The first week of homeschool

This was our first "official" week of homeschool. The hubs was on leave for the past two weeks leading up to Chinese New Year, so I didn't have a schedule or planned activities for the kids, as they were happy just hanging out with Papa. Then the hubs went back to work this week. Thus far, I must say things have been a lil crazy, since Baby J seems to be one of those clingy babies that need to be carried most of the time. The evenings are the worst, where baby is cranky, and the two older ones are getting tired and start fighting over all sorts of things, and I'm rushing to get dinner ready.

But crazy times aside, it has been quite a week of learning (for me especially!). Learning to pray hard for wisdom. Learning how to plan things so that it flows with everyone's rhythm. Learning how to teach Lil J to fall asleep on his own during naps and at night. Learning what piques their interest, and what the kids do understand or don't understand. Learning to deal with matters of the heart, like their attitude towards learning, above matters of the head (the academic bits).

This week, we started on a little phonics (five minutes from Teach Your Child to Read), and a little writing (we're waiting for our Handwriting Without Tears books to arrive, and meanwhile are just using an exercise book), plus Junior J gets to practice his reading with a couple of Bob Books each day. He more or less can read easy readers on his own, however, he tends to read by sight, so I'm hoping this would help him along his reading journey.

In the evenings, I rely alot on puzzles to keep the boys from fighting.
This one (a birthday gift) has been keeping Junior J busy.

Lil J has been asking to do "mama school" too, so I've been trying to give him puzzles and math manipulatives at the table. This little boy has a really short attention span, but I'm glad that he's trying to focus, and is actually interested in the tasks at hand. He's never been one to sit through a book, however, this week we've been reading and reading and reading (and not once has he asked to watch a video, something he used to do previously). He especially loves "The Big Green Pocketbook" and "Owl Babies", and we've read both a few times this week. I'm thinking of planning activities for him based on the Before Five in a Row curriculum, and we'll see how that goes.

We've also been dabbling in art everyday. I love these sessions, since the house is the quietest then (unless Baby J is fretting!). Thus far, it's been open-ended with just paints and paper. We've experimented with mixing primary colours, and gradually mixing white paint into a single colour. It's interesting to see the boys at work. Lil J just experiments with mixing the paints and blopping them all over, while Junior J has started painting real life objects/scenes on his own accord, something he didn't do previously.

It was supposed to be a heart stamping session for Vday... 

... but he turned his into a circuit. He was painting in the battery and said the blobs were charges.

The older two have also been helping a lot more at home. They help with the laundry, they set the table, they clear their plates and cups after meals and they wipe the table. Clean-up time is still quite a challenge though, as they are always getting distracted, but we've started using a chart with stickers for certain chores, so I'm hoping that might help.

The boys have also been getting an hour or so outdoors to just run about and explore. We've gathered loads of pods and fruit, and I'm hoping to start filling up nature journals. In fact, I'm hoping to do lots of things with both of them, but for now, I'm just going to take it step by step. After all, I keep reminding myself that it's progress, and not perfection we're aiming for.

All in all, I think it has been a pretty good week. Tiring though, but I'm looking forward to next week!

Dec Daily: Our Christmas (and a handprint canvas)

This year, Christmas was spent at home with family, and we had dinner out as we had to send my MIL to the airport as she was flying back. Here's some shots I want to remember amidst our usual chaos:

Our Christmas reads. 

Papa fixing up Lil J's truck.

Junior J read the tags and helped give out the presents. 

One of our nutcrackers, which followed us home from Germany. 

These Christmas themed ATCs make lovely decorations. I wish I had time to make more!

The boys helped to make handprint canvases as presents to their grandparents this year. We used their handprints to form a Christmas tree, and they glued down buttons and bling as decorations.

Even baby J helped (his is that blob of green paint right at the top), but he cried so much and refused to open his hand! The trees are topped with stars cut out from air-dry clay and outlined with glitter glue. I hope the grandparents liked it!

So here's wishing everyone a blessed blessed Christmas! I hope you had a lovely time with friends and family.

Monday Made: A card for Papa

We celebrated the hubby's birthday today. We didn't manage to make him a present, but we did make a card:

The leaves from the tree were thumbprints from myself and the three boys (yes, even baby J added his mark), and the 4 little birds were again from thumbprints, which I added details to make them look like birds. The two older boys had lots of fun with the printing bit (I had to restrain Lil J or he would have been putting handprints instead of thumbprints!), and also helped to peel those alphabet stickers for me. Baby J was just pissed that we kept trying to open his little fist!

