Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

KokoD is still not very strong in his Bahasa Malaysia numbers. It’s partly my fault for not revising and reinforcing the teaching. He will sometimes skip a number e.g. “satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, tujuh.” He hasn’t learned the spellings yet. And even though he can count till twelve, he doesn’t know the names of the numbers in isolation. For example if I ask him what is “enam”, he doesn’t know it is “6″.

So I decided to do some reinforcing today by playing 2 card games. First, I recycled a cereal box and cut out tiny squares to make the cards. On it I wrote numbers and the names of the numbers (in B.M.).

Game 1: Memory Game
Shuffle and then lay out the cards face down. Open two at a time. If they number matches the word, he gets to keep the cards. If not, turn them over and then try again.
Before I started the game, I had him write on a piece of paper:

1 - satu
2 - dua
3 - tiga… (until 10 - sepuluh).

After a few games, I could see that KokoD was getting better at remembering the names of the numbers. I could tell because he didn’t have to refer to his paper much after awhile.

Game 2: Snap!
You could say it is similar to the traditional card game Snap! I divided the cards into two piles - numbers & words.
I took one pile, he took the other pile. We would simultaneously open one card from our pile. If they matched, you have to put your hand on the cards and say “Snap!” The person who is fastest gets to keep the cards.
Of course KokoD would not stand a chance against me when playing this game. I understand that he is just learning and would not have that speed yet. So, I gave him win a few times. Have to give some encouragement right?

Well, as usual, these games are very versatile. You can use these games to teach other concepts e.g colors and shape. You can also use it to build vocabulary in any language. Just use a little imagination and I’m sure your kid will have lots of fun playing err… I mean learning

Learning these days have become so rigid. Many parents believe that learning means reading books, doing endless worksheets and slogging away at homework. But what happens when the child becomes unmotivated? How do we help them continue learning? Well, ABC news has a story that might just help us be more flexible in our teaching methods.

It’s a story of how David Gilmour, a former Toronto film critic, allowed his son, Jesse, to drop out of high school and turned to homeschooling. Afterall, his son was doing horrible at school with bad grades and bad attitude. He decided that Jesse needed a different kind of learning. What did he do? He used famous films to teach Jesse important life lessons. This is what David said:

“I thought, ‘we have got to do something. Movies are the only education that he’s going to get that I can actually get down his throat without a jack hammer.’”

So they watched at least 3 movies a week, every week. Jesse’s “syllabus” included movies such as “The Godfather,” and “Ishtar.” Father and son studied famous actors, the movie scenes and searched out life lessons.

And did it work? Absolutely. 2 years later, Jesse obtained a high school equivalency. And guess what? He is now applying to film school. No surprises there I guess.

Well, I’m not advocating that you plop your children down in front of the tv the whole day. The point I’m trying to make is this — there are many forms of learning. If your child has become unmotivated in learning, then it’s time for you to see what kind of changes are to be made. Learning doesn’t always have to be about worksheets and extra tuition.

Oh, another point that shouldn’t be missed. Here’s another quote from David:

“In a way, sometimes the movies themselves weren’t that important, it was the time that we spent together.”

To a child, spending time with parents is another form of learning. So don’t forget, you are their most valuable teacher.

The other night there happen to be on TV the show “Around the World in 80 days.” My daughter sat and watched it with us. Few days later at the library, I found the book “Around the World in 80 days” and thought it would be a nice follow up to the show. There were several versions, so I chose one that was suitable for her level. She must have liked it coz’ she finished the book that day itself.

Anyway, seeing her level of enthusiasm, I thought I could turn this into a homeschool lesson plan. This would be a fun way to learn about the different countries. You know, start our own “Around the World” project. At first I contemplated doing lapbooks but I’ve never tried it. Wanna see what a lapbook is? It’s a really nice way to learn. See the video below:

But lazy me just decided to buy a lined book and we did this instead:

We started with London. Recorded things like which continent it’s on, which country, names of other cities, names of neighbouring countries, the different ways to travel to London, and name of the airports.
Then we started on a picture hunt: pictures of London during the different seasons, and pictures of famous landmarks and stuff. We have the famous red double-decker bus, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Kew Gardens, the River Thames, the big parks, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Royal Albert Hall, and Picadilly Circus.

Once again, online videos were a good tool. Talking about the palace, we watched the changing of the guards. I also mentioned Princess Diana and we watched the royal wedding and her beautiful dress.

I found a fun activity called “A Weekend in London.” Basically it’s outlining a travel itinerary starting with your arrival at Gatwick airport on a Friday evening. You have to find out things like:

• how much is the train ticket to London?
• What is the address of the hotel?
• What is a traditional take-away English meal?
• Where do you want to go to sightsee?

You’ll find this activity here: A Virtual Trip to London

Currently we’ve finished London and Paris. Hopefully one day we’ll actually get to travel and see these places. Okay, hope you liked this lesson idea.

In my efforts to teach KokoD Bahasa Malaysia, I try to get him to master certain phrases at a time. I usually choose phrases that he can immediately use in a daily conversation. The recent activity we had, the focus was on food. The goal was for him to master the phrase “Saya suka makan…” (I like to eat…) and “Saya tak suka makan…” (I don’t like to eat….)

Here is the outline of the activity we did:
Step 1 - I took one of those pamphlets they give out at the supermarkets and cut out pictures of food such as chicken, fish, prawns, vegetable, banana, apple, bread, cake, etc….
Step 2 - Then I wrote on a piece of paper the names of all those food and left spaces for him to glue the pictures to match the names.

Step 3 - After gluing all the pictures, I had him go through the list and put a tick/check for foods he likes to eat and a an ‘X’ for foods he doesn’t like to eat.

Step 4 - Now the oral practice begins. Going through the list once again, he had to say the full sentence of “Saya suka makan…” (for foods that he put a tick/check) and “Saya tak suka makan…” (for foods he put an ‘X’). For example, he don’t like vegetables so he would say “Saya tak suka makan sayur.”
Step 5 - Stick the list up on the wall so he can practice everyday.

This activity was stress free. My son enjoyed it and more importantly, he learned something.

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