Preschool Theme: Whales and other Ocean Animals

Home learning has taken a huge backseat for the last couple of months due to my heavier work commitments. I set out to do this ocean animals theme in July 2013 but only found the time to implement it sporadically from August to December 2013. It’s amazing that the boys’ interest can be sustained for so long.

The appeal of the deep sea first came from a Disney Nature film “Oceans”. “Oceans” explores the mysteries of the ocean through the eyes of a boy who wonders what marvels lies beyond the coastline and beneath.

The film was taken over Earth’s five oceans and offers an unprecedented look beneath the sea. Unlike most documentaries, there was no narrator in this film. The powerful cinematography speaks for itself. The musical pieces stirs and arouses the emotions. One feels both the calming and gentle effect the sea brings forth and also the fierce tension as the sea creatures engage in battle. The finale draws a compelling message of the influence of man’s activities (overfishing and water pollution) on the ocean.

The boys have been rewatching this film for at least 3 to 4 nights every week the past month. When Meow tried to introduce other oceanic documentaries, Xxm still chose “Oceans”. Xmm typically watches the film from afar. Regardless of the number of times he watches this film, the fighting scene between a crab and a shrimp scares him. Despite this, he is still very interested in the film.

Hence to extend our learning of the movie, we primarily read. Loads and loads of books about the ocean animals. In one of our reading, we discovered that whales typically swim in groups called pods whereas sharks prefer to swim alone. Xxm decided there and then that he liked whales and Xmm loves sharks. This to me, spoke volumes of the kids’ inclination towards independence.In particular, Xxm has a fondness for killer whales and Xmm, the great white.

Art & Crafts

One of our earlier activities was a killer whale craft. We tried to depict spyhopping killer whales.

Having learnt more about whales, Xmm decided that he liked the beluga whale too. So we did another craft from Learn create love.com who is really one talented mummy who created many different craft templates for her daughter to work on. We did the killer whale craft and the beluga whale craft.

Sadly, Xmm refused to be pictured with his beluga whale. So here’s Xxm with the completed crafts.

Xxm attended a trial art class at the Artary and lo and behold, the theme was ocean animals too. Through this single trial session, he learnt to draw fishes which were apparently killer whales according to him.

Field Trip

With the aquarium at our doorstep, the learning for this theme will not be complete without a trip to the newly opened S.E.A Aquarium. The boys were exhilarated and couldn’t contain their excitement pointing out all the sea creatures they knew.

I was fascinated by the shark eggs exhibit. You can see the embryos wriggling inside the eggs.

Lapbooking

We also attempted the whales lapbook from homeschool share.com. Most of the activities were too advanced for Xxm and Xmm. We read about the concepts but I found it difficult for Xxm to reproduce it in the form of a lapbook. Out of the activities, Xxm enjoyed sorting toothed and baleen whales the most. He also delighted in colouring on the map the regions which the killer whales swim. He knows that the killer whales like to swim in colder waters and the beluga whale likes the icy cold polar regions.

Coincidentally, his school was also working on ocean animals theme and he picked up many concepts from his teacher. These were information that I didn’t think he could comprehend. For example, he mentioned to me that whales are mammals. It made it easier for me to explain the life cycle of the whales and how it differs from the sharks. The trip to the SEA aquarium further cemented this knowledge.

This was one of his earlier drawings which the school has taught him. I am an idiot at drawing and have absolutely no idea how to teach my child to draw, thinking it’s a talent more than anything. However, through this exercise, I realised that drawing must be taught too and we can do it by piecing basic shapes together. This was a whole new idea to me.

Kidsparkz Curriculum

I selected worksheets which the boys can do from the Oceans theme pack in the kidsparkz curriculum. The theme pack is filled with tons of printables (147 pages) suitable for ages 3 to 6. I just didn’t have the resources to go through each and every one with the boys. Each theme pack comes with songs and poetry and numerous literacy and numeracy activities that you can carry out with your children.

Of these, we did the parts of a fish worksheet and another matching worksheet to train their observational skills. We also worked at drawing a fish. Xxm did a fairly decent job at imitating but I thought the art trial at the Artary did a better job training him to draw with shapes.

We also identified the parts of a fish on our marketing trips, our visit to the aquarium…basically whenever the opportunity arises. Subsequently as we read more books on the different types of whales, Xxm became very skilled at identifying the various types of whales based on their dorsal fin.

