teaching your toddler-preschool kid

[tiggerlily]

we cooked pancakes the other day. enjoy na enjoy sya. gumamit pa kami ng cookie cutters para maging mas cute para sa kanya pero di nya pa rin kinain. he's a very picky eater. hayz... well, at least, nag-enjoy sya gumawa.

[swtgrl_bee]

thank you mommies for all the replies. I'll try all of those options.

[iceebaby]

iceebaby. i have the starfall worksheets na, but if you have something else, i'm interested pwede ba ipadala yun thru email? delisyus at gmail dot com !  thanks sis!

Sis... sent a couple of PDFs for you.

[icee_star]

Nakakatuwa naman kayo, ako din I always see to it na tinuturuan ko din ang anak ko (now 5 yo in K1) na bumasa, I always buy her books, aside from the books na binibigay sa school. Ako rin nagturo sa kanya how to write letters, and now ang sulat niya maganda naman hindi na malalaki.

She knows how to read yung mga easy and simple words and syllables, I use phonetics and it's effective naman. Pansin ko lang ok din siya sa sight reading and memorization kasi the reading materials they use in school, nakikita ko na kabisado niya kahit mahihirap na words naalala niya.

[dolly]

^^ Update lang ako, sad pero ihihinto ko muna yung daughter ko from schooling. I'll be attending TMA's seminar on November 25th to checkout homeschooling. Hanggang ngayon ayaw pa rin humiwalay ng kid ko sa akin, tipong dalawa kaming nag-aaral so yung morningtime ko sa kanya napupunta, which is hindi na pwede since I'm working na rin in the office. Mag-3 na sya sa 31 and very talented, she loves singing and dancing. I'm hoping that homeschooling her will not take so much of my work time, kahit sa office kami buong maghapon mag-lecture wag lang yung mawala ako sa office ng buong umaga.

At dahil limited ang good schools dito sa Tuguegarao,try ko muna siguro ang homeschooling.

[iceebaby]

Sis Dolly, It will be a good option for your toddler.  She's only turning 3, tama yan... no need to rush.

I am an 8-hour working mom turned work at home mom din.  I homeschooled my then 5 year old son for a year and now homeschooling my 2 year old twins.

If you plan to homeschool, you can just set a time for your child.  My setup kasi... 9-1130am is strictly my homeschool time.  I really turn into silent mode ang phones ko then by 12:30pm onwards, I work na.  So any meeting that I do, in the afternoon ako nag seset.  Only in times na necessary ako mag set ng meeting in the morning.  Basta, I just segregate my homeschool time and work time.  Hindi ko pwede i-mix.

Weekends is dedicated for family.  2x per week, we go out and even have homeschool sa park, coffeeshop, or even mall!   It's fun and exciting, just dedicate max of 2.5 hrs per day for that and you'll be fine to manage!

Most importantly, set goals too every weekend on what to prepare (print on paper, etc) or buy things for the week for your homeschool (W/c I do every Friday night, then on weekends if may kailangan na crafts ako bumibili).

But sis... if you take the TMA seminar they will tell you that there should be one parent who should be a full time homeschooler.  Yun lang ang medyo you'll have to reconsider.  I personally find it a challenge to be working lalo na ata if in an office setup that you have to attend to unless it's ok to be halfday ang office work mo and you are also homeschooling.   I gave up my office job for homeschool, sis. Otherwise, ako mismo ang masisiraan ng ulo sa guilt if I am not being able to teach effectively. Just my two cents'

[dolly]

^Thanks for the info again sis. I'm not sure if I'm in an advantage since the office I'm working at moment is only a few steps away from our house. It's family owned so, basically I run the office. 2.5 hours is not bad, but I have to schedule it I guess in the afternoon since busy talaga ang morning ko. Problem ko na lang siguro is yung mga crafts na pwede ko gamitin for home schooling. And kung paano at ano ituturo ko sa kanya. Hence, need ko talaga nung seminar. 

