a typical work day...

Disclaimer: This isn't me complaining. Just a reminder to self on how much time I spend with the kids on a day like this one. 

I woke the kids up at 7 am. They were brought out of the house by 7.45am to wait for their school bus. I only managed to spend 45 minutes with them. 

I worked for 8.5 hours. 

When I came home, I hardly spent 2 hours with the kids and off I packed them to bed by 9.45 pm.

So how much time did I spend with them in total today? 

Barely 3 hours! 

In between the 3 hours, I ate my dinner, listened to Bryan read to me, played a couple of "I spy" games with Kristin, watched my kids write some Chinese characters / numbers on the white board, put up with incessant whining from Kristin and made them milk, herded them to brush their teeth and change into pj's, tucked them to bed and prayed with them. 

Ok... not too bad eh coz the Daddy only spent 30 minutes with them today! He's still not back from work yet. 

Anyhow, in our absence, the grandparents did the following with the kids on top of caring for the kids, bathing them, cooking lunch and dinner etc! 

My dad taught Kristin the first stroke in Chinese writing. The character for one. She still doesn't have much strength in her grip yet. 

My mom taught Bryan to write the character "faith". Of course, she's truly the master teacher. Rewind this some 30 years back, it would have been me writing with my mom at the table. 

     

More Chinese characters with the same "ren" side. 

Bryan decided he had had enough Chinese writing for the day. Of course, grandpa had to help him with some numbers. Otherwise it would be "so tiring for his arms"! 

Yes, we are indeed blessed with grandparents! 

And yes too, we are quite voracious, kia-su Chinese students now! 

first times in Sg...

Chinese Characters

We only realised that we didn't attempt to teach the kids to write their Chinese names as school started this year. 

Daddy panicked and decided he would teach his son how to write the family name on his own. 

Father and son did a pretty good job doodling and at the end of the half hour session, Bryan managed to write his surname. 

1.5 months have passed since the first time Bryan started writing his name in Chinese. 

And finally he can write his full name in Chinese, no longer Yang Bryan. 

A tiny step at a time. Hoping that he'll be ready for P1 by next year. 

yesterday today tomorrow...

I have been wondering what Bryan's been up to in the kindergarten. He comes home to tell me how boring his days are. So boring that he cannot even remember what he's done in class. So boring that he doesn't have to time to play at all. So boring that he's happy doing copywork willingly at home. So boring that he begs to go to the playground, watch TV, not to take a nap everyday. I really have no idea what he does in school. Btw, boring means "not enough play" for Bryan. He has certainly inherited the "play" genes from us, actually ermm more from his dad. 

But there are at least two things I'm extremely happy about: 

1) He's learnt to pray! Yay! Praise be with God. 

2) He's learnt to spell some words and write pretty decent sentences. 

Yay, that's good enough for us. For now. At least. 

addition...

Nothing about PSLE nor Singapore Math... 

We are way behind those schedules here.

While waiting for Daddy to clear up some work at the office this afternoon, Bryan was gamely entertained by sums! How rare! 

Single digit addition isn't too difficult for him anymore... so I decided to give him a double digit and a single digit to add each time e.g. 13+4 or 17+2 or 15+3 etc... very simple and basic stuff still. 

After a while, my son told me it was again too easy for him! 

Why? 

That's because he's been using a manipulative - a ruler! 

He showed me, "You see Mom, the number 13 here. Then just count forward four times, and you get 17! So easy!" 

Cheater-bug! 

He's lucky that the ruler measures up to 30 cm for this time. 

Ok... I have to admit that I've been given some hope that there might just be a chance for him to catch up with Sg Math... slowly, of course, if he continues to add with a ruler! 

reading "green eggs and ham" again...

Let this be the official day that marks Bryan's independent reading. 

Ever since he turned 5, he's been found sitting in a corner each day... at several intervals of the day with a book. It's usually Tintin or a Berenstain Bear. I have long stopped reading to the kids. Now it's a rare time when Mommy actually reads a book with them, and it's usually when Daddy's not home. Yet, I haven't had plenty opportunities to slack this month either, since there will always be a couple of nights when Alan's not around each week. In fact, I think his successor probably sees more of him over the past couple of months than the kids and I do! 

