Some Plans on Lapbooking

Here are some of the stuff I've prepared and planned to work with the kids. Little Missy has been ever curious, whenever I homeschool Tim she wants to be involved... hence I decided to work on a Tot-Book based on the same book that Tim & I will be rowing (read: "killing two birds with one stone") *smile*

I simply have to rave about the BFIAR as well as FIAR program... it's brought us a lot of joy in learning and I'm really happy to be able to help my kids learn through the literature base method.

I researched and found loads of useful stuff from  Homeschool Share as well as some additional information from Mamabrown. Lapbooks have indeed helped us make what we've read more meaningful. It's also a great way to help the kids learn - it's part art & craft, part worksheet and part play... so much fun is packed into just one lapbook... *smile*

Here's the Tot-Book that I've made for Little Missy's use. It's basically the same elements only it's fewer than Tim's lapbook - just those activities I thought she could do without feeling frustrated or lose interest quickly.

At the back of the Tot-Book I've included this Angus in the cave game - I have got velcro attached onto Angus picture, this will be used to teach her the concept of inside and outside. 
This is Tim's lapbook. There are elements I've adapted from MamaBrown - the Cave animals and the different types of caves were all taken from MamaBrown.
This Angus word puzzle was also taken from MamaBrown.


This is the back folder of the lapbook where there's a Dog Lotto game as well as some other elements that could be found on both Homeschool Share and Mamabrown's.

To add in more fun, we are going to play the following games -

1) Crawling under the dining table/chairs with a torch to simulate walking in the cave.

2) "Milk" a cow by filling rubber gloves with water mixed with white paint.

We are also going to read these other books -

1) The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons

2) Explore in a Cave by Dana Meachen

3) Castles, Caves & Honeycombs by Linda Ashman

You could also find more ideas here while working out the activities you want to do with your child/children based on Angus Lost.

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This is not really a lapbook so-to-speak, but it's certainly literature-based. We've been talking to the kids about bones and what's inside our body all the time and I thought it's about time that they learned about what's really going on in our bodies.
Borrowed a few books from the library and it just got the kids all excited to learn... this "See Inside Your Body" book is just filled with flaps for the kids to flip and turn and learn... it's fun even if they don't know the names of the body parts and what are their functions...
Dem Bones, our current favourite because we recently bought the Scholastic video of Treasury of 100 storybook classics, and this was one of the videos. The kids were happily singing word-for-word according to the story (except the detail explanation of each function of the bone) everyday. The tune was very catchy and the words just helped them remember all the different parts of bones in our body... *smile* great way to learn without using the rote method.
I borrowed another book from the library that gives even more details about the body and our bones... it was a little too wordy so it didn't quite capture the kids' attention much. Nevertheless, I learned a lot through reading this book myself *LOL* I love homeschooling!
This is the Scholastic Video that I mentioned earlier... :)
Here's an activity pack that I've prepared for the kids to work on. These are basically worksheets I've downloaded from Evan Moor.
Someone recently asked if my children are lagging behind academically... I am wondering if they are... with all these activities that I've prepared I am seriously wondering if my children are lagging behind... hmmm....

Tot-Book - Bugs' Life

I've been thinking and thinking and thinking of doing something simple and fun for Little Missy for a loooooooong time... finally I got my act together and worked on something to get started with.

I've always been inspired by Carisa and all her great wonderful ideas on teaching her son K. And when she started making Tot-Books I was fascinated. 

Adapting her methodology of making Tot-Books I made one that is based on the Bug's Life for Little Missy.
Within the Bug's Life Tot-Book, I've included the upper and lower case alphabets. This is for the child to recognize the letters and to play match the upper with the lower case letters.
Within the Tot-Book, the child will also learn about colours, numbers and shapes. Let the picture tell the story...
Colouring booklet for the girls.
Counting of bugs.
Learning of the different shapes.
A colouring booklet for the boys.
And size sequencing.

I must confess that this took me more than 2 days to get everything put together. No easy task as I've to source for the pictures, edit them and put them in accordance to what I want the child to learn.

Hope this inspires you to want to make one of your own Tot-Book too :)

Homeschooling Fun - Carrot Seed continues...

There were simply so much fun we had while "rowing" (term borrowed from Before Five In A Row) through the Carrot Seed book, that we immersed ourselves in the activities over two weeks.

The pictures & videos are not in proper sequence but you'll get the gist of what kind of fun we had throughout this period *wink* once again, let the pictures & videos tell the story...