[inkslinger]

^Hi sis. You may homeschool your daughter since she's just turning 3 and still doesn't need a formal Kindergarten attendance. Indeed that a homeschooling seminar may help you point in the right direction, but you can begin homeschooling your daughter even without enrolling her yet in TMA or in other homeschooling providers. This thread can help you in your homeschooling journey: http://www.femalenetwork.com/girltalk/index.php/topic,216747.0.html

Preschool teaches these 3 basic skills or the 3Rs: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. Dito iikot ang pagtuturo mo. If you're looking for arts and crafts, you may start browsing for projects from this site: www.education.com There are activities and worksheets there for a specific grade level.

[hunny_ally]

I just got the results of my daughter's semestral end assesment and I'm so happy with the results. In her school, they don't give out numerical grades rather they assess if for their age (nursery level) have they have met certain skills. It's categorized as Achieved, Emerging or Not Yet seen. She got mostly A's in more or less 160 skill sets.

For emerging skills, she needs to practice more on the ff:
-molding play dough
-putting puzzles together
-drawing shapes (I saw her test and she got the basic shapes but had a problem doing diamond, crescent and heart)
-drawing wavy line
-pouring liquids without spilling
- use toilet w/o assistance
-change clothes/ dress up independently or with minimal supervision
-buttoning
-Left and right (she gets confused daw according to the teacher)
- social interaction skills like waiting for turns and engaging in the process of negotiation to reach a compromise

Skills that weren't seen yet were removing/putting on socks and lacing/tying shoelaces.

I was surprised cause i was more concerned with the ABCs and numbers and turns out she did well on those. Even her tripod grip daw is prefect! More or less I know now which things I should focus on now. Any activities can you suggest?

[iceebaby]

^Thanks for the info again sis. I'm not sure if I'm in an advantage since the office I'm working at moment is only a few steps away from our house. It's family owned so, basically I run the office. 2.5 hours is not bad, but I have to schedule it I guess in the afternoon since busy talaga ang morning ko. Problem ko na lang siguro is yung mga crafts na pwede ko gamitin for home schooling. And kung paano at ano ituturo ko sa kanya. Hence, need ko talaga nung seminar. 

Yes, do attend. Okay yun,sis! It is also good to be surrounded with other homeschooling parents para you can share your thoughts with them esp those "hard" times (yes, it is hard on the 1st few months that you are still adjusting on the set-up).

[iceebaby]

...
I was surprised cause i was more concerned with the ABCs and numbers and turns out she did well on those. Even her tripod grip daw is prefect! More or less I know now which things I should focus on now. Any activities can you suggest?

How old is your child, sis? Good job! Galing ni baby!

Yan talaga ang challenge ng little kids hand coordination.  But, ok lang yan. They'll be ready when they are.

You can try these ideas I do with my tots:

Marbles on golf tees-
Materials:
5-8 golf tees
5-8 marbles (big or small as long as it fits the tee nicely)
any styro (shape it to a square)

Ask your child to put marbles one at a time on top of a golf tee na nakatusok sa styrofoam block (you can also ask her to poke those tees on the styro, just assist that it's balanced).  Assist ka lang lagi since matulis ang golf tees.She learns to balance them on the tee. 

Spghetti Noodles (Uncooked) in the bottle
Materials:
Empty dry and clean/clear mineral water bottle (or salt/pepper shaker is nice too)
20-25 pieces of uncooked spaghetti noddles (spaghetti noodles is tiny for a kid's grip)

Just ask her to put the spaghetti noodles in the bottle.  You can also try with a salt/pepper shaker - mas fun kasi to see noodles standing)

For buttoning: I saw this from Montessori school of my kid.  You can just hand sew buttons (big ones) on a shirt and ask them to button/unbutton them.  In Montessori, naka lagay siya sa isang square block that looks like this: http://www.bambini-montessori.com/cf-bin/prod_list.cfm?ProdCat=1

[hunny_ally]

Thanks! My daughter is 4yo. Will try these activities with her.

[pinkpotato]

ang galing iceebaby!

i remember when my daughter is only 8 months old (thats when she started tasting yakult) she likes inserting the straw into the tiny hole. ganito ichura,

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vZuRH05uiME/TPXbwYQNcOI/AAAAAAAAAoo/cqkd0GPona8/s1600/straw.jpg

when she attended montesorri at 2, nakita agad ng teacher how well is her fine motor skills, few sessions lang sya sa mga activity na to mga buttons, threading, etc tapos we moved na sa next.

galing mag isip ng activities, belib ako. sipag!

salamat sa pag share ng mga nagaganap sa inyong mga chikiting mga sisters. enjoy reading them.

