Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

Think of your preschooler’s mind as a sponge, just waiting to expand as your child learns. While structured learning doesn’t start until Kindergarten, the years leading up to this are just as important for your child’s mental development. Neural pathways are still forming in the brain and the more you challenge your child intellectually right now, the more of these pathways in the brain will form – making it easier for him to learn for the rest of his life.

Now is the best time to introduce your child to learning. You have the chance to ensure that this is a positive experience for your child. Wouldn’t you want him to associate learning with something that is fun and exciting? By working with your child now you can make sure that learning new things becomes something he looks forward to and you can also create good study or learning habits right from the start. Not only will this help him throughout his school years, but you will be raising a person that’s inquisitive and curious about the world around him.

The next question is of course what can you do to challenge your preschoolers mind? Your everyday life is full of learning opportunities; you’ll just have to open your eyes to the endless possibilities. Start by reading to your child each day. Curl up on the couch together with a couple of good age-appropriate books and read them to your child. Stop from time to time and talk about the story, the characters within it and the illustrations in the book. Start with simple questions like what is this character’s name, or what happened to the girl in the story. As your child becomes used to engaging in the story this way, encourage him to form his own opinion about what is happening. Also ask him what he thinks will happen next and why.

Ask your child to help you prepare dinner or lunch. Count out ingredients together and have your child guess what you may be making with noodles, sauce and hamburger meat. Explain why ingredients change color or texture when you cook them. You can even introduce simple math by adding one apple to two other apples etc. Engage your child in conversations about what is going on in his life as you cook. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn about what happened at daycare or preschool or on a play date just by asking your child.

Take your child along on your weekly trip to the grocery store and quiz him on shapes and colors. You can also talk about the different fruits and vegetables in the produce section, where they grown and how you eat them. You can even talk about the different countries that a particular fruit is traditionally grown in, such as bananas come from South America, or kiwis from Australia and New Zealand.

Set some time aside each week to draw, color or make some sort of craft together. This doesn’t have to be anything too difficult. Even the simplest things like a few crayons and a piece of blank paper can turn into a lesson in color theory or into your child’s first writing lesson. Remember to keep it simple and fun. Draw a letter and ask your child to copy what you just did. Give lots of praise for the effort. Use alphabet cereal or noodles to spell your child’s name on a piece of construction paper.

We are surrounded by colors, shapes, numbers and letters. They are on cereal boxes, street signs and billboards. Just keep an eye out for them and use them to challenge your preschooler’s mind. Every day brings new learning opportunities for your child.

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Are you ready to challenge your preschooler’s mind even more? Take a look at www.kidsactivitycalendar.com for Alphabet Fun for your preschooler. The alphabet audios, coloring sheets and other activities are a great way to prepare your little one for kindergarten. Find out more at www.kidsactivitycalendar.com

My little girl was very brave as she sat on the dentist chair, waiting to get her teeth pulled. She was scared no doubt, but she didn’t give me any problems. I believe that our past readings on books related to teeth and dentist helped a lot. So, here are 2 books that are currently available at my children’s bookshop:

Title: Dad, Are You the Tooth Fairy?
ISBN: 0439667453
There comes a time in a child’s life when they start questioning the reality of magical wonders such as Santa Claus. In this case, it is the tooth fairy. Do they really exist? Gaby goes straight to his dad to find out the answer. Dad doesn’t lie and admits that it is actually him. But he also goes on to tell how the magic of the toothfairy is also very much alive. Personally, I love this version of the toothfairy. Some parents may be appalled by the idea of telling their child that she really doesn’t exist. You may want to keep that magic alive. If that is your plan, then I do not recommend this book.
The reason why I like this book is because I’m okay telling my children that “hey, yes it is me.” This is because they eventually KNOW that it is YOU. For example, my son still thinks Santa Claus is real but my daughter is absolutely sure “it’s dad!” This book allows you to admit that you do play the part of Tooth Fairy, but it also gives room for the magic to stay alive.

Title: Harry and the Dinosaurs say ‘Raahh!’
ISBN: 1862333904
All the dinosaurs go into hiding as they are all afraid to visit the dentist, especially Tyrannosaurus because he’s got so many teeth. But with a little bit of coaxing from Harry, they eventually make it to the dentist’s chair. With a press of a magic button, Tyrannosaurus grows big and frightens the dentist with his large ‘Raahh’. Seeing how frighten the dentist are of them, Harry and the rest of the dinosaurs lose their own fear. The dentists gives them good news by telling them there will be no drills as they are all good brushers. In the end, they have a little too much fun riding up and down on the chair and rinsing. Wonderful way to start a discussion about visiting the dentist. Also an encouragement to get children brushing their teeth properly.

If you have been reading my parenting tips and tricks blog, you would know about my daughters recent tooth sprouting experience.

Many children around the ages 6-7 will start to experience the sprouting of permanent teeth and losing of milk teeth. Some may feel scared, some don’t care and some may feel anxious. Here are some fun dental worksheets to help them understand and know more about their teeth. These worksheets are provided by SMILES (San Diego Dental Disease Prevention Program). There are 20 PDF files consisting of crosswords, word search, follow the line, songs, matching etc….

For more FREEBIES, check out our FREEBIES page.

