I hope when you teach your children about the solar system, you know that Pluto is not the 9th planet anymore. If your children ask why (or if you are wondering why yourself), watch this video. It explains it very well.
Happy Learning.
Please leave a comment if you’ve found an educational video that you liked.
I watched this video and I found Sugata Mitra’s talk to be very inspiring. I was amazed at his “experiments” and the results it produced. As a parent, this is what I gained from it:
I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.
This is a video of my 4 year old reading. I started to teach him how to read when he turned 3 years old. I have been impressed at the rate he is learning to read. I use both phonics and sight words to teach him.
It really is a blessing when they can read at such a young age. He doesn’t have to wait for me to read books to him. When he feels like it, he will just grab a bunch of books to occupy his time. Of course, reading aloud to him is still important.
If you want to get your preschooler reading, there are many things you can do at home. Here are some tips for you:
It may seem useless to read to a baby how just wants to chew or tear your book, but you will see the benefits later on. Read to your babies. Put them on your lap and let them enjoy reading time with you. Let them associate books with fun and enjoyment. My youngest baby is now 19 months old. A few months ago, all she wanted to do was to turn the pages of the book. I couldn’t finish reading the words on the page. But now, she enjoys the “lift-the-flap” books. So just keep at it. The benefits will only be more apparent later on.
Before they actually learn to read, they first need pre-reading skills. Build up their phonemic awareness which is the understanding that words are made up of sounds. Play word games that help them to listen for those sounds. For example, say ‘buh buh buh ball’ and ‘ssss sss sss snake’. This will help them learn to distinguish the initial sounds in words. You can even make up your own song.
Don’t discount nursery rhymes. Learning how to rhyme is a pre-reading skill.
Oh, one thing I have to say is that learning the ABC song is not very important. Learning to recognize alphabets and then connecting them to their corresponding sounds is important. My son loved it when I would “write” on his back or tummy. I would go from A-Z e.g. “ah” apple, “buh” ball, “kuh” cat etc….
At this stage, learning is usually through games. You can have them clap out the syllables in a word, go hunting for the first letter in their name when you go out shopping or play letter bingo.
Create a home library. You don’t have to buy new books all the time. You can save money buying 2nd hand books or closeout books. I know of a place where you can buy children’s books at a good bargain. Click here: CHEAP CHILDREN BOOKS
Apply for membership at your local library too. Take frequent trips to the library. Do this and books will naturally become part of their lives.
When I first started to teach my son to read, I taught him how to recognize some dolch words. I find at this young age, they can remember and recognize words very quickly. When we read books together, I would have him read those words that he already know such as “the’, “a’ and ‘is’. When he did that, I would praise him and plant in him the idea that he is a good reader. It really boosted his confidence and made him enjoy reading. One way I helped him learn the sight words is using a “Class Monster”. You can read what it is about here: Learning to read dolch words
My son loves to sing. Every month in church, the kids have to memorize a church primary song. Later in the year, they will have a Primary Presentation where they will sing all these songs to the congregation. At home, I have a church Primary song book. As my son used the book to learn the songs, I notice he was learning to read too. So, if your children have some favorite songs, print out the lyrics for them and use that to teach them how to read.
All kids love to use the computer, so why not use it to your advantage. One site that is really good at helping children learn phonics is Starfall.com. Your kids can use it for free. ClickN Read Phonics is not a free phonics program. However, the advantage is that you can track your child’s progress. For every lesson your child does, there is a report. So you can clearly see which areas your child needs help in.
These are just some of the things I did (and still do) to get my son reading. Tell me what are some things you do that have successfully helped your children learn to read. I would love to hear from you.
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Do you know motivates your children to learn? Do you want ideas on how to teach your children?
My philosophy is every parent is a teacher, whether you are qualified to teach or not. So if you are a mom or dad, the answer is YES! You are a teacher. From the moment your children are born, you are the one responsible to teach and guide them. Whether they go to school or not, you (especially moms) are your children’s #1 teacher.
Many people define homeschooling as teaching their children at home, as oppose to sending their children to school. Me? I define homeschooling as teaching your children at home, even though they may be attending school. So if you ask me if I homeschool, I will say “yes”.
