Child Play: Lego

As compared to kor kor, I play more. I love anything that presented to me and being taught how to play.

This lego set was from kor kor's time but kor kor hardly play with it. Mommy took it out, play with me for a while and now whenever mommy said " Let's play toys", I will take the lego out and invite mommy/daddy to play with me.

We build car and aeroplane. Inside the lego set, there are 1 boy and 1 girl. I always think the girl is me and the boy is kor kor. I sit in the car and kor kor sit on the aeroplane. We sing songs too when we play.

Lego is a very good toy to instill creativity. It also helps on fine motor skills when trying to build the pieces together. But it is very expensive nowadays and the quality is quite poor. I broke 2 pieces of legos lately by just dropping in on the floor...mommy is going to complain to the company.

Child play: Role Play - Doctor

Role play is more than fun...it's a key component of learning. According to child development experts, role play helps children acquire all kinds of skills and knowledge, encouraging them to:

•Explore imagination

•Think in the abstract

•Acquire language skills

•Build social skills

•Problem solve

•Understand someone else's perspective

•Learn essential life skills from adults

•Discover leadership skills

•Safely explore the world beyond

•Acquire confidence and a sense of self

If that isn't amazing enough, consider this: because role play engages emotion, cognition, language, and sensory motor skills, scientists theorize it actually creates synaptic connections between parts of the brain. And the more synapses, the greater a child's intelligence!

Both kor kor and myself loves role play. Kor kor loves to be a teacher and I love to be anything...

Lately, thanks to the Enfagrow complimentary "Smart Role-Play Set" that comes with the milk that we purchased, I can be a doctor. (I know there are more sets that mommy was hiding before taking all out for me to play.)

Let's check all my pets whether they are healthy..

Child play: The hero saves a beauty

Not all day we do school. We also play a lot. By right, we should have school and play time everyday. However, mommy couldn't spare out so much time for me. But she will defintely spend time playing with me everyday. A focus one to one play time.

I love playing with mommy. She is not just entertaining me but really focus in playing with me. She taught me a lot of things during our play time. Mommy knows that it is important to play with me because this is when mommy can teach me certain things through play.

There are many thing we can play or do together. Look at this..

Actually this set of game belongs to kor kor. This is a mind game. But I took it out and I play it like playing blocks. One thing I like about this is there are staircase and blocks did not have a staircase.

I was taught King and Queen. I knew them by heart now. I walk the King and the Queen up and down the stairs. I learn how to build something with a stairs. We did pretend play.

So, what have you played today?

Tot School: 11/7/2012 (Wednesday)

I am not feeling too well today. I am supposed to attend my music class but due to my cough and running nose, mommy decided not to let me go. So, we do school instead.

We started the school with some eye exercise....

Next, is one of my favourite activities..pouring water. Anything relating to water, I will sure love it. I always tell me I want to do pouring. So, mommy filled up the water and gave me 4 cups to fill it up.

Pouring activity

The first time I couldn't control the water and fill it till overflow. After a few round of practise, I was good at it. I know I have to pour slowly and bit by bit.

Next, sweeping activity from PLS. I was given a small broom and dustpan. Initially mommy poured some millets in the tray and let me sweep but I was creating more mess by dropping all the fine millets everywhere. So, she switched to pasta instead. It is not so easy to spill on the floor.

However, I still couldn't handle this activity well. My co-ordination skill failed. I swept till some pasta out from the tray. When I was trying to be cheeking and purposely swept the pasta out from the tray, mommy decided that I should stop this activity.

So, she instructed me to keep those pasta. This is another good exercise. Pick up the pasta with my fingers and put it in a tin container. Then close the container with a plastic cover. I was helpful.

Then, we had a scavenger hunt. We were looking for something RED. So, I picked up my red scarf and put over my head, so I see everything RED. I told mommy "Mommy red colour" too. Anyway, I picked up a red cyclinder.

When mommy wanted to take my picture, I immediately put the scarf on my shoulder and wanted to wear it.

We ended the school by having a snack..bread with cheese and I eat it with a fork all by myself. Good PLS practise.

Tot school: 9/7/2012 (Monday)

Monday is always a slack day for us. After a long weekend, mommy has lots to do on housework and meal preparation for the week, so sometimes we skipped school on Monday or we just had play time instead.

As for today, mommy took out stacking cup for me. We learnt this activity from Tweedle Wink.  I am supposed to lift up the stacking cup one by one alternating with 2 hands to both directions. This helps to stimulate the right and left brains together. I tell you it is not easy, ok? Using 1 hand is easy but not both. Mommy always need to remind me to alternate with my another hand.

However, we had a good time playing with the stacking cup. I stacked it up high and push it down. Though there are just cups but I spent a good 30 mins playing it.

Next, I took out my puzzles again. As long I see the puzzles around, I will take it out and play. This set of puzzles from Popular is very suitable for my age.

Then, we proceeded to the living hall for more play time. We built blocks. I like stacking the blocks high up, then tried to "blow" it down. If I cannot blow it down, I will just use hands to knock it down..I am destructive, ain't I? hahaha...

