Denmark National Museum/Nationalmuseet

Age: From 3 - 12 years old

Denmark is a very children friendly country and this is also reflected in their museums.

The Danish National Museum has a section for kids called Børnesmuseet - The Children's Museum -  and it is the most fantastic place! Here is a showcase of the Danish's approach to learning and childhood - The children get to learn about history and culture of the Danish civilization, as well as the immigrants' culture in Denmark, namely, Pakistan and Turkey. Kids can play their way through history at the Children's Museum. Here Amy was playing at the real life size exhibit complete with toy food!

The best thing is that it is totally free! A great place to bring overseas guest with children and a great time to kill time in door during winter, or when the weather is bad.

You can see more pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150613833548348.391119.705043347&type=3&l=1da97947f6

You can read more about The Children's Museum here:
http://www.nationalmuseet.dk/sw31067.asp

Opening Hours:
The Danish National Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. The Children's Museum (Børnenes Museum) closes at 4.30pm. It is however, open on New Year's day, 2nd Easter Day, Constitution Day, 2nd Pentecostal Day, 2nd Christmas Day and Monday in week 42. The museum is closed on 24 Dec. 25 Dec. and 31 Dec.

Address:
Ny Vestergade 10
Postadresse: Frederiksholms Kanal 12,
1220 København K
Tlf: 3313 4411
Informationen (direkte): Tlf. 3347 3850

The Children's Museum is located near the entrance. Turn left immediately after entering the museum and then turn right. You will see a glass door and the sign "Børnenes Museet". Enter.

Montessori Activity: Developing Your Child's Interest in Mathematics with Lego Mosaics Fun

Age: From 3.5 years

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To get the child ready for Maths.
2. To teach logic and pattern recognition.
3. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
4. To encourage creativity

Materials:
1. 1 container containing the Lego bricks for  building mosaics
2. 1 Lego base plate
3. 1 Inspiration Card

Directions:
1. Show your child how to build the mosaic picutures using the Lego bricks.

2. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:
Some parents prefer to let their children build Lego model from blank, without any inspiration sheet. I do both. I actually believe that having the inspiration sheet would inspire the children to think of new ideas. No one creates something out of totally nothing, apart from God Himself. Creativity comes from inspiration from what had been created from generations ago and also from the nature God has created. Thus, I gave Joshua the Inspiration card.

As in reading, experts advise that it is important to start encouraging the love for books from babyhood. I believe that this is the same with Mathematics, and am trying to do the same.

My only regret is that I had not done the same for my nephew, when he was a young child. It could have helped him to overcome his ADHD and to develop the love for learning. Although he had learning difficulty, he is very creative with Lego and enjoys playing with it. I could have made use of Lego to teach Maths. Back then, I knew very little about child development. But I am not giving up on my nephew yet.

This is an excellent gem from Lego Education which I bought. It is available in Amazon:

Updates:

 

11 & 13 September 2013:

15 September 2013: J suggested by himself to play with LEGO:

23 April 2014 (5Y1M18D): J suggested playing with this toy, and used his imagination to create graphics which were not from the instruction sheets.

 

 

References:

http://www.toysperiod.com/lego-set-reference/educational-dacta/duplo/learning/lego-9530-letters-set/

Montessori Activity: Addition with Abacus

Lesson from HubPages

Age: From 3 years old

Objectives:

1. To teach children numbers and arithmetic in a tangible and fun way

Materials:

1. Abacus
2. Nummer cards

Directions:

1. All the beads on the bottom row of abacus tool is worth 1 each.

2. For example to teach your child a simple addition like 2+4=?

3. Ask your kid to move all the beads to the left.

4. Ask them to move 2 beads to the right.

5. Now tell the child to move 4 beads from the left to the right.

6. Count the beads together on the right side.

7. Now you get a total of 6 beads.

8. Show the number card 6 to teach number regconition at the same time.

Cost:

One of the best value for money abacus (shown above) and the cheapest I could find in Denmark is from IKEA costing 79 DKK (approx. 14 USD or 17.55 SGD). The first 2 rows are colourless, and thus safe for babies to bite. Also the space between to move the beads are very wide. It stands very well.

References:

http://blessedmom.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-teach-Abacus-to-kids
http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7543804_teach-mathematics-using-abacus.html

Montessori Activity: Deciphering Between Sizes with the Red Rods or Rainbow Lego Rods

Age: From 2.5 years old (Level 2)

Acitivity Duration: 10 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To teach the child to decipher between sizes.
2. To indirectly prepare the child for later work in geometry through the general observation of the geometrically regular differences in the rod's length.
3. To indirectly prepare the child for the concept of numbers by demonstrating the unit difference in length between the 10 successively longer rods.

