Kyle’s Home School

Recently L mentioned that she has ran out of activities for her 21 month little girl. She has tried painting, dough, crayons, bought her new pretend play toys (which I believe have kept her busy for a while).

Most moms I know of are giving their little ones lots of art and craft activities. I think it is fantastic that they are leading the pathway for creative development for their child. However, I will use a methodological approach to focus on the growth of the whole child. This approach will be suited for toddlers below 3 years and can include developmental norms in the areas of physical, language and communication, cognitive, social and emotional growth.

Before I plan for new activities for Kyle, I completed 5 separate observation assessments of Kyle in different settings; meal time, solitary play, parallel play, outdoor play and dough play. From there compare the assessment with development norms of a 17 month old child and then evaluate it to determine his needs, interests and abilities. From there, I will plan for a balance of experiences to support, enhance and foster the developmental areas. Movement needs to be a fundamental area for this programme, it is probably one of the best ways to keep his ‘octopus’ hands and legs occupied. As for the music bit, he has to be content with my not so great voice without music accompaniment, while I wait for P85 to arrive in Oct (I am dying of anticipation).

After this, I will embark on a multi-sensory approach for his alphabet experience. However, I am not certain that he is developmentally ready for this, will try out the letter ‘S’ first and its related activities to see if there is any potential interest. Most likely have to be prepared to arm myself for more activities, in case of any sign of a lack of interest. Regardless, there will be no flash cards for him, at his age, there is no way flash cards are going to work for an active, super-inquisitive toddler.

This is the start of Kyle’s home school, it’s time to start on my own kid and not be too occupied by other people’s kids. Looks like I am going to be even busier now vs those few months back when I was a FTWM.
Share it:

Related posts:

My kid is going to go preschool….in 2010

How many preschools that you know of that have teachers that have a genuine interest to nurture your child’s development? Too many, too few…the unfortunate truth is that there are many preschools with few teachers who are genuinely interested in the children.

In Singapore, early childhood education has been a career taken by many, when they are not faced with much options, i.e., just armed with an ‘O’ level passes and nothing more. Some don’t even see the need for further development and are contented with status quo. I think there is a cause for concern when there have been so much research written about the window of learning that can be maximised for the child between 2 to 6 years old.

As for the quality for preschool education in Singapore? There is little focus on learning through play and more focus on rote learning to prepare the child for primary school. It’s sad to think that this generation of Singapore children have hardly any childhood to talk about. I have to re-emphasise that children really learn the best through play in early childhood.

I am going to commence my search for that ‘perfect’ pre-school (which probably does not even exist) for Kyle from the beginning of next year. Yeah…extremely k.s. since he hasn’t even reach 17 months. I figured that my search will take some time, since I may have too high expectations and rigorous standards for the pre-school. I probably will drive the principal crazy with my never-ending list of questions, yet will choose not to let her know that I am a fellow childhood educator…

See I already told you, it is not going to be easy to convince my mommy!

Just thought I should also give some mothers out here some help on what’s make a good pre-school. since I have recently wrapped up an assignment on quality indicators for pre-schools. Click on this link in other blog to find out more details on the type of questions to ask when you meet the pre-school principal, http://parachutetime.blogspot.com/2008/08/questions-to-ask-when-you-meet-pre.html
Share it:

Related posts: