Chloe's N1 Year End Report

I have posted on her first half year report here.

I also mentioned a few times how I like the two-way communication provided by the school.

Early this month, we attended the parents-teacher conference where the teachers updated us on her progress. Here are the reports presented by the teachers to us:

English

Chinese

Chloe received pretty good comments from the teachers, I hope she keeps this up and continue to progress in the coming years, I also hope that she enjoys her pre-school as much as she can.

My son will be joining the school next month, I hope he does enjoy the school too :)

Brayden's Speech Development at 18 months

If you are following my blog, you will know that I seldom post the progress of my son, who is currently 2 years old.
My focus is mostly on my elder girl, who is 3 years old and who I thought is at the age of learning. But my son has always surprised me and proven to me that kids start learning from the day they are born.
This video was taken when he was 18 months old, for which he was able to recognise and tell the name of many animals.



My son started talking single words before he's turning one year old. He was able to say words like flower, fish, star, ball and many more after he's one year old. Obviously, he has earlier speech development than my elder girl. Many says that this is because he picked up the language from my girl, which might be true, but recently I realise that he knows some words that my girl doesn't know yet, example brinjal and broccoli, which he probably read it from his baby book.

I think the environment could have played a part on his progress. I have posted about the importance of books at home, for which I also mentioned that I keep books at home and in my car, so that the kids can read whenever they want to. My boy read pictorial books when he was few months old, he would read the book himself on his car seat when I fetch him home from the babysitter's house, the journey took about half an hour.

A picture of him reading in the car when he was 15 month old

Another video of him tested by his daddy on alphabets:

He probably picked the alphabets up from Leap Frog DVD.

Recently, he likes using the word "because", here's a little joke:
I saw my boy playing his grandmother's water bottle......
Me: Brayden, can you don't play Ma Ma's water bottle ("Ma Ma" is the Cantonese saying of grandmother).
Brayden: No, because my mother say(s) I can drink water.
Me: ??? Who is your mother?!
Brayden gave me a cheeky smile and replied "mummy".

Going forward, I have more concerns on his character than his learning development, intelligent kids are normally also the problematic kids, if no appropriate guidance are given, they might end up doing their academic poorly.

Chloe's Reading Progress at 3 years 9 months

I've previously posted on "How to encourage reading in young toddlers", for which I posted a video of her reading story book at the age of 35 months, one month before she turned into 3 years old.

If you're interested to find out how to cultivate the interest of reading in your children, do visit the post, for which I talked about the problems Chloe was facing and my methods helping her to befriend the books.

For this post, I would like to update on her reading progress. I'm surprised to see her reading this kind of books with small wordings:



She made a few mistakes in the reading, but I'm not too worry about it, my emphasis is still her interest in reading.

She will now dig the story books from the pile of books I prepared for her in our study room, and read them by herself. She will ask me if she faces any new words, for which I will read to her and explain if necessary. Sometimes, she will ask me about the story, like what happen to the "Gingerbreadman", why the fox is hiding behind the wall and etc. I will tell her to continue reading to find out the story herself.

I also see her doing role playing with her younger brother, example she would act as the "big bad wolf" and trying to catch her brother assuming the brother is the "little piggy". The story line will follow the story of "Three little pigs" but adapted a little bit by her.

Some points I would like to highlight here:
1) All kids like to read.
If you think your kid has no interest in reading, you're probably using the wrong way.

2) Do not force your kid to read.
Emphasis on getting their interest in reading especially in the early years.

3) Always make books available.
I have books not only at my home, but also in my car. My kids can read anytime anywhere as long as it does not affect their eyesight.


4) Let the kids choose their favourite books to read.
Every kid has different interest, example my 2 years old boy only read books with animals, others will not get his interest.

5) Do not explain every single word in the story.
Some parents like to explain the words, but this is very disturbing and will actually discourage the kids from reading.
Imagine if you are reading a newspaper, do you know all the words written on an article? I'm sure there will be some words which are not in your vocab but still you are able to understand the article. If someone were to explain all the words that he or she thinks you do not understand, do you still want to read the newspaper?

6) Do not 'read' the story to your kid in 'your own language'.
When you read to your kid, read the words in the book accordingly, some parents think that the kids might not be able to understand the sentences written on the book, and they changed the sentences to the ones that they think are easier to understand.
Example, instead of "the little piglet is so excited to see a table full of food", it is changed to "the little piglet is very happy when he see so many 'mum mum' on the table" (note: 'mum mum' is the baby language for food). 
What is wrong here? The parent has eliminated "excited" from the kid's words bank, and the baby language of 'mum mum' is something I really against of.

