Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

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.

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

I got my children this foam puzzle mat with alphabets a few years ago. At that time, K was still very young (about 3-4 years old) and all she did was try to put the puzzle together - matching the parts. After a while I put the foam mat away as it was messing up the house. A few days ago, the foam mat found it’s way out of the ratan basket where I stored it and the kids had fun with it again. And it is interesting to note that the kind of fun they had this time round was different.

This here is K 2 years back doing a funky dance with the foam alphabets. She would also use them as fancy dress props.

This here was a few days ago. With the number foam, she put the numbers together and then try to figure out the name e.g 1062 = One thousand sixty two.

Instead of just pulling it over her head, this time she made it into a crown first.

Other games and activities they created for themselves with these foam alphabets and numbers:

• They would fold it to resemble a book and then pretend to read it.
• They would put it down like a mat and make up game rules such as no jumping on certain colors or alphabets.
• They would pretend the foam were pieces of bread and make sandwiches. Coins were made into jam and a toy plastic butter knife was used to spread it.

So I guess these foam mat was a good buy after all. They have played with it over the years. And this is another fine example of how playing encourages creativity. I would never have come up with such games. Maybe now you can teach them to your children. Heheheh.

Here is something you can do with all those pesky fliers you get in the mail. Cut them up, recreate your own handout and then integrate it into your children’s play.
A flier from McDonald found its way into my home and we cut it up to recreate our own menu. My daughter then opened her own McDonald restaurant. Sometimes it is difficult for children to create something on their own. Like this menu thing, my daughter would throw the idea out the door if she had to draw out the food. Plus at this stage (6 years old), she still hasn’t acquired the idea of how much things cost. So the flier in the mail helped the creative process.
If you have a younger child, you could use the pictures to teach categorization. The next time you go to the hypermarket for some shopping, just grab their picture flier — the one where they list out all the things they have on special offer. Cut out the pictures and have your child stick them into different groups - vegetables, fruits, electrical, clothes etc….

So next time you get swamped with fliers, don’t throw them out too fast. See if it could somehow contribute to your child’s learning.

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.

Current math lesson for K is on the topic of money. Of course the first thing we did was learn to identify the various denominations e.g. 5 cent coin, 10 cent coin , 20 cent coin, 50 cents coin, RM1 note, RM5 note etc…. Next step is learn how to count the money. I recently bought a local math workbook and there were some exercises in there for K to learn how to add up the money. She was having some difficulty. Guess she is still not quite adept at adding by the tens. She also seemed confused with the cents and Ringgit. She wasn’t learning much as I could see she was struggling with the work. Even with my best explanations, I could see the frustration in her attitude. I figured the best way she was going to learn was to count REAL money and not just numbers on a page.

So, I decided one morning that we were going to play SHOP. We comfortably plopped ourselves down in her playroom and I selected toys and other stuff I wanted in the ’shop’. Then I created price tags for them.

Next, I got Koko D to do his shopping.

K played the cashier and rang up the items on her toy cash register.

Then K dug into daddy’s wallet and pulled out the exact amount needed to pay for the items.

Surprisingly, she got each math problem right. Meaning, she managed to select the correct coins and notes to give the exact amount needed to pay for the shopped items. PLUS, she commented “Mommy, this is so fun. Can we do this again tomorrow?” There was not much confusion, she was happy to learn and wanted to do more. It sure was a HUGE improvement from the day before. Of course I must not forget to thank Daddy for willingly loaning his wallet to us. Now, I don’t know how they teach counting money in school, but I don’t think it includes using real cash. But it did so much to help K learn. She was so excited to handle REAL money. It boosted her motivation to learn.

So I guess this is another reminder about how much more advantageous it is for a child to be educated at home. Even if a child is already going to school, parents should still play an active role in teaching the child. With the one on one interaction, you can better see what your child is struggling with and how to customize the lesson so they understand.