I started off on the 17th of Aug 2009 with a more structured learning plan for Darius once he turned 13months. (see ‘Learning Activities for Darius from 13months‘) So this is what we did last week according to suggestions from the website, letteroftheweek. I changed some of the contents to whatever materials I have available.

13 months – Lesson 1 wk 1
Date: 17thAug – 23rdAug

• Literature - English : Snuggle Wuggle by Jonathan London / Additional night read by hubby: A Father’s Song by Janet Lawler
• Bible – Read the first story, “God Made Everything” from ‘The Rhyme Bible Book for Toddler’ after it arrived on Thursday.
• NurseryRhyme- Rub A Dub Dub
• Indoor Game – Cleaning Up Game
• Classical Music -  Mozart: Violin Concerto #2 in D Major
• Children’s Songs – Baby Beluga
• Mother Tongue -  Story ‘ 火车要开了’ (dolphin media books), Children Song : 坐火车
• Exercise – Learn to climb the stairs with two hands holding the side of the rail or wall
• Other Learning - WinkToLearn Flashcard DVD in Chinese, Audiobooks of Fairytales, Other storybooks read randomly during mealtimes or before bedtime.

Detailed information below:

Book Read for the Week: ‘Snuggle Wuggle‘ by Jonanthan London.

Storyline:

Simple wordings and story showing how the young of different animals hug. The illustrations are life-like and gives great visual examples to accompany the wordings. With the animals in big pictures spanning two pages and the wordings only one or two sentences, it was very easy to read and captured Darius’ interest. When I read, I also followed some of the actions to hug him. Animals mentioned were, bunny,chick, monkey, kangaroo, otter, gorilla, tiger cub, fawn, puppy, koala, panda, bat.

Word I picked out from the story and learnt for this Week (my own initiative): “Hug”

-It is repeated throughout the story so I had the idea to print it out on a piece of paper, pinned it up on the wall and pointing it out to him. I asked him to repeat after me, “Hug hug” and do the action of hugging him. He managed to say, “Ha..har” and utters this constantly now besides his usual mamas and babas…

Excerpt:

You Hug Your mama, and your mama hugs you. Lots of animals hug their mothers just like you!

How do Bunnies hug?  Snuggle Wuggle, Snuggle Wuggle.

——————————————————————————
Mother Tongue

‘ 火车要开了’ is the first book out of the set of 15 books packaged with DVD animations I bought recently on a trip to Bras Basah’s Maha Yuyi( it was recommended by Evelyn from BottomsUp). The stories in this set are written by authors and illustrators from European countries and translated into Chinese by a China company. The illustrations are superb and really catches interest. The stories are said to help unleash the child’s imagination, creativity and emotions, influencing his character building. The wordings are of a higher level but no harm reading to Darius now and keep reading til he can read himself.

Storyline:

Tom lives in an apartment in a dark grey city. One day, he fell asleep during an art class and started dreaming that he was on his toy train going through colourful worlds of animals.

Excerpt:

轰隆隆！轰隆隆！轰隆隆。。。哇！火车穿过了绿色的鳄鱼大桥。

Song: I used the chinese children song, ‘坐火车’ to supplement the learning of train.

——————————————————

Nursery Rhyme : Rub A Dub Dub

Rub A Dub Dub,

Three men in a tub,

And who do you think they be?

The butcher, the baker,

the candlestick maker,

Turn them out, knaves all three

———————————————————-

Indoor Game – Cleaning Up Game

- To place toys on the floor near a basket or large container and show Darius how to put them into the basket. As soon as we have finished cleaning them up, dump them out and start all over again.

This was good learning for Darius as he always throws his toys and take something out without putting it back. When I first started, he was resistant and cried when I moved his hand to ‘throw’ the toys into the basket. He also cried when I did not allow him to take the toys back from the basket. After two days, he got the idea and voluntarily released the toys into the basket once I put them in his hand. Once the toys are inside, he did not attempt to take them out again. This gave me an idea to continue with this game before bed every night to drum into him the concept of cleaning and putting things away neatly once he’s done playing.

————————————————-

Children’s Songs – Baby Beluga

- Lyrics here

—————————————————-

Exercise

- Since he has learnt how to climb stairs by climbing, I’m teaching him how to walk up the stairs sideways by himself using his hands on the wall or railing for support. I started by holding one of his hands and letting him hold onto the railing with the other. Then, gradually put his hands on the wall himself so he can push on them to move up.

- After a week, he finally knew how to step up the stairs sideways but still does not know how to walk downwards.

No related posts.