Material(s):
1. The Red Rods or in my case, the Rainbow Lego Rods
2. A floor mat or a tray.

Directions:
1. Arrange the rods in a random order on a tray/floor mat, so that your child can see them clearly.

2. Put the rods horizontally to the right of you and ask your child to sit on your left.

3. Tell your child that you are going to build the rods into a staircase starting with the shortest. select the shortest rod and put it in front of you. When you are selecting your rod, run your right hand along to the end so that your child will see that you are finding the next length.

4. Build up the rest of the staircase, finishing with the longest rod. Take the opportunity to introduce the mathematical language of long and short.

5. Tell your child that you are going to dismantle the staircase so that he can build it.

6. Take the rods one at a time and place them to the right of your child in a random order.

7. Invite your child to build the staircase.

Video Demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEK6sfGQkIE

http://www.youtube.com/user/AtHomeMontessori#p/a/u/1/ILKLhXa2mjc

How to Make the Rainbow Lego Rods?
1. 10 rods from 1 brick as Rod 1 to 10 bricks as Rod 10.
2. For each rod, choose a different Lego colour bricks.

Cost:
Cost of the real stuff: 46 USD from http://www.bambini-montessori.com/price_list.htm, since I made it with the Lego I have at home, the lego bricks were a sunk cost.

Additional Information:
I posted a post on making the Red Rods wtih red cardboard. This is another way of making the Red Rods using the Lego bricks. It is actually more suited to call it the Rainbow Lego Rods.

References:
http://www.infomontessori.com/sensorial/visual-sense-red-rods.htm

Montessori Activity: Measuring with Lego Bricks

Idea adapted from No Time for Flashcards

Age: From 2.5 years old

Objectives:
1. To teach the concept of relative height
2. To develop fine motor skills through stacking blocks

Materials:
1. 45 - 50 lego bricks

Directions:
1. Ask your child to stack the bricks up high like a tall tower or skyscraper

2. Ask your child which is higher, him or the lego tower/skyscraper.

Additional Information:
Joshua loves to stack lego bricks into the tallest skyscraper. He would do so, without me asking. Inspired by other creative mommies out there, I turned this into a more educational activity by taking the opportunity to teach him about height and comparative length. I asked him today who/which is taller, and he (3Y2D) told me that the lego tower is taller.

References:
http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/07/preschool-math-lesson-lego-measurement.html
http://nurturestore.co.uk/measuring-with-lego
http://www.mummymummymum.com/2012/01/16/biggest/

Montessori Activity: Teaching Pattern Recognition with Lego Bricks/模式识别

Age: From 3 years

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To get the child ready for Maths.
2. To teach logic and number pattern recognition.
3. To train the child’s fine motor skills.

Materials:
1. 1 container containing 2 different colours Lego bricks
2. 1 Lego board

Directions:
1. Make a simple pattern using the Lego bricks:

2. Encourage your child to repeat the pattern that you made on the next line to ensured graps the concept:

3. Praise your child and then try the next level's challenge by removing what he has completed + one of the bricks from the original pattern and ask him to fill in the missing brick follwing the pattern:

4. If your child can do it, proceed on to the next next level of challenge by removing two of the bricks from the original pattern and ask him to fill in the missing bricks following the pattern::

5. If your child can do it, proceed on to the next next next level of challenge by taking away three of the bricks from the original pattern and ask him to fill in the missing bricks following the pattern:

Additional Information:
Recognizing patterns is part of the kindergarten curriculum in Singapore. I saw something similar in one of the kindergarten assessment books in Singapore and another assessment book in Chinese from China imported into Singapore at the Popular Bookshop. It gave me an idea to bring to life what's on paper to something 3-dimensional which the children can play with and at the same time learn the concept in a very tangible way with touch, feel, sensory stimulation using the Danish Lego bricks. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, being in this cross-cultural marriage, I am constantly trying to find ways to embrace the good and discard the bad, and I find myself applying it to the education department right now. This activity is thus a marriage of the best of Singapore, China and Denmark, combining logic training emphasized in the East and play emphasized in the West.

I have simplified the pattern shown on this post, based on the trial last week with Joshua. You can make changes to the complexity of the pattern to suit the development of your child. This may still be too advance for Joshua, but I am just recording it down, before I forget it.