Mathematics

This is the first time we did graphing with the boys. They love it and ask to do this activity repeatedly until the lifespan of the paper cube ran out. Our sea creature graphing printables came from 1+1+1=1. I couldn’t resist this because the graphics were simply too adorable!

Xxm did the graphs from 1 to 10.

There was another option for Xmm to do the graph for 1 to 5.

I cannot emphasise enough how much the boys enjoyed this unit study. Most of the learning actually takes place on our bed, surrounded by the tons of books which we hoarded from various libraries. There was also a lot of fooling around, pretending to be killer whales or sharks. One day, I came up with a killer whale song sung to the tune of Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat. The boys are really tickled by it. It goes like this:

Killer whale, killer whale, where have you been?
I have been, I have been swimming in the sea.
Killer whale, killer whale, what did you do there?
Spyhopping, lob tailing, anything I like.

Sometimes, I leave the last sentence hanging for the boys to fill in. We sang so much of this that Xmm came up with his great, white shark version. Even the baby Xmx is tickled by this song. Perhaps from listening to the squeals and giggles from his older brothers.

We also made a lot of references to the Oceans movie, revisiting various scenes. Xxm knew so much about the subject matter that he was called upon to share his knowledge about various whales with his classmates. Through reading, he learnt about the habitat, predator – prey relationship and many more. After such intensive reading, I am ashamed to say that I still cannot tell the whales apart except the very obvious. But Xxm could!

Lastly, to show my ardent support for my kid’s interest, this is what I did!

List of NLB Books

1. Killer Whales (B25877131A)
2. The Megamouth Shark (B21341736E)
3. Orcas(B27920354J)
4. Tiger Shark (B28187055C)
5. Blue Whale: The World’s Biggest Mammal (B19720533H)
6. Great White Shark (B21130265I)
7. Dolphins (B21517595B)
8. Why why why do dolphins squeak? (B20334410F)
9. Whales (B27979399K)
10. Whales (B22651628J)
11. Sharks (B28198410K)
12. Whale Shark (B28193326A)
13. Blue Whales (B22140378E)
14. Great White Sharks (B20732673H)
15. Beluga whales up close (B21350031D)

Creating a Mini-garden

A terrarium is a self-contained mini ecosystem that requires minimal care. It is fun to make and makes wonderful gifts.

A terrarium is an excellent learning tool for children. According to Terrarium Man, there are three lessons that children can gleaned from creating a terrarium, namely;

▪ Stewardship of the earth
▪ Life cycle of the plants
▪ Interconnectivity of ecosystems

Let Xxm show you how to create your own terrarium.

1. Using any container which you can easily recycle from your home, lay a layer of gravel or stones at the bottom of the terrarium. This serves to provide drainage for the water in the terrarium.
2. Next, layer charcoal onto the gravel. Charcoal gets rid of any odour or smell and keeps the air fresh. Hence this is needed only if you are making a closed terrarium.
3. Dried moss is laid on the charcoal. This prevents the soil from settling down into the gravel.
If you are working with young kids like Xxm or Xmm, you may like to prepack the materials in small bags like shown.

4. The next layer is normal potting soil mix. Create a wide hole in the middle for your plants.
5. Put your plants into the hole and cover the soil and arrange the plants. Ensure all roots are covered.
6. For the finishing touch, add decorative pebbles on top of the soil.

Xxm is arranging the pebbles with a chopstick.
7. Add about a tablespoon of water to the base of the plants. Cover the lid and there you have it! Your personal terrarium.

You can decorate the bottle and add cute embellishments together with the plants like this one I made for my husband at the Little Green Pot Terrarium Workshop. I highly recommend this workshop. All materials are provided and the instructor delivers with knowledge and love for his plants. It is also very competitively priced.

This activity is best enjoyed together with your loved ones. Hope you like it!

A Simple Chinese New Year Craft

The boys have been stricken with a horrid viral infection since last Tuesday. I was not spared either. Chinese New Year preparations have taken a standstill. By a stroke of ingenuity, I thought of a simple craft to keep the boys entertained, retain my rest and decorate the house for the new year.

What you will need:
▪ Straws
▪ Glue
▪ Scissors
▪ Coloured paper
▪ Marker

1. Xxm and Xmm practiced their cutting skills by snipping the straws lengthwise. It proved difficult for them because the straw was rather firm but Xxm managed it eventually. It was great seeing him exercise better hand control. Xmm needed assistance.
2. Write a “福” which meant prosperity on each coloured paper.
3. Slather on the glue and stick the straws away.

They really enjoyed this craft and here are pictures of the end product.

