I think the turning point was when he turned 2 and a half. K started being able to articulate his wants very clearly, surprising me with new words and long sentences everyday. He knows almost 95% of the alphabets, numbers 1-10, colours, shapes and can count up to 5 items. All of that he learnt during play, from the books that we read and things that we see in our everyday life at home.

The only effort on my part was through the books that I bought for him, not limiting the words that I use when I speak to him (baby language is a no-no for me) and being a little more observant about the world around us. He shows alot of curiosity about nature, about how things work, and will ask me alot of questions about what he sees around us.

John Holt was right, when he wrote about how children are learning all the time.

My role as K’s first teacher is to help him make sense of the world around him. We will be taking little ‘baby-steps’ towards starting short homeschool sessions for the next 1 year before he starts nursery, and will explore various areas of literacy, math, science, arts and bible & social studies. Also not neglecting lots of play and outdoor exercise at all other times.

I initially planned for him to attend some parent-accompanied playgroup programme, but after reviewing my objectives. I figured that gets enough socialisation weekly at Sunday school and during his one-to-one playdates with Seth. Besides dh is right in saying that he has at least 20 years of formal schooling, so why is there a big hurry to send him to school?

‘Planting roots, Growing wings’ will be my new blog to document our sessions at homeschool. This blog will be the best way to review my ‘on-the-job’ training as his first teacher, and to continually challenge myself to grow and change. Afterall, I believe that being a mother and helping my child to realise his potential is the best way to realise my own.

Related posts:

For the past 1 week, I have been really tied up with home business and have not been spending much time with K. Now that I have started to re-organise my schedule to include managing the home business, there needs to be more thought placed behind the organisation of activities for K’s home school.

K has been spending most of his time doing unstructured play. Since I am a mom who thinks that a child learns best through play, I do not take pride in rote learning. Thus I am not worried that K who will be turning 2 in mid March, cannot recite the alphabets from A-Z or numbers from 1-10.

Just finished reading this book “Child of our time – Early learning“. I am further convinced that it is even more essential in this day and age, that a child learns to be resourceful, creative and flexible. And home life needs to be the key catalyst to nurture the child in those areas, and help develop his love for learning.

According to this book, there are a list of important things that parents can do to help their children ease into pre-school and help them do well in primary school and beyond. It is not rocket science but definitely a practical checklist for developing K’s home learning environment.

Related posts:

Opened ended play materials are the best. The process of the play experience is more important than the end product. As quoted from Mary Ann Kohl, ‘…the exploring, creating and the attempting of new ideas is more important than the result of creativity…’

Kyle used chalk for the first time yesterday morning and he was fascinated by the texture, the markings made by the chalk and sure was elated that he was allowed to scribble on the balcony’s tiles.

He experienced sand for the second time, however this time round it was in more familiar territory; in his sand and water table. Now I just have to find recycled containers of varying shapes and sizes that can be used to teach him some basic math concepts.

We had our first playgroup session this morning and did craft instead of art. I was rather conservative and decided against a open ended art exploration experience for the little ones. Afterall, craft experiences are useful to teach concepts.

This turtle craft project had to meet the subtle objectives of teaching the letter T and colours red and green ; with the triangular collages and turtle. Incorporated a little bit of printing and collage on the ‘shell’ of the turtle. However like most craft projects for toddlers, the mummies ended up doing the bulk of the work.

The key challenge of developing lesson plans for toddlers is that learning objectives are difficult to achieve, unless the concepts are repeatedly and consistently taught with many different experiences throughout one week. Unlike preschoolers, who can usually grasp the concept with one or two lessons. It is afterall much easier when the child is developmentally ready.

So it is usually wishful thinking to hope that the toddler internalises the concepts after 1 or 2 lessons after his/her playgroup classes at Julia Gabriel or Busy Buddies. Perhaps the only objective that can be achieved is socialisation. Toddlers will be too distracted by other toddlers in the class to pay any attention to the concepts taught.

But that’s how it is when I am like some parents, who hope that my kid can read some letters and numbers even before he enters preschool.

It is getting rather challenging to get Kyle to spend more than 10-15 mins concentrating on any task lately (besides his indoor tennis and golf). Guess that will mean I will have to find another 101 other ways to set the stage for his play experiences.

Related posts: