teaching your toddler-preschool kid

[showermist]

I was asking help months ago with regards to teaching kids how to read--- I FOUND THE ONE that helped me/will help me

Just one day of teaching them several books, the kids were able to read! OMG, the kids(and the books) were/are great!  I set up an appointment with each kids parent/s  just to 'show-off' (LOLs) their kids ability. They were amazed! And still amaze!  I never received so much compliments. Honestly.  Because of this, I received bonus/es, gifts.  And recommendations

BOB Books.

(Note: These kids knew their phonetics and letters so readings simple wrods from the books was way easier.)

[mrs.S.]

My son  ( who is 5 ) can count  up to 100. I did not teach him but I incorporate everyday things with numbers. He doesn't know how to read a whole book yet but he can recognize a lot of words already. Advise ko Lang din  for moms who have younger kids is to read to them everyday. I think nakatulong talaga to sa anak ko, coz I do this all the time, less Lang ang instances I dont read to him. Also din teach spelling by letting them spell their names.

And for boys, my friend who teaches advised me iba din daw ang style ng learning nila. Since boys are more active physically. In my case I limit my writing and reading sessions para Hindi ma bored anak ko.

[dolly]

Mga sis, what would you suggest, my kid is smart and she's just turning 3 this October. She's already in pre-school. The little problem though is we moved to province early this year and she's currently enrolled into a Montessori school here which rule is to have their students speak English all the time. (Which I made sure before I enrolled her) Unfortunately as time goes by, I noticed the teachers are having a hard time speaking in English; with all the "Ilocano" accent plus wrong pronunciation e.g. "got" for goat, "ber" for bear. Hindi naman ako nanlalait pero may effect ba to sa kid ko? Baka ma-pick up nya yung mga ganung pronunciation, and most of the times they speak in Filipino. Big concern to kasi, if the story time is in Filipino my kid won't listen and if it's in English, she's the only one who listens. Wala na akong mahanap o alam na school dito na mag-cater sa kanya. Naiisip ko baka mas okay i-train ko na lang sya into speaking Filipino so she won't have a hard time fitting in. Pero, pag naiisip ko kung paano hirap na hirap ang mga students ngayon into speaking and learning English, nahihirapan ako mag-decide. 

[DV]

My preschooler learns and develops skills from doing these activities:

Going to the mall (playing at the toy store, browsing/reading at the bookstores, riding the carousel, dining)
Going to different zoos (Ocean Park, Manila Zoo, Crocodile Farm, Ark of Avilon)
Going to the public library
Running errands (supermarket, post office, bank, bakery, rice store)
Doing house chores (watering the plants, packing toys and books away, folding clothes)
Visiting other places of interest (Museo Pambata, Nido Science Center)
Cooking/baking
Coloring/painting
Music appreciation
Singing
Reading (I've recommended some books in the Books and Toys thread)
Dancing
Watching TV
Going on picnics
Going to parks and public playgrounds
Going to Gymboree and similar play areas
Attending family gatherings, visiting friends
Playing outside the house (ball, tricycle, bubbles)
Swimming
Playing with toys
Playing with her iPad
Playing pretend (she enjoys pretending to be a princess lately)

[girl24]

for the topic teaching your preschool kid --- i use the toy that was sent by my cousin from US na magnetic sketch pad (madami ring available dito mas durable lang yung from the US). anyway, aside from her learning how to hold a pen / pencil / crayon, i use that for her to practice writing and spelling. great tool talaga kasi walang wastage! walang paper or ink. then i also make use of her toys to illustrate long - short, long - longer, short - shorter, long - longer - longest, short - shorter - shortest comparisons. Basta things that are familiar and relateable to her...

[iceebaby]

Mga sis, what would you suggest, my kid is smart and she's just turning 3 this October. She's already in pre-school. The little problem though is we moved to province early this year and she's currently enrolled into a Montessori school here which rule is to have their students speak English all the time. (Which I made sure before I enrolled her) Unfortunately as time goes bye, I noticed the teachers are having a hard time speaking in English; with all the "Ilocano" accent plus wrong pronunciation e.g. "got" for goat, "ber" for bear. Hindi naman ako nanlalait pero may effect ba to sa kid ko? Baka ma-pick up nya yung mga ganung pronunciation, and most of the times they speak in Filipino. Big concern to kasi, if the story time is in Filipino my kid won't listen and if it's in English, she's the only who listens. Wala na akong mahanap o alam na school dito na mag-cater sa kanya. Naiisip ko baka mas okay i-train ko na lang sya into speaking Filipino so she won't have a hard time fitting in. Pero, pag naiisip ko kung paano hirap na hirap ang mga students ngayon into speaking and learning English, nahihirapan ako mag-decide. 

yes sis, pwedeng ma gaya niya yan since almost 40% of her time is in school.  Parang yung friend ko na sa Singapore... malala ang Sing English! pero wala siyang magawakahit kinocorrect niya. Just correct her mildly when you hear it. Smart naman baby mo so I hope she'lleventually catch it.

[slickchick]

pa-join po mga sis! i also have a 5-year-old boy who's into Kinder now.

My son  ( who is 5 ) can count  up to 100. I did not teach him but I incorporate everyday things with numbers. He doesn't know how to read a whole book yet but he can recognize a lot of words already. Advise ko Lang din  for moms who have younger kids is to read to them everyday. I think nakatulong talaga to sa anak ko, coz I do this all the time, less Lang ang instances I dont read to him. Also din teach spelling by letting them spell their names.

And for boys, my friend who teaches advised me iba din daw ang style ng learning nila. Since boys are more active physically. In my case I limit my writing and reading sessions para Hindi ma bored anak ko.

sis, i totally agree with this. napansin ko rin yan with my 5-year old son. madali siya ma-bore lalo na kapag writing exercises kami. as in nauubos ang patience ko kasi parang wala syang gana magsulat. sis mrs S, what do you do para ma-engganyo mo son mo magsulat? kasi ito talaga ang weakness ng anak ko right now. thanks in advance sis! 

[DV]

dolly, in my opinion, OK lang ang may accent (different people have different accents) basta maayos ang grammar. Kung malaman kong mali ang grammar ng teacher (whether in Filipino or English), I'd definitely call the principal's attention. I think you can help your child by letting her listen to music, like nursery rhymes, which would improve her language skills. Mas may recall kasi (in terms of pronunciation and grammar) pag may kasamang music.

[dolly]

^ Thanks for the replies mga sis. Sis DV, okay lang sana nung una kong narinig yung accent ni teacher, kaso here's the dilemma. One time, in their usual question and answer part of learning, she was asked where's the "ber", hindi nya maituro, so what I did, i whispered to her, teacher is asking where's the bear, dun pa lang nya naituro. That goes well with the pronunciation of rhinoceros etc  I guess accent and grammar goes hand in hand din paminsan-minsan.

[iceebaby]

Rikki, it depends on your kids.  Ask her if she wants Kumon on top of her daily homework.

Personally, I do not like rote learning and drills, and so, I am not interested in sending my children to Kumon.  I also read in a book called Raising Pinoy Boys by Rose Fres-Fausto that the mathematician Queena Lee- Chua was asked to endorse Kumon but did not.  Chua believes that learning math by rote may not be the best way to know and understand deeply mathematical concepts.

However, to each his own.  As a parent, you know your child well.  If you think she will thrive by answering Kumon drills and workbooks, there is no harm in sending her to Kumon.  I just want to add though the kindergarteners also need a lot of free/ unstructured play in their time.  Balance your want of supplemental learning for your kid with her need for free, unstructured play.  Children learn a lot of practical life stuff by playing.

Ako din sis, Kumon doesn't work for my 5 year old son.  He hates rote teaching as in kinasusuklaman niya.  But, if you ask him about science facts and math equations using regular household stuff that we do parang sponge siya maka recall.  His math is advanced, he does multiplication at 5.

I'll get that book nga,sounds interesting!

[showermist]

I noticed the teachers are having a hard time speaking in English; with all the "Ilocano" accent plus wrong pronunciation e.g. "got" for goat, "ber" for bear.

isn't bear really pronounced as 'ber?  sobra bang tigas ang pronunciation ni teacher?   
 just asking.

sis, hindi talaga maiiwasan na ma-mispronounce ang ilang words o karamihan ng words.  afterall, we are not native english speakers.  mga lawyers nga ang titigas ng pronounciation.

if your child can speak the langauage at naiintindihan sya, that's great. you can work out the pronunciation at home. and as she grows. it's a process.