7) Have enough books collection at home
Books can be expensive if you were to buy all brand new from store. I collect all the used books from friends and relative, so that I have enough collection to arouse my kids' interest.
My books are normally scatter around the house after their reading (and playing), but I believe the situation will be improved from time to time.

I think Chloe should have no problem in reading English books independently. My next focus will be improving her Chinese reading. Let's hope it'll be as smooth as getting her to read English :)

If you like my fun classes, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

Fun Class: Y for Yacht

Before I begin, I would like to highlight that the pronunciation of Yacht is "Yot", and not "Yucht", which is commonly mispronounced.

Didi joined us for this lesson, I must admit that it was difficult to handle both kids at the same time.

Both of them sang the greeting song to start the lesson.

We had a quick revision on the pictures done in the previous lesson. If you would like to download all the pictures spelled after A - Z, click here.

We listened to the phonics sound and song of letter Y, which went like this:
Yapping, yelling, y, y, y.....
y is the sound of Y! 

Didi was having fun singing the nursery rhyme.

 

I let her trace upper and lower case of letter Y on a worksheet I printed from the Internet.

I tried to let didi colour the worksheets that Chloe had done, so that he would not disturb the lesson.

She was able to finish 3 worksheets on letter Y.

I prompted her to spell "Yatch", but this is a difficult word. I changed to "Yarn" instead, which was easier for her.  For technique on prompting, you may refer here.

Didi snatched away the writing board and was playing with it afterwards.

The craft work for this lesson was to make a 'yacht'  from a Styrofoam, a stick, and some cut out triangles.

 Two of them happily decorating the 'yacht'.

The completed craft:

I placed the "yacht' on a pale of water, the kids were happy to see the 'yacht' made by them floating on the water.

The closing song was adapted from the nursery song of "Have you ever see a Lessie" by changing the word "Lessie" to "yellow yacht".

If you like my fun classes, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

The lesson plan:
1) Greeting Song, click here
2) Revise letter Y by showing kid the alphabet and the pictures done in first lesson for letter Y.
3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of Y
4) Kid learns to write letter Y by completing the worksheets from starfall.com.
5) Prompting
6) Craft work
7) Summary
8) Closing song

Development age: 3 years 7 mths
(every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)

I attended my phonics lesson for mummies here.

List of my fun classes:
1) A for Ant
2) A for Apple
3) B for Bubbles and Bear
4) C for Crocodile
5) C for Cake
6) D for Duck and Dog
7) E for Egg and Elephant
8) F for Frog
9) F for Fish
10) G for Goat
11) H for Horse
12) H for House
13) I for Insect
14) I for Indian
15) J for Jelly
16) J for Jack-in-the-box
17) K for Kettle
18) K for Kangaroo
19) L for lollipop
20) L for Leaf
21) M for Monkey
22) M for Mummy
23) N for Necklace
24) N for Net
25) O for Octopus
26) O for Orange
27) P for Potato
28) P for Pig
29) Q for Queen
30) Q for Quilt
31) R for Rabbit
32) R for Rainbow 
33) S for Snake
34) S for Star
35) T for Tiger
36) T for Tortoise
37) U for Up and Under 
38) U for Umbrella 
39) V for Vegetable 
40) V for Vase

41) W for Worm

42) W for Whale

43) X is a Cross

44) X for X-ray

45) Y for Yolk

Fun Class: Y for Yolk

This lesson was done a month ago, when I received some red eggs from a colleague for her son's full month celebration. I like to give her lessons base on what materials I have on hand, it will always be a fun and interesting lesson for her.

She sang the greeting song to start the lesson.

She traced the upper and lower case letter Y on a piece of paper:

We listened to the phonics sound and song of letter Y, which went like this:
Yapping, yelling, y, y, y.....
y is the sound of Y!

She took the pictures of objects spelled after Y from an envelop, she named the objects before pasting them on the letter Y paper.

She labeled the pictures with the words I printed on sticker. She read the words before pasting them on the correct picture.

 Her picture done. If you would like to download all the pictures spelled after A - Z, click here. 

 

I prompted her to spell "Yolk". For technique on prompting, you may refer here. 

There was no craft work for this lesson, I let her colour the phonics sheets:

Her completed colouring:

Happy eating the hard boiled egg at the end of the lesson:

I'm glad that she likes to eat egg with the yolk. I did not like to eat egg yolk when I was a kid. Some people think that egg yolk is bad because it is high in cholesterol, but little do they know that yolk is full of nutrients too. Egg yolk contains more nutrient than egg white, it provides most of the nutrients that our kids need, of course, good food need to be consumed in moderation :)

There is a yolk rhyme that you might want to sing with your kid:
I like egg yolk (hands make an oval shape)
Yummy, yummy, yummy (both thumbs up)
I like egg yolk (hands make an oval shape)
In my tummy (point to tummy)

You can also show your kid an egg and let the kid to break the egg into a bowl to observe the egg yolk.

