There are many free resources on the Internet, and Starfall.com is the one that I strongly recommend for teaching of pre-schoolers.
I downloaded the following worksheets for Chloe and she likes them very much. She kept saying "more!" when I let her tried out the worksheets for letter A but I'll have to stop her or else we would be late for sleep :) You may download the above worksheets here: http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/download.htm
The website is very interactive and I'm sure children will like to play with the programmes there. There is section on letter A - Z that your kid can learn the phonics sound:
There are e-books where young children learn to read:
There are also worksheets for kindergarten kids:
Do take your time to explore the website with your kids, again, the website address is here: http://www.starfall.com
Chloe is currently 35 months old, she'll be 3 next month. She is able to read the book titled "The Ants Are in A Hurry" by herself now(although she bit the book at the end of the video, haha!).
If you're thinking that she is an obedient child, or she picked up the book with interest in reading, no she is not (having said that, I did not force her to read, haha!).
If your child or children have the following problems, don't worry, Chloe had them too!
1) Show no interest in reading
2) Would run away when you try to read to him or her
3) Play the books like playing blocks, example, pile them up like a book tower.
4) Tear the books
5) Bite the books
6) Throw or scatter the books around
7) Does not allow you to read the book
8) Only look at pictures when you read to her and even when you point the words to her
9) Keep asking questions relating to the pictures instead of reading the words.
Chloe does not like to read prior to 35 months old, why do I say that? Because she has all the behaviours listed above previously. But now, she likes to read. She will bring her favourite books to bed and we will read together every night before sleeping. Here, I would like to share with you how do I cultivate the interest of reading in her.
1) A small library or books collection at home
Thanks to my sister in law, I have many books passed down from my niece to my children at home. These books were of very good conditions when given to me, but they are mostly torn or show signs of wear and tear now, as my girl like to 'play' them and does not take good care of the books.
Although my girl does not show interest in reading before 35 months old, I would still try to introduce all kinds of books to her, and the books are arranged in a small bookshelf beside her toy box, so that she get to see the books all the time.
A small library at home is important, as young toddlers like to read the same books over and over, they like to do things repetitively, and they gain confidence by doing something they already knew. It is true that you can borrow books from library nowadays, but you can't borrow the same books for your kids all the time.
2) Bring them to National Library
In Singapore, we have very good public library facilities which are so conveniently located at many of the shopping malls. I would think everyone should fully utilise this free service provided by the government, and I can't believe that there are parents who are not aware, or have not bring their children to library.
Our National Libraries have very good books to the children, from touch books, flap books for babies to story, and reference books for primary kids. Each individual can borrow 6 books (12 books during promotion) each time for a period of 3 weeks. You can return the books at any of the library, not necessary the one that you borrowed the books.
I bring my girl to library almost once a week since she was 20 months old. Although she did not like reading, she like going to library, and mess up the books there. Most of the time, she was just walking around, taking the books, scattering the books or see others reading the books (of course, I got to tidy up for her).
The objective of me bringing her to library, is to let her have a feel of what books are, I want her to think that reading is fun, and many children go to library to read books. This work for her, she would request to visit the library every time we passed by one. Most of the time, we borrow story books home and I let her put the books at the borrowing kiosk which she finds it interesting.
3) Show them good example
I do not like to watch TV drama at home. When my husband is not around, the TV in my living room is off most of the time. I like spending my time with my kids by playing with them, or read to them. Previously, my girl does not like reading, so I read my own magazine, or newspaper when I have time. My girl would imitate me, by holding a book, and "read" or rather talk in her own language. I believe, by reading in front of her, I'm showing her that books are for reading, and not for playing.
If you would like your children to start reading at young age, you should show them a good example. Many times, I see children who do not like to read, grown up in a non-reading family, i.e. the parents themselves also do not like to read.
Having said this, I do watch my favourite drama occasionally. Especially now my girl can read by herself, I would watch the drama by using Iphone, while she read the books sitting beside me. When she can't read the words, or if she get distracted by my Iphone, I would stop watching drama and guide her. What I'm trying to emphasize is that, you need not sacrifice your hobby, and this is why I emphasize in young learning, as I would have more and more free time for myself when my kids can self-learning after having strong base.
