Holiday Homeschooling

I've been reading up on homeschooling and I like the idea a lot. At the moment, we aren't planning to homeschool Sean but since we are planning to send Sean to a mandarin based kinddy, I thought I should at least teach him English at home.

Sean's corner

First, I created a corner where we can play and learn together. It's meant to be a place where he is comfortable and know where all his things are. However we keep moving the things here and there so we haven't got to the point where he knows where all his things are.

Then on Friday, I covered his tables with white paper and plastics. It's meant to be a writing table that you can write and wipe off, like a whiteboard, so that Sean can scribble on it anytime he wants. But I found out that Sean doesn't want to wipe off the things he writes on the table. So it doesn't really work the way I imagined it to be.

Writing

Today I got him to write a few words just for a few minutes. At first I just got him to write on a white piece of paper. It turned out terrible because he couldn't manage the size of his letters. So I drew out a box for each letter and that helped a lot.

You can see in the picture. The above words 'red bird' was done at the beginning. He wrote: yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog and lastly brown bear. By the time he got to 'brown bear, his handwriting has improved a lot.

Sean tried using markers, pencils and crayons. Although he doesn't like crayons because he finds them icky, crayon is still the best medium for learning to write. It's easier to control compared to markers or pencils.

I'm not sure how often I can sneak in writing lessons but hopefully more and more often.





I made some sandpaper letters. It's a bit mismatched because I used whatever I had at home. When I ran out of the sandpaper,I couldn't find the same color. I'll try them out on Sean and see if they help with writing.





He still loves playing the computer most. I have to say there are just so many interesting things online that normal games can't really compete with the variety of games available online. But I try to get him do other things so that at least he gets a balanced day, such as playing playdough and cooking games.

We've also been playing with empty boxes, stacking them up, in a row, or puttings things into them. There are lots of things you can do with empty boxes. Just require a lot of energy on my part to do whatever Sean wants to do. LOL.... mummy isn't as energetic as Sean though. =P

Yesterday, we played shaved ice.
Btw, using food coloring stains even if just a little bit. It's probably better to use syrup for coloring. It may be a bit sticky but it shouldn't stain as much as food coloring.




Daddy has wanted to make Sean a Wall.e costume. So today he cut out a box for the body. Unfortunately Sean wanted to paint it red, so it didn't become wall.e after all.

Oh yeah, I made this wrist band as a craft for the playgroup. But the idea was to get Sean remember his name and to learn how to open and close button. It's very easy to make.

Funny or alarming?

I'm not sure whether I should find it funny or alarming, but recently Sean has been making comments like this:

"Sean cannot listen to Mummy!"

i.e. He doesn't want to listen to me because he's frustrated that
a) I don't understand him
b) I tease him too much. LOL =P

Oops! He does not want to listen to me at 3 years old? What will happen when he 12?

Ok, I admit sometimes I ask him again and again what he said because his pronunciation is still unclear. He gets frustrated when I still don't get it.

And sometimes I do tease him, for example he used to say "Otay" for Ok. So to get him to say it correctly, we tease him, is it 'Otay?", then he will say it correctly, "O-k-k-k-ay!". He specifically pronounced the 'k' properly to make sure we understand that he can say it correctly now.

Sometimes I tease him, "Are you my baby?" He will say, "No! I'm a boy! Not a baby!"

Okay, maybe I shouldn't tease him too often, but it's so fun sometimes. This mummy can be rather mischievous LOL =P

But, Sean also teases me back. The other day when I was toweling him off after his swim lesson, he peed almost on my foot. I told him off, but maybe not seriously enough. The whole trip home he kept saying "PeePee!" and breaking into peals of laughter. When I say "Sean...." warning him not to continues, he goes "PeePee!" ha ha ha ha...

*Shake head*

My 3 year old son is already telling me he does not want to listen to me and teases me back. LOL. Maybe I should be a little stricter with him. I've got a cheeky monkey for a son. =P

Sean @ 38 month old

Half of Sean's 38th month seemed to be spent at home wiping noses.
But looking back at the pictures I took, he has grown by leaps and bound.