Each morning we try to let the boys go for a 10-15mins outdoor walk to observe, discover and learn things about nature... some outdoor time would certainly allow the kids to concentrate better when we do indoor work...
The kids had a hands-on opportunity to make a carrot cake from scratch... not the outcome that mattered it was the process that was of essence!

The boys learn more about plants and trees as walk through this Evan Moor exercise where there are picture puzzles as well as a simple piece of worksheet to fill up.
We learn how to sing 拔萝卜... the kids were intrigued by it... well at least they know what 拔萝卜 means *smile*
The kids had a dramatic play on pulling the carrot out of the ground ;)
The kidney bean we planted previously has now become a huge tall plant... and just look at those roots... they are so long... great way to learn about parts of a plant...

We worked on more puzzles and read another chinese story over the 2 weeks... and here are a few practical life skills the children learned...

And of course there was the favourite time of all, snack time! Just look at those hungry but happy faces... *smile*
The rain has crushed and flooded our radish plants... hopefully they'll be able to survive otherwise we'd have to re-plant them... also, through experience we'd need to plant the seeds in deeper pots or in the ground...
We continued with the phonics we left off previously, this time it's Dod Meets Bob... how fun... the kids had a great time co-operating and learning together...

Finally we completed the lapbook on the Carrot Seed and that ended off our 2 weeks' lesson on this theme. *satisfied*

The Hungry Caterpillar - Review

After 7 chrysalis died in between the metamorphosis process the 8th one finally emerged into a beautiful Leopard Lacewing butterfly...

This is our Lord God's wonderful creation... and I am grateful the kids had journeyed through the metamorphosis stages together with this lovely creature.

It was released in the brand new Sensory Park and the kids were thrilled to see how fast and how high the butterfly could fly... *blissful*

Homeschooling Fun - A New Week!

We completed our lesson on the Very Hungry Caterpillar by reviewing the things we've learned the past week with the kids...
The caterpillars we've brought back from Oh's Farm, have turned into chrysalis... here's a recap of our lesson on the caterpillars & butterflies...

This week, we started our new lesson based on the Carrot Seed book... we listened to the audio book of this story...they loved it to bits... *smile*... even Little Missy was humming the tune of what the older brother of the story was singing after listening to it.

We then sat down to work on the lapbook based on the Carrot Seed book...
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As we continued the lesson on Carrot Seed, the kids had a head start of the day with some puzzles...then we used the material from Evan Moor to teach the kids on the sequence of a growing seed...


After which the kids headed outdoors to collect some leaves... great nature walk and great way to expend some energy...also a great prelude to learning science...

We discovered some curry leaves along the way and the kids took a whiff of the leaves... I simply love nature studies!!!
After the walk, the kids used the collected leaves to work on an art of leaves printing...

There were just so many activities we've lined up for the kids on the session of planting seeds... check out the videos below...




I simply love homeschooling...so much activities could be packed within a lesson that the kids could experience and learn, at the same time have fun! *smile*

Homeschooling Fun - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Friday - We continued our lesson on The Very Hungry Caterpillar, on this day, by completing the mosaic pasting activity the kids left behind previously. This is a great activity to build up on the eye-hand coordination as well as fine motor skills that is crucial for writing.

We did a revision on the days of the week and weather chart...
We introduced to the boys a phonics program through a reader... it's a wonderful program that's readily available without charges on Progressive Phonics. This resource is wonderful... I had never quite like readers all the while thinking that it's mindless and there's no meaningful story behind it at all. This program has proven me wrong... do check it out!
Here's the reader that we used to introduce the sound of letter D... it was a reader on Dod the Dog... cute and funny story... 
After going through the reader, the boys were given some stickers to decorate their phonics folder...
and... we played a matching game to reinforce the two words we learned through the reader...

Before reading the story book on the Very Hungry Caterpillar, the boys went through the chinese flashcards of the fruits that were found in the story... 
We ended the day's lesson by giving the kids, some Math-U-See blocks to manipulate and play with... 
Monday - We were on a field trip to the Butterfly Lodge... I call this the experiential learning opportunity... watch the video to see what we've learned... :)

Homeschool Official Opening :)

After a few weeks of planning and preparation, we're finally getting started! *smile*

We are taking the literature base approach, all the homeschool activities for this week are based on the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".
On Monday, this week, we worked on a few simple activities out of a lapbook, a pom-pom caterpillar craft and the highlight of the day was an opportunity to catch some butterflies in the garden outside of Jenny's apartment...
After the short outdoor session of butterfly catching, the kids settled down for a read aloud session.

This fantastic 3D pop-up "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book was simply captivating. The kids were simply bowled over by the fascinating pop-up illustrations...

