Puzzle Corner

Shapes tray which she played with when she was 18mth, and now revisiting it ocassionally. 9-pc, 16-pc puzzles (with Barney no less, and we got Dora and a 60-pc Mickey 2 days back). And Montessori cylinders (a beautiful gift from a high school friend for Megan's 2nd).

Homeschool Setup.v1

A very basic setup whereby I organised her toys into stackable trays (previously used for storing my grandparents' medication, but their prescription grew, so these are no longer useful to them). I also included some of her plastic cups, plates, bowls and cooking utensils in the topmost rack. See the black tongs ? I used it for my spaghetti but now its her favourite tool.

Then we included more items which were more targeted to her learning/development

Homeschooling isn't neccessary costly. Cost of the above items:

• Pompoms (small) $2.00
• Pompoms (big) $2.00
• White tray (3-sections) $2.00
• Transparent tray (4-sections), $2.00
• Orange ikea bowl (from our kitchen)
• Plastic clothes pegs $2.50 (should have used our existing ones, but I couldn't resist the beautiful colours - so my excuse is we will use them to learn about colours later on)

Toys 'recycled' for Homeschool

I was very inspired by many montessori mommies out there who have made their homes so conducive and inviting for their children to do independent learning. I started with whatever toys we already have, sorted them out, and 'displayed' them on our dinning bench (the humongous dinning table removed to another spot and is now my working desk instead). The idea was for all the toys to be within her reach and she could pack away her toys when she is done with her play.

These are some of our earlier toys (purchsed without intention of homeschool)

A tea party set with tray (trays are vital in our setup now)

Velcro'ed vegetables for cutting, with play pretend knife and chopping board

Wooden basket (very solid and so well made I could take it to the market too)

After my effort to sort out her toys, I realised how I could have been a more penny-wise mom and shop more prudently. But well, I did score with some of her toys. And now, I am certainly not gonna be easily lured by those mega toy stores (as easily I should add - sales are sometimes hard to resist).

What Have We Done ?

A quick update on our progress at 'Homeschool-Depot'

*** Megan loves her 'tonging' activities ***


*** Megan went from' tonging' to 'pegging' ***

*** Megan completed her 9-pc, then 16-pc puzzle ***

*** Megan tried 1-to-1 correspondence ***

Play-doh (backlogging)

I really have a pathetic memory after childbirth, and it does not seem to have improved for the past 2 years. I took these really cute pictures of Megan's play-doh sessions and wanted to blog about how much fun we both had with cutting out tortoises and giving them eyes. It was one of those many play-doh sessions but I was armed with my camera this time (albeit my simple mobile phone cam). I make it a point not to use my mobile or text when I am doing things with Megan. She does not like it a lot when I am not focused in my task as well.

So we treated ourselves to some fresh 'white doh' on a Sunday some months back. And I gave her a new shape cutter to play with (she has been given too many play-doh stuff and I ration what she gets to play with). I was glad that she could tell it was a 'wu-gui' (tortoise) and remembered she had seen them at her Uncle Justin's place. I mindlessly made some little spheres and asked her to try putting the eyes on for the tortoise - and she did ! I was very excited about it and I think she felt accomplished giving her tortoise eyes (she gave the tortoise TWO eyes altho it was a shape of the animal's profile). I then made some strips and asked her to give it a tail (wanted to see if she could recall tortoises having tails, and if she knew where tails should go). And BINGO ! We have tortoises with eyes and tails!

After cutting out many tortoises, she got a little tired and asked me to shape her some letters "G-A-P" are her fave letters (not that she can really recognise them, she simply likes to read these 3 letters out loud). She used to be able to recognise "B-E-G" when she was younger and I was at one point, very keen in getting her to recognise the alphabet cos I was told by PEOPLE "she needs to learn lah, don't just play with her all day". This "don't just play all day" deserves another entry, so I shall not get myself started here.

Then we had to line up cookies she cut- she was quite taken by the concept of lining up for a period.

I should have taken a picture of myself too - I was immensely satisfied with this activity.

