Home Learning - Cupcake Decorating

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought I would do some Valentine's related activities with Kaitlin so I got Kaitlin to decorate a cupcake for the husband. I got the printable from Busy Little Bugs, got the husband to print it out and prepared some "decorations" for her to choose from.

You can use just about anything for the decorations. I had some left over foam paper from another project so I just cut them out to be like little sprinkles, and added some pom pom balls for her. Midway through the activity, I took out some sequins as well. I gave her a variety of materials in different sizes so that she could practise her fine motor skills while picking the decorations and pasting them.

Though it wasn't decorating a real cupcake, Kaitlin totally enjoyed it that she wanted to decorate another one.

I didn't get to teach her many new words for this activity but it was cute seeing her say sprinkles cos it sounded like 'pinkles' and glue became 'blue'. I think it ended up being more play than learning, but well in a way I guess you could consider it learning through play.

It was also a good opportunity to teach her to show her appreciation to Daddy for all that he has done. Appreciation and being grateful are important values, and I hope for Kaitlin to grow up with these values.

Home Learning: CNY Books

Though this is not the first year that Kaitlin will be celebrating Chinese New Year, it is sort of the first year where I will try to teach her more about this festive season. It might be a little late seeing that CNY is this coming Friday, but hey there are 15 days to celebrate. I intend to teach her more about the festive season through books and some home learning activities.

Despite the fact that I am Singaporean, and a Chinese..I'm actually not a huge fan of CNY. But of course, I'm trying to learn more about the traditions now and finding reasons to like it more. So while I go through materials for Kaitlin, I intend to learn too! So I guess in a way, we are both learning.

Now as the title of this post suggests, it's about CNY books to read. I usually borrow books from the library if I can or order books from Book Depository but since I didn't plan to do this earlier, and it's all last minute, everyone else has already borrowed/reserved the library books and delivery time from Book Depository will take some time, I popped by Kinokuniya to get a few books for Kaitlin. I decided it was worth it cos these books definitely can be kept for a few more years for Kaitlin to read, plus it is about our culture - something important for Kaitlin to learn about.

These are the books I bought:

All three books have beautiful illustrations which I feel are great as it makes explaining and describing the story to Kaitlin alot easier. The books might be a tad wordy for babies and young toddlers, but Kaitlin sat through the stories, so I thought the books were still alright.

Some other titles you might want to check out:
My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz
A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong
Lucky New Year by Mary Man-Kong

This would probably be my last post before CNY, so here's wishing you and your family a very Happy Chinese New Year! May the year be a prosperous one for you, and wishing you all lots of great health and happiness :)

X

Home Learning - Straw and Pipe Cleaner Necklace

Having had quite a few parties and going through the phase of folding straw hearts for my other half as a teenager..I have amassed straws enough for a party of100 (yes, I'm such a hoarder) so I decided to try use them for last week's home learning activity with Kaitlin.

This activity is pretty easy to do and if you have toddlers that are 2-3 years old, I think this activity would be just right for them to practise using the scissors. K's school had started letting them use scissors since she was in the playgroup class, though they are the kiddy ones that aren't particularly sharp and won't be able to cut straws.

Since I was supervising her, I decided to let her use scissors that were a little bit sharper. Of course, I had to keep my eye on her most of the time which explains why there aren't pictures of her cutting the straws into smaller pieces.

Basically I just got Kaitlin to choose what straws she wanted and decide on the length she wanted them to be and cut it. I had to guide her most of the time when cutting. At times she needed my help her to cut, so I did and I just got her to instruct me where to cut.

We put all the cut up pieces into a box. I demonstrated twice to her on how to put the straws through the pipe cleaners and she got the hang of it quite fast. Do note that pipe cleaners were used instead of string as they are easier for her to handle. I had actually let her try using wool, but she had difficulty in grasping it while putting the straw through. I would eventually let her try using different kinds of string, so of course if you do have kids that have quite a good grasp already, you can always switch to using string or whatever materials use have in mind. 

Just like previous home learning activities, I went through the colours with her in English and Mandarin, and told her the names of the different objects we used. I also taught her a little about 'small' and 'big'. I should have taught her 'short' and 'long' as well, but that did not occur to me so I shall introduce those words to her next time.

