Subtraction

I am also teaching Phoebe subtraction. I use all sorts of manipulatives, such as ice cream sticks, flash cards, toys etc, to guide her in counting the left overs. The numbers that I use do not exceed 10. For example, I will give her 10 ice cream sticks. And I will say, "How many ice cream sticks are there? (Phoebe counts and says 10). If 4 ice cream sticks are for Phoebe, how many ice cream sticks are for mommy?" She will try to cover 4 ice cream sticks with her hand and count the rest of the ice cream sticks. She may not count it correctly all the time but she gets better along the way.

In the video below, there were 3 flower windmill in the flash card. Phoebe covers all the flower windmill to signify that all 3 are for herself, then she will have no more left. I kept asking her, "How many is for Phoebe?" She should have said 3, I know that she wanted to keep all the flower windmill for herself. However, she didn't reply me but kept saying, "No more, no more." It may seem that she doesn't answer my question or does not understand my question but in actual fact, she does know what I am asking for. She has anticipated my next question and that is, "How many flower windmills will there be for Vera?" That's why she kept saying, "No more, no more (for Vera)."

Haha... It's either that, she could read my mind or that, we have done this so many times till she was familiar and could anticipate my questions. =)

Addition

Since Phoebe already knows her numbers (1-20) and she is also able to count the objects accurately, I think it is time for her to learn some simple addition. I get her to show numbers using her fingers and total the numbers up. Instead of using the word 'plus', I thought that 'and' is easier for her to relate to. For example, instead of saying 'five plus four equals to nine', I taught her to say 'five AND four IS nine'. When she is firm up in her addition, then I will introduce the word 'plus' (and later on, 'equal') to her. When she's able to say her number sentence in mathematical terms/jargon, then I will translate the verbal mathematical sentence into print. We'll do it slowly...

Teacher-Parent-Meeting

I met up with Phoebe's teachers this week, Thursday 28 May 2009. The teachers, Miss Hoe and Zhou Lao Shi, did not comment much about Phoebe, except that she is rather quiet in class. Quiet in class??? Haha. Is that my little Phoebe ? Her papa calls her, his little radio you know. I am glad that she is not talkative in class. Miss Hoe also said that Phoebe is attentive in class. She is able to sit down for the required 5-10 minutes to listen to instructions or story. However, the teachers commented that Phoebe lacks confidence. She is also afraid sometimes, e.g. she will be afraid that her friends will not wait for her in the toilet or during eating time. She'll say in an anxious manner, "Wait for me, wait for me..." I do agree with her teachers. I have ever heard Phoebe saying, "Hurry up, later my friends go away already, quick hurry up!" The teachers said that they will reassure her that they will wait for her. I must constantly remind her of the same message too.

The school adopts a progressive way to grade the children. They have a booklet that records the children's development in several aspects and here are the overall grades in each aspect:

1) Personal and Social Development (Work, Health and Safety Habits) - B
2) Physical and Intellectual Development (Motor Skills) - C
3) Language and Literacy Skills
a. English Language Speech and Hearing - C
b. Reading - B
c. Writing/Drawing - C
d. Mother Tongue - I
4) Numeracy Skills - B
5) Creative Expression - C

(A = Excellent, B = Good, C = Average, I = Improving)

I am happy that Phoebe is doing well in school. Most importantly, I'm happy to know that she's a normal girl, not someone with learning disability. As a teacher, every year I meet many children with learning disability. Naturally, as parents, one of our greatest fear is that our child(ren) may turn out to have such disability too. So it was a relief to me when I know that Phoebe is an average and normal child. The only aspect we really need to work on is her Mother Tongue. I think Phoebe needs to speak Mandarin more. Right now, with the help of the Chinese readers, she is able to build up her Chinese vocabulary. When you ask her for bread in Mandarin, she is able to say, "Mian Bao". I think it is an achievement for this semester! =) However, she is unable to construct a whole sentence in Mandarin yet and we have to work on that.

For this June holiday, I plan to work on her Mandarin. I will try to speak to her in Mandarin as much as possible. Sometimes I tend to forget and start to rattle on in English. This holiday, I will consciously make an effort. Hopefully, Phoebe will not reject it.

This is Phoebe's recent drawing, done 3 days ago. Her handwriting has improved. She has some form of control when writing her name. But there is room for improvement. I think I need to get her to write on a line, rather than lineless and her words look floating. This will train her fine motor skills and her writing will be more controlled and neat. We have bought several books on tracing and the alphabet. I think it's time to take them out for her to practise writing. Maybe we will just write one page a day. And on days when she's in the mood, we can write more pages. The target that I set will be small so that it'll be easily achievable and she'll not feel burdened and detest writing altogether.

She has drawn a cat (in red), a rabbit (orange), a dog (green), a fish jumping out of water (blue) and an elephant (purple, with mommy's help). We will learn to draw these animals in greater details (e.g. rabbit should have longer ears) and also other living things such as the pig, butterfly, tree and flowers.

I want to make good use of this June holiday to spend some meaningful time with Phoebe. As for Reuben, whenever Jie-jie is doing an activity, Di-di can tag along and do likewise too. He loves scribbling at this age. We'll give him his materials to keep himself busy.

