Week 6 : Weekend Learning

It was Total Defence Day yesterday and I totally forgot all about it. I only got mildly curious when I heard sirens around noon. I did a quick google and realised I have missed that out this week. I didn't go through with Sophie what Total Defence is or its 5 pillars. However, I managed to find out that there is an interactive exhibition at National Museum of Singapore so we took the kids there today. Consider this as a learning journey or some sort of supplementary class. 

This is the interactive exhibit. I'm sorry, but I'm disappointed. It's interactive because you can choose to learn about 5 different characters according to your… mood? I don't really get it and neither did Sophie.  Perhaps I should have studied it before bringing her here. We looked lost and confused in there. In fact, the whole museum was quite messy. We didn't really know where to go and what to see. Honestly, I am not much of a museum person so maybe it's just me.

Traditional game stalls were probably the most appropriate for the kids. The rest were too wordy or abstract for them to appreciate. I think they should have made the exhibit a little more child oriented if they hope to see more children learning about TDD. We also visited the gallery with paintings from the 50s to 70s. Sophie likes Liu Kang's painting of some Burmese temples (thinking they were castles). We also saw an installation art which Sophie found very interesting. There were a dozen or two human shaped cardboards in a gallery and images of individuals were projected onto them. 

 

Frankly, I haven't got the faintest idea what this vehicle is suppose to be. It look like those 'taxis' you find in Thailand. Sophie wasn't very keen to sit in it but she complied because I told her I needed pictures. There was a screen inside but she wasn't at all interested.

We found a 'Reflection Wall' and Sophie eagerly went forward to leave a note there. She wrote 'I'm thankful to my parents' and 'I love Singapore'. She also helped Alfee to write his note although I'm skeptical that he actually meant it. He claimed to be thankful to God and love Singapore too.

Next week, I'll try to explain to Sophie what all these actually means to a Singaporean. Perhaps we might even go to the National Museum again for the Forum Theatre (which I just found out) and the TD Walking Trail (which I don't really fancy). 

Week 6 (10/02/2014 - 14/02/2014)

Monday

We started out well. Sophie was very attentive when I taught her about the first nomads. She was so keen that she made extra effort in her handwriting. She even took initiatives to draw after copying the notes. I love the dress she drew. She explained that her dress was made with animal hides stitched together, thus it looks patchy. She was particularly fascinated that lizards and snakes can be eaten. 

We went on to finish the pointillism art that we started last week. We did a little work on the sun and the ocean. I think that was all she had patience for.

Alfee was restless while Sophie was completing her work. So, I told him to try some dot painting too. He started with quite decent dotting but it very soon (before I could take pictures) became something totally different. After painting, he told me it's a fallen tree which I thought he was quite right. 

Tuesday

I thought today we could carry on with the topic on the first nomads. We didn't really. Instead, we did cave art. It was quite an impulsive decision, I admit. I took a plastic box and taught Sophie how to create a cave wall with simple paper mache techniques. It took a bit of effort and time but I thought it looked fairly decent. 

Until my FB friends commented that it looked like 'bak gua'. It remained as 'bak gua' until I added baby powder, glitter and some sponge painting.

I told Sophie to deliberately create layers of drawings and overlapping. She wasn't too comfortable with that but the effects were quite pretty. I love art. 

Wednesday

I know Sophie really wants to tag along with me to fetch Alfee home. It's her only chance to go play outdoor. I haven't been able to get the outdoor part of our homeschooling going. I didn't manage to find a group that we can join and we are so restricted by our location. However, the weather is really hot these days and I find it near impossible to manage the kids under such harsh conditions. Yet I still took her with me...

Alfee was still not getting soccer. He doesn't chase after the ball and I doubt he actually wanted to. He's very hot and bothered in the field and I don't blame him. Well, I hope he will learn to like soccer. 

We all learnt how to be 'kind' this evening. Rose, our helper, gave us purple chicken stew for dinner. I really dislike it because it cost me my appetite. The colour didn't affect its taste but it was relatively tasteless too. None of us commented on it even though Sophie was obviously reluctant to eat it and Alfee, like me, barely touched our food. I did complained to my friends though. I think it's time. 

