What Is Tot School, see post “‘Tot School’”
For the curriculum of books I’m reading with him and some activities I’m doing with Darius, go Letteroftheweek.

This is what we have done for Darius at 16 months. Lesson 7 WK1
Date: 16th Nov09- 22nd Nov 09

This week has been a ‘relaxing week’ again as I struggle to get back into the rhythm. It’s not easy maintaining the ‘lessons’ when one has started to be laxed about it the past two weeks and not all activities are fully appreciated by the toddler in question. Once he does not know how to do something, he easily get discouraged and  runs away without even continuing or trying. The moment he’s being made to continue, the flood gates start. So I’m not always having a easy time doing these activities with him but at least I do try to make an effort for him. I could just watch drama serials or surf net the whole day, letting him play by himself aimlessly instead of learning with him.

So this week was a ‘Planning’ week. I find that I really need to motivate myself to find info on homeschool blogs and dig out all those things I could do with him and follow through. I should start planning these intentional activities on a sheet of paper as lesson plans in advance so I do not do things on the spur of the moment, reaching the end of the week to find that I hadn’t done much at all.

Read on for details below: Long Post With Photos Ahead
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He has made progress this week with shape sorting 9 shapes especially, circle, star and square so below is to show his progress after he had consistently done this from the day he started the Learning Activities. It had been about three months now. I will point out to him some difficult shapes immediately but mostly I’ll let him figure out first before he try to slot in. I’ll also only give him the blocks one by one for that particular face he’s doing because he doesn’t know how to just take a shape and turn the faces himself to sort. He has the habit of turning the blocks round and round and not putting it down at all. So I have to keep urging him to put it after waiting patiently for him to finish. Also this is great progress because when we first started, he will look at the shapes, turn and turn til he finally throw them down beside the floor or just on the block. At least, he will try now and not run away until all is completed.

(NOTE: the video is a little long- he managed to put in only after a while of manipulating)

(things learnt: Names of Shapes, Colours of Shapes, Sorting Different Items)

I bought these lacing wooden beads from ELC sometime ago. He made me laugh when I took them out to play and he put back those pieces into the box instead. He then attempted to put the string back too. So he did his own ‘Transfer’ activity. I showed him how to string the beads and held his hands to try but it was still too advanced for him now. At least, he understood the concept as he took the string in one hand and poked at the beads, imitating me. We ended up stacking the beads like blocks and it was quite fun.

(NOTE: He managed to follow my way of stacking after I showed him)

(things learnt: Transfer of objects, Stacking)

We then work on this NEW activity. Sorting the mini pom pom I bought from Spotlight into different colours using a flower-shaped paint tray. He kept putting the ball into the same compartment with the rest which isn’t a bad thing (sorting into groups) but it will defeat the purpose of sorting according to colours so I made him put into different compartments amidst protesting and fussing that he had to re-do. Some he dropped into the tray and they ended up luckily in a different compartment. Some he did purposely put into another compartment correctly after I told him he had to re-do. We did it again a few more times and also the next day. He was better on the second day.

I up the level for the second round. He must sort the 2nd and 3rd pom poms of each colour I give him into the compartment already containing the same coloured pom pom. That means, blue pom pom into blue compartment, green into green. I was surprised he always did it right for blue and green! And also for pink or another colour. So about 3 or 4 out of 7 correct placements when he looked and placed it carefully. He will fuss and throw down anyhow for some colours cos he did not want to finish doing. (I made him finish though) The blue and green colour was what we did for a few times using the big Pom Poms though that was neon green. So surprised he actually recognised the colours as we hadn’t done it for a while.

(things learnt: Sorting different things into different groups. Sorting things into different colours. Matching the same colour items.)

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He did finger painting for the first time using finger paints I bought from Kiddy Palace. He didn’t like it at first and cried when we asked him to squat down to do the painting. (He doesn’t like seating at the table for the moment) He also did not like me holding his hands to do the painting but after a while, he got used to the wetness and initiated to touch the paint in the plastic bowl and painted on the paper himself by tapping or moving around. The second picture was a result of red paint mixing with the blue, creating digusting purple on another piece of paper.

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-English

I Know A Rhino By Charles Fuge (read by Daddy, he loves this book so much that he doesn’t mind reading it. Sometimes, twice or thrice a day! We are going to buy this book for Darius’ permanent Library)

Read about storyline & review here

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A Colour of His Own By Lio Lionni

Read about storyline & review here

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This week’s Book of the Week in the Curriculum is the above which incidentally was what we had been reading the past two weeks. Did not have the time to go to the Library last Sat. >.<” so I just made do. And you know what? Darius didn’t mind at all! Toddler loves repetition. He loves flipping through this book even when I’m not reading. It’s isn’t a board book but a soft pages book. He could flip very well so I’m not worried about leaving it out for him.

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-Chinese

Daily: We are reading ‘森林里来了一只小狗’(Dolphin Media) from the 15 books set for the third week. Er…I did say, I’m a bit laxed this week.

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Reading this series (中国第一套儿童情绪管理图画书 set of 8),this book ‘我不会害怕’’.

Read about storyline & review here

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- Bible Story

A Tasty Lunc (Five Loaves & Two Fishes) & A Happy Dad (Jesus heal a sick girl) from ‘The Rhyme Bible Book for Toddler’.
An Excerpt:

But one little boy
Had fish and bread.
It made Jesus smile.
“That’s plenty!” He said.

While all the people
Sat on the ground,
He blessed the boy’s lunch
And passed it around.
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He started searching for alternative routes during the week. Instead of the usual pathways, he'll walk behind structures. Had a strong feeling for exploration of hidden corners.

or cross over grass, muddy paths.

Was running after some pigeons and his head turned to follow it as it flew off. (top righthand corner)

He has finally put down his right hand most of the time when he walked. The left hand is still habitually up though...

...Probably so he could touch the leaves anytime with his outstretched hand when he walked past them.

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