Since this part did not require much supervision, I decided to prepare for her evening activities. I was next to her and turned around for abit, and before I knew it, she had finished putting all the straws she could possibly fit through the pipe cleaner. So I let her choose another pipe cleaner to work with, and let her do it on her own as well.

When she was done, I just showed her how I twist the ends of the two pipe cleaners together and TADAH! She had a necklace which she made by herself!

Here she is showing off her new necklace which she wore till dinner time! I think we will be doing similar activities soon..in fact I'm already thinking of using pasta to make bracelets with Kaitlin, and of course I will also be thinking of other activities where we could use the crazy amount of straws I have. If you have any ideas on what I could possibly do with all those straws, please share and I would be most happy to try new activities out with Kaitlin.


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Home Learning - Vegetable and Fruit Stamp Painting

This home learning activity was done quite a while back when Kaitlin's class was on the vegetables and fruits theme. It's a simple vegetable and fruit stamping activity which I'm sure many of us have enjoyed doing when we were kids ourselves.

All you need for this activity is some paints, newspaper and tissue (in case of any mess), and not forgetting a variety of different vegetables and fruits. You can also cut out shapes from potatoes but that was a little time consuming for us, so I just stuck to using produce that had different shapes and that were colorfully so as to interest K.

It all started with Kaitlin choosing the colours she wanted and she got a chance to squeeze out the paint herself. Very first time! So I helped her out a little at first. She enjoyed opening and closing the paints and squeezing them out. I took the opportunity to teach her about colours as well.

Kaitlin was a little hesitant to touch the fruits and veggies. She's not the kind who likes to get her hands dirty and touch objects she isn't familiar with so it took some time before she warmed up. 

Eventually she did, and her favourite was the ladyfinger! I think it's probably cos it was the smallest and seemed the least intimidating to her. Seeing her stamp away, made Daddy Li and I want to join in the fun too, and we did! Don't judge okay, it was fun and nostalgic relieving our childhood days even if it was for just five minutes.

It wasn't long before Kaitlin didn't want to continue cos her hands got more dirty, so we stopped the activity. Despite that, K herself was super proud of what she did and kept showing the finished artwork to us even after the next few days. We decided to laminate them to keep and show K when she grows up! I'm thinking that they might even be going for use as placemats since they are laminated and any dirt can be easily wiped off, plus it might be a great conversation starter for the girl. Another chance for her to practise her conversation skills perhaps.

Home Learning - Decorating a Christmas Tree

I kind of took a pause with the home learning activities at home..but now I'm back! I just did an activity with Kaitlin this afternoon to get her more excited for Christmas. I say more because she already is quite excited about it. She'll say "Christmas is coming" and she can sing a little of 'Jingle Bells'. Yes I taught her that but she says it on her own when she sees Christmas related objects and starts singing randomly or when she sees the Christmas tree at home. Sometimes, she'll want to on the Christmas tree lights too.

Our home learning activity was to decorate a Christmas Tree using stickers! Of course you can use any other materials like pom pom balls and twine, but stickers are the easiest and I kind of prepared this whole activity in less than 5 minutes which explains the not so nicely cut tree.

Before we started, I asked Kaitlin if she wanted to decorate a Christmas tree. At first she said yes and wanted a "big one" (she was referring to the Christmas tree at home) but I told her she's so small and she might not be able to decorate an actual big tree.

So since Kaitlin said yes, I quickly cut up the tree. I showed Kaitlin the book we had been reading about Christmas and pointed out the tree to her and took the chance to teach and reinforce words like "christmas tree", "ornaments" and "baubles". 

I also pointed out to her the ornaments on the tree in her book and told her let's decorate with these stickers and there she went decorating without needing any further help or instructions. It was quite cute seeing her so serious about it and I was quite surprised she could take out the dot stickers herself cos they were pretty tiny.

Kaitlin was able to correctly name to colours when I asked her. She could also identify shapes like  "heart" and "star".

After pointing out the star at the top of the christmas tree in her storybook, Kaitlin finished off decorating hers the same way. When she was done, I asked her if she wanted to show it to anyone and she said she wanted to show it to her friends and Daddy Li and even started naming her friends in class. Some names came up three times!

It was a really simple no-mess (yay!) activity, but I think she learnt quite a fair bit while having some fun. She had the opportunity to decorate on her own independently, and got to practise her fine motor skills, observation and communication skills. I think next up..I'm gonna prepare a bigger tree or perhaps a snowman since she seems to like the activity alot. 