May you enjoy bountiful prosperity too!

Chinese Zodiac Printables

Chinese New Year 2014 is fast approaching in approximately two weeks time. 31st January and 1st February to be exact. This year, I decided to share with the boys the origins of the Chinese Zodiac. I got Xxm to help create the backdrop while I worked on the story props. And this is our final product.

Then I got all excited and carried away and created a Chinese Zodiac printable pack suitable for preschoolers. In it, you will find activities such as Chinese and English word recognition, patterning, graphing and more. Here is a little preview.

Please click on this link to download the files. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

BFIAR: The Carrot Seed

Xxm is taking to the books from the Before Five In A Row (BFIAR) series very well. The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss is another book he enjoyed tremendously. Most of the credit actually goes to this youtube video in which a family reenacted the audio version of this story. I must admit I enjoyed this home production very much too.

Thanks to this, we find ourselves singing this very often.

Carrots grow from carrot seeds.
I’ll plant a seed and grow it.
I’ll water it. I’ll pull the weeds.
Carrots grow from carrot seeds.

Even my baby, Xmx chuckles when I sing him this.

To align with our vegetable theme, I took the opportunity to try out a new service that is fast gaining popularity in our local community. I ordered a lollibox which is a pre-packaged thematic hands on craft project that is delivered right to your doorstep. Coincidentally while doing our home learning activities for this book, Lollibox launched a new theme entitled “My Veggie Farm”. Visit their website to read more about this product information.

Image credit: Lollibox website.

First, we created a veggie harvest. Xxm had his first shot at stitching, which I thought he was fairly patient at. He was very proud of his veggie harvest and for the next few days, he brought it with him everywhere he went.

Next, we built our veggie farm. For a kid not particularly fond of colouring, he diligently added in the colours for each of the vegetables, and even changed some to his favourite colour – blue. Unlike his usual impatient self, Xxm carefully executed each step of this craft with simply my verbal instruction. His efforts paid off and boy, was he proud of his accomplishment.

We practiced our fine motor skills by poking the outline of a carrot on a mat.

We also consolidated our learning by creating a notebook together. Xxm and Xmm revised the colours orange and brown. We discussed about carrot sizes and Xmm did a carrot sequencing activity with me. Both boys also tried matching the vegetables and fruits to their shadows.

For math, I printed out math mats from the Kidsparkz curriculum that I have bought. The boys then plant the required number of vegetables as indicated on each of the mat. Xxm did 1 to 12 and Xmm did 1 to 5. Look how orderly Xxm planted his produce (bottom). Xxm also did other worksheets e.g. predicting what comes next in a sequence and identifying the odd one out in a group. I have obtained all these from either Kidsparkz paid or free curriculum.

For Science, we discussed what plants needed to grow, and we viewed a video on the life cycle of carrots. Then, Xxm did a worksheet on the life cycle of carrots with little assistance. We also talked about the different parts of a plant and did a craft together. I loved this simple craft very much.

We also tried to grow our own vegetables from this kit. However, the lack of sufficient sunlight in my home made it a flop. Then one day while Xxm was checking on his seeds, he overturned the pots and I did not bother again. But Xxm has already benefitted from the planting process.

To learn more about the different types of vegetables, we took our learning to the supermarkets and visited an organic vegetable farm. I brought along our vegetable flashcards to the farm, hoping to correlate the pictures with the actual plants. Let’s just say, mummy is not much better than the boys. However we still learnt something. I learned that carrots cannot grow in our tropical climate and the carrots in our markets are either from China or Australia. Learning the origins of our food sources is another important social study lesson in itself.

We supplemented our reading with “Eating The Alphabet” by Lois Ehlert and Meow thought that it was hilarious that it was written “X” for “Xigua” (means watermelon in Chinese).

Finally, we learned to sing the Chinese nursery rhyme “拔萝卜”。The boys enjoyed this version more than the animated ones. Thereafter, we spent many a nights grabbing each other’s butt in an attempt to 拔萝卜。It’s a good game when the kids want you to do something and you are feeling lazy to get off the ground or the chair so you just shout, “Let’s 拔萝卜!”

These are the links to the resources that I have used.

• Carrot poke page from This Reading Mama
• The Carrot Seed lapbook printables from The Homeschool Share
• Picture and Shadow Matching
• Vegetable flashcards, Math worksheets from Kidsparkz curriculum
• Life cycle of carrots
• Parts of a plant booklet

Review: Bubber Modelling Clay

Fed up with the mess Play Doh is creating in my household, I was on the lookout for an alternative. I discovered Bubber – an award winning modelling compound engineered and manufactured exclusively in Sweden.

