HomeSchool - Big & Small

I can't emphasize how important it is for parents to whole-heartedly play with their child and be attentive to them when they are playing. In the past week, I noticed that T was confusing "BIG" with "Small". She would ask me for a piece candy and says she wants a small piece. But when I give it to her, she would point to a bigger piece in the packet and say no not this one, I want a small piece. And so I realised that she got her concepts wrong.

I printed some picture cards off the internet to show the difference between BIG & SMALL. We made 12 sets of pictures, each with a big image and the same image in small size. We took out a big & small plastic bowl and we sorted the picture cards into the correct bowl. As we put the card in the bowl used the "Montessori Three Period Lesson" to re-enforce the concept of big and small.

"Three Period Lesson"
1st Round -
Mum says : This is a big flower, please put the big flower in the big bowl. This is a small flower, please put the small flower in the small bowl. (Repeats this sequence till the all cards are completed)

2nd Round -
Mum says : Which one is the big flower, can you please put the big flower in the big bowl. Which is the small flower, can you please put the small flower in the small bowl. (Repeats till all cards are completed)

3rd Round -
Mum takes a card and asks : What is this?
T replies : Big flower !

HomeSchool - Animal cards

Following up on our trip to the zoo last month, we worked on the theme of animals these 2 weeks. We watched some videos about animals and talked about them. I home made some animals matching cards to play with. I found photos (I realised that it makes more sense to work with real photos than cartoon pictures when learning about stuff) on the internet of various animals and paired them by adult animal and baby animal. We also printed the name on the adult and baby animal at the bottom on the photos (Eg. kangaroo vs joey, cat vs kitten, cow vs calf). This way, T can learn a few more words and when doing the matching. She has to be more observant on the similarities of the animals (a kitten looks very much like a tiger cub without its stripes) (the size, shape and colour of a hippo and rhino loost very alike too) Daddy plays this matching game with her too and they will learn the cantonese names of these animals. All 3 of us enjoys this name alot. Again I am a proud mummy when she says "Hippopotamus"

Rambling : I really felt very "auntie" when I was trimming the self laminated cards on my bus ride home. But kept telling myself its better to make use of the time on the bus journey despite the stares from the onlookers, rather than to take time off with T just to cut and trim these cards.