[slickchick]

I was asking help months ago with regards to teaching kids how to read--- I FOUND THE ONE that helped me/will help me

Just one day of teaching them several books, the kids were able to read! OMG, the kids(and the books) were/are great!  I set up an appointment with each kids parent/s  just to 'show-off' (LOLs) their kids ability. They were amazed! And still amaze!  I never received so much compliments. Honestly.  Because of this, I received bonus/es, gifts.  And recommendations

BOB Books.

(Note: These kids knew their phonetics and letters so readings simple wrods from the books was way easier.)

hi sis! would you know if may local store or online store here in the philippines that sells these BOB books. i went to their website, and found the info about these books interesting. sana lang may local dealers nung ganitong books. 

[iceebaby]

Baka lang this would help... I've set up a little tot school for my toddlers (while kuya is in school namin ang sched).

I plan every Sunday. We do tot school around 2-3pm and walang structure...just regular kitchen/household stuff.  Eto ang some activities.

Here are some of the things we do:
1)

sing welcome song (From our Kindermusik CD) just to engage them to school-school which they became so excited.

2) Activities we do (Pre-writing skills):

• -Sorting Black and white beans (c/o SM) then to small 2 sauce bowls
• -Match colored socks/baby shoes from a basket full of it
• -Shoot Uncooked spaghetti noodles to an empty mineral water plastic
• -We tear up paper or tissue(didn't care with the mess we make but to teach clean up later on)
• -Dribble with regular shaped colors (the fat ones doesn't really help but confuses the grip of kids as per my research based on an OT)
• -Lacing - I punch holes to a cardboard (shaped with letter of the week) then give them shoe lace.(Yung 1 year old ko, mga 3 holes lang)
• salt in a square shaped can (or even bigas!) which they can touch and hold it for texture.  Medyo makalat but do it outside, if in case itapon niya.hehe but,it's fun!

3)Phonological/Reading skills

• -Print their first names (in all caps) on the wall in different colors (Century Gothic font).  Kids learn letters when it is something they can relate to
• -Sing ABCs via youtube (Hooked on Phonics)
• -Magnetic letters on our refrigerator (bought a pack from Hobbes&Landes)
• -Simple treasure hunting of the letter of the week (normally, the letters muna from their names). Ex. It's under a table, over a chair, on daddy's shoulder

[li]-We watch Leap Frog Letter Factory then I downloaded flash cards and laminated them from this blog (http://projectsbyjess.blogspot.com/2010/09/leap-frog-letter-factory-flash-cards.html)* Sobrang love to ng pre-schooler ko! Dun siya nakamaster ng reading.

[/li][/list]

4) Body parts identification

• -Making wood piece faces to identify body parts (My 1 year old builds her own mascot and he now draws simple shapes because of this) I have a Handwriting w/o tears wood pieces (you can just make your own from cardboard) PM me if you like para I can send you a pdf of the pattern
• -Shape your self - With rolled Manila Paper (available at National), I tape that on the wall then I would ask my tot to stand there while I shape her on it.  Then, I would ask her where her head, hand, toes, etc then I'd cut the shape and have her color it.
• -usual songs from youtube!

Arts

• -pasting animals, letters, painting with water color, finger painting, etc
• -We do dot paintings (yung pang bingo!) basta, dot ng dot siya sa isang makapal na paper (so it won't smudge at the back)
• -We do neon dot stick-ons (available at bookstores around P25/10 sheets).  I would make shapes, dots, lines on the paper then i'd peel off some stick-ons which they would stick sa paper. Ok lang if hindi perfect.

and many to mention. But, we do 1-2 activities per day (minsan 3x a week)

Hindi kami tumatagal ng 30 minutes sa isang activity.  Iba iba ang kids, yung isa kong anak can really focus and finish her work till she's done (she's only 18months) while yung isa kong twin niya... hates it but loves scribbling and those pasta activities.

They have a corner where all these activities are on one shelf that they can easily get and I also have an area for my supplies that they cannot touch (alam nila yun).  Books and ready paper/crayons are always within reach.

Basta, no pressure...enjoy lang.

[showermist]

^^sis, yan ang hindi ko alam.  yung sa amin was first borrowed sa library. but i realized that it's worth buying a set. actually all set. so i got it all at amazon  

when i posted, it was july 17.  you know what?!  now, the kids i am handling can  read one set! one set is 12 mini books and they are just 4yrs(and one month) old and below.

go buy it!  it is worth your money.

if your child do not know the phonetics yet, i recommend leapfrog's phonetics dvd. 

