Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

Here is a rhyme and a game to help your children learn to tell time and also to count. And if not, it is just loads of fun to do.

1. Rhyme: Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Tick tock, tick tock
I’m a little cuckoo clock.
Tick tock, tick tock
Now it’s almost ______ o’clock!
Cuckoo! Cuckoo! (As many times as the hour you chose).

With babies, you could just hold them and rock from side to side as you go tick, tock. Then at the end when you go “Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”, toss them or just lift them up high with each “cuckoo.” I get lots of giggles from my baby when I do that. This is how I get an arm workout too. Hehehe.

For preschoolers, you could use this rhyme to teach counting and time. First of all, teach them what 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock etc… looks like. Then randomly pick a time and show it on a clock. Have them say the rhyme (and do the swaying actions of the tick-tock), and see if they insert the right time when they say “Now it’s almost ____ o’clock!” Then they can jump to every “Cuckoo” at the end.

2. Game: What is the time Mr. Wolf?

The one that plays the wolf, randomly chooses in their head what time is breakfast/lunch/dinner. Then this is how the conversation goes:

Others: What is the time Mr. Wolf?
Wolf: 1 o’clock
Others: What is the time Mr. Wolf?
Wolf: 2 o’clock
Goes on until…
Others: What is the time Mr. Wolf?
Wolf: It’s dinner time (then chases and tries to catch the others)

If you have a baby (about 7 months and older) with older siblings, you could strenghten their bonds by having them play together. Baby can be the wolf and chase the other sibling(s) round the room (with Mommy carrying baby of course) or have them chase baby.

3. FREE LEARNING TOOL: MAKE YOUR OWN CLOCK

I made this homemade clock for my kids to play with. Here you see them arranging the numbers correctly on the clock. The hands are attached with a paper fastener so they can move around.
I’ve already done the printable for you. So, if you want to make your own clock, just right click and save the file below:
HOMEMADE CLOCK PRINTABLE

Science lesson for K today was on the heart. I found this wonderful website called KidsHealth with valuable information to help teach about “the body”. They have pages on the following topics:

• Bone
• Brain
• Digestive System
• Ear
• Eye
• Hair
• Heart
• Kidneys
• Lungs
• Muscles
• Nails
• Nose
• Skin
• Teeth
• Tongue

What I like about it is their diagrams. They have a picture of the heart beating and with arrows to show how the blood flows. Plus, you can also see the valves opening and closing. Sure helps to have visual when you are teaching. They also have a video section.

You may feel the information may be too advanced for a kindergartner, so improvise as needed. But I think it’s okay to introduce words like aorta, pulmonary, circulation etc… Do it in the spirit of learning. Don’t make them feel like they have to memorize everything like for a test. You want your child to go away saying “Gee whiz, that was interesting!”

Hope you enjoy the site as much as I did.

Often times when teaching your own children, you scramble around looking for a program or syllabus to give you some structure. Some parents are very good with the “unschooling” method, just going with the flow and being led by the child. Unfortunately, I am not one of those parents. I have all these information in my head that I want to share with my children, I just don’t know where to start. And then I also have a fear that I may have forgotten or missed out teaching them a certain concept. I wish I had a giant checklist of “things to teach my children.”

Well, I don’t have a GIANT checklist. What I do have is a mini checklist of basic math concepts you could use as a guideline for teaching your toddler. It has nothing to do with addition or subtraction but rather concepts such as “size”, “position”, “time”, “quantity” and other things. Very likely your child has already learned some of these concepts through daily interaction. Even if they have, you could still do a quick lesson, just to reinforce it. Understanding these math concepts will help your child be familiar with terminology used by teachers and books later on when they start school. It will also help them to better follow instructions such as “put your shoes on the first shelf” or “line up from shortest to tallest.”

So, here’s the list:

• SIZE
  big/little, long/short, tall/short, heavy/light, thick/thin, fat/thin, wide/narrow
• POSITION
  above/below, over/under, top/bottom, high/low, up/down, in front of/behind, beside/by/next to, around, inside/outside, left/right, far/near, first/last, middle/between
• TIME
  young/old, early/late, fast/slow, yesterday/today/tomorrow, morning/afternoon, day/night, before/after
• QUANTITY
  many/few, all/none, more/less/fewer/same, empty/full
• OTHERS
  hot/cold, push/pull, same/different, pairs (matching), straight/crooked

So, how do you teach these concepts to your children? There are a variety of ways. Here are a few:

1. Look for the concepts in story books. For example, the simple story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff can teach concepts such as big/medium/small, first/second/third and over/under. Let’s not forget Goldilocks and the Three Bears. There are basic math concepts in there too.
2. Use “real” objects around you. You could show your child a long pencil and a short pencil. How about sorting through a pile of books and deciding which is thin and which is thick. And now is the time to pull out all those jars and tins in your kitchen. Have your child arrange them from big to small or vice versa.
3. Play games. You could play “where is teddy bear?”. You hide teddy inside a box, under the chair, beside the telephone etc…, give the verbal clue and see if your child can find it. Be a little creative and see if you could come up with your own games. Even a treasure hunt could be a lesson on left/right/forward.
4. Worksheets. You don’t have to find a “professionally prepared” worksheet. It’s okay to keep it simple. Draw 3 stars on one side and 5 stars on the other and ask your child which is fewer/more? Draw 3 balls and have him circle the middle one. If you are hardworking, I’m sure you will be able to find some free worksheets on the net.

Remember, teaching doesn’t have to be complicated. Don’t think you need to put in hours of preparation. AND a lesson doesn’t have to last for hours. Sometimes, all it takes is 5 minutes for your child to learn the concept.

Happy Teaching!