Happy playing and learning with Lego, while still keeping up with the kiasu and demanding Singapore's kindergarten's syllabus :-)

The Lego Basic Bricks are my favourite, because they are so simple, and can be modeled into different things using the power of imagination. You can buy Lego Duplo Basic Bricks and the building plate from Amazon:

Teaching Maths in a Fun Way

Here is a list of interesting activities for learning Maths which I am compiling:

Maths

http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2010/09/math-workbox-preschool-activities.html

Teaching Counting

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/04/ladybug-math.html
http://voices.yahoo.com/fun-ways-teach-math-children-3386930.html?cat=25

Teaching Number Recognition

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/08/pattering-with-paper-clips.html
http://nurturingthetenderyears.blogspot.com/2011/02/jumping-math.html

Teaching Addition & Subtraction

http://nurturingthetenderyears.blogspot.com/2011/03/fun-math-game-for-reinforcing-addition.html

Teaching Fractions

According to http://voices.yahoo.com/fun-ways-teach-math-children-3386930.html?cat=25, many problems concerning adding and subtracting fractions come from not understanding how to build equivalent fractions. Have the child use the Lego's to build equivalent "stacks." For example, build one stack of Lego's with 1 red (numerator) and 3 yellow (denominator) blocks. Have the child build an equivalent stack with a yellow (denominator) of 9 blocks. This technique can also be used when teaching ratios and proportions.

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/08/felt-fractions.html
http://www.squidoo.com/hands-on-fractions
http://www.suite101.com/external_link.cfm?elink=http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts//809.html

General References:
http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/search/label/Math
http://www.nctm.org/publications/article.aspx?id=29204
http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/43862.aspx
http://home-ed.info/maths/fractions_4yo.htm

Teaching Maths, Language and More Using Lego Bricks

Lego can be used to teach Maths, Language, Culture, etc. in a fun way. Lego is not just toys. With creativity, the use of it as an educational tool is limitless.

I am compiling a list of fun and educational stuff one can use with Lego from all the creative mothers out there from different websites and blogs and will expand on the list below as I go along:

1. Maths

Sorting Colours with Lego Bricks

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2011/05/montessori-activity-sorting-by-colour.html

Measuring with Lego Bricks

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2012/03/montessori-activity-measuring-with-lego.html
http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/07/preschool-math-lesson-lego-measurement.html
http://nurturestore.co.uk/measuring-with-lego
http://www.mummymummymum.com/2012/01/16/biggest/

Teaching Counting with Lego Bricks

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/lego-math-activities/
http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2011/09/count-and-stamp-with-legos.html
http://earlylearning-eaton.blogspot.com/2012/03/back-to-basic-counting.html

Deciphering Between Sizes with the Red Rods or Rainbow Lego Rods

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2012/03/montessori-activity-deciphering-between.html

Making Montessori Number Rods with Lego Bricks

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2011/05/montessori-activity-learning-height.html

Teaching Number Recognition by with Lego Bricks

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2010/04/rainbow-activities-part-i.html
http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/CreativeParentsCornerMonthlyBuilds/otherfiles/download90C9DA8BD8AA183E1F1B75CCABA6E131.pdf
http://learningwithmouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/lego-math.html
http://funfrugalmommy.blogspot.com/2011/06/homemade-lego-math-game.html

Teaching Addition and Subtraction with Lego Bricks

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2011/10/montessori-activity-teaching-addition.html
http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/lego-math-activities/
http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/07/lego-math-other-activties.html
http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/2010/12/lego-tower-math-game.html

Teaching Pattern Recognition with Lego Bricks

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2012/03/fun-with-teaching-pattern-recognition.html

Teaching Greater Than or Less Than

http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2011/08/under-construction-greater-than-less.html
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2012/01/legos-kindergarten-printables.html


Teaching Geometry with Lego Bricks

http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/02/lego-geometry.html
http://news.discovery.com/tech/bend-lego-bricks-learn-non-euclidean-geometry-110715.html

Teaching Symmetry with Lego Bricks

http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2010/11/lego-symmetry.html

2. Language

Constructing Letters with Lego Bricks

http://pinterest.com/pin/124693483402301749/
http://barefootnparadise.blogspot.com/2011/09/teach-at-home-thursday-lego-learning.html

Constructing Words with Lego Bricks

http://www.bookmakingwithkids.com/?p=2504
http://pinterest.com/pin/93097917266582477/
http://handmadebeginnings.blogspot.com/2011/04/spelling-with-lego.html
http://www.filthwizardry.com/2010/07/diy-spinny-spellers-and-repurposing.html

