I just want to give Phoebe a happy childhood. One that has lots of fun and no stress. In this competitive society, it is very easy to fall into the trap of pressurizing your child(ren) to excel. Sometimes, my hubby will say,
"Oh dear! So and so already knows how to do this but Phoebe doesn't. 'soo sey liao' (meaning, lose out already)"
But my answer is always,
"Don't worry, she has her whole life to learn how to do this and this. It's okie. She'll learn when she's ready."
I remembered previously, Phoebe didn't know her colours and her papa will teach her that everyday using the flash cards. And then, she didn't know her Alphabet and again, her papa will teach her conscientiously. Many people would think that having a teacher as a mother would be an advantage to the child. She will be the main educator to impart knowledge to the child. This is not the case for me. My hubby is fulfilling the role of a teacher at home.
When Phoebe was about 24 months old, she could recognise colours in English and Mandarin. She could also recognise the Alphabet in capital letters. She can say her numbers from 1 to 20 in English and 1 to 10 in Mandarin.
Now that she's 3, she knows her Phonics. She knows the sounds that each letter makes. The next stage will be the learning of letter-blending to form words. She loves to be read to and everyday, we'll read to her. When we read, we'll point to the words so that she'll be able to match the writing with the sound. We'll also examine the pictures in the storybook and discuss about them. She's rather observant and would scrutinise the pictures intently.
Phoebe started talking rather early and her vocabulary widen rather quickly. When I was doing my masters, I had to do a research study on the linguistics development of a child. Naturally, the easiest target would be Phoebe. She was 17 months then. I calculated the total number of words she could articulate - 117 English words. The words were uttered singly or in pairs. I even had to video her saying some of those words.
"Oh dear! So and so already knows how to do this but Phoebe doesn't. 'soo sey liao' (meaning, lose out already)"
But my answer is always,
"Don't worry, she has her whole life to learn how to do this and this. It's okie. She'll learn when she's ready."
I remembered previously, Phoebe didn't know her colours and her papa will teach her that everyday using the flash cards. And then, she didn't know her Alphabet and again, her papa will teach her conscientiously. Many people would think that having a teacher as a mother would be an advantage to the child. She will be the main educator to impart knowledge to the child. This is not the case for me. My hubby is fulfilling the role of a teacher at home.
When Phoebe was about 24 months old, she could recognise colours in English and Mandarin. She could also recognise the Alphabet in capital letters. She can say her numbers from 1 to 20 in English and 1 to 10 in Mandarin.
Now that she's 3, she knows her Phonics. She knows the sounds that each letter makes. The next stage will be the learning of letter-blending to form words. She loves to be read to and everyday, we'll read to her. When we read, we'll point to the words so that she'll be able to match the writing with the sound. We'll also examine the pictures in the storybook and discuss about them. She's rather observant and would scrutinise the pictures intently.
Phoebe started talking rather early and her vocabulary widen rather quickly. When I was doing my masters, I had to do a research study on the linguistics development of a child. Naturally, the easiest target would be Phoebe. She was 17 months then. I calculated the total number of words she could articulate - 117 English words. The words were uttered singly or in pairs. I even had to video her saying some of those words.
Just last week, my mum asked me,
"Why don't you teach Phoebe how to write? If she doesn't know how to write, she'll not be able to catch up with her friends."
Other than the small letter 'a' and the numbers 1 & 3, Phoebe doesn't know how to write. Is she normal? Is it okie not knowing how to write at 3 years old? I think it's absolutely fine! Phoebe is able to do some simple exercises in the workbooks. She's able to do matching, colouring and some tracing of dotted lines. She's able to doodle and draw simple faces and she's increasingly adding more details each time. She's also able to put glue on pictures and stick them neatly on papers. Phoebe will learn how to write when she's ready.
Last evening, Auntie Nia did not click her seat belt probably and it came lose. Phoebe commented,
"Why did my seat belt come off? Later like 'James and the red car' like that!"
Initially I didn't understand what 'James and the red car' mean. Then I recalled that I had read this story book donkey months ago and the character in the story did not put on his seat belt and he was flung out of the window when an accident occurred. My gosh! My girl had such fantastic memory! And she was able to relate the story to her situation. When I was reading that story book to her, I wasn't sure, at that point of time, if she had understood the story fully and she has proven to me last night that she did!
Kinesthetic intelligence, she definitely has. She's such an active girl and could coordinate her body parts to create actions.
Phoebe loves to sing. Out of mischief, she'll substitute the lyrics with other words. For example, instead of singing "wo ai ni, ai ze ni, jiu siang lao shu ai da mi..." She'll substitute with "wo ai ni, ai ze ni, jiu siang mommy ai Phoebe..." This shows that she must have understood the song in order to be able to substitute with the correct form of words.
Socially, Phoebe is able to make friends easily. Whenever Phoebe reaches her school, her little friends will gather around her excitedly. She's also quite giving, though sometimes she'll demand but she'll never insist.
The only weakest I can see now is her Mandarin development and pronunciation accuracy. My mum always say that Phoebe's Mandarin sounds like the Malaysians', a little funny in accent. But then again, I'm not so worried about that. She'll have her whole life to learn and fine-tune. I'll just read more Chinese story books to her. Maybe I'll enrol her in some fun Chinese class so that she can enjoy the Chinese songs, poem and rhymes.
My main concern for her is still to enjoy her childhood. I hope that she'll find pleasure in everything that she does.
So, at 3, what can Phoebe do? Many many... and lots more to come! (^_^)b
3 comments:
U r a gr8t mom, balancing work and family... providing a nurturing environment for ur children to blossom and actualise their potential... all at their own pace.
"lok kee pai"
my joshua boy now still not yet talk properly...i should b the one to worry. But different child develop differently. I cant force him and don wan to force him too. One day he surprised me with 'blue' when he saw the blue horse in 'brown bear what do u see' story. i told him different colour names be4. I believe learning has taken place. So told myself, time will tell, as a mother not to give up on our child
dash also can write 1 and 3 only leh...haha and my mum was saying the same thing "other children can write liao, must teach him" and my in laws "other babies can recognise so and so many words at how many months", but tell u i simply too lazy and really, why stress ourselves?? :)
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