I bought two tubs – cobblestone red and ocean blue for my children. It was an instant hit with them.

Why We Prefer Bubber Over Play Doh

● Extremely lightweight (only 144g for 1 litre worth of bubber). It feels soft and squishy like marshmallows.
● More than enough bubber for 2 children to play with in one bucket.
● Leaves no sticky residue on your hands or nails.
● Never dries out – value for money long term investment.
● Colours can be mixed and do not end up looking like a pile of dung.
● Suitable for kids with allergies as it is wheat, gluten and casein free. 100% safe and non toxic.
● Won’t stick or stain. Easily swept up or vacuumed, even if it gets on carpet. This is what sold me.
● Bubber can be used to make plaster casts of your little ones’ hands and feet using plaster of paris. I cannot wait to try this out since I just had a new addition to my family. Check out this demonstration by Timbledoodle, a US homeschool curriculum company.

Cons

● As it is so lightweight, it gets blown away easily. It was difficult for my kids to confine it to purely the table.
● Initially my children got it all over the floor when I wasn’t around to supervise. After we vacuum the bubber, the floor (made of homogenous tiles) felt like it was polished with wax and we could slide with ease on it. It was fun for my children but posed a health hazard for my elderly MIL.
● Expensive. Costs $25.90 for a bucket.

Bubber is sold in 5oz buckets of red, blue, green, yellow, purple and white. It retails $25.90 from online Pupsik Studio. They offer free local delivery for every purchase.

Come join in for some bubber fun too!

Literature Based Learning: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

In a bid to better understand the literature based, trans-disciplinary thematic approach to learning, I signed Xmm up for a Make a Totbook workshop conducted by fellow mom blogger, Shirley Tan. It was also an opportunity for me to have quality one-on-one time with Xmm. The literature used for our workshop  was Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr and illustrated by Eric Carle. Coincidentally, Xxm ‘s school was also reading this book. Hence, I shelved off my plans for The Carrot Seed this month and decided to continue their learning with this book instead.

Totbook (Xmm @ 27-28 months)

1. Identifying the animals in the story

2. Comparing sizes – big vs small

3. Counting 2

4. Colouring: Practice listening skills as you provide verbal instructions for your tot to colour the lions.

5. Top – Music & Movement: Three Brown Bears

6. Bottom
(a) Tracing uppercase B and lowercase B with dot stickers
(b) Identifying objects that begin with the letter B

7. Top – Literacy: Polar Bear nursery rhyme

8. Bottom – Identifying parts of the polar bear on picture and on print

9. Top row, left – Zebra craft
(a) Relating black and white stripes on a zebra
(b) Reinforcing verbal instructions to stick stripes  from top to bottom
(c) Complete the craft to make it into a zebra mask (not done)

10. Top row, right – Zebra puzzle

11. Bottom row, left – Flamingo craft
(a) White + Red = Pink
(b) Fine motor skills: Finger painting

12. Bottom row, right – Leopard craft
(a) Recognizing black spots on a leopard
(b) Stamping spots
(c) Counting the number of spots

This is all we have accomplished in the 4 sessions of the Make a Totbook workshop. Activities are well planned and there are a lot of hidden agenda behind each activity. Xmm was very receptive to the activities, although it was hard work capturing his attention during each session. It was a good learning experience for the both of us. Till now, Xmm still holds his totbook with pride and particularly enjoys it when we recite the polar bear rhyme together.

Notebook (Xxm @ 42 months)

This is the cover of our lapbook which is made up of two crafts that Xxm did.

1. Hippo craft: Xxm wanted to paint the hippopotamus blue as it was his favourite animal from the book. I had a difficult time explaining why the hippopotamus was not the colour blue in the zoo.

2. Polar Bear craft: Painting the bear white and affixing a white coat with cotton wool

3. Shadow Match (shown on outermost two flaps below): we subsequently used the animal cutouts as a sequencing activity too.

4. Measuring the length of the snake with pipe cleaners and snap cubes  (centre below)
(a) 1 to 1 correspondance: using snap cubes, both Xxm and Xmm were asked to put them on the boxes provided.
(b) Practice counting
(c) Writing the correct numeral (an activity which I realised needed more attention)

5. Identifying names of the animals (pictured in flaps below)

6. How many legs? – Sorting pictures of animals according to their number of legs

7. Poem – Bear in There by Shel Silverstein (author of The Giving Tree): Very enjoyable and funny poem about finding a polar bear in your fridge

8. Polar Bear dot to dot from A to Z

9. Crafts: copied the ideas from the Make a Totbook workshop as I felt they are relevant to Xxm too.

10. Trip to the Singapore Zoological Gardens

That wraps up all our learning activities for this wonderful book. The children adored the book, so did I.