Anyway, as the story goes... Tonight was yet another one of those Daddy's-out-nights. So guess who did the reading tonight? Me? Lucky me... it was Bryan! Finally and thankfully, Mommy can now skive, officially! 

I told Bryan I was only keen on reading Dr Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham. Then Bryan told me he could do it. In fact, he's done it before in preschool during daycare. Apparently, he's been reading it to another girl. Trying to woo one with poetry already? Not eliminating that possibility there... haha! Even his sister vouched for him! "Yeah, Mommy. He's reading to Miranda!"

So in a whole sitting, he finished the entire book. "Am I not fantastic, Mom? See, I told you I could read it all by myself!"

Yes, I'm mightily proud of him, taking even more pride in his effort to finish all 62 pages at one shot! Ok... I won't call him a lazy bum anymore. 

By the way, I did realise some interesting cues he draws from reading... I mean the non-verbal communications, e.g. When he saw a couple of horizontal lines coming out of the character's mouth in the drawings, he told me, "Oh, he's shouting a bit here." So he raised his volume and pretended he was shouting out loud while reading. Next, he saw some words printed all in upper case. And he told me again, "Oh, there he goes again. Shouting!"

Pretty interesting what he picks up from the non-verbal signs. Guess comic books are brilliant for such things. Yep, more Tintin it will certainly be... I think it's also high time to re-introduce The Electric Company dvds. 

Yep... think most moms are right on this one... just leave the child alone and sooner or later, he'll pick up reading! Ok, more later for our case. Still loads better than "never", I guess. And really... phew! Because we'll be heading back to Singapore (where kids are already reading by 3 or 4 years of age) in a couple of months! Oops... in fact I need to fret about Kristin! Now I've found the new object of my obsession! Here we go again... 

why oh why...

Bryan has a friend who's very intelligent and likes to ask interesting question. His mom told me that he stumped a school administrator once when he was asked if he had any more question regarding the school he and his mom were touring.

He said, "Yes, one last question. Why is red red?" 

To be fair to the school administrator who was caught off guard, his mother would have been happy if this lady would just answer she didn't know but would promise to look for an answer. Instead, she gave a long lecture on red being a colour and started naming things that were red. Of course, Bryan's friend wasn't satisfied mainly because she didn't answer the question. So he asked again, "Why is red red?" Sensing the other lady's exasperation, his very wise mom swiftly whisked him away. 

I'm sure every parent of a young child would have at least encountered this why-question once in a while if not many times... maybe yours is even the type who'll always ask you why till you almost lose it. Most of the time, I just can't keep up with my children's why's and I'll tell them, "Why? Because the sky is high and pigs can't fly!" Very rarely, I'll say, oh let's go check it out on the internet. 

Tonight I was feeling cheeky... well, before you think I'm losing it again and comparing my son with another, nope.... I was really curious how a 5 year-old would react to such a why-question. So I posed the "red question" to my kindergartener. 

"Bryan, why is red red?"

"Hmmm..." He thought for a split second, then he probed back, "Why is pink pink, Mommy?" 

Hey... I think I just received a revelation: Bryan just gave me the reason why his friend asked that "red question". Don't we get it? Sometimes it's not about the answers. It's all about asking questions! Now this has certainly given me a new way to look at things. So kids, the next time you're gonna ask me another why-question, be prepared to have one thrown back at your face! They like it, to them it's just a game. :) 

dino-mania!

Continuing from our Saturday excursion to Senckenbergsmuseum...

By chance, we arrived at Dino Fest, an event held by the museum to kindle/cultivate interest in creatures of the past. 

How else can a child learn more about dinosaur other than creating one of his own? 

Bryan sculptured his very own ankylosaurus out of clay: 

What do you think? It's a pretty close interpretation, ya? You might not be able to take a closer look at its tail. Alan and I are very proud of him that he added so much details to his mini sculpture. He did it without a single bit of help from us - hee... we hadn't the foggiest idea how an ankylosaurus looked like anyway. 

Kristin? A brachiosaurus, of course. Can't you tell? Actually, she only made some of the dino eggs. Mommy made the brachiosaurus simply because that's the only dino she knew how to make: 

Bryan's ankylosaurus, however, did not make it back home intact. It fell from great heights, from Bryan's arm to the museum ground. Luckily, we got home before the clay hardened. Still his ankylosaurus did not manage to escape the fate of amputated limbs after Bryan made his close inspection at his work tonight. 

Daddy is attempting super-glue-surgery. But it sure looks like we need to go buy some clay soon. 

leaping into prehistoric times...

Alan and  I decided that we should study the only 2 pages of dinosaur eras in the sampler booklet we have on our children's LeapPad after the kids were tucked in bed. 

We stumbled at one mouthful of word which we couldn't quite understand... 

It sounded like 

"an 'esteminosoccus' skull" to me. 

Tonight, we decided to hit wikipedia to do our "research" after the kids went to bed. After trying to spell this mouthful of latin name in vain, we decided to type in keywords to search, i.e. mammal like creature, trilobite (since this creature was found about 250 MYA during the times of trilobites). 

We finally got a hit: 

Estemmenosuchus ! 

I leave the reading to you. 

(Living*) Math 101

Can you add?
No, Mom. That's too difficult.
Ok... hmm, how old are you?
I'm 4.
What about your sister?
She's 2.
So supposing she's 3, how old will you be?
I'll be 5.
Great! Let's see... when she's 7, how old will you be?
I'll be 9.
Ermm, what about when she's 9?
I'll be 11.
Hmm, how old will she be when you are 15?
She's 13.
Whatabout when you're 21?
She'll be 19.
When she's 25?
I'll be 27!

-------------------------------------------------

And all this while I thought my son couldn't add!
He's doing +2 and -2 with ease! Of course this is no great feat for a child his age. Discussing numbers, however, doesn't come naturally for me.
It's high time for some proper Math.

*My new found friend should be accredited duly. See comment below! Hee... also giving myself a pat on the back for a "living" idea! But if you are truly browsing for Math ideas, you should look at Lilian's. Mine are usually ill-conceived.

results...

I couldn't wait for the night to come. So when Bryan came home, I decided to spring the test on him. Bearing in mind that it's his first assessment ever, I walked him through the task: Got him to read all the words in one column and went through the pictures with him to ensure that the pictures were perceived correctly. Then, I began to realise my mistake. I think he's got a little confused now with hat-hay, bat-bay...

I would say he did about 80% correctly on his own for today.

The next step is to start breaking down the words further to letters. Remember, I'm using the analytical method. So each word will get split even smaller each time. For a start, he has to copy the words by sticking letters.

test

A little learning assessment awaits Bryan tonight. If the mood for learning is right, he'll have to match the words to the pictures correctly.

I'm a little excited as to how he'll perform in the assessment.

Teaching word recognition to a young child sure involves alot of reviews. Hmmm, a recursive curriculum perhaps? I wonder how much he still remembers from the word families "-at" and "-ool".

This is the first time I'm doing assessment tasks with him. Previously, all the exercises were devised to help him search and recognise the correct word.

bits and pieces...

Just last week, I gave a Bryan a really fine black book. Hardcover, A4 size and with high quality papers, I think at least 100g per sheet. Actually it's all complimentary from SunTechnics, one of the companies that Daddy met up with.

Anyway, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be a brilliant idea to use it as a learning journal for Bryan?" So when I presented him the huge black book, he was pleasantly surprised, "Oh thanks, Mom! I really like my 'work'book." That's what I told him it was gonna be. "Ok, Mom. Let's do some work now!" He couldn't wait to start. Thus, for the initiation, I told him to pen down his own name on the cover! He was delighted!