Constructing Sentences with Lego Bricks

http://pinterest.com/pin/80713018291295749/
http://pinterest.com/pin/94012710940844368/

Teaching & Constructing Calendar

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056ISIJQ/?tag=ga21-20

3. Art & Crafts

Printing & Stamping Art with Lego Bricks

http://www.filthwizardry.com/2011/07/stamping-with-lego-and-craft-foam.html
http://picklebums.com/2011/07/05/easy-art-for-kids-duplo-printing/

Using Lego Bricks to Create Pixel Art

http://www.santarosa.k12.fl.us/wbm/smithba/pixelart/default.html

Making Sculpture with Lego Bricks

http://mathcraft.wonderhowto.com/blog/math-craft-inspiration-week-mathematical-lego-sculptures-andrew-lipson-0131222/

Making a Storage Container with Lego Bricks

http://walyou.com/lego-house/

Lego Car & Duplo Trucks Cardboard Printables

http://www.filthwizardry.com/2009/12/lego-car-and-duplo-truck-cardboard.html

4. Music

Teaching Music Theory with Lego Bricks

http://www.teaching-children-music.com/2011/05/building-major-triad.html

5. Cultures

Making Flags of Different Nations with Lego Bricks

http://culturecottage.blogspot.com/2011/07/make-lego-flag.html

6. Play

Making Jigsaw Puzzles with Lego Bricks

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/06/animal-mix-up-legos/

Making Cozy Buildings with Lego and Hole Punching Card

http://www.filthwizardry.com/2009/12/lego-and-hole-punching-card.html

Playing Lego Bingo Card Game

http://www.bigdandme.com/2011/05/lego-bingo/
http://www.bigdandme.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Lego-Bingo.pdf

Participate in Monthly Lego Quest Challenge for Kids

http://legoquestkids.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-is-lego-quest.html

Constructing Pillars for Wodden Train

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-type-of-toy-train-set-to-choose.html

7. Lego Printables

http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2012/01/legos-kindergarten-printables.html

8. A Lego Birthday Party

http://homeschoolblogger.com/teachingjeremiah/783781/

Developmental Milestones for Playing Lego

Furthermore, accordingly to http://education.lego.com/en-us/after-school/center-programs/, in general the type of legos appropriate for the different age group are as follows:

My World for 3-year-olds

Children explore their world of family, friends and animals. They become aware of differences between themselves and the people around them and develop the self-confidence to express ideas as they build and play with a huge variety of DUPLO® and LEGO® SOFT bricks.

My World of Discovery for 4-year-olds

Children explore shape, size and colour, and learn about how things work in the home and local community. They learn to classify, estimate and measure. Through storytelling and creative building, they use increasingly descriptive language as they build a variety of models and objects using DUPLO® and LEGO® bricks.

My World of Adventures for 5-year-olds

My World of Adventures for 5-year-oldsChildren explore air, sea, land and space travel; they design and build different types of vehicle and investigate how they move. They experiment with patterns and invent and play a variety of games. This programme combines fantasy, imagination and storytelling with simple explorations of historical events and geographical facts using a variety of LEGO® tiles and bricks.

My World of Inventions for 6-year-olds

Children explore ways in which people and things move – for example, how animal and human bodies bend and jump, and how machines lift or spin. They learn about simple machines in the home and local community, and design and build their own models using DUPLO® Early Simple Machines sets.

My World of Science for 7-year-olds

Children build and design increasingly advanced mechanisms using LEGO® Technic and LEGO System sets. Through exciting topics such as Secret Agents, Circus and Desert Islands, children learn about mechanical components and use motors to power their great inventions.

My World of Robotics for 8-12 year olds

Children learn to create simple computer programs that control the behaviour of robots using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education software and LEGO Technic sets. Programmes range from simple to advanced, starting with simple programming and building skills and progressing to creative designs and engineering solutions.

Additional Information:
It is a Danish brand, and thus, close to my heart. Lego can be used to supplement and zest up traditional classroom setting. Perhaps some schools in Singapore are already using it, but I wish so much that the teachers, principals and educators in Singapore will give more attention to using more creative and fun means in the classroom.

General References:
http://www.mydeliciousambiguity.com/2012/01/learning-activities-with-legos.html
http://creative.lego.com/en-us/ParentsCorner/MonthlyBuilds/201105.aspx
http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2011/08/under-construction-greater-than-less.html
http://www.littlebrickschoolhouse.com/mathactivities.pdf
http://www.littlebrickschoolhouse.com/activities.html
http://pinterest.com/search/?q=lego+letters
http://www.brighthub.com/education/homeschooling/articles/106904.aspx
http://www.thebricklife.com/the-5-best-lego-family-activities/

After trying out all the Lego activities on this page, the number of Lego bricks used could be sufficient to construct this table!