I shall leave you with a video clip of Xxm attempting to read the book. He imitates his teacher reading the story in school and commands full attention from all of us, including Xmm whenever he reads. A role he relishes.

Literature Based Learning: The Grouchy Ladybug

In all honesty, I hate reading this book. The text is so repetitive that it bores me to tears. A huge part of the story goes like this:

At ten o’clock, it saw a lobster.
“Hey you,” said the grouchy ladybug.
“Want to fight?”
“If you insist, ” said the lobster, stretching its claws.
“Oh, you’re not big enough,” said the grouchy ladybug and flew off.

However, Xxm loved this book more than I can imagine. Our initial reading taught him what it is like to be friendly versus grouchy. He comprehended that being friendly is the more desirable trait to have even without further emphasis or explanation from me. So much so, he argues that he is the friendly ladybug at home, while Xmm is the grouchy ladybug. The truth of the matter is far from it. Anyway, his enjoyment of the book prompted me to take it further with him in our learning, so we created a lapbook to document our learning journey.

Resources

Ladybug poem
Parts of a Ladybug (Paid resource)
Ladybug Life Cycle
Story Sequencing
Sorting by size and capital/lowercase L
Ladybug Clock
The Grouchy Ladybug lesson plan

Additional Resources

I found these after I have completed the lapbook. They are gorgeous!

Ladybug Number Flash Cards 1-10, 11-20

Learning about Time

The best part of this lapbook was for Xxm to execute the craft for the ladybug clock and to use it to tell the time. Xxm can confidently tell the time by the hour now.

Since he is very interested in time now, I have also tried to make him see the connection between the time and our daily activities, like when do we have our meals, when he or Xmm goes to school, when we wake up or sleep and when daddy and mummy come home. We talked how the clock goes from morning to afternoon to night. Recently, I have also introduced half past (hour) concept to him.

Learning about the Position of the Sun

We talked about the position of the sun with the passage of time.

Learning the Life Cycle

I really wished I could have shown him real ladybugs. But I don’t even see aphids on our plants these days, let alone ladybugs. We discussed each of the stages and Xxm was able to tell me the correct sequence.

Learning the Parts of the Ladybug

This was the first time I tried Montessori 3-part cards with him. He can match them, but he is not really huge into them.

Size Sequencing

He is able to compare sizes, and is able to pick out the biggest or the smallest. However,arranging it in sequence still requires prompting at my end.

Identifying characters and Sequencing by order of appearance

He completes this as we read the story together. I hope to be able to trigger the sequence from his memory instead.

Recognizing L and l

An activity that I designed for Xmm more than Xxm, just in case he wants to join in the fun.

Learning about Animals and their form of Protection

As we reread the book, we talked about how each animal has its own form of protection e.g. the yellow jacket and its stinger.

Learning about 小瓢虫 (Ladybug)

I found a ladybug poem in Chinese, and it was only through this that I realised ladybugs typically have 7 spots on their shell. Hence, they are commonly called seven star ladybug in Chinese.
I isolated some simple Chinese characters from the poem for Xxm to recognise and identify in the poem as well.

We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly with this book and Meow even brought Xxm on a hunt for ladybugs in our neighborhood. Look what they found!

Have you read The Grouchy Ladybug yet?

All About Reading Pre-reading Program: Letters A & B

It has been a while since we started on the All About Reading Pre-reading program. Xxm loves this program and a huge part of the reason is Ziggy the Zebra, a hand puppet which accompanies Xxm on his reading journey. I cannot even begin to imagine how a simple puppet with my voice-over can piqued my boy’s interest. I thank my lucky stars for having had  the “foresight” to purchase it together with the reading program.

Changes that I have observed in Xxm after starting the program:

• Initiates lessons with Ziggy.
• Early book awareness. Xxm enjoys reading  The Zigzag Zebra book. He holds the book in the proper orientation, turns the pages page by page from right to left and locates the correct page for me to begin reading. We have been revisiting this book many times.
• The first few lessons utilize picture card games to teach rhyming words. Presently, he plays the games by recalling the rhyming pairs. He is not adverse to the game and enjoys a friendly competition with Ziggy most of the time. Hopefully, in time to come, he will comprehend the purpose of the activity.