If you like my fun classes, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

The lesson plan:
1) Greeting Song, click here
2) Introduce letter Y, kid traces capital and small letter Y
3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of Y
4) Kid takes pictures of object begin with letter Y, names and pastes the pictures on an A4 paper.
5) Kid labels the pictures.
6) Prompting
7) Colour the phonics sheet (optional)
8) Craft work (no craft work for this lesson)
9) Summary
10) Closing song.

Development age: 3 years 7 mths
(every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)

I attended my phonics lesson for mummies here.

List of my fun classes:
1) A for Ant
2) A for Apple
3) B for Bubbles and Bear
4) C for Crocodile
5) C for Cake
6) D for Duck and Dog
7) E for Egg and Elephant
8) F for Frog
9) F for Fish
10) G for Goat
11) H for Horse
12) H for House
13) I for Insect
14) I for Indian
15) J for Jelly
16) J for Jack-in-the-box
17) K for Kettle
18) K for Kangaroo
19) L for lollipop
20) L for Leaf
21) M for Monkey
22) M for Mummy
23) N for Necklace
24) N for Net
25) O for Octopus
26) O for Orange
27) P for Potato
28) P for Pig
29) Q for Queen
30) Q for Quilt
31) R for Rabbit
32) R for Rainbow 
33) S for Snake
34) S for Star
35) T for Tiger
36) T for Tortoise
37) U for Up and Under 
38) U for Umbrella 
39) V for Vegetable 
40) V for Vase
41) W for Worm
42) W for Whale
43) X is a cross
44) X for X-ray

Fun Class: X for X-ray

Chloe sang the greeting song to start the lesson.

There are not many objects with the beginning sound of letter X. We had a quick revision on the pictures done in the previous lesson. If you would like to download all the pictures spelled after A - Z, click here.

We listened to the phonics sound and song of letter X, which went like this:
Box of foxes, x, x, x.....
x is the sound of X! 

After listening to the nursery rhyme, she traced upper and lower case letter X on the printed worksheets.

She completed three worksheets on letter X. You can print these worksheets from the internet by searching "letter X worksheet".

I prompted her to spell "X-ray". For technique on prompting, you may refer here.

The craft work for this lesson was to make an x-ray film. She pasted the transparency on a paper frame and pasted the cut-out bones on the transparency. 

I was worried that she might not understand what is X-ray before the lesson. But my worry was cleared after the lesson as she took the frame and posed as if she's taking an X-ray picture.

You may use "hot cross bun" as the closing song for this lesson.

If you like my fun classes, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

The lesson plan:
1) Greeting Song, click here
2) Revise letter X by showing kid the alphabet and the pictures done in first lesson for letter X.
3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of X
4) Kid learns to write letter X by completing the worksheets from starfall.com.
5) Prompting
6) Craft work
7) Summary
8) Closing song

Development age: 3 years 6 mths
(every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)

I attended my phonics lesson for mummies here.

List of my fun classes:
1) A for Ant
2) A for Apple
3) B for Bubbles and Bear
4) C for Crocodile
5) C for Cake
6) D for Duck and Dog
7) E for Egg and Elephant
8) F for Frog
9) F for Fish
10) G for Goat
11) H for Horse
12) H for House
13) I for Insect
14) I for Indian
15) J for Jelly
16) J for Jack-in-the-box
17) K for Kettle
18) K for Kangaroo
19) L for lollipop
20) L for Leaf
21) M for Monkey
22) M for Mummy
23) N for Necklace
24) N for Net
25) O for Octopus
26) O for Orange
27) P for Potato
28) P for Pig
29) Q for Queen
30) Q for Quilt
31) R for Rabbit
32) R for Rainbow 
33) S for Snake
34) S for Star
35) T for Tiger
36) T for Tortoise
37) U for Up and Under 
38) U for Umbrella 
39) V for Vegetable 
40) V for Vase

41) W for Worm

42) W for Whale

43) X is a Cross

 

Fun Class: X Is A Cross

We had this fun class on one of the weekends. She was happy to sing the greeting song to start the lesson.

She traced the letter X on an A4 paper:

We listened to the phonics sound and song of letter X, which went like this:
Box of foxes, x, x, x.....
x is the sound of X!

 

She took the pictures of objects spelled after X from an envelop, she would tell me the name of the objects before pasting them on the letter X paper.