4) Build up the interest, get the concept right
I prefer to cultivate interest in my kids rather than force them doing something they do not like. Although my girl does not like reading, I bring her to library, buy books with her favourite characters for her. I show her that books are interesting, it have many nicely drawn graphics, and if you read them, they'll tell you a great story.
When she played the books and pile them up, I did not stop her, instead, I let her play and explore the books by herself.
Some parents like to scare the children by saying "the books are very difficult nowadays, if you don't learn now you'll not be able to read.... etc". If you make a child think that books are hard to read, they'll not even want to touch the books. Remember, children like to do things they already knew, that is why we must let them 'befriend' the books, let them familiar with the books, once they are able to read a few sentence, they'll like reading!
5) Cater to the individual's interest and strength.
My girl likes to play game, so I played a game with her.
I told her, "when mummy points, you will read; when you point, mummy will read". We played this a few times, and she was finally looking at the words when i read, and read the words after me.
I then played another game with her, I would say a word and she got to find where is the word; after playing a few times, she requested to say the words and let me find where were the words. By doing this, I am assured that she really recognises the words.
6) Start with simple.
Some parents can be very ambitious, and give a very wordy book to their children. However, by doing this, they might be killing the interest off from the children, as none of the children would like the feeling of "been defeated", i.e. they can't read. Don't forget, the children like to do something that they are familiar with, and be praised of. A step by step approach is thus more encouraged.
You may refer to the ladybird's series of Peter and Jane, where the books are categorised by level, start with Level 1 and progress smoothly to next level. It contains many repetitive words, which could be boring to the parents, but these are the keywords that build up vocabulary in young children, and believe me, most children like to read repetitively.
7) Does phonics help?
Experts believe that young children below 5 years old could not associate phonics in words. They believe young children read by recognising the word, instead of by the phonetic method. This could be the fact, but there could be exceptional case as well.
For my girl, she could get the first letter right after hearing a word, but she could not spell the word unless i slow down and sound the letters one by one. I believe she still read by memory, but I'm sure phonics will help her in her reading once she got the concept, thus I still teach her phonics concurrently hoping that she would pick it up soon.
Lastly, I am not a very hardworking mother. Or some might be thinking I'm a full time housewife, no, I'm not. I'm a working mother of two, I reach home around 7pm during weekdays, I have around 1 hour with my kids after my dinner and shower. I try to utilise this one hour to the fullest, but I do have time when I feel lazy or just want to rest or do my face mask, so, I'm not different from many women out there! Never think that you're too busy, no time or not good enough in guiding your children, you can definitely do it if you want to :)
Her second book just a week after she starts reading:
Reading can be very addictive to young children :)
I enrolled my girl for this preschool last year, it was my second attempt to send her to preschool.
I sent her to Sparkletots Marsiling when she was 18 months old, but it was a disastrous as she was not ready and the school was newly set up. I withdrawn her from the school after a week and spent few months to amend the damage done to her.
What were the damages? She would cry badly when she's not seeing me, even just for seconds, she would even cry when we walked pass a school, it was not the usual cheerful her. Her character changed totally, it was heart pain to see her tearing silently, where you can see her fear in the eyes.
I then sent her to 1 hour weekend enrichment class at Zoophonics, where the parents could accompany the toddler in the class, from there she accepted the school environment again, and then she was promoted to the zoo kids program, where parents can no longer accompany the toddlers inside the class.
From Zoophonics, I realised the importance of teachers in a preschool, as they'll be the caretakers for your children in school. When I searched for the preschool for my girl in the second attempt, I emphasized more on the quality of teachers, instead of facilities.
I had been to Carpe Diem MI Preschool two times before I registered my girl there. On my first trip, I walked in to ask for details and the principal then (Grace, if I remember correctly) showed me the facilities of the school, which I did not expect it from her as I did not make appointment. I went during noon time, when she showed me around, I did not see any kids and I thought it was school holiday, but she then pointed to the floor where all the kids were sleeping on their mats. I was quite impressed to see so many children, different ages, sleeping at the same time without making noises. Of course, I was quite impressed by the principal too.
