Like most Kiasu Parents, I started reading to my boy when he was 4 months old, but as he grow older (now 4 years old), I found it harder and harder to get him to sit still and listen to me. At a point I just gave up, he has loads and loads of book in the bookshelves but he just doesn't seems interested in it. Eventhough I still make sure I have storybook time with him, but he will just flip through the pages, look at the pictures and be done in 5 minutes.
Recently, I decided to try a different approach. I decided to bring him to the library and let him choose his own book. SMALL FAN loves going to the library, initially, he just runs around the library but nowadays, he will go and pick up books and flip through it, looking at the pictures. So what I did, was I actually pick out some books about CARS and BUSES (his favourite objects) and let him look at it, then I ask him if we should borrow it home and read it. He agreed. This seems to works as the next day, he will excitedly take his library books of cars and asked me to read it to him.
Another thing that I did was, while at the library I also pick up some books on Nursery Rhymes for my baby girl (now 2 years old) as she loves necessary rhymes. Initially, like all Kiasu parents, I pick up Nursery Rhymes book that contain as many different nursery rhymes as possible, this capture my baby girl's attention. But recently, I started picking out Nursery Rhymes book that just have one rhyme in each book. And I started reading and singing to both the kids. To my surprise, my boy got really interested and he was singing the rhymes as he flip through the book himself. Recently, he even started reading the words in the book. Nursery Rhymes was really helpful as they tend to be repetative such as Hickory Dickory Dock, also as there is only one NR per book, each page only contain a few words. So my boy started to learn to recognised these words and read it himself. He will ask me what are the words if he is not sure. Hey...I have unconsciously get my boy to read....not bad right?
Here's 2 nursery rhymes book that I really loves, borrow it and read it to your kids, it's really fun.
For those of you not to sure how to sing the tune for this 2 books, here's the songs from youtube.com
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Teaching a Kid to Draw
SMALL FAN is now in K1 and suddenly there is lots and lots of writing for him to do. Recently, his chinese teacher told us that SMALL FAN seems to be 'slower to mature" in terms of his ability to sit still and write, she suggested that we get him to do more drawing to cultivate his patient and ability to focus. I was contemplating sending him for art classes but yet, I don't think he is interested in going for yet another 'enrichment" class, so I thought I plough through the net for some drawing activities that I could do with him at home instead. SMALL FAN loves cars,trucks, bus and all the transportation vehicles, so I thought I look around the web for a site that teaches drawing such vehicles step by step and stumble upon these sites.
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