Discover and Play at a Reggio Inspired Atelier

This is another backdated post..and happened almost a year ago. I enjoyed bringing Kaitlin to Blue House Nursery's Reggio inspired atelier and find it a good place to share with fellow parents, hence I'm here to share more about the place with you!

There are lots of teaching methods like Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia and many so on. To be frank, I really like the Waldorf and Reggio Emilia teaching methods the most. K's school doesn't really use either of the methods above but since her current school's teaching philosophy did appeal to us and because of practical reasons we made the decision to enrol her there. This is why I try to incorporate the Waldorf and Reggio Emilia teaching methods in our home learning.

Blue House Nursery is one of the few schools in Singapore to adopt the Reggio Emilia teaching method. It was also my first choice for Kaitlin. We didn't go with it in the end as the fees were simply too high and they didn't have the option of a full day child care.

Anyway! I found out about their nursery programmes only after visiting their Reggio Inspired Atelier with Daddy Li and K for their baby and toddler discovery programme. We went on a weekend, so both Daddy Li and I could attend.

Now, don't expect it to be like a class programme with teachers telling/guiding your children what to do. Instead, it's almost the complete opposite. Children get to roam freely throughout the atelier and play and explore with whatever interests them for however long they like. In the process they learn based on their own exploration and through interaction with their caregivers/teachers and environment.

The materials made available are largely recycled and natural materials or everyday household items. You don't have to worry about hygiene issues just cos of the recycled materials. I assure you they are completely clean and safe. With some creativity and modification, it's really amazing to see how simple everyday objects can interest and entertain the young ones.

One of the few noteworthy features are the light table and the projector used. The light table is actually one of the more common teaching tools used in the Reggio Emilia teaching approach. It can provide an almost complete sensory learning experience as the light highlights what otherwise can be difficult to see and this fascinates kids and even adults. Yes, I admit I was a fan of the light table!

The projector stimulates the child's curiosity about light, shadows and reflection. All these will naturally lead the children to explore and find out more.

Midway through the programme, the teacher will gather the children and they will sing a few songs and interact a little bit more. Afterwhich, the babies and toddlers are free to roam the different areas of the spacious classroom again. It's so spacious and there's so much to explore that K didn't even finish checking out the different areas when the class had ended. She didn't even want to leave..and honestly, I would have wanted to stay longer if possible.

All in all I felt like it was a different change from the usual programmes we had previously tried out like Julia Gabriel, Gymnademics, GUG and Gymboree. A good change and an eye-opening one.

Not many parents may be keen on the idea of paying to let your children play and explore. Though it's a teaching approach, being Singaporeans, we are all probably more concerned on how much our kids are going to get out of the programme and would more rather pay for intensive teaching progammes that produce results. However, I will still encourage parents to give the baby and toddler progamme a trial. It's really new and different, and hopefully in time to come our education system in Singapore could adopt certain aspects of this learning approach which I feel is an intelligent and engaging way of learning.

If you are interested to check out the atelier or any of their other programmes here's their site.


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Home Learning - Fruits and Vegetables/Planting Theme [Books to read]

For our home learning activities, I tend to like to relate them to what Kaitlin learns in school so that it serves as a reinforcement. I usually base the books we borrow and our activities on the theme they are teaching for the term. 

We've been reading books to Kaitlin for the longest time and though she wasn't interested at first, now she loves to read! Sometime's she'll take the books herself and ask us to read it to her or she'll open and look at them herself. When I fetch her from school, I can even sometimes find her just sitting down at the table with a book waiting for me to pick her up. I make use of the opportunity that she loves to read to teach her new words and themes.

This term, her school is teaching about fruits and vegetables. So here are some of my favourite books for teaching this theme that you can buy/borrow from the library:

I love the books written by Lois Ehlert! They are big which are great for telling stories to preschoolers and they are colourful! What better way to get your kid's attention especially if you are just starting them out on reading.

Growing Vegetable Soup goes through the process of growing vegetables then gathering them and cutting the vegetables up to prepare for cooking the vegetable soup. It's great for teaching beyond vegetables alone which she labels in the book. They learn words like 'seeds', 'grow', 'cut' and so on. There's even a vegetable soup recipe included at the end. I find it a great way to get fussy kid eaters interested in eating their veggies.