After I registered my girl, Grace left the school and Priscilla took on the role as principal. She was friendly and patient too, she called me on the registration update, the starting date for my girl, the collection of uniform, which I did not receive from Sparkletots.
My girl started the nursery school after Chinese New Year, as expected, she wanted us to accompany her in the school and would cry if we were leaving. I accompany her in the school for the first day, the school was a bit chaotic as many new students was crying for their parents. A student vomited on the floor, teachers quickly cleaned up the mess. Some children were having breakfast at the eating corner, some were doing exercise at the music corner. After around 930am, the students started to settle down and separated into groups, I met the Chinese teacher for my girl, she looked after around 8 children in the group.
I let my helper accompanied my girl in the school from the second days onwards, for roughly a week, and slowly reduce the time in the school. Till date, my girl adapted well in the school, without going through the dilemma which we had gone through in the first attempt. I would not blame Sparkletots for the failure in my first attempt totally, as she could be too young and was not ready yet. But frankly, I did not see the same level of care given towards my girl (or the rest of the children) by Carpe Diem, was given by Sparkletots.
In Carpe Diem, there are two teachers for each nursery group, one teaching Chinese while the other one teaching English. The Chinese teacher for my girl is Miss Liao, she is from China and of course she speaks better Chinese than the locals. I like her as my girl got a chance to speak better Chinese in the school. There are two Malay students in the class, who joined the school earlier than my girl, they could speak simple Chinese to the teacher, and this makes me feel confident that my girl can pick up Chinese from Miss Liao, haha!
The English teacher is Miss Mylene, she is from Philippines, she speaks very good English. I myself speaks Singlish, but I do not wish my children speak Singlish which foreigners could not understand, I try to speak proper English when I talk to my children, and luckily their English are not very "polluted". Thus, I hope they could learn from a better speaking teacher in the school.
The two teachers would update the parents by writing on a small booklets, where the parents would need to sign off after reading:
They do it about twice a week, or when there's something special to inform the parents, so each week you'll get to see around 4 remarks in the booklet.
Not all school practice this.
My girl will bring back two books each week, one Chinese and one English, as part of the efforts to encourage reading in young toddlers:
One more great feature provided by the school is the Ichild website:
The parents can log into this website and share the photos, videos of the children. The teachers will also upload pictures, updates, documents on this website that the parents can view. We can also feedback to the principal or admin staff through this website. I'm really impressed by the effort put in by the school :)
Carpe Diem MI Preschool has indeed many students and can be quite crowded. But so far the students were under control by the teachers, thus I'm not that worried about this issue.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the school and the teachers.
Some pictures of the school:
The school:
The entrance, where the parents would need to sign in and out when they bring their children to the school and when they pick the children back home:
The eating corner, where the kids have their breakfast and lunch:
The corner for my girl's nursery group:
Activity room, where the kids read story books or play toys:
The music room where the kids exercise in the morning, and play the musical instruments on their music lessons:
Gym room, the teacher will arrange the cushion thingies before letting the kids play, and keep them after the lesson, so you see nothing in the room now :)
Website of the school: http://www.carpediemhougang.com
I hope the above reviews do help you in your childcare selection :)
In her first lesson on letter N, she learned N for Necklace; in this second lesson, she learned N for Net.
We started the lesson after singing the Greeting Song.
We listened to the phonics rhyme and song of N, that went like this, Nuzzling noses, n, n, n, n is the sound of N!
In the previous lesson, she traced the letter "N" and pasted the pictures of object spelled after the letter. In this lesson, she labeled the pictures. She would spell and read the words before pasting them on the pictures.
The pictures with labels:
I prompted her to spell the word "Net", but I did not record it, if you are interested to know how it works, please refer to my previous posts or here.
The craft work for this lesson was to colour print using the net (or the fruit wrap) from fruit stall. She liked colour printing or playing with the water colours, but she kept complaining the smell from the water colours, probably due to the low quality of it as I bought it at a very cheap price :P
We sang the closing song of "head and shoulder, knees and toes. She had fun singing and dancing with the song. See her funny moves and expression here:
Lesson plan: 1) Greeting Song, click here 2) Revise letter N by showing kid the alphabet 3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of N 4) Kid labels pictures of object starting with letter N, spell and read the word before labeling. 5) Prompting 6) Craft work 7) Summary
Development age: 2 years 11 mths (every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)
This was an interesting lesson that I had been looking forward to since attended the phonics course by Jann, as the craft work was making a necklace by using macaroni!
