C Summary (4Y3M23D): Montessori Sandpaper Letter

  

I felt like I haven't seen daylight for half a year. I started a new job. I really enjoyed my work, but didn't have the self-discipline to keep a balance, as the demands came in. Plus a colleague resigned in May and I was called in to stand in for her until a replacement was found. That intensified work for the last 2.5 months of also during spilling over to some weekends. 

I have neglected the education of my children as a result. I finally quit and served my last day on 7 August. It was a rather emotional time for me. It was the first time in my life I have resigned without another job. And I have left my 15 years with the UN so abruptly.

It was at the same time liberating. I am no longer squeezed between a rock and a stone - thinking of the work I left unfinished when I was with my children and carrying the guilt of not spending time when them when I was working.

And God was gracious. He comforted me from my grief of losing my job with my children. I slowly started doing school time with Baby FECS. Actually, I didn't start. I was still recovering from the over-work from the last six months and the loss of my job. But Baby FECS led me to school time. She has been choosing books on phonics and asking me to read to her. She also plays a part unknowingly on my healing and recovery to get on my feet again, after the very intense period of the last six months.

Today, she chose the letter g. I started bringing in the sandpaper letter today too. We traced the letter 'g' today.

23 August 2020 (4Y3M7D): Here she picked the wrong letter, 'f' instead of 'g' :-)

She really traced with her fingers, until the past, where she wasn't interested. She also repeated after me very willingly the words that start with the letter 'g'.

I thank God for such moments of joy and comfort with our kids.

Montessori Language Activity: Tracing Chinese Character with Danish Christmas Cookies Pepper Nut "Pedernødder"

Age: From 3.5 years old

Objectives:

1. To provide a fun way to teach writing Chinese characters

2. To train the child's fine motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 stamp and stamp pad

2. 1 Chinese Character
3. 1 toy horse (optional)

4. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child how to trace the Chinese character using stamp, taking care to show her the correct sequence of strokes.

2. As you trace, read the Chinese character clearly to your child.

3. Invite your child to try.

4. As her to say out loud the Chinese character that she is tracing.

Additional Information:

Christmas is soon round the corner. I am using the Danish Christmas cookies Pepper Nut "pedernødder" to teach Chinese. The purpose of this activity is not to teach writing Chinese character per se, but to cultivate a love for learning Chinese and the love for writing Chinese characters. I learned this from J's Danish piano teacher. She uses cookies to teach musical notes :-) Thus, this activity incorporates the theory of Montessori with Danish fun way of learning :-)

It may seem to be a lot of cookies to eat at one go, but I made the cookies myself. Thus, it is both nutritious and a healthier version. It is Danish Christmas cookies made with a twist. I use white whole wheat flour to increase the nutrients and dietary fiber. And I also use olive oil, instead of butter. I didn't use sugar, but it is naturally sweetened with dates. Here is the recipe:

https://www.familyfecs.com/2019/11/nutritious-whole-wheat-danish-spice.html

Chinese Translation:

圣诞节快要到了。用丹麦圣诞饼干教小朋友学写字。目的其实不是在于教写字,而是在于用好玩的方式教小朋友热爱学习写字。这方法是我从Our Little FECS 的丹麦钢琴老师那学来的。:-) P.S. 希望小朋友的人生也和饼干糖果一样的甜美 :-)

Montessori Activity: Tracing Chinese Character with Gel Crayons

Age: From 3.5 years old

Objectives:

1. To provide a fun way to teach writing Chinese characters

2. To train the child's fine motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 set of gel crayons

2. 1 Chinese Character
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child how to trace the Chinese character using the gel crayon, taking care to show her the correct sequence of strokes.

2. As you trace, read the Chinese character clearly to your child.

3. Invite your child to try.

4. Ask her to say out loud the Chinese character that she is tracing.

Additional Information:

C loves learning how to write with gel crayons. It is by far her favorite, more than pasting stickers. etc. it is easier and less messy using gel crayons than wax crayons. You can buy them from the book shop called Bog & Ide.

C preferred to trace most of her Chinese characters with gel crayons

Montessori Activity: Tracing Chinese Character with Feathers

Age: From 3.5 years old

Objectives:

1. To provide a fun way to teach writing Chinese characters

2. To train the child's fine motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 bowl contains feathers

2. 1 Chinese Character chicken
3. 1 glue stick
4. 1 toy chicken (optional)

5. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child how to trace the Chinese character using the glue, taking care to show her the correct sequence of strokes.

2. As you trace, read the Chinese character clearly to your child.
3. Let her try to paste the feathers onto the Chinese character.

4. As her to say out loud the Chinese character that she is tracing.

Additional Information:

I tried this activity with C today 23 November 2019 (3Y6M7D). She enjoys pasting the feathers. It is hard to recognize the Chinese character, when it is full of feathers, but it is for the fun for it and the purpose is to cultivate love for learning Chinese.