Today, we started the lesson proper with learning of the days of the week, the weather and the calendar.
The Days of the week chart coming into good use... take a look at what the kids learn in putting the calendar of the month of July together...

The kids were then given a life cycle of a butterfly, cut & paste, activity to work on...

We went through the life cycle of a human being... watch it for yourself...

Here are some of the other activities we did in the session -

Days of the week matching game, size discrimination game, fruit tasting game were all done within the day of homeschool *smile*

You'll noticed how quiet the kids were when they were focused on a meaningful activity... I was taken by surprise at how they were able to concentrate and do their work quietly on their own mats... it's amazing... Montessori was right!


The kids then had a 15mins outdoor play time before headed back for the last segment of the day...
We read a chinese story followed by a bible story about creation... and we did some colouring activity before we close the day of learning... what a fruitful and fun day!
Looking forward to our next session of homeschooling fun!

Butterfly Fun!

We are in a caterpillar and butterfly craze currently... so I've decided to ride on this "wave" to teach the kids more about the process of Metamorphosis...
Read the books "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and the Backyard Series - "Are You A Butterfly"...
While the kids have the first hand experience watching how the caterpillars transformed from wriggly worms into a chrysalis... we were quite thrilled that one of the Leopard Lacewing caterpillars we brought home on the first day, had turn into a chrysalis. Now we are crossing our fingers that it'd transform into a butterfly...and not die on us half way through the process...
We saw the shell of the caterpillar's head at the bottom of the box after it's pupatate.
The Tawny Costers we've brought home didn't make it into chrysalis... they went on a "hunger strike" from the second day onwards...and died on the 4th day that we brought them home... sigh...

The Grouchy Lady Bug

We were into ladybugs recently. Read this cute little story by Eric Carle and decided to work on a Ladybug lapbook for Tim to learn and have fun with.
We read the book...
Printed the elements and Tim was so eager to get started that I allowed him to cut the clock faces out to practice on his handling of the scissors... this time with my close supervision, lest it turned out to be like the previous incident.
My proud little 3-yr-old, showing off his what he has just cut... not bad consider the clocks were round... *smile*
Little Missy just wouldn't sit still without participating in the fun :)
Here are most of the elements of the lapbook which is ready to be executed.
Elements that help Tim learn math, science, language arts, art etc...
Here's Tim working on the very first item - counting bugs. He was to match the number of bugs and paste it onto the page of the accordion booklet with the relevant numbers.
He was having fun playing with the accordion book after all the numbers were matched up.
Here's another counting game. I made this myself. You may download it for your own use.
Ladybug Coutning Simple game, where a numeric number is placed on the mat and Tim is to put the correct quantity of spots onto the ladybug. There are velcro tape attached to each of the spots.
We learned about reading time using the ladybug clock. He still need more practice in reading time so I just let him play with the clock hands.
Matching of upper and lower case letters.
Following instructions, dotting & colouring the ladybugs...

Most of the elements of this lapbook could be obtained from these websites -
The Grouchy Ladybug Lesson Plan
Vicki Blackwell
Homeschool Share
Scholastic Minibooks
Enchanted Learning

Montessori Resources

There was nothing structured I've planned for Tim since he was in the nursery... was quite excited that I've discovered this set of printables that could be made and Tim could "play" with yet learn at the same time.

Was introduced to Childcareland by Shelly Lovett recently and I was really thrilled that there are so much early learning activities within her program that we could use to help our kids learn. I was truly spoiled for choice when I opened up her CD Rom.
Knowing Tim was into a dino frenzy of late, I chose the dinosaurs theme and printed these alphabet matching game. He was to match the upper case letters to the lower case letters.
I printed and laminated all the elements. I even attached velcro to each of the letters and on each of the space where the letters should be attached to.
Tim wasn't expose to puzzles much but these puzzles were easy for him to work on. He had lots of fun that he was able to piece up the puzzles easily.
These math games were fun and easy for the kid to pick up the concept of numbers.

Great cutting activity for little hands to work on those fine motor skills.
Another great Montessori resource is Montessori for Everyone. These high quality picture cards were obtained from Montessori for Everyone. I've made quite a lot of 3-part card activities out of this resource. Except for the Vegetable/Fruit cards, those were made by me. You can however download some very good quality 3-part cards, that's totally free of charge, here.
Here are some pink series, phonics, cards I've prepared from the same resource of Montessori for Everyone.

Am all geared up for my homeschool journey for sure... *smile*

Home Learning Activities

*Warning - Long Post*
*dust dust* *sweep sweep*... I know I've been neglecting this blog badly...