We started the lesson after Chloe sang the greeting song.
After tracing letter N on a paper, we listened to the phonics rhyme and song of N, that went like this, Nuzzling noses, n, n, n, n is the sound of N!
I had saved the songs in my Iphone and played from there, she would point to the phonics paper and words when singing the rhyme.
The next step should be pasting pictures of objects spelled after letter N, but I let her coloured the macaroni first as it needed more time to dry. The materials for this craft work were just the macaroni and a elastic string. Chloe kept asking whether the macaroni can be eaten, ha!
After done with the colouring of Macaroni, I put it aside for drying. She then pasted the pictures: She would name the object before pasting, and I would explain the object to her if she had lesser knowledge on it.
I prompted her to spell the word "necklace", but I did not record it, if you are interested to know how it works, please refer to my previous posts or here.
She coloured a picture of necklace while waiting for the macaroni to dry.
I blow the macaroni by using hairdryer to ensure that the colours were fully dried up. Chloe joined the macaroni up by using the elastic string. She couldn't do it properly so I got to help her.
The finished product:
I wanted to take a picture of her after she put the necklace on, but she refused to, so we were like fighting, struggling, resisting, and finally:
We had fun singing the "One little finger", it was pretty fast. The lyrics: One little finger, one little finger, one little finger, tap! tap! tap! Point to the ceiling, point to the floor and point it to your nose! One little finger, one little finger, one little finger, tap! tap! tap! Point to the ceiling, point to the floor and put it on your mouth!
She said "thank you" to me to end the lesson :)
The lesson plan: 1) Greeting Song, click here 2) Introduce letter N, kid traces capital and small letter N 3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of N 4) Kid colours the macaroni and leaves it dry 5) Kid takes pictures of object starting with letter N, names and pastes the pictures on an A4 paper. 6) Prompting 7) Colour the phonics sheet 8) Craft work 9) Summary 10) Closing song
Development age: 2 years 10 mths (every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)
Finally, after a long break of CNY, I was able to resume my fun class for Chloe....
This is the second lesson for letter "M", and she learned "M for Mummy" in that lesson.
She happily sang the greeting song to start the lesson when I told her so.
We listened to the phonics rhyme and song of letter M, the song went like this: "Mummy loves me, m, m, m.... m is the sound of M!" Chloe hugged me while listening to the song, I was touched. (If you are not familiar with the phonics sound of A-Z, you may click here)
In the previous lesson, she traced the letter "M" and pasted the pictures of object spelled after the letter. In this lesson, she labeled the pictures. She would spell and read the words before pasting them on the pictures.
Chloe and her pictures of objects spelled after "M"
I prompted her to spell the word "mummy", the mischievous her purposely say the letter out softly:
The craft work for this lesson was doing up a photo frame of the child with mummy, the materials were as follow:
Brayden had broken the bottle of glue the day before (yes, you may call him a giant baby for having such a strength) and Chloe had damaged the UHU glue in the previous lesson, so, no glue, what to do?! Ah~
We ended up not using the crepe paper, I let her scribbled on the card with crayon, and used double sided tape to paste the embellishments. We used puncher to cut the flower embellishments which were not given by Jann in the craft materials.
The finished product:
We sang the closing song of "世上只有妈妈好" (Shi Shang Zhi You Ma Ma Hao), or you may let your kid hear this "Mummy Daddy I Love You"
Chloe given me a hug to end the lesson and said "thank you" to me.
She happily showed her daddy the photo frame after the lesson. Her daddy hung the photo frame in his office today :)
Lesson plan: 1) Greeting Song, click here 2) Revise letter M by showing kid the alphabet 3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of M 4) Kid labels pictures of object starting with letter M, spell and read the word before labeling. 5) Prompting 6) Craft work 7) Summary
Development age: 2 years 10 mths (every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)
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