The simplicity of the activities made it easy for me to include Xmm in the picture too. I confessed that I have not been as diligent with Xmm in his learning journey as compared to Xxm. Hence, it was terrific that I was able to involve Xmm in this program as well. Xmm already knows the letters and their letter sounds. I am taking this opportunity to expose him further.

Here are what we have been doing:

Letter A

Additional activities:
• Using ice-cream sticks to form A. Xmm took to this activity more enthusiastically than Xxm. He delights in forming other letters like I, V, M, H etc.
• Mindchamps provided us with an alphabet book for parents to complete with their children. The letters of the alphabet are marked on the booklet and you simply just find pictures beginning with that letter and fill them in. I get my pictures from Learn The Fun Way blog.
• Forming A with pattern blocks, template courtesy of Confessions of a Homeschooler blog.
• Writing worksheets also from Confessions of a Homeschooler blog.

Letter B

The only thing we did differently was to use link cubes to form B instead.

Currently, we are easing into the program. It is a tad early for me to conclude whether I like the program or not. This mummy’s Youtube review about the program echos some of my thoughts. For now, the boys seem to love it! We will stick it through and see how things turn out. Stay tuned for our updates!

Curriculum Choices

I am guilty of doing too much in a short time. It is the same when I am trying to decide what to teach Xxm.  Every time  I thought I nailed a solid syllabus, I read about something else that will sweep me off my feet and I will feel an immense urge to incorporate it into our learning activities. The internet has no lack of fun educational activities. However, the information is so dispersed that after some time, your thoughts are scattered as well.  Another major deterrent in our homeschooling journey is the lack of time to prepare, print, cut and laminate all the learning aids. Hence, I really needed to find a all in one solution.

But the truth is, there is no one solution for everyone. In fact, there are going to be lots of trial and error to find the best fit for you and your kids. It is still the case for me and Xxm.

Here are my curriculum choices for 2013:

Language: All About Reading Pre-reading

I decided to ditch Jolly Phonics for the time being and work on this together with both Xxm and Xmm. Though both boys are well versed in recognizing the letters of the alphabets and the letter sounds, All About Reading Pre-reading teaches much more than letter recognition through its scripted program. It emphasizes on the big five skills – letter knowledge , phonological awareness, print awareness, listening comprehension and motivation to read.

With this program, I feel assured that I am not missing out any important steps in trying to teach literacy. I also feel at ease knowing I do not need to design elaborate letter of the week lesson plan, which is simply too time consuming for me.

Chinese Language: 我会读

Picture credit: As above

Though I am not an advocate of flashcards, I decided to use this set to expose both boys to Chinese. It has a thematic approach which is easier for me to align it with what Xxm has been learning in school. It is also a good set to expose Xmm as well as the words are large, and the vocabulary is still relatively simple for him to understand.

Mathematics

Xxm can count reliably from 1 to 10 now.
Xmm, though hours of playing with his brother and kakak, can also rote count from 1 to 10.
I prefer the step by step manner in introducing mathematical concepts via the Montessori way. I am not setting up trays but will use the principles behind to play math games with them. I purchased a Montessori mathematics album which I hope to follow closely. It will also guide me in deciding which activities are more developmentally ready for the boys.

Other Subjects

In this aspect, I think reading widely pretty much does the trick. I am inclined to follow Charlotte Mason’s philosophy on reading living books to children below the ages of six. I have already seen that by engaging them in stories, they retain the information much better than pure rote learning. To be more specific in our learning, I plan to do a lapbook bimonthly. This will require more research and planning but the end results are always more enjoyable.

Practical Life

A tired and lazy mum means more hands on for my children. Through our daily activities, they will get the necessary exposure without a conscientious effort to make it a part of any curriculum. This is what I find tiring if I were to follow exactly the Montessori way of setting up trays and learning aids.

Activity Books

Following the recent success with Gakken activity books, I concurred they aren’t a bad thing to have in the house too. Easy for lazy days when I have nothing planned.

This pretty sums up all I want to do with my boys. Adding more, I am overly stressing myself and stretching my limits. The absence of any plan frustrates me as well as I am a methodical person.

That being said, I still might not follow my plan to a tee subjected to my other commitments. Moreover, I have witnessed for myself that when left to their own devices, the child will lead the learning and it is unduly unnecessary to be too hung up over their learning capabilities, as long as they are developmentally appropriate.

How do you design your homeschool curriculum?