If you are teaching young children, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the “fun” factor is a catalyst for learning. But it’s not easy to make every learning session fun. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Well, here is something I came across that seems pretty interesting — Robert Krampf’s Science Education Co.
The website has science experiment ideas that are simple enough for you to do at home. There are also videos that will show you how.

Well, here is one that I did with K: Shooting flames from orange skin. All you have to do is peel an orange. Then hold up the peels against a lit candle and squeeze. The oil from the orange skin will shoot forward and combust, making a burst of sparks.
Of course, enjoy the orange after that too. What does the experiment teach? Well, the idea that the orange skin holds oil that is flammable.

You could also extend your lesson by listing out the different uses of orange peel oil e.g. air fresheners, perfume, soap, insect repellents. For more information on the uses of orange peel, you can visit Wisegeek’s page on orange peels.
He says that if you rub orange peels on your skin, it would repel mosquitoes. Hmm… maybe I should try this out.

Well, if you are looking to add some fun to your homeschooling, just try some simple science experiments at home.

Are you having problems getting your children to sit down to finish their homework? Or are you frustrated because your children just can’t seem to focus during study time?

Here is a quick tip: Allow frequent breaks during homework/study time.

One thing I know about my children is that they are always thinking of playing. I’m sure most children that young are the same. So, when asked to sit down to do school work, it feels like drudgery as they anticipate long hours (sometimes minutes feel like hours to them) of boring thinking and drilling. The most common and frequent questions I get asked during my homeschooling time are:

• Can I do until here (pointing to the next page) only?
• Can I go out after this?
• Am I done with my school time?

I realized to force them to sit longer than they can take is to fight a losing battle. So I decided to change my approach. After about 15-20 minutes of work, I would insert a short break. Here are some things we do during break time:

• Play Simon Says
• Play a game where they MUSTN’T point to what I say e.g. where is your nose? I point to my nose but they must point elsewhere.
• Read a book
• Sing songs that have actions e.g. hokey pokey
• Eat a snack
• Exercises e.g. jumping jacks, stretching, marching (pretending to be soldiers)
• Board game e.g. snake and ladders (math)
• Game of paper, scissor, stones (or Malaysian style — bird, stone and water)
• Rhymes or songs where you do the clapping with a partner. Not sure how to explain this. Example (to the song of Peas Porridge Hot, Peas Porridge Cold): First you clap your to hands together, then you clap your right hand with your partner’s right hand (in a criss-cross manner), then clap your two hands together again, then your left with your partner’s left… so on and so forth.

I’m sure you can come up with other break time activities. It doesn’t have to be long. Just some things they can look forward to during study time. I noticed with my children that they have a better attitude and focus when doing work. It helps to break down long study hours into little chunks. It’s like they get little rewards for finishing little bits of work.

With younger children (3 - 4 years old), blocks of study time could be as short as 5-10 minutes. You know your child best. What is the maximum time they can sit down and focus on a single task? You could start short first, and then slowly extend the time.

So give your children little study breaks instead of having them go on and on and on and on with work that seem to have no end. Break the work down for them and see if that will put some zest back into study time.

I was reading the book above Literacy Learning in the Early Years and the chapter called “Play and Literacy Learning” gave very valuable insight on how to include literacy into your children’s play time.

Here is an excerpt from that chapter:

…instead of simply leaving children to play as they wish, adults intervene in subtle or explicit ways to influence more directly the play within the area. This intervention can be relatively accidental, or it can be carefully planned. The relatively accidental and spontaneous intervention is mostly a case of adults being sensitive to the possibilities that exist when things just happen.

Let me explain further so the above exerpt makes more sense.
You know how children love to role play? I’m sure you’ve caught your children pretending to be doctors, teachers, chefs etc…. Well, the book suggests that as parents/teachers, we don’t just leave them alone to play. Once in a while we should join in and suggests possible scenarios or guide them as to how the real world works. In the real world, we are surrounded by literacy e.g. signs, newsprints, paperwork.

The example given in the book is on a child pretending to have a restaurant. The teacher asks if animals are allowed in the restaurant and the child says no. The teacher then asks what happens if someone brings a dog? The child says that he will tell the person it’s not allowed and he might even call the police. The teacher then suggests a “No Dogs Allowed” sign.

Now here is how I implemented this idea into my children’s play. My DD was playing doctor-doctor and these were some of my suggestions:

• What’s the name of your clinic? How about a sign on the door so people will know this is a clinic and who is the doctor?
• The clinic usually keeps records of the patients. Create a ‘medical card’ for patients to record down their name, address, telephone number and for the doctor to write notes at the back.
• Write prescription
• Health posters to decorate the clinic
• Is smoking allowed? How about a no-smoking sign?
• Maybe also a sign to tell people what time the clinic is open?

Take note that it is not necessary for the child to know how to write yet. It is okay for the child to make scribbles on a piece of paper while pretending to write a letter, take down a customer’s order, making an evaluation etc…. The idea is to create awareness about literacy. As the book puts it:

Literacy is the means to an end rather than the end in its own right. Thus, thinking in terms of events means that the literacy will not be construed by the children as an exercise, but as something arising out of the theme of the play.”

In other words, literacy has a purpose. It’s used to accomplish something. For example, while playing ‘restaurant’, a menu is created so customers will know what to order. Or when we play ’shopping’, a shopping list is created so we don’t forget what to buy. When we incorporate literacy into our children’s play, they won’t see it as ‘an exercise’ but rather just part of playing.

Implementing this kind of ‘education’ has also made me more aware that I need to point out literacy to my children. For example, the next time we visit a restaurant, I should bring their attention to what the menu looks like e.g. the names of the food, price, pictures, the layout/format etc…. Also planning to bring home forms that people fill out e.g. bank deposit slips, contest forms etc….

So the next time your children start playing, see if you can sneak in some literacy.