Thursday

In the morning, Sophie had swimming with Uncle Shawn. We are targeting 'Bronze' so she's practising her backstroke diligently. Sophie has come a long way, we feel. She started off really all grouchy and whiny about swimming. Each lesson was a painful (and hot) experience for us. Now, she could swim better than us. I am proud but I'm not letting her know until after she takes the exam.

Friday

It is Valentines' Day today. Unlike previous years, I didn't use it as a theme for learning. I must be getting tired or plain lazy. In fact, my whole unit study on Chinese New Year has been systematically "slaughtered" as well because the kids didn't show much interest in it at all. What a waste! I mean I understand that there will be good days and there will be not-too-ideal ones, but this hasn't been much of a school week at all.

In the evening, Alfee and I spent some time reading while waiting for Sophie at the CC. She seems to be doing well in her Chinese class after I insisted we change the time slot. The teacher is a lot more solemn which is very good for my gregarious Sophie. I don't particularly enjoy waiting for her although I do appreciate the time I get to spend with Alfee.  

Week 3 : Weekend Learning

Saturday

In the morning after piano lessons, we went to Bishan Park for some skate scootering. Read about it here. We have always supported the Kidsfest! Singapore and our first show this year was "What The Ladybird Heard". This was also the first time I took Alfee along with us. Although he has gone for several shows before, this was his first attempt to sit through a stage performance. I was quite happy that he was attentive and able to understand the show.

Before the start of the show, the kids went to the little book stall set up by Kookaburra and browsed through the books. Although Alfee can't read (under pressure to teach him), he was keen to look at the pictures. Hopefully he was trying to figure out the stories.

I must say I am a little disappointed by the show especially since the tickets were expensive. However, I think it's always good to expose the kids to different sorts of performing arts. In this case, Sophie was kept intrigued by the way the story was presented and she was quite a critic. 

I didn't buy tickets for Papa because I wasn't sure if Alfee could sit through the entire show. Thus, he stationed outside just in case I had to take him out. After waiting for an hour, Papa was pretty glad to see us all smiling when we left the theatre. Then we found a pub and got ourselves some fries. 

It was Alfee's lucky day. Usually I would stop him from playing with the ice cubes in Papa's ice water. Today, the kids were given special permit (thanks to Papa) to drink ice water and play with the ice cubes with their bare hands!!! Papa said they had been wanting to do that for so long, it was time we let them explore as they please.

The Wise Guy

Sunday

We did a little kirigami while Alfee was taking his nap. I basically got Sophie to draw and cut out a horse. Then we pasted the two flowers we had done earlier this week onto a piece of drawing paper together with the horse. She then added the chinese characters. We got the idea from Craftiments, unfortunately I am not that creative. 

In the evening, we went to ECP for some cycling. And today, Sophie learnt to cycle on a two-wheel bike! Read about it here. 

First Day Unlike Others

We kicked start our Chinese New Year Unit Study by painting on paper plates. The kids love working on art pieces so they really enjoyed it. To my pleasant surprise, Alfee was very comfortable with painting. He seemed to have little inhibition. Sophie was a little more conscious and she strived to prefect her creation. Of course, I provided them a few good examples of porcelain plates and did a  simplified sample for them.

The end products are quite nice. I did a little touch up on both the plates. I must remember to kick this habit of mine.

After all the cleaning up, I took out the lightbox so that they could play with it. I had to consolidate all my translucent objects and frankly, I was surprised to have found so many items. I also added two new LED lights to make it even brighter. 

The lightbox is one of those DIY learning cum sensory tool that I really appreciate. The kids' interest in it is unexplainable and instinctive. Alfee naturally took a bead and started spinning it while Sophie lined all the counters around the edge. I took a piece of transparency and wrote the first letter of their name on it. Then they form the letter with counters on the lightbox.

 

They did a few rounds of free play, creating designs and pictures with whatever they have. Of course, they fought for more space and time on the lightbox, but overall, they were sharing. 

After a while, their enthusiasm seemed to have dampened a little. So I drew them a crude looking maze and told them to push an item through to the finishing point, using a straw. Both did it and their time were recorded. Alfee had little chance of winning Sophie but he did pretty well. He was able to focus on his task. 

The last game wasn't too well executed but the idea was there. The aim was to push the bead into your opponent's goal with a straw. Alfee had little idea what the game was about, but Sophie was nice enough to help them score a goal.