Well, if you know me, I'm not a hardcore-homeschooling-mom who has a strict curriculum and tight schedule to stick to. No offence to mommies who homeschool though. I just pale in comparison when it comes to discipline. If I were bestowed a wee bit of your discipline, I would gladly be a hardcore homeschooling warrior too and very definitely, my children would benefit from the real homeschool. What I do is really quasi-homeschooling.

Back to our workbook: We've been quite hardworking, last Wednesday and Thurday and this Wednesday and Thursday again. Hmm, I didn't know I actually set a time for these sessions. Convenience does plan its schedule well in this case.

From our very few sessions, I'm beginning to appreciate handwritten work. Sometimes, I spotaneously chart out an hour of learning with words, other times I prefer to get him to read from the calendar and count the numbers, while he dictates how I should spell out the months. I think by getting him to watch me write, he practises writing in a way too, by observing each stroke that makes up a letter, which then combines with others to make up words. I think I've forgotten that copying is learning in itself. Thanks to our huge black book, I am rediscovering this traditional method. Also, I think I'm setting the tone for the days to come - hee, guess who's gonna be writing eventually - when he begins to write, copy and eventually learn to transcribe accurately... but certainly not in the very near future, judging from the speed at which I tread when it comes to homeschooling.

So here's our huge black book!

a reading review...

As usual, we were doing some review on what Bryan had learnt so far.
Basically the fat-cat-sat-on-the-mat-stuff and he surprised me today with another word family, the "-an" family!

He was reading off "can, ban, man, ran, pan, tan, fan" all by himself when he got too tired with the word search on "-at" family I presented him. It certainly does look like he's ready for new challenges.

We've also been working on recognising the months on a calendar.
This was what his teacher wrote last Friday:
During circle time today the children were observing the display of months and discussing which month was their birthday. Bryan told us that December is Jesus' birthday.

I'm really pleased that he remembers little personal details, especially this one! I pray that he'll have a personal relationship with our Lord one day, soon.

the fat cat sat on the mat, the finale...

This is Day 5 of "The Fat Cat sat on the Mat".

Bryan completed the whole reader with me, reading about 80% of it all by himself! The other 20% he insisted on parroting me.

Wow! I was impressed!

Ok, on some occasions, I think his memory served as a great aid to his reading as I've read the book to him before. But really, I've not read the book to him more than 5 times, I guess. So it wouldn't be right to say that he read it out of his memory. Also, I think Bryan's a natural when it comes to rhyming. So, when he got "room", he got "broom" too, not forgetting "wish", "dish", "fish". And because we talk so much nonsense day in day out, and he orders and commands his sister what she ought and ought not to do, "So get off the mat!" wasn't much of a challenge to him. When he got "get", he immediately completed it with "off".

Anyway, I'm definitely rejoicing over my a-little-less-than-a-week-of-"hard"-work... We are now one baby step closer to literacy! :D

yay, he's reading alright!

We just had lunch with Daddy in the city.

While waiting to be served, Bryan read to his Daddy his silly sentences again. Boy, was Daddy proud of him!

But we were quite disappointed to hear that Bryan didn't want to learn how to read. He said he would once he became a big boy. And for now, he preferred to be read to...

What a lazy baby!!! Actually my secret agenda of teaching literacy is to have him read on his own in the morning when he wakes up, lest he comes bothering me in my bed! Hey, I'm cranky too when I don't get my sleep, ok?

bravo, Bryan!

As of "The fat cat sat on the mat" Day 4, Bryan is finally reading! Reading actual words and understanding them, and not picture reading. Yeah, tried and tested! Really!

Guess what just happened? He was peering into my screen to read my previous post and he saw what he could recognise. To make things easier, I printed out a copy of the silly sentences he made. And the most amazing thing happened! He read all of them! Every single word! Awesome! I know he definitely understood what he read coz he was laughing his head off.

Well, to many moms, this is probably no surprise for a 4 year-old. Many kids that I know have already started reading as early as three, or maybe even younger. But it is the utmost gratification for me after an intense lesson of two days. Now this makes the quasi-homeschooling that I do fun!