Wholemeal Chocolate Teddy Bear Buns

Recipe adapted from Alletiders Kogebog

Makes 20 buns

Preparation & Baking Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:
- 50g yeast
- 2 TBS macademia nut oil or 50g butter
- 700g wheat flour
- 350g Graham wholewheat flour
- 450ml lukewarm water
- 500ml buttermilk (optional. If not, substitute with water or skimmed milk)
- 120g milk or dark chocolate chopped
- 80g melted milk or dark chocolate as decoration
- 25g wheat germ (optional)
- 25g brewer's yeast (optional)
- 1 tsp salt (optional)
- 4 tsp sugar
- 1 egg white or 50ml milk (optional for coating)

Directions:
1. Mix wheat flour, graham flour, wheat germ, brewer's yeast and chocolate together.

2. Mix lukewarm water, olive oil and yeast together in a mixing bowl.

3. Mix in buttermilk.

4. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients.

3. Knead it well into dough by hand or using a hand-mixer and leave it for at least 30 minutes or overnight (or at least 8 hours) in the fridge.

4. On a baking tray lay with baking paper, use half of the dough to form 20 buns by using a spoon (can make about 15 - 24 buns depending on size) and the other half of the dough to form into 40 small buns.

5. Give every bun 2 small buns as ears.

6. Brush the bread and buns with milk or egg white and sprinkle them with the spelt flakes (optional)

7. Set aside for 15 min.

8. Place the tray in the middle of a pre-warmed oven and bake for 10 mins. at 200°C in a pre-warmed oven.

9. Melt some chocolate over a bowl of warm water.

10. Put the melted chocolate on a plastic bag and cut a small hole at the tip of the bag.

11. Draw eyes, mouth, nose and ears on each of the buns.

Tips: Can be eaten warm or cold

Additional Information:
We asked J what he would like to have as birthday present on this birthday, and he received that he wanted dumplings, chocolate buns and orange juice. He didn't ask for any toys. It was nice that he asked for something both Asian and Western. However, I have never given him chocolate before, except fake chocolate milk, so hmmm... i wondered where he got the idea of chocolate buns from.
I have never baked chocolate buns before, and it was a long time, since I baked bread. But I decided to learn to bake chocolate buns. So here is my attempt. Since it is his birthday, I will let him have what he wanted, which is chocolate.

The plastic method didn't work as it kept tearing. I use a butter knife to dip onto the melted chocolate to draw the eyes, nose and mouth.

References:
http://www.dk-kogebogen.dk/opskrifter/visopskrift.php?id=33961
http://www.dk-kogebogen.dk/teknik/weight.php

Montessori Activity: Static Addition with Fruits

Age: From 3 years old

Activity Duration: 10 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To teach addition.
2. To teach number recognition.
3. To provide a tangible way of learning that makes use of the 5 senses.

Materials:

1. Number cards (if you do not them, you can just write it on a piece of paper. Here I am using the "Number Puppets" that I have made for Joshua)

2. 1 Plus sign and 1 equal sign (here I use the magnets. If you do not have them, you can also just write them out on 2 pieces of card board)

3. 3 oranges or any types of food or household stuff you can think of in a basket or container. Next time, you can use different quantities.

4. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Let your child sit beside you with the materials in front.

2. Take the materials out of the tray.

3. Take 2 oranges out of the basket and put it on the tray.

4. Take out another orange from the basket and ask your child, "Joshua, can you tell mommy how many there are all together, if I put one more orange on the tray?"
3. Your child should hopefully answer 3. If so, put the "+" sign in between the oranges and the "=" sign after the third orange.

4. Then take out the Number 3 and put it after the "=" sign and say, "Joshua, you have 2 oranges on the tray. Mommy added one more, and yes, there are now 3 oranges on the tray. This is the number 3".

Tips:

1. You can play this game in a variety of ways. Next time, have a stack of number cards 1-10 with you, and ask your child to pick out the number that matches the no. of objects on the tray.

2. You can thereafter teach subtraction, by eating one of the oranges and asking your child how many oranges there are left.

Additional Information:

Joshua is turning 3 years old on Monday. I have been focusing on teaching him counting, and I realized that I have forgottten to move on to teaching him addition. So from now on, I will be conscious of teaching Joshua the addition concept formally. The above is just one of the methods. I will also teach him addition using the abacus later on. We don't own an abacus yet.