It's quite amazing at the speed children at this age learns. Everything seems to click this month.






Writing 'Optimus Prime'
Today, Sean gave us a surprise. While I was trying to encourage him to scribble on paper, just to get him used to holding a pen, he suddenly said that he wanted to write Optimus Prime. The last time I tried to get him to any writing was a month ago, and he hasn't wanted to do any writing since then. So I thought he wasn't interested and I didn't want to push.


Anyway, I spelled out Optimus Prime and he wrote it by himself. He didn't now how to write 'S' so I wrote 's' as an example, and he followed the example. We were pleasantly surprised that his handwriting is not too bad, it's at least legible he he he....

Reading aloud

I noticed that he seems to be ready to read beginning books. So I borrowed some really simple books for him to read. I've read them to him a few times. There are, of course, words that he doesn't know, but I thought if he was not adverse to it, why not get him read, even pretend reading is good. =D

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
This is one of his favorite books. Although I know he can read a few words here and there, I think in this video he was mostly saying aloud from memory.



Silly Races
This is a beginning Kipper's book. It has very short sentences. He really likes it.



The Balloon
He didn't read it properly, but he's a cheeky boy.



Play Cooking

Here's a video of Sean cooking for his soft toys. What's funny is that his soft toys has to follow a certain sequence. First Caterpillar, Tigger, Hippo, Dog, Manate, and last Cow. We tried fooling him and mix up the sequence of his soft toys while he plays with them. But he insists that they have to follow that particular sequence. When his mind is fixed on something, it can't be changed.



Last Day at Children's Corner



Last Saturday was the last day at Children's Corner for the year 2009. So each child has to be a letter from Letterland. Sean is Annie Apple. Here he is with a few friends whom I managed to take photographs of.


Sean and Alvie, Robber Red.








Sean and Grace, Uppity Umbrella.


Sean and Emily, Bouncy Ben.













Lesson on W



This was one of the last lessons for the year, the letter W. Sharon, one of the volunteer teachers, was telling the children about water. Look at them all enraptured by the lesson. I love to see these children so interested.


Visit to Science Center

Here are pictures of Sean and Daddy when we went to the Science Center before he got sick. Sam wanted to bring Sean to see the Dinosaur exhibit even before he was hospitalized. But we tarried too long and by the time we went there, the Dinosaur exhibition was over.




There was still one T-Rex and a few other dinosaurs. But Sean was too scared to appreciate them. Nonetheless, the Science Center is very interesting and we hope to go there again when they have something new.

Finally swimming

A week before he got sick, he finally managed to conquer his fear of water and actually swam. On that day, he cried for the first half and hour, refusing to enter the swimming pool. I tried to cajoule him but to no avail. Finally, I said'Ok, we'll call Daddy to pick us up. Meanwhile, why don't you play jumping into the water with Coach Wayne?' Which finally made him enter the swimming pool.

By the time Sam came, he was already doing his swimming lesson, and after the lesson he swam with his swimming board all by himself!

I'm back

Being sick is sure a waste of time and energy. You can't do a lot of things, you feel listless, tired and cranky all the time. Sean was definitely whiny this time round.

Every other 2 minutes he goes, "Nose!", i.e. he wants me to wipe his nose because it's wet. Eventually I get so tired of wiping his nose, I finally taught him how to blow his nose. He makes a mess of it, his face gets smeared all over, but at least I'm no longer his nose wiper.

But this time round, the flu was terrible. His fever went up and down. In the morning we think he's ok, at night, the fever runs high. All 3 of us didn't get much sleep and eventually all of us got sick.

Sean is ok now, Sam and I are still recovering.

But while we didn't go for playgroups, I've been doing some cleaning up. I've rearranged Sean's toy's in the hope that I'm creating a more Montessori environment (will take pictures and post them up). The first day he says, "It's not corright (correct).", i.e. I've moved his things around and he doesn't like it. I'm trying to introduce him to his new play corner and hoping that he'll get comfortable soon.