We have been doing home learning activities, but not on a very structured basis... as Tim has been going to school, at 3-yr-old, I don't want him to feel overwhelmed with so much things to learn and work on... so most of the stuff we do at home are rather ad hoc and more laissez faire...

It is my intention to make Tim feel that learning is fun and not stressful... and I want to continue to build that love for learning in him that when he is older he will be a self-motivated learner...

The activities recorded below are at random, as some of them were done quite a while ago, I've totally lost track of the date that they were done... so here goes -
Dinosaurs - Tim is in a huge craze about dinosaurs lately. He watched the "Land Before Time" series a few times and whenever he sees a dinosaurs picture somewhere he'll not let it off... :) such hunger to learn... I do hope such attitude will persist even when he's into primary/secondary school.

We read a few dinosaurs books - "I Wish I had a Dinosaur", "Mad About Dinosaurs", "Katie and the Dinosaurs". While the LadyBird series on Mad about dinosaurs is packed with quite a bit of info about dinosaurs, Tim and my favourite are still stories revolving around dinosaurs. Factual textbook like books are still not to our liking...

I bought a Dinosaurs Sticker Activity Book by Priddy Books and he was so enthusiastic about completing the entire book in one sitting... I had to stop him from doing so... in retrospect, I thought I shouldn't have done that as his love of completing the book showed that he has this huge desire to learn more and work on the activity book more... hmmm...

Most of the time at home, I'll try to create opportunities of learning through play... and some of the following activities were lifted from Montessori books with some modifications here and there -
We played with peg board where the kids get an opportunity to practice eye-hand coordination, build up on the fine motorskills. While Tim has mastered most of the names of the colour palette, he still enjoys grouping the pegs into colours that he likes. In the picture you'll see him grouping all the orange pegs on the side.
A wonderful church friend of mine sew me this set of "Montessori" button board, zipper board and stud board. It was given to me as a gift quite a while ago, and it's only recently that I dragged it out for the kids to play. Tim is still not so good on the button board but he breezed through the zipper board. The studs on the stud board was a little too tiny that the kids had problems manipulating it.

I might create a new set of such boards now that I can sew all these on my own *smile*
We played colour grouping again with the coloured ice cream sticks. Tim is obsessed with the colour orange *grin*
I pulled out a few locks and let Tim had a try in unlocking them. No problem at all for the bigger locks but the smaller ones still takes a bit more practice.
Threading of plastic hair curlers...
Tim has a huge fascination in alphabets. And I thought it's about time I introduce the blending of the letters together and teach him how to read.

I created this board ending with "at" and printed separately the alphabets that form words ending with "at" as well as pictures of those words; such as H-at, B-at, C-at...you get the gist. With this I was able to clearly help Tim learn how to read with something concrete for him to identify the word with. 
Learning how to use the pencil. He is able to draw things that are visibly recognizable by imitating what I've drawn. Sometimes he writes a few alphabets and proudly tells me what they are... *smile* well, not a bad attempt while he still needs more practice.
This year, I've started Tim with workbooks... don't shoot me... I know it's a little too early with such activities especially from one who advocates learning through play...workbooks shouldn't be one of the activities in Tim's everyday routine at all...

But wait! These aren't academic workbooks, they are just play workbooks hahahaha... cut and paste, colour and count 

In one of the cut and paste activity, we read the Humpty Dumpty poem together and then we did the craft and coloured the page... it was easy fun (on my part cos I don't have to search the internet and print all the stuff out) and definitely stress-free!
Here's another cut and paste workbook that has chinese words in it. Do the craft and read the word... it's that easy... :)
Counting and recognizing numbers. This is a simple workbook on counting... the kid is so enthusiastic about working on workbooks, he completed more than 5 pages at one go (with me trying to stop him). Within a day or two the workbook was fully completed. Not bad for a young boy to devour an entire workbook with so much enthusiasm. I hope he won't feel it a dread about workbooks when he's in the school going age.
Something simple I've done with Little Missy. She pulled out this box of flashcard that was put in cold storage for the longest time. And when asked a few of the vege/fruits on the cards she was able to tell me what they are. 

I went further by placing something concrete as I taught her what were the names of the objects. She was able to learn through sight, touch, taste and smell. I pulled out the cards with pictures of potato, ginger and garlic... and told her what they were. 

I've discovered that Little Missy learns better this way ie. concrete + abstract together. Whenever I read books with certain items that she's able to identify, she'd very quickly pull out the object/item from some corners of our house. Such as spider (she'll pull out the plastic toy spider), swim suit (she'll pull her swim suit from the drawer)... etc... I guess she's able to associate better when she's something concrete in front of her... *smile*...

