Letter "L" Book

FINALLY...

"L" Based Activity - Left & Right

I planned to teach Sophie many pairs of opposite words (starting with “l”) but I decided to save it for the letter “o”. So, I merely taught her “left” and “right”.

"L" Based Activity - Little Bo-Peep

I am definitely looking forward to Sophie working independently. She was not keen to colour although she wanted to help as I was doing it. And frankly, I do not blame her. Colouring is really boring and time-consuming regardless of whatever people claim about its benefit in cultivating patience and motor skills.

"L" Based Activity - Living Vs. Non-Living Things

Of course it was hard explaining the concept of "living" vs. "non-living" thing to Sophie. I was not really expecting her to undertsand or apply those concepts. I just wanted to expose her to these ideas.

"L" Based Activity - Leaf Art

After breakfast, I took Sophie out for a “nature walk” around our condo. I brought a Ziploc bag with us for collecting leaves. I did not like picking leaves at all because I hate the mud and sand that came with them. However, I knew Sophie would love it so I just went along with it. In fact, she seemed to have enjoyed picking leaves a lot more than doing the art project. Processing the leaves took a while because I had to wash and dry them before letting Sophie handle them.



I took the opportunity to discuss the various shapes and colour of the leaves we had picked. I hope to encourage her to observe and talk about her experience more.



Surprising to me, Sophie was lukewarm about creating a picture with the leaves. Perhaps she was still not ready for creating a full picture. She could form butterflies and flowers quite well but she was not keen to complete the entire picture.

"L" Based Activity - Verbs (Lift, Leap, Lunge)

These were definitely harder words for Sophie to learn and she needed a lot more prompting and encouraging. However, she was quite happy to do the action so long as I played with her.

"L" Based Activity - Lantern & Light Again

Sophie’s enthusiasm prompted me to make another lantern for her. This time, we used cellophane of different colours. I even combined the primary colours to get secondary colours. She still loves it! I was happy she remembered how to set it up as well.

"L" Based Activity - Lemonade

I guess lemonade is easy to make, but somehow it was never too straightforward when I did with it. I got Sophie to help me squeeze the lemon. She was not too thrilled about using the noisy machine though.



Then in went the water and sugar, but it tasted really sour no matter how much sugar I put in.



Nowadays, Sophie wants to do everything herself. She stirred the lemonade after I added honey to it. Still, it tasted too sour although she did not admit it. Of course, I ended up gulping the whole cup down.

"L" Based Activity - Verbs (Look, Laugh, Listen, Lick)

I introduce the verbs that begin with “l” to Sophie today. I laminated the words and put a magnetic tape behind so that I could put them up on her blackboard. I used drawings as cue because I did not want to force her to “read” although it would be bonus. I hope she could follow my instruction and do the action first.

"L" Based Activity - Lantern & Light

I thought it would be good to introduce the concept of "light" as we make a lantern with cellophane. Sadly, I had never made such a lantern before, usually I used wires and cellophane. Anyway, first time for everything! I cut shapes on a piece of art work done by Sophie previously (recycling) and pasted blue cellopahne underneath.

Then off we went to the see its effect with a battery operated nightlight. Sophie was excited and eager to try it out (as expected).

"L" Based Activity - Length

We printed handprints and footprints for measuring (length) today. I wanted to keep it simple and interesting for Sophie so I decided to forgo the ruler or measuring tape. Also, I picked familiar objects so that Sophie would find it more enjoyable.



It was not easy for her to grasp the concept of length although she could line the prints and count them.

Like I said, I wanted her to be exposed to the ideas and concepts, not master them... yet. Arousing her interest in learning is far more important to me than mastery at this point. In fact, she became very excited about measuring with a measuring tape (cannot read it though) after our session.

"L" Based Activity - Lacing Through Hands

I think Sophie has got the skills to lace and thread, as far as I am concerned. However, it is challenging to get her to complete a task because she gets bored really easily. Papa thinks she is too smart but I worry that she might encounter problems as she enters school. I am not sure if educators are patient or understanding enough for her.

"L" Based Activity - Leaf Insect

I had wanted to make a leaf insect for Sophie using real leaves or something. In the end, I used foam sheet, corrugated paper and clothspin for the body, pipecleaners for the legs, plastic and cloth leaves (here and there), and buttons for the eyes. It took a while to complete because I had to tie the leaves one at a time. Anyway, it was definitely not something my little Sophie could do on her own.

"L" Based Activitiy - Ladybug

I like to challenge myself when art projects are concerned, thus instead of simply making a ladybug with paper plates, I included a fastener so that the wings can be opened up. In order to make a decent looking one, I had to plan how to get Sophie to do the different parts with minimum glitch.



I coloured the dot stickers black so that Sophie could paste all the spots while the rest of the body part dried. It took a lot of patience on her part and I was glad she did not lose interest. She insisted on pasting two “rosy cheeks” on the ladybug so I had to give her a much smaller mouth. Of course, she was thrilled to paste the huge plastic eyes on.



When the ladybug was dried sufficiently, Sophie began to play with it. I guess that would always be her favourite part of doing art projects.



All went well, except the dot stickers would not stay stuck onto the wings. By the end of the day, they all came off. I had to paint the dots on.

Letter Of The Week - "L" For Laces & "l" For Leaves

We started on the letter "L" today after a trip to a neighbourhood craft shop for supplies. I like the shop because we could get materials in bits at reasonable prices.




I observed that Sophie is able to control her painting a lot better now and she has a clearer picture of what we are doing for art. She can also converse pretty well, considering that once upon a time, we thought she could not talk properly. It felt good to talk and work together during our art session.



We did the small “l” next while the capital “L” is drying. Again, we used the “leaves” and sequins bought from the craft shop.



Sophie can be so focused and careful with her work if she wants to. I enjoyed our session thoroughly.