Getting your child interested in Reading

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

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.

• http://www.ehow.com/how_4894440_draw-cars-step-step-kids.html
• http://kidsfront.com/how_to_draw/car_drawing_34.html
• http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/step-by-step-drawing.html
• http://www.makinglearningfun.com

My Little Musicians

Nursery Rhymes in Mandarin

Baby FAN's first Mandarin song taught by her daddy.

Teacher's Day Present

This is a backdated post, almost forgot about it until I saw the picture taken of the card that SMALL FAN made.

Was thinking of what to get for SMALL FAN's teachers for the Teacher's Day when I thought, instead of buying something, maybe it will be more meaningful to get SMALL FAN to make it himself.  So I get SMALL FAN to the nickjr.com website and get him to colour some trucks and vehicles online (as he still can't colour very well, so by colouring online he can actually colour whatever he likes and it will look nice).  Then I printed it out in our printer, but our printer's magenta went bongas...so all the pictures turn out yellow and blue...sigh...but nevertheless, it still looks pretty good. Then I cut out the pictures and pasted it on a coloured paper.

Then the next task was to get SMALL FAN to write "HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY". However, I know that SMALL FAN won't have the patient to write the complete sentence in one card.  I thought I give him a few papers then I get him to write the word "Happy" by looking at how I write and then following me.  Then "Day", however "Teachers" proves too tough for him, so I write for him instead.  Then I cut out the words one by one and pasted it on the coloured paper.  Here's the completed work, now bad right?

Is TV really bad?

Baby FAN has been watching Utube sing 1 year old and loves it. She loves to watch nursery rhymes and sing along with it. Now at 17 month, she can sing songs like "twinkle, twinkle", "old macdonald", "ABC" and will dance and do actions to songs like "incy wincy", "Humpty dumpty", "head and shoulder" etc... Many of these she learn from Utube. So, it keeps me wondering, is TV really bad for the kids????

By the way, here's a vid of Baby FAN singing the ABC Song, see if you can make out what she sing.


Here are some of Baby FAN's favourite videos from youtube:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star


Skidamarink


5 little Monkey


Incy Wincy Spider



If you happy


Here we go round the mulberry bush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQB-L2I0ke0

enjoy!

National Day Songs

Nursery Rhymes Time

Simple Activity to keep the kids busy

Wanted to bring the kids down for some exercise at the play ground downstairs but it started to drizzle. So, I bring the kids back home, took out a tub, pour it with some warm water and soap and the kids have a good half an hour of water play. Meanwhile, I busy myself preparing for lunch. What a simple and cheap ways to keep the kids entertained.





Here's what you need:

• A bath tub
• Water
  
• Some Soap (omit it, if you want to prevent the floor from getting too slippery)
• Lots of floor towel (to soak up the water from the floor)
• Waterproof Containers and toys
  

Simple Pleasure of Life

With a 1 year old and a 3 years old under my care, I was always at my wits end on how to keep both of them entertained at home other then watching TV. Things like art and craft and drawing is too tough for the 1 year old and things like rattle is too boring for the 3 years old. So Big FAN built this tunnel using very simple tools, basically just 2 bolsters, 2 pillows and a baby mattress and surprisingly the 2 kids love it and was really having a get time with it. SMALL FAN keep asking me to build the tunnel for him after that.



Ever since then, SMALL FAN started to become really creative and building his own tunnels using pillows, sofas, bolster, blanket etc...and Baby FAN gets to be the guinea pig and try out his tunnels and the 2 of them really enjoy themselves....cool...this is what I call "the simple pleasure of life"...

Camera Fun

SMALL FAN has been playing around with my camera recently. Initially I was really worried that he will spoil my camera, but after a while he seems to be getting quite good at it and this is what he took.


Mei Mei:

The Alphabets on his bed:

The TV:



Ok, he actually took more photos than these, as I was diligently deleting his photos, it suddenly occur to me that this is a good way for me to understand and see how his world looks like. So, maybe I will get a cheaper camera for him someday and encourage him to take more photos, hopefully it will help me understand him better. I'm now thinking of how to display his product so he himself could see it and feel proud of it.

Gong Xi Gong Xi (English Version)

SMALL FAN singing Gong xi Gong xi in English.

The Painter

Big FAN took some photos of SMALL FAN when he is doing his usual creative stuff...hi hi...with the cute apron that he likes to wear.

The Trolley boy

Was trying to thing of some activities that could occupied my 2 really active kids, decided to make a trolley for them to play with...hi hi...keeps both of them happy:)

Sand Art Project

Tried making sand art with SMALL FAN, has always wanted to try it out with him, but those from the departmental stores are so expensive. Yesterday, saw it at Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 market, selling at $3 a piece. So I bought 2 and tried making one with SMALL FAN, he likes it, here's our finish product.