Tot school: 5/7/2012 (Thurs)

From now on, mommy will only prepare 2 to 3 trays max for me each time we do school. She discovered from the few previous sessions that I will lose my interest if she presented too many trays for me. Also, I will be too tired to continue with the memory game and other activities such as reading and colouring after that. So, she is going to split all these activities in a week, so that we cut down "school" time and increase our "play" time. Once we finalised or get comfortable with our schooling schedule, we will post it out to share with everyone.

As for today, we sort of continue from our previous exercise - to feel the different temperature of the water. The last session we used hands to feel the 3 different temperature of the water - cold, warm and hot. Today, mommy let me drink the water and feel it with mouth.

3 cups of plain water with 3 temperature - cold, warm and slight hot

I am so happy that I get to taste the water. I love the warm water and I dislike the cold water.

Mommy tested me by switching the cup and asked me to taste and told her which is warm, cold or hot. I get it right..hooray...

We finished all the water in the cups at the end of this session. I even cheers with mommy and get mommy to finish the cold water because I dislike cold water.

Next, I was presented with the letter I since we are still in the week of I. I was allowed to colour and trace it with crayons.

Later, mommy wrote kor kor and my name on the paper and asked me to choose which one is Isabel. Well, of course I cannot recognise it as the beginning but after a few rounds, I was able to recognise it.

We also did some other activities like shichida memory activities but we didn't capture the pictures here. We ended the school by having some dancing session and reading.

Puzzles

I like playing with puzzles. I am very different from kor kor that he dislikes puzzles. I started playing puzzles when I am 1 year +. I can play most of the wooden puzzles and now proceeded to the cardboard type of puzzles. Mommy started me on 2 - 3 pieces and now I managed to fix a 5-6 or even 8 pieces of puzzles, depending on the difficulty of the object.

This box of puzzles was passed it down from my cousin and this is the first time mommy opened this puzzle for me. Immediately I can fix the simple puzzles without any assistant. Mommy is happy that I love puzzles and able to fix it on my own.

Kor kor is sitting next to me fixing the same set of puzzles.

Tot school: 3/7/2012

Mommy didn't purposely prepare today's montessori tray. This week is Letter "I" week, so I am doing something that relates to I..like Ice...

So, mommy allowed me to scope "ice". 

spooning ice

I like ice..Initially I couldn't spoon the ice up but after a few attempts, I was able to spoon the ice over to the other bowl. When the ice melts, I started to pour the water from bowl to bowl.



Feeling the temperature of the water
(hot but not boiling hot, room temperature and cold water)



I find this activity interesting. I like to feel the different temperature of the water and can differenciate hot and cold but not so much of warm. I thought the warm is actually cold since it is not hot. I enjoy this activity very much.

Space memory

Photo memory

Matching game

I know most of the words but I did some mismatch because the crayon looked like pencil and pencil looked like pen.

I like the pebbles. So, mommy brought out the pebbles for me again for maths calculation. But this time instead giving me the numeral cards, we use dots to do counting instead. I am supposed to place the pebbles on top of the dots to do counting. But again, I like the pebbles so much till I don't want to let go of the pebbles from my hand.

3D book. Story of the day: Sarge in charge.

I like the ants head and wanted to pull it out but mommy didn't allow. So, I sayang the ants instead.

After the lesson, it is time to play.

Mommy bought me this 2 milk/orange milk bottle for me to play. I like it so much and have been playing with it to feed my doll and baby.

Tot tray 1

Tot tray 2

I like playing with puzzles. Also, I need more pratise on the stacking ring.

Tot school: 28/6/2012 (Thurs)

Today, mommy prepared 6 montessori trays.  I think it is too many as I get too tired and lost my intesrest towards the end. Mommy will cut it down to 2-4 trays the next time.


6 trays for me to choose from



I choose sorting cutlery first.

Sorting is not a problem for me. I know all the colours well. Just that I can be quite cheeky and purposely put in the wrong place. I like to play with the knife though and need constant reminder from mommy to put back on the plate.

Secondly, I choose pouring. Pouring millets.

At first I spilled some on the tray and mommy taught me how to hold the cup properly and pour slowly. After a few round of practise, I get the hang of it and can pour nicely without spill. I wanted to play with the "rice" (I called it rice but mommy told me it is millet) but mommy didn't allow. I had enough since I am not allowed to play with the rice.

Maths. Numeral card and use pebbles as counter.

I like the texture of the pebbles. It is so cold and smooth. Mommy took this opportunity for me to explore the pebbles. I like to hold the pebbles in my hand. Mommy taught me how to count and place the correct number of pebbles but I still didn't get the idea. Need to practise more.

Whole hand: sponging

I like this tray because there are water. I like any activities that involves water. I still don't know how to let the sponge absorbs the water but I learnt how to squeeze the water out from the sponge. I will try to squeeze it even when I am supposed to let go and let the sponge absorb water. Need more practise again.

Inserting toothpick.
(make sure remove the sharp tip from both ends before handling to your children)

Difficulty level: Medium.
Because the hole is small, I need to focus very well in order to place the toothpick into the hole.

Colour tablets.
Not interested.

Memory game (following shichida method).
Sometimes get it right, sometimes not.  

Dancing with a scarf.

Yes, besides montessori learning, we also incorporate shichida into our lesson. We also do reading, dancing, jumping or running (gross motor skills).