Currently, my two older children attend school but when they were kindergarten age, I taught them at home. Even now, I still teach them at home because I know what they learn at school is not enough. When I find something interesting online, in the newspaper or in a magazine, I will introduce it to them. I want them to know that education is not about scoring A’s on their tests. It’s about gathering knowledge, being curious, developing skills and building character.
Also, the work they do in school can be boring. So I try to “inject” some fun learning when they are back from school. My kids like to do stuff like word puzzles and mazes. Once in a while I’ll also find online fun worksheets to do. You know, stuff they don’t normally do in schools. It’s a good break for the kids to do something different.
Another thing I do is to give my children freedom and opportunities to pursue their interest. That’s when they are most motivated to learn. My girl likes to learn about other countries, so I encouraged her to start a scrapbook on that subject. I help her look for articles, brochures and pictures of different countries. My 2nd son likes to draw so I give him lots of time to doodle. My 3rd son likes music. Every month, we memorize a church primary song. I also encourage them to read a lot of books. Having a library card is wonderful.
There are so many ways you can homeschool your children.
If you are interested about teaching your children at home, you definitely have to check out these collection of short stories written by children about homeschooling: HOMESCHOOLING ADVICE FOR MOMS FROM THE REAL EXPERTS, KIDS!
There are 2 volumes; One volume is written by kids from 6-11 year old and the other by kids 12 -18 year old.
These 2 volumes of essays is brought to you by CurrClick. They put forth a challenge for homeschool kids to write in essays in the format of an advice column sharing what their mom did to make their homeschooling experience unique, inspiring or wonderful. The essays also include advice for mothers on how to be a good teacher and to overcome homeschooling challenges.
Here are the links:
At the moment, the 2 volumes are available for FREE. I don’t know if it will be free forever. So if I were you, I’d get it now. I’ve already downloaded my copy and it is truly inspiring to read what all these kids have to say. It is also an eye-opener. What better way to know what matters to them then to read their opinions and thoughts.
After you get your copy, come back here and share with me your thoughts (or experience) on homeschooling.
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How many fingers do you use when you type?
I learned how to type with all my fingers (like a professional typist) when I just finished secondary school (high school). During that time, I didn’t have a computer. I used a typewriter. Yeah, very old fashioned.
For some reason, I loved to type. I used to help my mom type out the exam papers for her class (she was a teacher). It was one finger typing then, and there was no delete button on the typewriter. It was a very slow process but I loved it anyway.
Well, I can tell you that learning how to type the right way, and the fast way, is one of the best skills I’ve learned. It helped me tremendously when I was in university. Oh boy, the many many papers I had to write. Can’t imagine typing all those pages with just 2 fingers. It is very useful now too as I write articles and blog posts for my work at home business. It really is a time saving skill.
Why am I telling you this?
To encourage you to add “typing” into your list of things your children should learn. Here’s a website that you can use to develop typing skills: TypingWeb
Don’t worry, it’s free. I’m not trying to sell you anything, nor am I affiliated to them. I found them through google coz’ I want my girl to learn how to type. She loved it as she tried the first lesson (which was just typing fff, jjj, jjf, ffj etc…). She can’t wait to get on the computer again to practice some more.
Another good thing about this program is that it is a good way to lure your kids away from noisy, crazy, violent computer games. They can learn a skill and have fun at the same time. Make it competitive if you want; see who can type faster and more accurate… them or you? Kids love it when they can beat their parents at something 
This is one skill that is not on any school syllabus. However, learning should not be confined to the school syllabus. Therefore, give your children time to learn skills that can give them an advantage. Typing fast can be advantageous.
Leave me a comment to tell me what other skills you think we should teach our children?
A few days ago, I was using a workbook to teach my son. The lesson was on animals and he had to learn the animal names in Bahasa Malaysia. It seemed such a waste to throw away the book after he was done. So, I had this idea on how I could recycle his workbook.
I cut out the pictures and pasted them on a blank card. Well, I got my son to do the gluing, so I got him involved too. Then I wrote the names of the animals on another set of cards.
There are a few “games” that we can play using these cards to help him learn his vocabulary.
By cutting the pictures out, he gets to do this lesson over and over again until he gets it (or until he is bored of it). You won’t get this kind of repetitive learning with just the workbook.
So, if you have preschool workbooks lying in your house, be creative and find ways to recycle them and make learning more fun for your children.
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