My goal is to keep the best of the Singapore's and Danish's approach to learning. The Singapore's method of learning is that there is a planned curriculum and assessment, meaning that the child has learned a lot by the time he enters primary school. Thus, the Singaporean's pre-school curriculum is my benchmark to gauge how much Joshua has acquired compared to his peers in Singapore.

The Danish way of approaching learning is to incooperate it into play and daily life. Thus, there is no real curriculum. However, the disadvantage is that the child may not learn as much, since it is not planned. But it seems to have the advantage of encouraging creativity.

I am incoporating learning into fun and everyday life, and at the same time, it is planned. Thus, in doing so, I hope to incorporate the best of both the Singaporean's method and the Danish's method. I don't know if I will succeed, as I am treading on unfamiliar ground, and at the same time, my hands are tied as a full-time working mom, but I will try. It is a challenge to be creative and to make learning fun, but I will also try. So far, I thank God that He has been giving me some ideas. I will record my ideas on my blog. It helps that my Superstar is helping a lot at home, leaving me time to think of Joshua's educational development during weekends.

Such addition can also be learned from books or some ipad applications. Why do I choose to use real objects? The pictures shown on books and ipad are 2 dimensional - see and hear. However, I think for young children at this age, it would benefit them to be stimulated on all 5 senses as much as possible - to see, touch, feel, smell, hold, hear, taste, etc. when they learn. I believe that it would help their brain to make richer connections.

I have to remember to use the opportunity during my everyday life to teach Joshua addition, so that Joshua will be learning, without even being conscious of it. However, it would still be good to formally teach him addition by bringing the "everyday" life experience onto the Montessori style "work-tray" setting. It is a more systematic way of teaching and I believe it will create more impact, and help the child to be more conscious of learning. It would also serve as a way to keep track of where you are on the curriculum you have set.

References:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/dominoes/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/dominoes/

J Summary (2Y11M27D) - Who was the Child?

Today, I brought J to the toy shop to pick up his free birthday toy at BR. I was afraid that he would plead with me to buy him toys... in the end, it was me who could not resist the temptation of buying toys. J pleaded with me to get out of the toy shop. YES, I resisted buying toys. But who was the child here?

French Onion Soup

Recipe adapted from Working Class Foodies

Serves 8

Preparation & Cooking Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:
1. 1.5kg of red or yellow onions, peeled and sliced
2. 4-6 cloves garlic chopped
4. 3 TBS butter
5. 2 TBS olive oil
6. 1 cup red or white wine or beer
7. 2 litres beef or vegetable stock (traditionaly this dish is made of beef stock)
8. A couple of strigs of thyme
9. 5-8 bay leave
10. 4 slices of french baguette
11. A handful of grated cheese (gouda, parmesan, pecorino, gruyere) for each bowl
12. Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Heat oil and butter in a pot, and fry garlic until lightly golden.

2. Add onions and stir occasionally. 

3. Add salt and pepper.

4. Add strigs of thyme and bay leaves and stir occasionally for 15-20 minutes. The browning, or caramelizing, of the onions brings out the sweetness in them.

5. Add wine and bring to rapid boil for 10 - 15 minutes to evaporate the alcohol.

6. Add stock and simmer for 1 hours.

7. Toast the bread.

8. In a individual crock pot or coffee mug, add onion soup.

9. Add a slice of bread on top and  top with grated cheese.

10. Put the soup bowl on a pan (to catch any soup that may drip out on the side) and put them into the oven.

11. Bake 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

Additional Information:
I didn't have little soup crockpots, so I used mugs. Sorry for the messy looking pictures. I wasn't so good at keeping it neat. Hopefully i would  be better at my next attempt :-) I made this for my Chinese neighbour, Yang Li, who came over this evening, and we had a mug each. She is interested to learn European cooking.

References:
http://www.squidoo.com/soup-recipe-onion
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/french_onion_soup/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_onion_soup

Montessori Activity: Tracing Letters & Numbers with Stencil

Age: From 3 years old (Level 4)

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Materials:
1. 1 letter stencil
2. 1 magic pen or marker
3. 1 plain paper

Directions:
1. Demonstrate by holding the stencil on a paper and tracing a letter with a marker.

2. Let your child try.

Additional Information:
Here is another method of providing a varied and interesting way to learn the letters and at the same time, practising pencil grasp. Joshua (2Y11M25D) tried this today and he enjoyed it. He did it twice for a total of 20 minutes. Joshua commented that the letters were not joined, because there is a strip in the middle of the stencil to hold the letters together.

