First Art : Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos by MaryAnn F. Kohl, Renee F. Ramsey, Dana Bowman, Katheryn Davis
Even then, my knowledge and skills are limited and I am more familiar with teaching older children. I am pretty dumb with children below 6 years old. So, I ram going back to the books to upgrade myself. Even though they might be costly, I figured that it would still be cheaper than sending Sophie to enrichment classes. Also, I do not want Sophie to be expose to infections unnecessarily. Above all, I hope we can learn and have fun together while we are at home most of the time.
I mean, I only send her to MIM-Jumpstart because the class size is small (less than 6) and I am atrocious when it comes to music... I am clueless about nursery rhymes, chants, songs and fingerplay. Therefore, I need to put in a lot of effort to learn... Another area for improvement would be my cooking. I find it hard to put in effort on food (the end product would be the same mah) so I go for convenience and speed in cooking. Clearly that has to change, especially since Sophie is starting to yearn for better tasting and visually appealing food in her plate.
Cooking Art: Easy Edible Art for Young Children by MaryAnn F. Kohl, Jean Potter
I love the idea of learning the alphabet using crafts and play. However, I am not going to teach her the alphabet so soon... I may start introducing "Letter Of The Week" in June.
Alphabet Art: With A-Z Animal Art & Fingerplays (Williamson Little Hands Series) by Judy Press
If anyone wants to buy the books, you can approach Kinokuniya or buy from Amazon. I think I saw a few at Forum and Paragon also. If not, you can wait for me to do the craft with Sophie and read about it on our blog... BTW, a very big "Thank You" to my sponsor, Loy Chee Kiat! Without him, nothing would be possible for us...
I came across the Alphabet Art book and there are fun activities for learning letters. It's a great book, but unfortunately Ethan learns through reading books (I think he is obssessed with books - 1st thing when he wakes up is to look for books, usually I have a stack of books for bedtime story, and he will wake me up to read him a book!!Arrhgg!!)and also through opportunities from around his environment created by me. So drop the idea of buying. haiz...also good lah, save me some money...heee...
ReplyDeleteya...great mind think alike..I wanted to do that with Ethan when he is learning the letters now ...compiling for all the letters ....but later on I scrap away the idea cos' there are so many items starting with each letters, and I don't want to limit to those items that we collected ..now he knows "A, for Apple" but I want him to know that there are other words starting with A also ...so I have to expose him to many other words and things around that start with A ....yes, agree it's huge project if you were to compile for each letter ...for me since he loves to hear me read, I will jsut read to him and learn from the spot ...me lazy for huge project thingy ...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I read that it's good to provide a variety of simulation for babies, however, parents have to be careful Not to over-simulate as qouted "Over-stimulation can be as trying for a
ReplyDeletebaby as under-stimulation. Over-stimulation happens
when a baby grows bored of, or unhappy with, an
activity or toy. Generally, he will tell you that he is
over-stimulated by turning his head or crying. At this
point, you should stop the activity.
Yalor... Sophie usu gets bored and walk away... sometimes aft I read TWO sentences! But she is the one who hands me the book in the first place! I wanna continue also cannot. She is v persistent... cannot force in any way, or risk big clash of the titans!
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the alphabet book, I am sourcing for the right materials for the pages and binding. I have found the right plastic pockets (like for medicine kind but can be bought in bulk new) to use for small items (like beans) that cannot be glued. I think it would be good to have self made books ard... tink Sophie would go look at them often. To me, tis prob nt whether she already know the words but the process of creating such a book... dats why I m waiting till she is able to appreciate collecting items n pasting etc b4 starting. In any case, I will prob make 26 books instead of one big one so dat we can add on wen she learn more words.
I guess for Ethan, he has already learnt so many words so it is a little tough and pointless to include everything... anyway, he can learn by listening to ur reading... good lah, save effort n time n money too! hahaha
hmmm...so you mean whenever you try to read to her, you are not able to complete the book? ...hmmmm..then I guess if that happens very frequent, she might not want to learn through books but something else. But also cannot jump into conclusion too fast, give her some time.
ReplyDeleteya...if for Sophie, as you said, the pop up book, within a day will sure be gone hor, then must really get good materials for the alphabet books.
I guess depends how you see it,to you if creating a book is a process of putting a book together and is of more value learning the process of putting the book together, then it's great for Sophie to learn that process. Personally, to me, maybe I am very goal-oriented and I always look at my goal and purpose, and in the process of for example creating this alphabet book, ultimately, to me the goal is to learn all those words otherwise it will defeat the purpose of creating an alphabet book, cos' any other books also can be a process to learn to create...so to me ultimately, I want E to know all the words while in the process of creating the book......
I would say that he is very visual and auditory, and I wouldn't be able to catch with collecting all the words he learns, and put together a book ...as much as I would love to ....He learns pretty fast by me reading to him ....not sure if it's good or bad as he is so obsessed with books...I noticed that after we put up the wired-shelves displaying all his stuff, almost 90% of the time, he will pick up a book first than his toys ...He doesn't play toys unless we play with him ....in school, teacher tells me that he will go for the books instead of toys ...I want him to learn through play also, if his mind is all about books ...kind of freak me out .....
Actually, then u r lucky becos Ethan learns best with what u do best! Imagine if he is like Sophie, then u will have a hard time becos she will NEVER sit on ur lap and listen to u read. I have to put her in the cot bed and read to her. Even then she may just switch off and walk ard inside the cot bed.
ReplyDeleteWe should exchange kids for a while... hahaha... I can help Ethan play with all sorts of toys and run around everywhere and anywhere. U can help me teach Sophie language...
I think Sophie learns through play best. In fact, her papa taught her most of her words becos he teaches her while playing... I dun like formal teaching (surprise surprise... hahahaha... MOE din convert me!). So now I got to force myself to teach her words... sigh.
tink she has high EQ though.. v empathetic and sensitive towards others' needs etc. Also wan to help all the time... And she is usu v good natured and confident... so i guess give n take lor...
Jia you lah!