My plans for next year is to still go to the current playgroups in the mornings so he is still exposed to an speaking English environment. And in the afternoon, when I work, he goes to Kindergarten which will be in Mandarin. I'm not sure how well that will work.

Firstly, Tadika Diyana is quite far at Taman Tun. So travel arrangement may wear us down. Next, it'll be in Mandarin. I'm not sure how Sean will adapt to it. I hope he will then I won't worry too much about him.

We shall see. It's only next year which is still a while away. Plans always changes. I'm just going to be flexible and see how Sean reacts to all these plans made for him.

We're still sick

I am now also sick together with Sean. I am not sure whether that is a blessing or is worse that it is over the weekend. The doctors are closed but at least I have my MIL to help me with Sean in the afternoon. My hubby has been taking care of both of us in the morning and at night.

Thank you dear, I really appreciate that you have taken over the doctor duty, because I am feeling just too weak to do anything much.

Sean had added cough to his fever and runny nose. The poor boy cannot sleep because of his cough throughout the whole night. Hence, all of us cannot sleep too. I really hope he gets better soon. This is getting too long. Tomorrow we have to make another visit to the doctor.

Sean is sick

Sean has been having a high fever since Wednesday, so it's been 3 days. Luckily, he doesn't have the croup which caused him to be hospitalized last month. But this time the fever is not going away. We brought him to the doctor yesterday to get the doc's opinion, but again, whenever we go to the doc, he seems ok. He gets really hot at night, like right now.

Poor boy. I hope he gets better soon so he can enjoy playing again. Otherwise this worried mummy may bring him to the hospital again, but that's something I really don't want to do unless it's necessary.

Tadika Diyana

After much thought and headache over whether or not we should prepare Sean for chinese primary school, we have decided to register Sean in a Kindergarten which has both streams, i.e. Tadika Diyana.

I went again this time with Sam to see the place. Today, we had a better impression. The children were lively and were having a good time at school. I checked the play area and it was bigger than Peter and Jane's. They also have a big hall where they do PE and we saw children having a good time during PE, which I feel is important at this age.

We were both quite happy with the school and Sean seems happy there. So we registered there and then.

http://www.tadikadiyana.com.my/

Why are we even talking about chinese school?

Obviously, we are rather concerned about the standard of the Kebangsaan school. If we decide to send Sean to a chinese primary school in 3 years time, we have to make sure that we prepare him for it, which is why I've been having a tough time deciding which school to send Sean to. I didn't even consider chinese school when we started the kindergarten search. We've only thought about it last week. All the ratings I did was based on my observation of the teacher's ability to speak english and the general feel of the place.

I've talked to many other mothers about their opinions on chinese schools and what their thoughts on how to proceed for us since we can't speak mandarin or even any dialects. Most of them suggest that we send Sean to a chinese kindergarten even from now so he gets a good exposure to the language first.

Since we are still undecided, we decided that we'll let Sean try to do his kindergarten in mandarin. I'm hoping that he's not going to object too much being put into the chinese stream next year. If we see that he really dislikes it, then we'll take him out and put him into the english stream, and later on to a Kebangsaan primary school.

I can't believe that we have to think of primary school even from now. But if we don't prepare Sean for the possibility of going to a chinese primary school from now, the possibility that he'll adapt later on is very slim.

We were set to put Sean in Fairfield because we felt it has the best english teachers out of all the schools. But I brought Sam to see Diyana because it was the only school he hadn't seen. He liked it and Sean seemed quite happy with the place, happily running around and playing at the playground. We had discussed the night before, ok, no chinese school because the cultural difference between an english speaking home and a chinese school is very different. But when we went to Diyana, we saw the possibility that it may work.

Diyana seems to attract many parents who don't speak chinese to put their children in the chinese stream. So I'm hoping that Sean won't feel out of place when he starts school next year. I'm also hoping that the teachers know how to handle children who come from non-chinese speaking family gently and introduce mandarin in a non-threatening way.

So here is to us hoping that we made the right choice.