"Mom, remember to tell Daddy what I did today, ok?" Oh no, you're gonna to read to him!

the fat cat sat on the mat again...

Last night, I was totally convinced that my son was an under-achiever.

I gave him a stack of self-made cards with words of the sentence "the fat cat sat on the mat" jumbled up and told him to read each individual words and then arrange them into a sentence.

He had no problems with word recognition. He was reading each card alright. But when it came to forming a sentence, it was "the fat cat sat on mat the", until Alan could sense my frustration at dinner table. (Yeah, at dinner table, coz otherwise Bryan will not be interested in food. Don't get me started on starving them for a few meals. My children are just not interested in food. They can starve and be cranky and crazy, and still they won't eat unless they are sat down at the table with Daddy and Mommy saying "Eat! Eat!" every other second. Why don't they like food??? Anyway, that's another grouse altogether.)

Alan pointed out that it could be too boring for him to just form one sentence. So I thought, ok I would throw in the other words like"bat, hat, rat" and see what Bryan would do with them. Still not much progress.

After dinner, I wrote some silly sentences on the board and got Bryan to match each sentence. And indeed, he showed keen interest in silly sentences. Still, he had to check with me a hundred times before he completed a sentence. And after 15 minutes, he said he's too tired and his arms were all aching from arranging the cards! What???!!! What an under-achiever, I thought again. Sigh!

During lunch today, we did the word cards again. Yeah, it's "The fat cat sat on the mat" on Day 3. This time I didn't have any spare moment to check and baby him through the sentence making steps, so I just told him to make one silly sentence to make me laugh. What came out of that motivating factor laughter?

"The fat bat sat on the rat."
"The fat rat sat on the cat."
"The fat bat sat on the hat."
"The fat cat sat on the rat."
"The fat mat sat on the hat."
"The fat hat sat on the bat."
"The fat cat sat on the hat."
"The fat rat sat on the bat." etc

Now not so much an under-achiever today. Yay! Of course, I had to pretend that his silly sentences were cracking me up. He was certainly proud that he could make Mommy laugh with all his silly sentences.

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???

you've got mail...

Last Friday when we came home from school, Mommy suddenly had this brilliant idea: Let Bryan play the postman. You can't imagine how thrilled he was. Actually, it was my plan to avoid a confilct situation with him. You see, earlier on, I checked the mailbox and had already taken out a letter. But knowing him, he'd probably kick up a big fuss later when he discovered that I had already done checking the mailbox. Therefore, I decided to let him put the letter back into the mailbox again with this pretend-to-be-a-postman-game. It turned out pretty well and I was glad that I did take some time off for this little pretend play. Coz I realised my son can read Daddy and Mommy's surnames on the mailbox. And he also took time to read the name of the addressee on the envelope. Hmmm, not a bad learning experience, isn't it?

a new bed for Annabelle

Poor Annabelle! So far she always had to share the bed with Bryan. Yeah, Bryan and not Kristin. Initially, grandma bought a baby doll for Kristin when we were back in Singapore over the holidays in December. But ever since we came back to Germany, Annabelle had been kidnapped by Kristin's brother. Kristin is not allowed to care for Annabelle anymore. I always wondered if it's healthy to let boys play with baby dolls, but I saw the kids living below us have baby dolls too. And there isn't a girl in that household! So I thought, hmm, this is certainly the new age man in making! Besides, men are expected to be equal partners with women in all matters of parenting.

Bryan quickly took an affinity to this baby doll since the day Kristin received her in a package from her grandma. He even took the trouble to name the baby. Why Annabelle? That's beyond Daddy and Mommy. Perhaps he's heard girls in his class naming their doll babies with that name. So there you have it: The adoption of the baby doll, Annabelle, into our family.

Anyway, what does one do with extra pampers boxes lying around? Convert them into toys, of course! And our dear Annabelle here needs a new bed. So what were we waiting for? That night Bryan had this tiny bed placed next to his and commented that he now had two beds in his room. I corrected him that he had three coz meimei's playpen had been stored in his room ever since she outgrew it.