Away

I'll be away for awhile. Upcoming posts:

~ Money Game
~ How I test my middle child addition and subtraction
~ More on flash cards
~ Educational games
~ Others

Flash Those Cards

How do we use flash cards in a fun way? Do you still remember my post on “Learning Chinese”? There are several ways to use flash cards to enhance the recognition of words.

Here’s one:

~ Line up the flash cards on the floor.

~ Read the sentences in the book (see my previous post on the book I use).

~ Let our child hold a balloon stick and point to each word while we read out loud. (This is to ensure that the child recognizes the word instead of memorizing it)

Here’s another:

~ Line up the flash cards on the floor.

~ Taking turns with our little ones, try to make it into a game where each individual find two words to form a word with meaning (In Chinese, some words cannot stand alone. They must be combined to form a word)

~ The winner is the one with the most word.

Here’s the third:

When they are bored, let them play snake and ladder and at the same time, learn some words. How do we associate snake and ladder with flash cards?

~ The person who turns the dice must be able to read 1-3 words (you set your own rule) from the flash cards before turning the dice. If they can’t read, they lose a turn.

~ Flash 1-3 cards prior to the turning of dice.

~ Cards that the children can’t read would be skipped and put at the very bottom.

~ Go through words that they are not sure of at the end of the game.

To be continued……

My Mother's Day Gifts

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

A Cat and A Dog Makes My Household Complete

Yup, I’ve got a cat and a dog at home. What’s so special about these two pets you may ask? Well, you don’t get a SINGING CAT and a SPELLING DOG very often, do you?

Animal Glitter Graphics

Animal Glitter

Have you guessed? No? Read on.

The singing cat can sing whenever I feel sad and she always cheers me up with her voice and her close snug against my arms. Her eyes, yes, her eyes can make anyone’s heart melt.

The spelling dog is one special dog that goes for spelling competition. He would always spell on the stage and gets a medal for doing extremely well.

Have you guessed this time?

The singing cat is 2 ½ years old. She is the youngest and she is my honey angel. Yes, she’s my little daughter whom I love dearly. She likes singing and music.

The spelling dog is 4 ½ years old. He is the middle child and he is my sweetheart. If you remember, Wayne is the most difficult child at home and he refuses to learn his spelling. Now, with this new role – “the spelling dog”, he loves spelling. I see the transformation with my very own eyes, from “Mummy, I don’t want to spell at home. I’ve learnt in the school.” To “Mummy, can you please say: Spelling dog, please spell JAGUNG (corn in Malay)?”

We love role play. This time, the role play turned out to be favoring me, giving me a chance to instill the interest of spelling in my middle child. He learns without stress and I’m dancing around happily when he can spell many words correctly. Woohoo!

Learning Chinese

Teaching Chinese is never an easy task for parents who speak English at home with their children. With the help of these tools, I manage to turn the phrase: “I don’t like Chinese.” To “Mummy, I want to learn Chinese today.”

This set of Chinese books has the same concept as “Peter and Jane” where words are being repeated to enhance the vocabulary. The books come with flash cards and an optional CD (good for parents who do not know Chinese).

These books are categorized into several series:

First 100 words – 8 books

Second 100 words – 8 books

Third 100 words – 4 books

Forth 100 words – 4 books

Fifth 100 words – 2 books

Sixth 100 words – 2 books

Seventh 100 words – 2 books

Eighth 100 words – 2 books

What I normally do is to go through the books once with my son and teach him the new words using “han yu pin yin” (pronunciation of the word using English alphabets). Then, I would have him read to me again covering the “han yu pin yin”. What I notice in many children is the ability to memorize words. They can read to you the whole page without even looking at the book! When that happened, we know that they can’t recognize words.

So, the flash cards come in handy to help or test the children to recognize words. There are several fun ways to use the flash cards. All we need is a little creativity to turn learning into games.

Check out fun ways to use flash cards in my upcoming posts.

Happy Mother's Day

Glitter Mother's Day Graphics

Fun With Glittering Glue Stick

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Wordless Wednesday - Teach Chinese With These

Look out for my next post on how I use these.