Seems like this holiday is going to be very busy. BUT I know that I will enjoy it! (^_^)

Dr. Seuss ABC

Found this! Quite cool. Enjoy =)

Tip Top Chinese Readers - Part 2

This Chinese reader is quite cool. There's a mixture of cartoon with real, authentic photographs for the pictures. The story is funny. Phoebe always chuckles when she reads this story.

** By the way, I'm not getting any commission for recommending these books. I just want to share good stuff with the other mommies! =)

Tip Top Chinese Readers - Part 1

For those who are thinking of getting these readers for your little ones, you can have a look at this book. I thought it's rather simple and easy to read, great for beginning readers. The pictures are also attractive, colourful and cute. In the middle of each book, there are perforated cards that are detachable to be used as flash cards. The books are also arranged in themes, such as emotion, daily lives, animals and poetic stories. There is Hanyu Pinying to help mothers along. Phoebe loves these Chinese readers. I have taken pictures of a book in the emotion series. This is one of Phoebe's favourite.

LEGO

constructed by papa for Phoebe

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

This story is really touching. I heard it many times and still love it! I'm getting the book. Anyone wants too?

What Reuben says

Reuben is about 14.5 months now. His vocabulary is increasing as he discerningly hears people around him talking. These are the audible words that he can say at this moment:

In random order...

1) papa
2) mama (mommy)
3) mama (grandma)
4) milk milk
5) jie jie
6) banana
7) apple
8) dog dog
9) ball ball
10) no no
11) fish
12) bao bao (carry)

There may be others that I have not detected. 12 words and still counting! :)

Gingerbread Man Fan

We have already bought the tickets to watch the Gingerbread Man on 30 May 10 a.m. However, Phoebe's school had planned for the children to watch the same show on 18 May. We only got to know about it about a week after we had bought our tickets. Knowing that her school would do some pre-activities with the children and that her friends would be going, I cannot bear the thought of her being left out. So I decided to let her watch the same show with her friends. Going with her school would cost another $22, inclusive of transport. I thought it was a little expensive, considering that we bought our tickets at $16.50 each. The school has read them the story but I wanted to read the story with Phoebe, so I bought the Gingerbread man storybook. Phoebe said, "I love the story very much."

I know that it was not a mistake to let her go with her friends. She enjoyed herself. It is the culture of I-theatre to give away something to the audience to take away. The last time we watched The Rainbow Fish, they gave us a box of chocolate biscuit shaped like fish. Then for Aesop Fabulous Fable, they gave us colourful candy. Needless to say, the take away for this time round was a gingerbread man. It was given to the children through the school on the following day. Phoebe devoured her gingerbread man greedily. The head got chewed off first! :) Phoebe said she liked the show. She wants to watch it again. I told her that we'll be watching the show again soon. Both of us are looking forward to it. =)

Straw Necklace

My school children were using straws to make a flexible measuring ruler for Math and that gave me an idea to make a straw necklace with Phoebe. We got the colourful straws from Ikea at $2 for 200 pieces. I cut the straws to short pieces and got Phoebe to string up the straws. It was not difficult as Pheobe was old enough to do stringing. However, it took some time as the string which she was using was a little limb. While Phoebe was stringing the straws, what was little Reuben doing ? Messing up the straws. He poured the straws out from the box and mess them up with his hands. Then he put some back into the box and pur them out again. At the end of the session, what do we have? We have a happy Phoebe with her new necklace, a floor with scattered straws and a runaway Reuben.

Then it was time to have their milk before nap time. I was very happy that Reuben can finally drink milk on his own, without us holding the bottle for him. He comfortably parked himself beside his jie jie, the two of them having the similar milk bottles but of different sizes. Such a bliss! :)

Milk time. The two of them getting cozy after milk. Time for nap! :)

Computer Literacy

Usually over the weekends, if Phoebe wakes up early, she will usually go to the study room to look for her papa because she knows that he will be on the internet. Papa will allow her to surf the internet for about half an hour to 45 minutes. Phoebe loves the site Boowa and Kwala and sesame street. She will pick one of the site and engage in the activities. Phoebe is able to use the mouse well. It is small enough for her hand so that it'll not be ergonomically straining for her little fingers. She's able to click and drag and drop. I thought this is a good activity because it trains her muscle, eye, finger and hand coordination. I think computer literacy is also an important skill to require in our 21st century. Everything has got to do with IT. I've read the story 'Stellaluna' by Janell Cannon. The next time Phoebe uses the computer, I am going to show this website to her : Storyline online. Pamela Reed (the sidekick of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Kindergarten Cop) reads the story very well. I think Phoebe will love it.

Waterplay @ IMM

It seems to be a trend to have children's playground built within a shopping mall. We've seen it in Sembawang Shopping Centre and last Monday, we visited the one in IMM. It was a school holiday for me, in lieu of Vesak Day which fell on last Saturday. Papa took leave to accompany us. We met up with our friends, Auntie Ann, Uncle Chek Meng and Xuan Xuan di-di. The children had a good time playing and silly Reuben got himself all wet at the waterplay. Xuan Xuan was sleepy but he was not cranky at all. I thought he was a very good natured and well-behaved boy! :) We went to Cafe Cartel for dinner and ate a lot. The children had their porridge and Reuben attacked the French loaf again. It was a great gathering session and I think Xuan Xuan likes Phoebe because he kept laughing at Phoebe when she ran around and made funny faces. Before we went home, he gestured bye bye to us! I should have video it down. He was very cute :) We shall meet up with them again! :)