 

Happy applying glue at the back of the picture:

 

I printed the words on an adhesive paper, she labeled the pictures.

 

Her picture done. If you would like to download all the pictures spelled after A - Z, click here.

 

I prompted her to spell the word "fox". Her writing showed some improvements. For technique on prompting, you may refer here.

 

She coloured the phonics sheet. I told her to paste the crepe paper on the phonics sheet to make a 'X'.

 

She found the crepe papers too long, and decided to cut them shorter. She had been venturing with her scissor, no matter how i stopped her. I just hope that she would not cut her fingers.

Her completed picture of 'X'.

We sang the closing song " Hunting We Will Go" to end the lesson.

If you like my fun classes, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

The lesson plan:
1) Greeting Song, click here
2) Introduce letter X, kid traces capital and small letter X
3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of X
4) Kid takes pictures of object begin with letter X, names and pastes the pictures on an A4 paper.
5) Kid labels the pictures.
6) Prompting
7) Colour the phonics sheet (optional)
8) Craft work
9) Summary
10) Closing song.

Development age: 3 years 6 mths
(every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)

I attended my phonics lesson for mummies here.

List of my fun classes:
1) A for Ant
2) A for Apple
3) B for Bubbles and Bear
4) C for Crocodile
5) C for Cake
6) D for Duck and Dog
7) E for Egg and Elephant
8) F for Frog
9) F for Fish
10) G for Goat
11) H for Horse
12) H for House
13) I for Insect
14) I for Indian
15) J for Jelly
16) J for Jack-in-the-box
17) K for Kettle
18) K for Kangaroo
19) L for lollipop
20) L for Leaf
21) M for Monkey
22) M for Mummy
23) N for Necklace
24) N for Net
25) O for Octopus
26) O for Orange
27) P for Potato
28) P for Pig
29) Q for Queen
30) Q for Quilt
31) R for Rabbit
32) R for Rainbow 
33) S for Snake
34) S for Star
35) T for Tiger
36) T for Tortoise
37) U for Up and Under 
38) U for Umbrella 
39) V for Vegetable 
40) V for Vase
41) W for Worm
42) W for Whale

Fun Class: W for Whale

My 2 years old joined in for this lesson too. It was hard to control the lesson, but generally both the kids enjoyed it.

Didi: Yeh! Fun class!

Chloe sang the greeting song to start the lesson. Didi found it fun and sang along. Both my kids like singing and dancing.

We had a revision of the objects spelled after letter W. I showed Didi the pictures done in the previous lesson, and he was able to name the objects. If you would like to download all the pictures spelled after A - Z, click here.

We listened to the phonics sound and song of letter W, which went like this:
Worms are Wiggling, w, w, w.....
w is the sound of W! 

Chloe was singing the nursery rhyme, while didi was scribbling here and there:

 I printed few more activities worksheets of letter W for her. She could complete those worksheets pretty fast. I would normally let her practise writing the letter first:

 

Let her join the words begin with W:

Let her write the missing letter:

While Chloe was doing her worksheets, I let didi colour the worksheets which Chloe had completed.

I prompted her to spell the word "whale". For technique on prompting, you may refer here

 

I had modified the craft work for this lesson. We cut some colourful papers in the shape of whale and pasted them inside a plastic container. She drew some 'waves' inside the container. You can do the craft with your kid by using any materials that you can find from home, I'm sure you've many containers in your kitchen cabinets :)

Her finished product:

The closing song for this lesson: Whale Sneezes

If you like my fun classes, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

The lesson plan:
1) Greeting Song, click here
2) Revise letter W by showing kid the alphabet and the pictures done in first lesson for letter W.
3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of W
4) Kid learns to write letter W by completing the worksheets from starfall.com.
5) Prompting
6) Craft work
7) Summary
8) Closing song

Development age: 3 years 6 mths
(every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)

I attended my phonics lesson for mummies here.

List of my fun classes:
1) A for Ant
2) A for Apple
3) B for Bubbles and Bear
4) C for Crocodile
5) C for Cake
6) D for Duck and Dog
7) E for Egg and Elephant
8) F for Frog
9) F for Fish
10) G for Goat
11) H for Horse
12) H for House
13) I for Insect
14) I for Indian
15) J for Jelly
16) J for Jack-in-the-box
17) K for Kettle
18) K for Kangaroo
19) L for lollipop
20) L for Leaf
21) M for Monkey
22) M for Mummy
23) N for Necklace
24) N for Net
25) O for Octopus
26) O for Orange
27) P for Potato
28) P for Pig
29) Q for Queen
30) Q for Quilt
31) R for Rabbit
32) R for Rainbow 
33) S for Snake
34) S for Star
35) T for Tiger
36) T for Tortoise
37) U for Up and Under 
38) U for Umbrella 
39) V for Vegetable 
40) V for Vase

41) W for Worm

Teaching Phonics - Make a 3 Letters Word A Vowel

I printed those papers quite some time, I tried to teach her early this year when she just turned 3 years old, but she couldn't get the technique, so I stopped.