It's a pity that the black colour sand is not enough, so the frog's eye wasn't that nice.

Here's the second project, looks nicer right? Got experience already ;)

The Story of the Thirsty Crow

Read a book on The Thirsty Crow for SMALL FAN and he got so intrigue by the idea of putting stone in the jug, so the next day, I decided to let him do his own experiment. Dig out my old bags of coloured stones and then pour a bottle of water and gave it to him. He really enjoy putting the stones into the bottle as he watch the water rise to the brim. He say he wanted to drink the water like the bird, but I told him not to as these are not drinking water. So he pour the stone back into the container and started putting the stone into the bottle again and again, I think he can do this for hours if I did not stop him as he was getting the whole floor wet. What a simple and fun project.

Book Review: Children Who Do Too Little

Borrowed this book Children who do too little by Patricia H. Sprinkle from the National Library. Many of the stuff mentioned in the book are quite common sensical, so don't think there is much take away for me. The only take away or idea that I thought was quite cool is that you should get your child to do household chores. Why?

• Prevent her/him from becoming a coach potato
• You are teaching him/her lifeskills that will help them become more socially responsible, and make better husband or wife.
• A chance for you to bond with your child doing chores together
• Gives you more free time to do other task

The book say, it's never too young to start them on household chores, they have list of chores from 2 to 6 years old. So after reading this, I became more proactive in looking out for opportunities for my boy to help me out with some chores like mopping the floor, putting his own plates into the sink after eating, helping me prepare sandwiches etc. Now, I'm trying to get SMALL FAN to help me fold clothes, but think it's a little too difficult for him, although he seems to be able to fold some towels quite well...

Christmas Tree Project

Wanted to buy a Christmas Tree this year so that SMALL FAN can decorate it, but it's a little too expensive and we don't really celebrate Christmas, so decided that we should made our own.

So, I cut out triangle and trapezium shapes, find a nice corner at home and started pasting a Christmas tree. Then I printed some Christmas ornaments from Making Learning Fun and get SMALL FAN to decorate it, then paste it on the Christmas tree using blue tack, then I used the LED light that I bought from IKEA and pasted it on the tree and wa lah....got out very own christmas tree.


a Christmas ball painted by SMALL FAN

Teaching SMALL FAN to read - Part IV

SMALL FAN seems to have lost interest in the word matching games, so I'm kinda stuck, not too such how I should move on with his phonics lesson. So, hunted around for ideas and stumble upon this book from the National Library. It's call Games for Reading: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Read by Peggy Kaye.

This book is not really a teaching phonics book, but basically it contains a lot of fun activities for you to play with your little ones from heightening him/her to words right to letter sounds and also activities to enhance their visual skills (which is necessary for reading) and stuff like that. Thought the ideas were quite cool. Am thinking of buying this book and trying out the activities with SMALL FAN. Just to state a few:

• When going on a shopping trip, have a competition with your kid to look for words, for e.g. chocolate and sweets. End of the trip see who can find more words. This heighten their awareness of words.
• While waiting in queue (such as seeing a doctor), take out a magazine which you don't want, choose a paragraph in the magazine and start hunting alphabets in the magazine with the kids. He can look for the letter 'a' while you can look for letter 'e' and see who can find the most letters.
• While seating in a car, get your kid to love for letters as you travel along the road. Get him to look for cars with the letter "A" on their license plate or look for signboard with the letter "A" etc.

Entertaining your kids with household chores

Was reading a book about getting your kids to help you with your household chores and felt that I should be doing that now since SMALL FAN is getting better at listening instructions. So today, SMALL FAN give me a good idea to get him to help me with the chores, he say that he wanted to clean his cars (actually he just wanted to play with water).

This got me thinking, since he wants to clean his car, I might as well get him to clean up his toys, it has been a while since I last clean it. So I got a pail, pour it with the soapy water that I use to bathe him(trying to save water), give me a cloth and ask him to wash his toys and dry it with a cloth.

Meanwhile, I got some free time to mop the floor. It kept him occupied for a whole half-hour. After that, I have to stop him as he started to play with the water instead of washing the toys. By then, I have finish mopping the floor except for the area that he was playing in. What a good way to keep SMALL FAN occupied, give myself some time to do some chores and get him to help me do chores...

Will be thinking of others chores that I can start giving him... :)

By the way, here's what you need to get him cleaning his toys:

• a pail of soapy water
• a small towel to dry the toys
• a floor mat to absorb all the spills
• lots of washable toys