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.

Toy of the Day: Montessori Sandpaper Letters Sensory Basket (6M24D)

9 December 2016 (6M24D): Baby FECS loves touch-&-feel baby board books now. So as an extension of the same touch sensory idea and concept, I prepared this Montessori sandpaper letters sensory basket. You simple pick a letter, trace the sand-paper textured letter with baby and say its sound. This is just to give her a foretaste and fun, and familiarity with letters, not to hammer in learning letters at this young age.

8 December 2016: Oops... Before I could put the basket away, I was away for a split second and she started playing with it now... It was supposed to be for tomorrow!

9 December 2016 (6m223d): Baby FECS found the sounds of letters really funny. We traced b, m, k, g, s, o, u, q and v today. She found it fun to sit in the basket and picked a letter.

Here is a video on the sound of letters by a fellow mom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWZ_8vRdZM

Montessori Activity: Tracing Letters Using "Sandpaper" Letters

Age: From 3 years old

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s): To teach the child to read and write letters and their sounds.

Materials: Sandpaper letters

Directions:
1. Present the letters to your child a few at a time, in these groups:

1st set: c m a t

2nd set: s r i p

3rd set: b f o g

4th set: h j u l

5th set: d w e n

6th set: k q v x y z

2. Here is a video how:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWZ_8vRdZM

Cost:
Box of plain cards: 20 DKK (4.80 SGD) from Tiger
Foam letters: 10 DKK (2.40 SGD) from Chao Chao at Lyngby train station

How to Make "Sandpaper" Letters Yourself?

Buy the above materials and paste the letters on each card using UHU glue.

Additional Information:
This activity is also good for toddlers who are learning phonics, but not writing. The tracing of the letters just makes it fun for them. We tried this activity today (2Y1M1D), although J is way too young for it. Initially, he thought that they are magnets, and tried to use them as that. Then he was getting slowly better in understanding the concept as we went along the session. He tried to trace it, but not correctly. I didn't think that he would be interested, and wanted to stop the game. To my surprise, he said and hand signed for more. We continued for quite a while, and each time I made the phonic sound, he laughed and made them too. It has been a fun activity for him to learn the phonics sounds.

References:
http://thewritestart.typepad.com/the_write_start/2009/01/writers-workshop-deconstructedpart-2.html

http://www.blog.montessoriforeveryone.com/montessori-basics-9-sandpaper-letters.html

http://www.infomontessori.com/language/written-language-sandpaper-letters.htm

If you have no time to make them yourself, it is also available from Amazon:

http://amzn.to/1rlSv8P