Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

I recently started to teach my 4 year old son some Bahasa Malaysia because very likely he will be going to the same kebangsaan school as his sister. With K, I pretty much rushed her to learn the language in one year. Not a good idea. That’s why I told myself that I need to start earlier with kokoD. I think 2 years should be enough time for him to be sufficiently fluent in the language.

Anyway, current lesson is about “Rumah Saya” (My House). The lesson involves learning how to name the different rooms in the house e.g. bilik air (bathroom), dapur (kitchen), bilik tidur (bedroom) etc…. Here are four activities that I did with him:

1. Sat down and had him help me draw out the plan to our own house. So he had to think what are the different rooms in the house and where they are located. After that I wrote down the names of the rooms on pieces of paper and he had to label the drawing (glue the words to the corresponding places).
2. To add to his vocabulary, we talked about what people do in these rooms. I kept it simple by getting him to associated one word to each room. For example, tidur-bilik tidur (sleep-bedroom), mandi-bilik air (bath-bathroom), masak-dapur (cook-kitchen) etc…. After which I would write the name of the room on a blank piece of paper and had him draw out what he would do there.
3. Did a word matching worksheet. He had to match the names of the rooms to the correct verbs.
4. Treasure hunt. I stuck clues in the different rooms around the house. Each clue would tell him where to go to find the next clue. For example, “Pergi ke bilik air. Di atas cermin” (Go to the bathroom. On the mirror), “Pergi ke ruang makan. Di bawah meja” (Go to the dining room. Underneath the table.”) The treasure was what he likes best, a packet of Cheezels

These are just some learning activities that I want to share. You can use it to build your child’s vocabulary and reading skills. Use it to teach your child a second language, be it Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, Spanish etc….

You know the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It”?
Modify this song to teach your preschooler about feelings:

• If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands
• If you’re sad and you know it wipe your tears
• If you’re angry and you know it stomp your feet

Follow up by drawing different faces showing different emotions - happy, sad, angry, surprise, sleepy, scared. At the of the day, select one to put up on the wall / fridge to show what you felt that day. You can even make it into a file folder game. Use the different faces and match them to the correct words. If you’re not very good in drawing (like me!), look for pictures that you can cut out from magazines or print from the computer. You could also use your handy digital camera and take pictures of yourselves acting out the different emotions.

p.s. Not that easy getting the kids to show me different faces to reflect different feelings. All they want to do is laugh

A lot of times I hear parents ask “what to do with my child at home?” It can be exhausting coming up with ideas on how to occupy their time. Well, here is one activity that will be fun for your preschooler (and maybe even the slightly older children).

All you need is to lay down some paper on the floor (big enough for them to stand on), and have your child jump/hop from one paper to the next, according to your instruction. You can do it in a way that the paper represents stepping stones or islands that your child use to get from one side of the river/oceon to the other side. Children have wonderful imaginations, so go ahead and tell them about those crocodiles or sharks in the water. Heheheh.

What you lay down on the floor depends on what concept you want to reinforce. Below are a few examples:

• Colors - put down different colored paper e.g. blue, red, yellow, green etc…. Tell them to only use “red” to get across, or “yellow” or “green”. I think you get the idea.
• Numbers - lay down paper where you have written out different numbers. Shout out which numbers they must use to get across.
• Shapes - cut out different shapes e.g. circle, oval, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond. Select which shapes they must jump on to get to the other side.
• Alphabets - have paper with different alphabets written on them. Probably best to only have a maximum of 5 alphabets (ones they are currently learning), or maybe use alphabets found in their name. Call out the alphabets they must hop on to cross to the other side.

Another idea would be create paper that represent several concepts at the same time e.g. blue circle with the number 2, red triangle with the number 7 etc…. That way, you don’t have to create different sets of paper to teach different concepts.

This activity not only helps develop them mentally but also physically. After a while, you can let them play on their own as they make up their own rules on how to get across the river/ocean.

p.s. You might want to tape down the paper so your child won’t slip and fall.

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

If you have a toddler who likes to tear paper, what do you do? First reaction would be “Noooooo!” Paper tearing is not something we parents see as beneficial but rather destructive. But you know what? It can be beneficial. If you have a young child who likes to tear paper, might as well make it into a lesson. But of course, the one important rule to drill into their heads would be to GET PERMISSION first. Only tear paper that is supplied by a parent.

So, what are the benefits of paper tearing?

• teach about size (big, small)
• teach counting (how many pieces can you tear)
• teach art (use the torn pieces of paper to make a collage)
• teach vocabulary (use descriptive word throughout the activity such as “tearing”, “ripping”, “big”, “small”)

I believe the actual act of tearing is also beneficial to their physical development as it refines small muscle movements. Bet you didn’t know tearing paper is actually a skill that will help them later when they learn how to cut with scissors. Another pre-cutting skill is crushing paper.

So the next time you see your baby/toddler tearing paper, look at it as an opportunity for growth and development. Channel and mold their so-called destructiveness into a more positive outcome.

Looking for some creative activities for young children? Here is one that I did recently.

The kids were mucking around with the white board, so I decided to give them a bit of creative focus. I asked them to draw me dinosaurs of their own creation. Since they are dinosaur fans, they were game for it. Here is their list of dinosaurs:

• Packasaur
• Transaur
• Ponaisaur - biggest pony in the world
• Tranmopsaurs
• Nampsalamsaur - biggest banana in the world (dinosaur was in the shape of a banana)
• Lamanasalamonsaurs - biggest egg in the world

Those are some pretty weird names huh? Well, to me that’s a healthy sign of imagination at work.

Besides dinosaurs, you could do a similar activity with your children on the following topics:
1. If your girl is into princesses, why not ask her to design a range of dresses and accessories. You could further guide her creativeness by discussing the topic of appropriate dressing e.g. “what should she wear to go running?”, “how about some office clothes?”, “Ken is having a birthday party, what kind of dress is she going to wear?”

2. If your child likes automobiles, have them create their own line of cars, trucks etc… You could introduce the activity by saying “draw me a car you would like to have when you grow up”, “what kind of car would you buy for me,” and “how about grandpa, what car do you think he will like?”

3. One of the first preschool themes we teach our children is ‘animals’. How about having them create their own kind of animal? what would they call it? What do they eat? Where does it stay?

I find the best way to successfully carry out preschool activities, is to tune in to your children’s interest. The activity I did with my children would not have gone as well if it were about trucks or insects. So pay attention to your children’s play and get ideas from there.

Another important factor to note is the benefits of reading to your children. When doing the “create-your-dinosaur” activity with my children, I realized that their creativity was spurred on by knowledge they had gained from past reading. For example, how did they come up with those fantastic dinosaur names? Why didn’t they just name their dinosaur Tom or Alice? It’s because they’ve learned that dinosaurs have funny names, it usually ends with “saur” and the names are usually pretty long. So, put “enhance creativity” in your list of “ten reasons to read to your children.”

So have fun with this activity. And while you are laughing at their silliness, also know that this kinds of preschool activities not only encourage creative thinking, but also is a rehearsal for writing or other forms of self expression like art and drama.