Recently she found the papers and requested to play the 'game' (I always use the term 'game' whenever I introduce a learning method to her), and she got the reading technique this time round.

If you're interested to try it out with your kid(s), you may print the papers here.

Teaching method:
1) Teach the kid to read the ending sound made by vowel A, e.g. at, am, an, ap, ab (refer to the link above)
2) Make the sound of 'at' (do it one by one), tell the kid to pick the paper of the sound you've made.
3) Put the papers (those at, am, an, ap etc) on the floor, make a sound and tell the kid to stand on the paper of the sound you've made.
4) After the kid is familiar with the ending sound, teach the kid to make a word by introducing other papers. Example for 'at', show the kid 'cat', teach the kid 'c.....at' (read the sound of c and at) 'cat' (read the word out loud).
5) Arrange those ending sound papers (e.g. at, am, an, ap, ab etc) on the floor, give the kid a paper (e.g. cat), tell the kid to read and put it under the correct ending sound paper.
6) Say a word (e.g. cat) and tell the kid to pick the paper up. If the kid can't find it, hint the kid which ending sound is the word under.

Mistakes I've made:
1) Give the papers to my girl and expect her to read them out by herself, without teaching her the reading method. By doing this, my girl is actually memorising the word, and not learning to pronounce the word.
2) Give her too many papers at a time. She was a bit confused when I gave her all the papers and expected her to sort them out, she then memorised the words, which is not the purpose of the lesson.

Reminder:
The purpose of this lesson is to teach the kid the phonics method of reading, not to make them memorise the words. Thus, Do Not flash the cards to your kids, emphasise more on the sound, and how each letter interact with the ending sound. E.g. when 'c' meets 'at' becomes 'cat, when 'b' meets 'at' becomes 'bat' and etc.

I'll be teaching her the other Vowels, will be updating here soon.

If you like my fun lesson, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

Fun Class: W for Worm

She eagerly traced the letter without me telling her to do so.

But I still made her sing the greeting song to start the lesson.

We listened to the phonics sound and song of letter W, which went like this:
Worms are Wiggling, w, w, w.....
w is the sound of W!

She took the picture of objects spelled after W from an envelop, she would tell me the name of the objects before pasting it on the letter W paper.

She then labelled the pictures with the words.

The picture done:

If you would like to download all the pictures spelled after A - Z, click here.

I prompted her to spell "worm", this word is easier for her since it only has 4 letters. For technique on prompting, you may refer here

 

She coloured the phonics sheet, where we used it for the craft later on.

We cut a few yarn strings and pasted them on the worm pictures.

There is no closing song for this lesson.

If you like my fun classes, please like the Facebook page "Learn The Fun Way" for more updates

The lesson plan:
1) Greeting Song, click here
2) Introduce letter W, kid traces capital and small letter W
3) Kid listens to phonics sound and song of W
4) Kid takes pictures of object begin with letter W, names and pastes the pictures on an A4 paper.
5) Kid labels the pictures.
6) Prompting
7) Colour the phonics sheet (optional)
8) Craft work
9) Summary
10) No closing song for this lesson.

Development age: 3 years 6 mths
(every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)

I attended my phonics lesson for mummies here.

List of my fun classes:
1) A for Ant
2) A for Apple
3) B for Bubbles and Bear
4) C for Crocodile
5) C for Cake
6) D for Duck and Dog
7) E for Egg and Elephant
8) F for Frog
9) F for Fish
10) G for Goat
11) H for Horse
12) H for House
13) I for Insect
14) I for Indian
15) J for Jelly
16) J for Jack-in-the-box
17) K for Kettle
18) K for Kangaroo
19) L for lollipop
20) L for Leaf
21) M for Monkey
22) M for Mummy
23) N for Necklace
24) N for Net
25) O for Octopus
26) O for Orange
27) P for Potato
28) P for Pig
29) Q for Queen
30) Q for Quilt
31) R for Rabbit
32) R for Rainbow 
33) S for Snake
34) S for Star
35) T for Tiger
36) T for Tortoise
37) U for Up and Under 
38) U for Umbrella 
39) V for Vegetable 
40) V for Vase