This is another great book by Lois Ehlert with great illustrations. It's not exactly about fruit and vegetables, but I borrowed it anyway as it does talk about planting, which I felt is a topic that we could explore and expand from the fruit and veg theme. The story is about the plant cycle from seeds to flowers. Lots of new words can be learnt from this book. It introduces a great variety of flowers, and at the same time teaches the different colours of the rainbow.

The Little Gardener by Jan Gerardi is about planting and gardening. Again, it's not a fruit and vegetable theme book, but it does teach useful keywords involved in planting, and what is needed for plants to grow. The book puts the concepts across in a very easy to understand manner and is quite a fun read with its rhyming text. I like it as it is a lift-the-flap-book and it's not wordy at all, making it a very interactive read.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a classic and needs no introduction. I like how they teach  about fruits and at the same time incorporate counting. I love the illustrations in this book and how interactive it is. It's also good for teaching young children about healthy eating habits. Kaitlin loves when we get to the end of the book when they caterpillar becomes a butterfly. She'll always do twirls and dance when we get to that page.

Hope you and your children will have an enjoyable time reading these books. We usually borrow our books from the library but if you're interested in adding them to your child's book collection, you can check out Book Depository. I find that sell a wide variety of books and are sold at lower prices than the stores in Singapore.

*Picture credits to Book Depository.

Home Learning - Sensory Boards

Daddy Li and I made these sensory boards awhile back, and we've let Kaitlin play with them from time to time. I kind of wished we made them earlier, back when Kaitlin was still a baby and could not really move around, cos these make great entertainment for the tiny ones to touch and feel. Now that she's more mobile, she has a shorter attention span, and would much rather run and jump around.

We basically bought foam boards from Art Friend and Daddy Li helped me to cut them up. I did the easy task of finding whatever we had at home that had different and interesting textures, and then stuck them onto the board.

The list of things you could use are endless and here are some that some you could try using:

We all know how small children love to explore and put objects into their mouth so try not to use items that are too small which can fit into their mouth. This might cause choking.

Do note that some of the materials might come out even if you use craft or super glue. In the case of Kaitlin, she can get quite excited and will start touching and pulling them so we've had to re-stick some of the items, but that's not a big issue. If you have a glue gun though, that would be great.

I find that introducing sensory boards to Kaitlin is a great way for her to explore a variety of textures and different sensations. At the same time, she is able to learn more about her environment by learning through touch. It's also a great way to train her fine motor skills and I get to teach her new words like "smooth", "rough", "bumpy" while we are describing the objects to her. Learning is always more fun when you're playing, so hopefully she'll pick up these words soon.

These sensory boards are really easy and affordable to make, so why not try your hand at it as well!


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Home Learning - Ice Cubes

I like to try and use items that we already have at home for our home learning activities cos this saves me the hassle of going out to get anything and also less nagging from the husband about wasting money and how I'm adding to the crazy amount of things we have at home.

Thus, this week I thought of introducing ice cubes to Kaitlin. When I thought of ice cubes, I also realized that as common as it is, I've never ever let K seen ice cubes or play with them. So that's perfect!  I immediately dug up all my ice cube trays and filled them up with coloured water, just cos everything looks prettier when it's coloured! I just used food colouring, the liquid and gel kinds.

I also used some muffin tins and added some random items in. More on that in another post, cos I've yet to let K play with those.



So after K had her lunch, I asked her to come see what I was gonna do. I showed her the ice cube tray and she was interested and wanted to touch it.

Well she did, and the coldness kind of put her off, simply cos she's not use to it. She's quite afraid of new things, but it's fine I told myself that I shall give her time. I just took the opportunity to teach her that it's cold, and that the texture of the ice is smooth.

I also taught her about the shape and colours of the ice cubes. Introduced concepts like if the ice melts it becomes water etc.

As compared to touching the ice cubes with her hands, she much preferred to scoop them up using spades so I just let her be. Though the purpose was to get her to explore with her hands, I'm fine with it cos I feel she'll get to the stage where she's comfortable so I just let her be. I don't want to push her, and end up having her hate it instead.

I'm thinking of re-introducing the ice cubes to her after some time and hopefully she'll be more interested then!


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Home Learning - Pom Pom Balls

It's been quite awhile since my first home learning post, and I'm really sorry about that. Haven't really planned any home learning activities that I felt were worthy of posting hence the lack of updates.

