is probably every boy's dream to know everything about the airplane. It is an amazing flying machine.



This is a bi-plane. It has wing on the top and a wing at the bottom. We build a wooden airplane.
KB painted every single part of the plane. Looks really wonderful!
















Free Play
Pretend play at the Museum and building train tracks






























Joining in the fun when we did The Very Hungry Caterpillar with Otter. KB loved crafts but dislikes mess. Hahah... see how he puts one hand in slowly...















Making butterflies on coffee filters, see the colours fly.... ! Really quite fun.




















KB played with the fruits and made wonderful discoveries about numbers and additions.We practise still life drawing. He was given a set of numbers and all the fruits the very hungry caterpillar ate, plus two pairs of tooth-picks.





















We visited Butterfly Park at Hort park. Loved that place. The landscapes were beautiful. Loved the variety of plants. We drew again. We just LOVED the swing enveloped by lush foliage.

I am a stamp

Science/ Nature: Parts of a tree

We use this book, "seeds, seeds, seeds" by sunshine publication.

KB made a paper weight using different coloured beans and laying them. We also use beans to design a flower.





















Hunting for assorted leaves and sorting them out. We read "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert and KB decides what animals and which leaves he wants to use to create his animals. He described his turtle and 2 fish in the lake in one picture, and an elephant diving in a river in the next! I totally love his creations.





























Nature: Seed walk Discovery

We use a jumbo colour pencils for better feel, to color over paper on tree trunk. The rough texture of a tree trunk provided nice woody texture.

KB went walking with his socks on and collected assorted seeds with his socks! Then we would talk about how seeds were dispersed and how they look under the magnifying glass.





















Social: The world of stamps through Singapore Philatelic Museum
We read the Seven Little Postmen
We also bought him some stamps and he started his little hobby of collecting stamps.



































Pretend play: I am a Postman, I am a stamp!
KB planned and designed his mailbox, the upper one for mails to Singapore, the lower one for mails to Jakarta.







































Language Arts: Reading
We started on Book 1 of Bob books with really simple "-at" family words.

Outdoor/Free play: Swing, using chopsticks to pick up clay balls!
KB is quite apt at using chopsticks since he was 3, so we were trying to see if he was up to this challenge and ... he was!

Family Easter Celebration - 4yr old

This year, our family's Easter celebration spans over 2 days. We use alot of symbolic play.

We use this book The Story of Easter by Patricia A Pingry. It uses very simple language to communicate the reason for Easter. Then we enact Jesus' triumph entry into Jerusalem right up to Jesus's empty tomb.

Good Friday morning. We went out to look for 'palm branches' together, and we took turns to play the character of Jesus. The rest of us, play the role of the crowd who waves our palm branches and shouts 'hosanna, hosanna, Jesus is our King' and sang Hosanna by Carl Tuttle.

The song goes like this: Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest Lord we lift up Your name With a heart full of praise Be exalted, oh Lord my God Hosanna in the highest!

Then Daddy tells us why we need to be close to God. It is so that Jesus can make us good and help us to do the things we cannot do ourselves.

But when we become naughty (Sin), we get further from God. so when we snatch toys, or tell lies, or hit someone, or speak rude words, we get further away from Jesus. And when we don't have Jesus, it makes us sad.

(And daddy would pull the other chair further as he illustrates a sinful trait, and ask tot to try of ways to go over to Jesus (daddy) who is seated on the other chair by not stepping in the sea full of sharks!)

BUT, Jesus came and died for us! And took all our naughtiness away and make us clean. And because of that, He made a bridge for us.





(cushions 'as bridge' )
















(tots walked over bridge and was greeted by 'Jesus' (it was daddy really playing the part *wink*. Both tots got a big hug from daddy. Daddy said now that they are close to Jesus, Jesus can protect them, and help them.)




















Friday night, our family went to church for a time of prayer and reflection. We walked through a chronological each 'station' leading up to Jesus's cruxification. Life-like props were set up for The Triumph Entry, Table of the Lord's supper, a basin with water for washing of disciples feet, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the eventual betrayal and cruxification of Christ. Adults confessed our sins on a piece of paper and nailed it on a block of wood representing the cross that Jesus died on. It was awesome.

On Saturday, our family got some goodies to prepare to bless our little friends we have invited to church the next day.

We got some plastic eggs and stuffed marshmallow in it.
Then mummy wrapped it up and made a little bookmark to go along with it. We also created a little bird nest (using bronze raffia strings) with the eggs perched up in our little tree at home.

Tot and Mummy had a short conversation on why bird's eggs are used to symbolize new life. Tot asked me when are the hatchlings coming. Then he tells me about ants laying eggs. I had to keep from laughing.















Resurrection Sunday. Our friends came to church with us and we were delighted to have them.

We spent an afternoon playing and chatting with them at their home.

















Sunday night, Daddy had a surprise for us. We re-read the Bible. We pretended to be the disciples who would go look for Jesus on the third day. Suddenly we saw.... an empty tomb and a piece of linen!!

(using a camping tent)

We use our torch light to shine upwards, pretending to see a glimpse of an angel who would tell us that Jesus is alive. We end by singing "Celebrate Jesus and Arise by Brendon & Cathie, International school of worship.

Arise: A is for all you done for me, R is for really do believe, I is for inside where I breathe, S is for son who sets me free, E is for everything you are, my Lord, my God, my King, my all. ...



We played a game of opposites. Mum says "If we are weak... God will make us ...?" Tot says "Strong!" Mum says, "If we are scared, God will .... ?" Tot says "Protect us!", Mum says, "if we are ill, God will ..... us?" Tot says, "Heal us!" That's because Jesus is alive!




















To see what we do for Easter in year 2010, go here.

Back from Hiatus!

Language Arts/Social: We watched a Black Light Theatre performance brought in by Act 3 from Argentina, entitled; Circo Fokus Bokus. Beautiful colours and skillful puppetry enhances the gentle story of 5 friends who were roped into a circus to perform quite by accident. KB enjoyed the character of a juggler the most.




















KB's first scrap-book craft!
This was a homeschool co-op on scrap-booking that was surprisingly fun for me but especially for KB! There were about 6 kids altogether. The fact that KB did 80% of the craft all by himself is what made this session so special. He chose and painted all the three cardboards, chose two variety of fancy papers, picked a photo, chose the stickers, did all the pasting and select the title "I love you" to go with the photo. And mummy just tied the knots and string the three pieces together. We intend to use this art of scrap-booking to create note-books for topical study in the future. On the way home, KB said "my craft very nice leh". Very delighted boy.






































Free play/imagination: KB tried to create a slope. I got him a mitten for fun and I guess that got him inspired as well. A cardboard is easily a child's BEST toy. He had so much fun trying to build it in such a way it would hold him, but as any child would, he also enjoys tumbling.





























Writing/Reading: KB really likes scribbling so he naturally likes writing too. We start by writing all the letters of his name. Doing word family of '-at' to start. We're using Ruth Beechick's The 3'Rs, and beginner readers from Bob Books to complement Ruth's method.




Experiential learning/field trips: Learning how yarn comes from cacoon! KB gets to watch how cacoon is first boiled and the thread spun to create raw yarn that was rough to the touch.