Montessori Activity: Tracing Chinese Character with Stamps

Age: From 3.5 years old

Objectives:

1. To provide a fun way to teach writing Chinese characters

2. To train the child's fine motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 stamp and stamp pad

2. 1 Chinese Character
3. 1 toy horse (optional)

4. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child how to trace the Chinese character using stamp, taking care to show her the correct sequence of strokes.

2. As you trace, read the Chinese character clearly to your child.

3. Invite your child to try.

4. As her to say out loud the Chinese character that she is tracing.

Additional Information:

I tried this activity with C today 19 November 2019 (3Y6M3D). I use this activity to revise the Chinese character "horse" that she learned during the Chinese enrichment class last Sunday. She preferred other tracing activities better, especially the one with gel crayon. She wasn't so fond of tracing out Chinese character by stamping. She had fun stamping all over the paper instead, which was also fine :-)

19 November 2019 (3Y6M3D)

Montessori Activity: Tracing Chinese Character with Stickers

Age: From 3.5 years old

Objectives:

1. To provide a fun way to teach writing Chinese characters

2. To train the child's fine motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 sheet of stickers

2. 1 Chinese Character written on a piece of paper

3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child how to trace the Chinese character by pasting the stickers.

2. As you paste the stickers, say the stroke of the Chinese character clearly to your child.

3. Invite your child to try.

4. As her to say out loud the stroke of the Chinese character that she is tracing.

Additional Information:

C tried this today 18 November 2019 (3Y6M2D) and really enjoyed it. I think it also helped her to learn to recognize the Chinese character for cow well.

18 Nov 2019 (3Y6M2D)

Montessori Activity: Tracing Chinese Character with Play Dough

Age: From 3.5 years old

Duration: 30 minutes

Objectives:

1. To provide a fun way to teach writing Chinese characters
2. To train the child's fine motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 container of play dough
2. 1 Chinese Character
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child how to trace the Chinese character using play dough, taking care to show her the correct sequence of strokes.
2. As you trace, read the Chinese character clearly to your child.
3. Invite your child to try.
4. As her to say out loud the Chinese character that she is tracing.

Additional Information:

I tried this activity with C today 15 November 2019 (3Y5M30D). I use this activity to revise the Chinese character "lamb" that she learned during the Chinese enrichment class last Sunday. She could remember the character, and was able to say it out loud. She enjoyed this activity very much, more than J did at this age. She was able to concentrate and play much longer than J. It could be development difference between boy and girl. If you wish to make your own play dough, you can follow this recipe:

Ingredients:

- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup water cup hot water
- 1 TBS cooking oil
- 1 cup salt
- a couple drops of food colouring (optional)

Directions:

1. Dissolve the salt in the water first to reduce the lumpiness due to undissolved salt in the dough later on.

2. Mix together and knead into a dough.

3. Divide it into 4 doughs, dip a hole and add food colouring to it (make sure to wear gloves to prevent staining. Then knead and blend well.

15 November 2019 (3Y5M30D)

Montessori Language Activity: Animal-Themed Mystery Bag for Learning Language

Age: From 2.5 year old

Activity Duration: 5 - 10 minutes

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Objective(s): 

1. To gives your child a fun way to practise in identifying and naming objects only through the sense of touch.

2. A fun way to learn about the name of animals

3. A fun way to learn language

Materials: 

1. 1 drawstring bag

2. 2 goats and 2 lambs

3. Chinese characters for goat and lamb

Directions: 
1. Read the Chinese character to your child and ask her to say it after you.

2. Put all the things into the bag, and ask your child to touch one item at a time, and guess what it is, then take the item out.

3. Then say the name of the item to your child, if he could not say its name.

4. Ask your child to match the animal with the Chinese character card.

Additional Information:
C (1Y1M21D) tried this for the first time today, and she enjoyed the game very much :-) Montessori Mystery Bag is an evergreen with kids - you can't go wrong with this activity :-)

References:
- Montessori Play and Learn by Lesley Britton
- http://www.suite101.com/content/the-montessori-mystery-bag-a182138

Animal Luggage

Age: From 1 year old

Materials:

1. 1 child's luggage

2. Toy animals i.e. sheep, cow, dog, lion, horse, pig, etc.

3. 1 tray (optional)

Directions:

1. Open the luggage.

2. If you can control it, invite your child to take an animal out one at a time.

3. Say the name of the animal that your child took, make the animal's sound, compare the animal to a picture of the animal, etc.

Additional Information:

Baby FECS is still very cray over animals. This morning, the first thing she did when she woke up was to take her baby board books and pointing at the animals. She then pointed it to the door. I think she seemed to want to tell me that those animals in the book resemble the toy animals she had downstairs. She is also very interested in opening and closing things, bags etc. She is crazy over these toy luggage. So I decided to put together this toy for her.

I theme the Animal Luggage with some of her favorite books.

This is the page she opened tothis morning and pointed to the animals and then to the door to her toy animal downstairs