What a joy to be home teaching the kids from the simplest to the most abstract of things... :)

Home Learning With Winter Promise

It's a brand new year, and I didn't have anything planned for Tim to do for his learning, as we had wanted him to go to Nursery school.

During the week when Tim was home (due to flu), I had to think up of some stuff to keep the kid happy and mentally/intellectually stimulated; in my desperation, I pulled out the Winter Promise homeschool materials on "I Am Ready To Learn" for help.

I like this set of program as the author/creator of this program, worked very closely according to Charlotte Mason's method. Besides, it has all the activities worked out on a daily schedule for me to follow...so not much prep work is required on the one who is delivering the lessons. As the kids are still young, lessons are in short segments and are all activity based - great to keep the little ones interested and at the same time learn. Here's some info on the Winter Promise for your reading.
I pulled out a section of the program and started running it through with Tim. It took me only 10mins of reading through what I am supposed to do...

The first activity on was to write the name of the child on a piece of paper and have the child "trace" the writing... I was completely surprised by Tim being able to write something legible...even though he still can't hold the pen properly and it seemed to me that he wrote his name reading "MIT" instead of "TIM"... I hope this mistake would be corrected in time to come...
We played a game on Science. Discovering the changes that happen to the ice cubes. This activity took us almost an hour... not bad... at least it kept Tim very happy and interested... *smile*
The math activity was something I didn't have on hand...so I substituted with this counting the dots game. I've made this set of flash cards (using a flip chart and regular A4 size paper and red dotted stickers) way before Tim turned one-year old...teehehe... and have been kept in cold storage for such a loooooong time... this is the first time that it was used.

I didn't make Tim learn using the flash card method, rather, I have him count the dots and tell me the number. But he lost interest with the increase number of dots on the charts. So we ended this activity in 10mins.
We read a bible story and a chinese book on Emma the elephant.

I am glad Tim had fun and at the same time was able to learn some new things here and there... as he just turned 3 in early Jan, I could see the golden window of opportunity to guide him into learning more constructively and in a more structured manner as he is able to take instructions better and at the same time able to articulate his wants/interest clearer.

More updates coming up... :)

Featured on The Crafty Crow!

WOW! I can't believe it, I've been featured on The Crafty Crow site. It's a site that shares loads and loads of kids' craft ideas.

It was the Rainbow Fish craft that they have featured on their site... *smile*...

If you ever run out of ideas on what crafts to do with your children, you must check out -

Have Fun!~

Growing & Learning...

As usual there isn't any structured learning we've planned for Little Missy... we just go along with whatever she fancies and ride on such opportunities to introduce new words and new experiences to her...
She simply loves to drag out the re-usable shopping bags everytime she sees them... and we'll just go along with her by telling her to go shopping... and we'll place some of her toys or books into the bags... allowing her to walk all over the house with the bag... her parading in the house caught her brother's attention and he too joined in the fun...
We've noticed that she's able to give us slightly more than 5secs of her attention when we introduce books to her now... and she loves to leaf through books that have real pictures in them. I bought this book that cost S$7.90 from a book fair in one of the shopping malls. I like it that this book has 1,000 pictures with words in which I could introduce to Little Missy.

One morning, we flipped to a page with a frying pan, and Little Missy was very quick to drag out the cookery toy set and told me "pan, pan..." (her way of telling me she wants to play with the frying pan)... within the page there was also fork & spoon and she helped herself to the cutlery in our kitchen...and when she saw a cup of water in the book, she requested for a drink...

We had a good time of playing and learning in that morning even though it was only for a mere 5-10mins... *happy mama*

Choo-Choo-Chug-a-Chug-a

We worked on this Train theme quite some time ago, (lazy mama) just made time to post this entry on what we've done on this theme now...
I've noticed the fascination that Tim had on trains...so decided to work on a Train lapbook with him. Took the idea on Trains from here... and I've lined up these books to read with Tim on the topic - The Little Caboose, The Engine That Could, Everyday Things...

I've printed some Thomas & Friends colouring pages to add into the lapbook where Tim could learn the names of the different characters and colour them.
The few activities that Tim enjoyed most out of the lapbook were Time reading, math game - matching the quantity to the number cards, colouring of different trains, reciting the poems & singing songs related to trains...

Above all else, he loved the opportunity to get out of the house and ride on the MRT train *smile*
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An impromptu opportunity for the little one to build up on those fine motor skills... he was apparently very good at the peeling of the mandarin orange's skin (we allowed him to help himself with that all on his own)... but of course he loved eating it more... *LOL*...