Happy Birthday, dear! We love you!

PS: We did a handprint canvas for the hubs 2 years ago. Then, Lil J was the baby and also cried when his hand was smeared with paint!
                   

Wordless Wednesday: Lantern making

We were busy making lanterns yesterday in preparation for Mid-autumn Festival, using our tried-and-tested formula (click here for the tutorial): 

Junior J wanted a Pooh bear lantern, as he loves the bear after reading all the Milne books.
I drew the outline of the bear and balloons, and he coloured them using watercolour pencils.
He then painted them over with water, while painting the sky using watercolour paints.
He added the sun on his own!

Even Lil J got to try his hand at using watercolours, and loved it!

He decorated the back part of his lantern using washi tapes. 

So here's his finished product, just waiting for a tea-light to be placed inside on Thursday:

The back view, with all the colourful washi tapes.

Front view, of good old Winnie the Pooh.

Lil J has yet to finish his lantern, but all in all, we had fun!

Linking up with:

  

Singapore's first MT Expo

The hubs was post-call this morning, and I dragged him and the boys down the MT masking tape expo, which is supposed to be Singapore's first.

Hubs examining the MT poster with baby J.
Those patterns on the poster are limited edition tapes designed specially for the expo,
with Singapore-related motifs. Most are already sold out!

The expo was held at the Ion Art Gallery (Ion Orchard level 4), and the entire place was an explosion of colours! There was washi tape covering every single available surface, from the walls...

... to the floor!

Also, there was loads of eye-candy all around, all decorated with washi:

What I really liked were these little houses set up at one side of the gallery, which had small tables stocked with lots of rolls of washi tape. Anyone could help themselves to the tapes and make their own creations, and the little tables were perfect for kids to sit at to craft. 

Junior J had a great time just going between the houses and choosing tapes to decorate his notebook (note to parents: cards and small boxes are provided, but you might want to let your child bring his art journal/notebook along). Baby J tried his hand at pasting washi tapes on a piece of paper too, and also had a good time playing in the play kitchen in one of the houses (we had a hard time preventing him from wrecking all those paper lanterns on display though!).

For the grown-ups, there are also tapes provided at a separate table...

... plus some displays to give you ideas on what you could use all that washi for.

And of course, there's washi tape for sale too! (The hubby, who usually is aghast at my obsession with washi tapes, actually got rather excited when he saw the pretty designs that were available.)

Another rather fun feature was the gacha machines, where you could buy tokens, and twist to get a gacha ball containing a small roll of washi tape.

If the gacha ball contains this brown slip of paper, you also get to choose a limited edition tape at the counter! 

We decided to let the kids try the gacha machine just for fun, and with our three tries obtained one brown slip. I must admit I was the most excited about the paper. Junior J was just happy doing the twisting and seeing the gacha balls dropping, while baby J just thought the ball was a new toy for him!

If you're interested, the expo is on until the 11th of August, and is open daily from 10.30 am to 9.30 pm. Entrance is free, so this is probably something nice for the kids to visit if you happen to be in town, and need to keep them occupied for half an hour or so!

Wordless Wednesdays: And this is?

Junior J is prolific when it comes to drawings. He churns out a couple of pieces a day, and we've noticed he's now started connecting shapes/colours/details of real objects with his drawings. We no longer get random orange squiggles that are supposed to be a volcanic eruption. He matches colours (spot the banana, he even added the black tips!)... 

He drew everything on his own.
Including the puffer fish (bottom right, partially cut off in this photo).
But I had to hold his hand to do the labelling.

He's able to observe and include details, like the markings on his dinosaur toy.

I drew the outline of the dino with him.
He added the body markings and claws, and the additional background.

He's also started asking us to guess at what he is drawing:

Junior J: Guess what is this, mama?

Me: Erm, a bird?

Junior J: No, its not a bird!

Me: Hmm. A plane?

Junior J: No, not a plane!

Me: Ok I give up, you tell me.

Junior J: No you can't give up!

Me: Erm, a flying reptile?

Junior J: No no no! (getting very frustrated)

Me: I don't know! Please tell me?

Junior J: No I can't! Its a secret!

Ok, so can anyone tell me what on earth this is?

Updated (a day later): So I had loads of guesses over on FB about his drawing, ranging from the Sydney Opera house, to the Batmobile. Lots of us were thinking of airplanes, but it turned out (I managed to squeeze an answer out of him today) it was a sailing ship! Hmmm...

Linking up with (Ok, I cheated, its not wordless this week!):