You can get similar stencils from Amazon:

Chronicles of a Babywise Mom: TV Time Under Two

Chronicles of a Babywise Mom: TV Time Under Two: image source You may have noticed that I have been focusing on On Becoming Babywise Book Two this month. I was re-reading the chapter o...

What to Do If Your Child Does Not Like to Do Homework?

Recently I returned from Singapore and was amazed at the depth of the nusery and kindergarten curriculum. They have homework to bring home too. I think the children in the States do as much too, but not the children in Denmark. The children here basically play the whole day and they have never heard of what homework is!

I do not know what is the best - the Singaporean's way of approaching learning that has the tendency of choking the appetite of the child's love for learning,  or the Danish way of approaching child development and learning that brings the child 3 years' behind other nations, but seems to have the advantage of nurturing creativity in its population.

By the age of 15, the Straitstimes dated 18 February 2012 reported an Australian study's findings that children in Europe, USA and Australia are in general 2-3 years behind their peers in Shanghai in Maths.

I am vexed... I am confused... I am a Singaporean Chinese living in Denmark. One way to solve this is for us to move back to Singapore or Shanghai, but I am very happy here in Denmark.

So what is the most important?

I read the book "On Becoming Pre-schoolwise" by American authors Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam, and I agree with the book that one of the most important roles of parents is to ensure that their child acquire good attention span and concentration skills. And the daily habit of doing homework is actually one of the best ways to acquire attention span and concentration skills. I want Joshua to start young in developing good habit of self-control, discipline, attention span and concentration skill.

Recently, Joshua doesn't seem to be interested in doing homework. While I was back in Singapore, I noticed that my 4 years old nephew wasn't too keen in his workbook either.

I have to find ways to keep the good side of the Singapore system of discpline, and at the same time, retain the good side of the Danish system in nurturing the passion and interest of the children towards learning.

How am I going to do it?

I don't know. But I am going to jot down my progress along the way and what worked for me here.

Here are some ways which I have experimented that worked for my 3 year old Joshua and my 4 year old nephew:

1. Start Bedtime Routine Earlier

Start the bedtime routine earlier, so that it leaves you enough time to squeeze in colouring activity and homework, before your child goes to bed. Most children would not want to go to bed and sleep. So I will give Joshua a choice - Do you want to go to sleep now or do you want to do your homework? Given only these two choices, normally, they would prefer to do homework than to go to bed. This worked with Joshua and my nephew.

2. Invest in Colourful Activity Books

The Singaporean kindergarten books are of very good material in terms of content. They contain a lot of information and knowledge, and explain in a step-by-step way. However, they are black and white (to keep educational cost low) and very boring. My nephew loses interest in them. I bought colourful activity books for my nephew that contains similar lessons, and I was surprised that he took to it very well, and even completed more pages than I can keep up to mark! Initially, I thought that my nephew just isn't motivated to learn, but this success has shown otherwise. We have to work harder to find ways to make learning a worthwhile and fun pursuit for our children.

I did the same with Joshua. Above pictues showed one of the colourful and interesting activity book which I bought for Joshua from the Singapore Popular Bookshop (www.popular.com). It teaches pattern recognition, logic, shapes, matching, etc.

However, I do buy the black and white Singapore kindergarten books just to keep abreast on what is taught, and learn about milestones that children at those ages can reach and to get inspired on what I can teach Joshua.

Having said that, I acknowledge that this method do cost money and may not be affordable to many families. I hope my blog will provide the free resources and ideas from the books that I have invested in and benefit others.

3. Turn the Academic Kindergarten Textbook Curriculum into Montessori-style Activity

Most children and especially boys learn best by playing. One way is to make the textbook come alive using real tangible materials such as beads that the children can touch, rather than showing pictures of them in the textbooks.

Here are some examples of the activity I have created, with content inspiration from the Singapore kindergarten textbooks:

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2012/02/montessori-activity-fun-with-teaching.html

http://elainengfriis.blogspot.com/2012/02/montessori-activity-teaching.html

It is a challenge that requires creativity, thinking and time, which are not always available to us working parents. One tradeoff is that I do not really have time outside work, as my time is invested in turning textbooks into fun activities. It helps that I enjoy doing it. This is a sacrifice that I make. Long gone are the days when I get to go shopping for myself, pedicure, manicure, planning vacation, etc. - they are all tossed out of the window.