Alphabet Art

All About Apples

We decided to test of doing a unit study on apples. I thought it was a simple topic so we really wouldn't take too long to complete it. Well, I was quite wrong apparently. There are many things to learn about apples and many books to borrow as well. It took me a week to gather the materials and create the lap book worksheets. Even then, I was still trying to make improvements and adding new materials. All in all, we took about 3 weeks. I think I will have to work on doing this a little more efficiently and cut it down to 2 weeks. 

I used a lot of the free printables and ideas from Apple Lapbook and Apple Trees and Apple Blossoms Unit Study by Squidoo, Apples Pre-K/ K Pack by This Reading Mama and Apple Unit by Miss Renée's Kindergarten Pad. I thought about creating my own resources but I didn't want to kill myself so soon. After all, this is our first unit study. Even so, there are just too much resources in the Internet so it's hard to decide what to do and what to drop.

Before we did the unit on apples, I didn't know there are so many different varieties of apples. I took Sophie to the supermarket just to check out the different varieties available in Singapore and bought some for her. We kept the labels of those common ones for the record. 

We took some apples for making art prints. The kids were surprised to see the 'star' when I cut the apple into half. Then I used half an apple as an illustration for 'symmetry' and taught Sophie what 'half' means. Then we name the parts of an apple and discussed their functions. 

We also did some Math mazes and problem sums on apples. The questions are very simple addition and subtraction so she could do them very quickly.

We also attempted some still life drawing. I am always guilty of pushing Sophie beyond her ability and in this case, I think I did. I was a little too eager to teach her the way to use her oil pastels. In the end, the drawing looked more like my work than hers. 

Thus, I had to ask her to do another still life, this time I kept my hands off. I tried my best to think our our experience as a learning journey. She learnt how to do it through me and applied her learning onto her own drawing.

For Science, we learnt about what happens when apples are sliced and left in the open and how to prevent them from turning brown. Sophie loves experiments so she was really attentive and eager to get involved in her little experiment.  Gong Gong was around when we were doing this and even he got all excited and eager to watch the apple turn brown. Although he didn't know all the scientific terms, he knew about the effect of lemon juice on apples and other practical ways to prevent browning.

We read The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons and Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington before discussing about the seasons affecting apples trees and their lifecycle. But I really like Apples by Jacqueline Farmer because the information is simple yet comprehensive and the illustrations are very beautiful. Sophie was keen to understand the seasonal changes and the lifecycle of apple trees, especially when there are interesting video clips to watch.

We gathered some scrap materials and created four apple trees, one for each season. I helped her draw her hand and part of her arm for the tree trunk. Sophie always remembers better when she learns through art. 

The topic on apple flowers is a little harder to explain, especially the cross pollination part. Sophie was happy to just read about it without doing any worksheet or activities. Perhaps in time she can understand the concepts better.

Grafting is another difficult idea to teach. Sophie wasn't too keen to learn about some brown, ugly looking twigs and how they are secured to another stem using electrical tape. 

We skipped cooking apples entirely because I am just not an adventurous cook. We were happy just to eat apples slices and knowing that the doctor's far away when we're doing Apples unit study. 

All About Johnny Appleseed and Apples To Oregon

We started by watching the animation on YouTube. We are very fortunate that we can get virtually anything online these days. Here are the lyrics to the catchy song in the animation. After we have got some idea who's Johnny Appleseed, we read up more about him in The Legend of Johnny Appleseed : A Graphic Novel retold by Martin Powell and Johnny  Appleseed Heads West : A Reading A-Z Level O Leveled Reader retold by Vera Ogden Bakker. 

Sophie went on exploring some websites like Crispy Apple Stand for the games and activities on Johnny Appleseed and apples in general. We also learnt some apple songs and poems from My Montessori Journey and Mrs Kilburn's Kiddos. We tried some of the printables by Royal Baloo, Mama's Learning Corner, Making Learning Fun and Homeschool Share. 

We also read Apples To Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narration of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains by Deborah Hopkinson and used some of the printables from Apples To Oregon Unit Study by Homeschool Share. 

Alfee hasn't been spared as well. Whatever we found too simple for Sophie or too interesting for him to ignore, he would be given to have a shot at it. For him, we read Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins and Ten Apples Up On Top! by Dr Seuss and did some math related work. He also has some neat little printable readers that he can memorise easily.