In any case, here's a home learning activity that we did about a month or two ago, but recently revisited it again.

This time we played with pom pom balls! What can you do with them? Well, lots! In fact, I've in mind some activities that I would like to incorporate when K is older and able to comprehend and focus better.

For now, it's been more of exploring pom pom balls and what we can do with them.

I first let Kaitlin play with the pom pom balls on her own while at the side supervising, just in case she puts them into her mouth. I guided her to think about the texture of it, and told her it was 'soft'. I also told how it was round like a ball. From her first encounter with the pom pom balls, she mainly listened to what I was describing. However, recently when she's been playing with them she refers to them as 'ball'. Shows she's listening and aware of her shapes.

When we first played with the pom pom balls, I also introduced the tongs to her. Told her it's made of metal and is shiny and smooth. I demonstrated how I could use the tongs to pick up the the balls and put them back into the jars. She took a keen interest straight away and attempted it herself. First few tries she was of course struggling, but Daddy Li guided her and she got the hang of it eventually.

Now, when she sees the tongs, she'll immediately use them to pick up the balls. I think this is a great way for her to practice her fine motor skills, and perhaps it might even help her learn to use chopsticks in the future.

She also learnt how to open and close the lid of the jar - another fine motor skill!

In our most recent playtime with the pom pom balls, I introduced the muffin tray.

I took the opportunity to teacher her the different colours and how to sort according to colours. She didn't seem to really understand the sorting part, but still showed good effort. Perhaps when she's a little more older I can re-introduce the concept again.

K could identify which were the red balls when I asked. When I asked what colours were the different balls, she said "red" to all of them. A little confusion to her I suppose, but it's fine cos I've read the developmental milestone chart that she should be able to name one colour when she's around 29/30 months old and she's only 21 months old now.

I introduced a variety of spoons (plastic soup spoon, metal tablespoon and teaspoon) and a ladle to her. I also asked her to listen out to the sounds made when she hit the muffin tray with the spoon and when she hit the glass jar.

From this, she independently learnt how to scoop with different spoons, the concept of filling up and emptying jars as well as transferring the pom pom balls with her fingers, tongs, spoons and by pouring.

There's really lots you can do with pom pom balls besides them being great materials for craft projects! Have fun exploring with your child :)

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Home Learning - Pipe Cleaners and Colander

As mentioned in my previous post, I'll be sharing some of our home learning activities on Hello Little Sunshine, and hopefully it'll become a regular thing. 

Here's our first home learning activity!

A couple of weeks back, I decided to let Kaitlin try playing with pipe cleaners and a colander. I like to try to use everyday objects that can be easily found at home and incorporate them into our home learning.

I simply gave her both items and let her explore the materials on her own. Afterawhile, I demonstrated to her that she could actually put the pipecleaners through the holes in the colander. Look at her trying it out herself:

Through this activity, Kaitlin was able to practice her fine motor skills, and also use her imagination and creativity. 

Without any prompting or demonstration, she continued to play and explore with the materials. Using her own imagination, a colander became a mask! Hmm, there's spiderman and batman..maybe there will be colanderwoman?

A colander also soon became a hat for her. She was running around the house using the colander as a mask or hat. Super hilarious, and till today she still finds it fun doing that.

As you can tell, she wasn't very interested in the pipecleaners. I tried to introduce them again but she wasn't into it still so I just let her be and continue exploring with the colander.

She found her rattle toy and decided to place it in the colander and shake it. I took the opportunity to teach her about big and small objects, and how you can place small objects into big ones, but not the other way round. We also listened out for the sounds that we could hear, like when the toy and colander hit each other and the rattling of her toy.

Next, Kaitlin found her kitty cat soft toy interesting and decided to play with it. I stepped in and let her try touching the material of her toy through the holes of the colander. She was quite fascinated with it.

But of course, she couldn't resist using the colander as a mask again! This home learning activity of pipe cleaners and colander so became more about the colander but that's okay. We could still learn many other things. Like the appearance of metal and the sounds produced when hit or dropped. Kaitlin also had the opportunity to be creative and found many uses of a colander.

Since she was having fun playing with the colander, I decided to continue letting her play with it during our next home learning activity. Will blog about it soon, so do keep a lookout :)


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