[slickchick]

^ thanks sa info sis!  sis, for the 12 mini books, gaano kalaki yung isang book? i am thinking if pwede ako magpa-order sa tita or cousin ko na nasa US, tapos padala na lang nila dito kapag may luluwas. baka mas maging mahal kasi kapag from amazon orderin tapos dito sa manila diretso i-deliver.

[helencons]

if your child do not know the phonetics yet, i recommend leapfrog's phonetics dvd. 

I can really attest to the effectiveness of leapfrog dvds. We used leapfrog's letter factory (which came with flashcards coz I bought a dvd set)..it's just a 30 min. video. At first I was really skeptical but since it really had super reviews, we continued to show it.Lo and behold, my son took in everything from that dvd and began sounding out--letter sounds.Since then, I would rotate leapfrog dvds--- talking words, word caper, math adventure to the moon, let's go to school, math circus. I also used leapfrog's fridge phonics magnetic alphabet set and word whammer (now magnetic word builder).

As for mini books on phonics, try searching the net. there are a lot of free printables in the web. Try starfall's download center too.

I get a lot of ideas, printables and homeschool setup from blogs--usually homeschooling moms from the US, I'm following a singaporean mom who's in the US, a singaporean mom who sends her child to  a regular preschool but pro-actively teaches her child and used to regularly visit one pinay mom blog who homeschooled her son (her homeschooling blog was very detailed and honestly sa kanya lang ako napabilib..sadly though, she doesn't update her blog anymore). Probably, that's why toddlers in the US learn fast, very pro-active ang mga moms in educating their child.  Syempre, private preschools there are expensive kaya they learned to do it on their own.  Actually, yung mga moms na fina-follow ko have education background.I also follow some teachers who share their school activities.  From their reviews and recommendations, I decide which books to buy or use (i source our own books and I don't depend on the school's list) I do research which blogs to follow too. Here, konti pa lang talaga yung nakakapagdocument ng homeschool or after school set up nila.

In my opinion, early exposure and better resources (imagine, they can get educational equipment at consignment sales or dollar stores--dito, they are so expensive) lang ang advantage ng foreign counterparts, but we are inherently smarter. We are fast learners and can easily adapt to the situation given.  That's why we are in demand by foreign employers.

[tiggerlily]

ayaw ko man, i don't have the teacher skills. kaya i allowed my kid to learn to use the laptop and be on starfall.com. he does phonetics now. and nagsa-sign pa ng letters!!! 

nagulat ako! hindi ko marerealize na nagsasign sya kung di ako marunong ng konti. nakalabas na rin ako ng bahay sa wakas so i got to buy him a new lap table, watercolors and colored pentels. ayun 1 day lang ubos na ang water colors. dapat yata yung chipanggang watercolor na lang binili ko.

[inkslinger]

@helencons - Sis, okay ba yung Word Caper? How was it with your child? My friend's son has difficulty reading CVCe words (yung may silent E). He's in Grade 1, 6 1/2 years old, and I am told he often read the first vowel as short and also sound out the supposedly silent e, that's why he can't read the word properly. He attended a summer class to supplement his reading, but still he can't read words with intermediate phonic rules, like vowel digraphs and silent e.

Ako kasi ang technique ko lang with my daughter, I just let her read aloud to me (levelled reading) when she started reading CVC. Tapos I just corrected her along the way. Nakuha nya sa ganito. I suggested this to my friend, pero dahil iba-iba talaga ang learner, it didn't work with her son. If word caper is good, maybe it might work on him.

Thanks!

[helencons]

@helencons - Sis, okay ba yung Word Caper? How was it with your child? My friend's son has

Word Caper is good but I can't say that its my son's favorite leapfrog dvd at this time, prolly coz its still advanced for him.We are still mastering CVCs.We are taking our time (my son just turned 4) to really explore the beginning, middle and ending sounds.The dvd is just a supplement (kala nya recreation time kasi he's watching dvd) to the phonics program I'm really using for him.I also made a word wall of high frequency/sight words to help him.

I started with letter factory, then talking words, then word caper (just to introduce letter blends).At this point, he likes let's go to school and math adventure more than word caper.

I recently bought learn to read at the storybook factory (it's a new release), I'm just waiting for the shipment to arrive here.Hoping that he will also like it.

[inkslinger]

^Thank you for your quick reply, sis. I'll suggest the Word Caper to her. There's nothing to lose if she'd try it