When we start teaching our children to read, we usually start with having them recognize the alphabets and then associating them with the corresponding sounds right? But how do you start them reading a book on their own?

Just want to share what I did to get my son reading on his own.

• I got him to memorize some high frequency words, also known as “sight words” or “Dolch words”. I made them into flash cards or just printed them onto an A4 paper and put them on the wall. I would go through the list with him about twice a day and put a tick on the ones that he already know (*seeing all those ticks was a great motivator and helped his confidence).
• Once he knew a majority of the words, I read simple books together with him, letting him read the words that he just learned.
• And then praise, praise, praise! I would say things like “Wow, you know so many words already”, “You almost read the whole thing”, “See, you CAN read” or “Thanks for helping me, you will be able to read the whole book by yourself soon.”

Sight words such as “the”, “and”, “you”, “is”, “a” occurs so often when you read, the repetetiveness provides many opportunities for reading practice. And when your child tastes the little bit of reading succuss, it will spur their desire to read more.

MORE TIPS:

1. Start with a really simple book - not that many pages and 1-2 lines per page.
2. Choose a book they like and read it again and again and again. The repetitive reading increases their familiarity with the story and words. It’s okay if it looks like they are memorizing the story instead of reading the words. What you want is for them to be excited about their ‘new’ ability to read.
3. I recently put up a piece of paper on the wall listing down all the books that my son is able to read by himself. As soon as he masters one book, I add it to the list. The lists acts as a visual motivator - like displaying your trophies on the shelf.

You can start with books like this Ladybird’s “Let ’s Read Together” Series.

This book pack is currently available at Value Bookshop for RM28.80

When should you prepare your child for school? Believe it or not, the preparation starts the day they are born. A child’s home life and environment is the biggest determinant of a child’s success in school. You can increase your child’s potential for educational success by just reading aloud to them on a regular basis. It is important that you fill your house with books and literacy materials.

However, building a library of books, magazine subscriptions, encyclopedias and dictionaries can cost you and arm and a leg. Here are some ideas how you can create a home library on a limited budget.

1. You should begin the process of building a home library even before your baby is born. Baby showers is a wonderful place to begin. Don’t keep your friends or family wondering what baby gift they should get. Speak up and let them know your intention of building a home library. Board books are the best for baby’s early years. They are sturdy and will survive rough handling.
2. Throughout your child’s growing years, birthdays and holidays such as Christmas are also opportunities to add books to the home library. Family and friends usually like to buy toys for children. Remind them that books are also appreciated.
3. Look out for book sales held by neighborhood, school and main branch libraries, colleges and universities. They usually advertise sale locations and times in the events column of your newspaper. You can often purchase used books at these
   sales for as little as 50cents. This is a great way to load up on fiction, non-fiction books, information and reference books. Don’t be afraid to buy used encyclopedias. Even if it’s 10 years old, much of the information is still pertinent.
4. It is normal practice that the tooth fairy leaves money under the pillow. Why not consider having the tooth fairy leave a fun, entertaining paperback or comic book instead. Paperback books are fairly inexpensive.
5. Regarding magazine subscriptions, borrow first a few back issues from the library to see if your child is interested in it. You could also talk to friends and family to see if they are interested in trading magazines. This way, each family can subscribe to different magazines, thus allowing for a wider variety. Also, check out student subscription discounts. Many magazines offer special rates if ordered through schools.

A special note for Malaysians:

• Malaysian book companies usually hold their sales at the end of the year. Pay Less Books have sales a few times a year. Their children books are usually 50% off. Put yourself on their mailing list to receive sale notifications.
• If your child is attending kindergarten, check to see if they participate in Grolier’s Scholastic Book Club. They distribute their book catalogue only through schools and the books are greatly discounted.
• Be a patron of http://www.valuebookshop.com. Parents are usually tied up with work and other commitments that don’t allow them to go bargain hunting for books. Value Bookshop does the bargain hunting for you. Shop online in your pyjamas. It’s convenient plus you can trust to find wonderful children books at cheap prices.

Surround your children with books and read with them regularly. Your home environment is very important to their future success. Don’t neglect it.

This was a fun art and craft activity we did before Christmas. Of course it doesn’t have to be a Christmas craft. It’s just fun folding the paper, cutting it and then opening to discover what pattern you just made.
We decorated K’s play room to give it a festive, colourful look.

You could use these paper snowflakes to decorate your homemade cards.

The following site gives very good instructions on how to do it.
http://highhopes.com/snowflakes.html

If you want to have more “kirigami” (means ‘folding and cutting’ in japanese) fun, check out the website below. You can cut out flowers, paper doll chains, 5 pointed star, 6 pointed star, and pop-up cards.
Kirigami For Kids

Fun Craft of the Month Clubs

Craft Clubs - Choose from 3, 6, and 12 month subscription kits as well as Christian and non-Christian based kits. Pay monthly or prepay for the best deal. Your child will receive a total of 1- 4 craft kits each month. Each monthly shipment contains enough unique crafts to keep your child entertained once a week. Great for your home, home school, daycare, or school!
No need to crack your head figuring out what craft projects to do or fretting about getting craft supplies. Affordable arts and crafts projects are delivered directly to your door with easy to read instructions.