the fat cat sat on the mat...

Yesterday was a good day for me.

I managed to quickly cook dinner while the kids napped. By the time Bryan woke up from his nap, I was able to have some fun with him.

We have had this chart on our main door for a very long time. It finally served its purpose yesterday afternoon, when I told Bryan to sit in front of it and learn the first 4 words in the "-at" family column, while I cleaned up the kitchen.

It didn't take him long. After 5 minutes, "I'm done, Mommy! What's next?"

He's been resisting his afternoon nap ever since we came back from Singapore. So whenever I say he doesn't have to go back to his bed anymore, he loves it! In fact, he loves it whenever he has to do some "work" for Mom so much that when Daddy was back yesterday evening, he proudly informed his Dad that he was doing some "work" for Mom.

Anyway, next it was word-recognition exercise for him.

I wrote a series of "cat", "bat", "hat" and "mat" on the easel and got him to circle, t-cross, cross out and then strike out the words, one group at a time. Pretty well, and all this while I was still clearing the cooking utensils in the kitchen.

Next, it was word cards.

Got Bryan to read out the words, while prompting him not to forget the accompanying actions. The actions were a lot of fun for him. e.g. scratching moves for "cat", flapping arms for "bat", hands over the head for "hat" and lastly, he had to sit down on a "mat".

Finally I showed him the card "at", hoping he would transfer some of his knowledge to reading the word on his own. Well, not so much. He needed some clues.

The last thing we did before dinner was for him to complete reading the whole column of the "-at" family chart. And he did! Applause! So I did manage to get him to transfer his new "-at" knowledge after all. Oh... yes! I also got him to read "the fat cat sat on the mat" out loud and immediately he remembered we had a book in that title.

After dinner, we had a short revision on those words using Magna-Doodle board. Then we started reading "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat" together. It was fun and an accomplished lesson plan! Homeschooling this way, I like it. But this is not always the reality.

Reality is: Mommy is always tired, Bryan is being silly or cranky, or Kristin is disturbing us!

But it was definitely seizing the moment to get him to learn a few more words.

Oh... did I mention I was in the gym yesterday? Yeah, that's where the energy came from. I think I need to camp out in the gym to feel fit mentally to teach again.

Next on my lesson plan is the "-ish" family. Not very many words - "fish", "dish", "wish", "swish". But I can certainly read Dr Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish with him after that.

I do have many ideas in my head... but really can't summon energy to realise them. Where is Brand's Chicken Essence and Youmeishu???