Theme "Solar System"

Both boys had taken ill for about 2 weeks, with Elias being admitted for 3 days. But we still thank God that we manage do some activities at home inspite of that.

Social



















A leisurely boat ride at Clarke Quay with a friend.

Celebrating daddy's birthday at Sentosa with cousin. Then blow candles at home. :)

































Math
Sorting and counting
This is an excellent activity to do with two young tots. Little brother (23 months old) was learning to match coloured pipe clean with the same coloured cup, while KB was sorting colour and counting sticks per cup. The cups are randomly placed in the same room. Each child is required to look for the coloured cups to match the pipe cleaners they are holding. After playing for awhile, I observed that they tend to remember where specific coloured cup is placed.




3D imaging
using Magna tiles, KB was able to construct various dimensional objects. A wonderful independent play toy that helps him see things in 3D. KB enjoys this tremendously.














Sort according to colour and size
We do this using recycled egg carton. Mummy trimmed the sides of the carton packaging as it was very sharp. Considering the beads which was so small and varied, KB did this ever so patiently, sorting all the beads steadily.
















Sort according to 'patterned' or 'solid'
These were actually mummy's fancy paper from Japan, but was used for another sorting activity that KB enjoyed.




















Pretend Play
KB set up his "Pasah malam" stall with mummy encouraging him to 'categorise' his food items and cutleries. pre-math activities learnt through play.
















Large motor + lifeskills (take turns)

Year-end is always so filled with cloudy skies and so much rain. We did not like to stay indoors much in the morning but had no choice, so this trampoline were handy in helping both boys burn some energy. Plus we were able to hone in some character while learning to take turn to play this exceedingly attractive 'toy'. We used the timer and each boy was allowed 1 min on the trampoline.














Theme "Solar System"
Delight-learning

Science
Solar system. This is the theme we took for the month. KB has taken an interest in the galaxy feature on mummy's galaxy S and we decided to extend his interest for fun.

We did a giant 48-piece solar system floor puzzle and talked about the earth we live in with this soft-as-pillow globe. A real treasure with young kids as we could literally hug the earth and KB could look up the countries easily with an adult. We also read books that talked about the sun, moon, planets. It was fun.









Art & Craft














We did a giant solar system complete with the 9 planets, including dwarf planet Pluto. Then we used coffee filter paper to create 'planets' with its various colour and distance to the moon. Idea taken from here. It was simply awesome watching the water spread on the coffee filter paper. Then KB used white paint, an old toothbrush and a recycled ice-cream stick to create tiny stars in the galaxy (see picture). KB did the stars, planets and mummy helped to cut the paper (Not that easy for a 3-yr-old as coffee filter paper is rather hard). Then we had the 'planets' pasted in the solar system with the nearest planet to the sun to the furthest. We talked about 'nearest' and 'furthest' and mummy could not resist throwing in some 'sight words' for fun.






















Art & Craft
Printing with balloons
We used the three primary colours to create opportunities for colour mixing




















Painting on transparent plastic sheets
Seeing colours on both side of the plastic sheet creates a new perspective of looking at art.


















Cooking
Apple pancake. KB helped to shake the pancake mixture and spread whipped cream on pancake. What a delightful breakfast.











Outdoor
Flying kite amidst November rain. One of our playground moments.



















A trip to a local nursery

Our trusty companion - Old MacDonald

Good Ol' MacDonald had been with us for the longest time.

KB started the tune of ee-i-ee-i-o when he was merely 10 or 12- months-old. He wasn't even walking yet.

Today, the list grew to include...

mummy started to play a tune to the beat on the keyboard which inspired KB to get everyone to stand up and follow him,
the list of stuff Ol' MacDonald. Everything in one seating.

1. Pig - Oink
2. Cow - moo
3. Elephants - Whoo
4. Duck - Wag wag
5. Hula - hoop - shake shake
6. bicycle - tinkle tinkle
7. cars - beep beep
8. truck - honk honk
9. bus - "de de" (sound of tapping bus card on validator!)
10. Aeroplane - zoom zoom
11. Pilot - steer steer
12. people - yakety yakety
13. chair - sit sit
14. Clock - tick tock
15. Lights - Blink blink
16. Giraffe - ooh Ooh (reaching his long neck)
17. Zebra - gallop, gallop
18. Horses - trotter trotter
19. Bed (Mummy's suggestion, because its nap time!) - sleep, sleep
    

I really like the way the song was sang continuously to the beat of the keyboard rhythm. KB had to think up what's next real fast and mummy was egging him on... to make it more dramatic! I had to! This is child hood, drum it up. Make it super fun. hahahah...
What a fun way to enhance quick thinking and vocabulary skills!

After the song, KB said, "Wow, I really like singing song eh" :) I loved to see KB's eyes so big with excitement. He is so contented.

Our letter "A" journey

Letter sounds, Art & Craft We worked on "A" which makes the sound "Air". Mummy drew the apple and Theo tore it right down to 'break' the apple into 2 halves. Then he used a pencil to draw seeds left of the apple core. We got this cute idea from homeschool creations. Later KB would recognise the letter A from water play, from road signs and drawing on sand.














Nature / Outdoor have you ever seen a snail poo-poo? Well, here it is. A nice, slimy, swirly snail poo for us all to see. We all exclaimed what big poo a small snail has! KB has developed a love for garden snails and he would ask for it after a rain. it was nice because it rained alot in Sept and Oct and we always had the chance to bring a snail or two home for the day before releasing them back to their habitat. Meanwhile, KB worked at creating a cosy home for them.
















































Rain is a good thing, our Filipina helper says kids in her home town look forward to rain to play in the rain. And we thought, why not? Urban kids can do it too. So we too don our raincoat and went splashing. Here's KB enjoying the little bit of the rain.

Then there is KB on go-kart and fearless KB on flying fox.

Where do bananas grow? We discovered a really big banana tree, complete with bunches of banana hanging downwards. Instinctively the kids chose to sit underneath it. Were they waiting for the bananas to fall?

























We spotted some swans swimming in the lake and we thought it might be fun to play "spot the difference game" - Swan vs duck.












Appreciating nature and spotting a bird nest!




















Visiting Universal studio and experimenting with various form of pretend play, rides and cartoon fantasy.




















Water play - still a perennial favourite















Imaginative play
Its take-out-recycle-boxes day and build anything you want. KB built a Airport Control Tower, a ramp for the cyclist and a hump for him to jump over. Loved this game.




















Pretend Play
In one of our free play moments, he build something he had read in a book, The Little blue boat, kathy Henderson. He said it an oil rig. Check out the book version and his lego version. He build it all from memory or at least how he thought it was to be.




















Festival and celebrations
Since it mid autumm festival, this year we did something different. We made 'mooncake' using agar agar and looked at the full moon in the sky. KB made his own lantern. I supplied the materials and he assembled them together as he liked. And they neednt look like the ones sold in the market or shops, each lantern is uniquely made by a child. We also went to the Singapore River on the same night with our friends to carry lantern.















Cooking / Baking
We started a co-op with fellow homeschoolers and had a baking / cooking session once a week.
We did kneading, decorating, stirring, pouring, and eating of course.
Things started off there and we now do some cooking at home together. KB started to fry scrambled eggs at home. About time too!
















































Math
We are into patterning this season. here's one of our observation in one of our nature walks. We were in the midst of playing birthday celebrations and had invited all his furry friends to attend. And mummy took the opportunity to decorate patterns on birthday cake, with KB 'copying' after.
And other pattern games using sticker tags.