More Dance Pictures

Megan's First Dance Class

I took her to try out dance classes at a studio near our place. They only take in toddlers from 2-half onwards, but they agreed to let Megan try at 2yo. She was the youngest child in class. I put on a pink skirt for her as we were not kitted for ballet and we borrowed shoes from the studio. It was a mini struggle to get her to put her shoes on. I was told the snug fit was a strange feeling for toddlers.

Miss Jeanette (dance teacher) had a class of 6 that day, but 2 girls were throwing temper tantrums, wailing and reluctant to join in the class most of the time. Megan was mostly good, but she did have difficulty following the instructions as the class was conducted in English (we are on our 'speak mandarin' efforts at home).

I wanted to step in and guide her along cos I knew that she didn't quite understand all that was said in class, but I was rather surprised when she didn't want me in the studio at all! She insisted that I should stay by the door and REMAIN there... LOL

Miss Jeanette got the class marching, skipping, jumping, clapping and wriggling. When the class was over, all the children had to line up to do a little curtsy before they were dismissed. The kids were give 2 smiley face stickers each when they accomplished this last task. Megan didn't want to line up, and she wanted the ENTIRE sheet of smiley faces (we have the same stickers at home and she was allowed to use as much as she wants for her art). Miss Jeanette was firm and put her back in line and made sure she didn't get hold of the entire sheet and gave only 2 smileys. I was feeling a tiny weeny squirmish about Megan being 'disciplined', but I knew that she needed that from another adult.

We (Megan & I) agreed that dance was fun and will attend weekly classes from now on. We got her a pink leotard today and will DIY a little purple (barney-colour) skirt for her dance class this weekend :)

Megan's Aquarium

Let me show you how it's done ...

Looking At My Fish

After a night of hard work (mommy of cos), Megan finally got to set up her own aquarium. She was rather thrilled (albeit less excited than I had imagined, esp after the many hours of preparation I had to undertake). I placed the tank in the hall on the low cabinets so that she can stand up on a stool to feed the fishes (with supervision) and yet not get too near to them. But Megan has been good. She does not put her hands in the tank, nor overfeed the fishes (like I'd imagined all children will).

We both had fun. And I think it has been going well for us and the fishes this far - week 2 and the fishes are surviving ! I should post the pictures of Megan setting up the tank as well.

Decluttering Schedule

A homeschooling SAHM just told me that she spent 2 YEARS to tidy up her home to prepare for her daughters' home-school. Now I feel a little more comforted that my decluttering project seems to take forever. And it has gotten me a little more inspired to set myself a deadline for the apartment to be ready for Megan to use it for her activities (and I really have to deposit her at my grandma's place less often).

Now that I have gotten the HUGE useless dinning table out of the way (at least its tucked right at the back of our so-called hall), I need to pack and reorganise whatever that is left in the 'main hall'. The piano is a pain, I could do with that corner for more shelving options - but then again, its nice to tinker with Megan once in a while. So I guess I have to try and use the piano more often to make its presence worth its every sq. ft.

Then there is the TV-room. I am thinking it can be a library for Megan since there is really no space for her books in our study (there isn't even enough for our own books). So shelves for general storage have to come in, racks for 'books of the week' gotta go up, some posters and a whiteboard may be good too.

Oh gosh, there seems to be a lot to do! I am getting very excited (and frazzled cos I dunno where to start!) Ok, now I shall go to bed and recharge, and dream up a brilliant plan to declutter efficiently, and reorg the apartment for PROJECT 2009 (Homeschool@Depot Rd).

Fishes

I am tempted to get more fishes as looking at the aquarium is rather therapeutic. We have 2 blackish-silver fishes (breed: unknown to me) in our 2 feet tank, so we could really accommodate more fishes. I think I will let these two "peng-you-yu" and "mei-mei-yu" (my daughter calls them by these names) settle in first. Its been a week and they seem to be doing ok with us. I must really compliment Megan for being a responsible pet owner - she will always remember "bu-ke-yi-chi-dou-dou" (cannot eat too much) when we feed the fishes. I am very proud of her :)