4. Incultivate Discipline and Endurance at a Young Age, Not with Homework, but with Play

What do I mean by that? Do you need discipline to play?

The answer is yes.

Have you ever seen some children jumping from one play activity or one toy to another? This child may have the same habit and approach to homework, when he grows older.

How to overcome this?

Hard as it is, introduce Blanket Time, when your child is only a baby, and then Room Time, when your child is a toddler or pre-schooler. I am still working on this with Joshua. I have not succeeded yet. But I am pressing on.

Good enduring habits developed at a young age will stand your child in good stake, when he has to start school. Time flies, and the day will come soon, when he has to start school. It would be too late to work on attitude, when the time comes.

5. Pray

Lastly and most importantly, pray and put your trust in God. Ask God to give you creativity, ideas, energy, perseverance and for turning into good any mistakes that you make along the way, as you embark on this. Looking back from the past 2 years, I saw the fingerprint of God and his faithfulness. I will continnue to trust Him to enable me and equip me as I embark ahead on this challenging role as a mom.

What to Do If Your Child Does Not Like to Do Colouring?

Colouring is an important pre-schooler's activity, as it helps them to practise pencil grip and control. It is precusory to learning to write. It also teaches patience and determination. The book "On Becoming Pre-Schoolwise" by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam wrote that colouring and puzzles are some activities that would teach a child attention span and concentration skills, which are very important skills, when starting school. And it has to be developed from young.

Recently, I am vexed that Joshua doesn't seemed to be taking any interest in colouring activity. I have been trying to find ways to encourage him, and today I have made some head way. I hope it will continue, and I will add to this post more strategies on what to do, if your child does not like colouring.

Here are some ways that worked for me:

1. Start Bedtime Routine Earlier

Start the bedtime routine earlier, so that it leaves you enough time to squeeze in colouring activity, before your child goes to bed. Most children would not want to go to bed and sleep. So I will give Joshua a choice - Do you want to sleep now or do just one more page of colouring. Given the choice of going to bed and colouring, he would choose colouring anytime.

2. Use Oil Pastels

I gave Joshua colour pencils and wax crayons, but he didn't like it. The colours were too bland and not rich. He lost interest. Actually I lost interest too. Joshua never did complete his colouring. Below is one such incomplete work.

Then I remember that when I was a child, I used oil pastels to paint, and I really enjoyed it. Thus, I bought this for Joshua from Singapore. I tried it today, and it was an instant hit. For the first time, he completed colouring his sheet (of course, the fact that I timed it just before bedtime helped).

This is what he coloured today. I started him off by helping him to colour the mother duck. Joshua (2Y11M24D) coloured the duckings, the water, the grass and the flowers. It was the first time, that he actually completed colouring the whole picture!

Joshua clearly prefers oil pastels to wax crayons or colour pencils. Oil pastels' colours are much more vivid and blendable. It has inspired Joshua to sit and colour. I highly recommend it, if you want to encourage your child to enjoy colouring activity. You can also buy it from Amazon below:

3. Do Colouring Yourself

Lead by example. Initially, I was simply giving instructions to Joshua, "Joshua, please colour this. You should colour here, etc." This is because I wanted him to be independent and do things himself.

It suddenly don on me that maybe, I should start doing it myself, and hopefully it would inspire him. So today, I started by first colouring the mother duck with the oil pastels. In the process, I wanted to teach Joshua that colouring can be fun, and that it gives great satisfaction to see your completed work. It seemed to have worked. When I handled the oil pastels to him, he began to colour it with more attention and care.

4. Discipline

The book "On Becoming Pre-Schoolwise" by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam recommends that if your child is not happy about doing a proper job by colouring a sheet properly, but simply scribble the picture in 30 seconds and jumping on to the next picture or activity, give him back a new sheet with the same picture and ask him to colour it nicely. Set the timer to 5 minutes, and tell him that he cannot leave, even if he has completed the work. He has to sit there until the timer goes. After a few rounds of repeated sheet, he would know that he won't be able to get away. The child would then sit down and take the time to colour properly. I tried this method with my 4 year old nephew in Singapore and it worked. Upon giving him back the sheet with the same picture to colour again, he did a perfect and beautiful job, colouring the picture fully and within the lines.

5. Pray

Lastly and most importantly, I always believe that you can have a plan, but pray hard to God to change the heart of your child from the inside. You must do your part to encourage and pray and ask God to do His part too. Pray also for wisdom from God to find strategies that would work for your child. Pray also for patience and His peace to surround you. I have been praying for a week, and today, I had a break-through with colouring with Joshua.