[iceebaby]

Sis Hunny_ally, masarap na turuan ang 4 year old, mas longer na patience nila. 

I remembered din pala... you could buy a Joytoy Lacing game at National Bookstore.  Or if hindi mahilig with obvious-na-boring-toy kind of lacing activity). When my son naman was 4, we had a beadwork activity kami from some of my old necklace/bracelet charms na malalaki ang holes na sinira ko.  We'd make bracelet/necklace and I'd ask him to give it to someone. Which turns out, para sa crush niya na neighbor namin!  (Akala ko sakin! selos naman ako).  haha! Pero yun, mas naging interested siya to do it kasi ayaw niya ng mga lacing lacing toys.

Sis pinkpotato, ang sarap naman ng yakult na flavored na yun sa photo! Magawa nga din yan pag nag yayakult ang mga twin tots ko... maganda talaga pag fine motor ang nafofocus and not much with worksheets para parang play din.

Hay... parang lahat ng pwedeng maisip ko maaliw lang ang twins ko gagawin ko e. haha! Minsan nga sana Octopus ako sa never-ending na kalat sa house...
 haha!

[hunny_ally]

Ang problem ako ang walang patience lol! I'll try nga the necklace trick. I bought her before an accessories making kit. But I guess she's too young pa then so she didn't get to appreciate it that much. Ako ang mas nag-enjoy.

Ako naman I'm trying to introduce worksheets already. She'll be attending a big school by next year and I'm afraid it will be a culture shock for her. She gets a lot of free play/learning thru play already in school. Siguro nasa 80% free play/learning thru play ang activities nila then the rest worksheets. I don't know if it will be a good idea to transfer her to a traditional school or I'll start looking for a progressive school.

[yapeegurl]

Haps, which Montessori school did Hershey attend nga ulit? Nahihirapan ako maghanap kasi dito. I only found 4 Montessori schools nung Ng google ako. Is she attending the same school now?

I was browsing thru the net and madami pala downloadable na worksheets. They're categorized as: colors, numbers, shapes, matching, connect the dots, etc. Among those, sa alphabets kami nahihirapan iintroduce. But I'm going thru all the suggestions posted here. Medyo maiksi attention span Ng son ko sa alphabets and books. Gusto ko sana try nya puzzles Ng alphabets since mahilig sya sa puzzles pero phonetics dapat Muna ano? Before sight teaching.

[pinkpotato]

Alls, yung kit that you gave her she really really likes it pag gumawa pinamimigay nya sa iba. hahaah. tinago ko muna.

sa ACES Montessori sya dati. now di na. sa PAP community kami. Sa january well move her to ELFA, this is near our place kaya lang ang writing class daw e sa afternoon. kamusta naman babayaran ko nun kung whole day. ako na lang mag tuturo sulat.

Allison sent me a really good link to download this stuff. i shared it with my colleagues too. i'll find it and post here.

[pinkpotato]

BTW Als, same school na si Ate S and Noelle? SP na sya school?

[marose17]

@Ally, I bought a few workbooks from National Bookstore, mainly the ones for tracing and practicing writing letters.  The branch in Shangrila mall has a lot of workbooks.  Maybe you can take a look and buy a few of those for S. 

We have the same dilemma:  traditional vs. Montessori naman for me for grade school for the boys.  Still thinking.  We have another year of preschool but by first semester next year, the boys will be taking entrance exams na for prep/grade 1.

[DV]

Hunny_ally, for some of the skills you mentioned, here are activities that I do with my daughter:

Pouring
- watering plants
- baking (pouring ingredients--oil, water, eggs--into a bowl)
- when bathing, I give her some cups/containers that she can use for pouring water into
- I let her pour her own juice from the carton into her glass

Buttoning
- when we're folding clothes, I give her the ones with buttons and zippers so she can practice

Using the toilet
- we have a step-by-step diagram on proper handwashing posted in front of the sink; I let her wash her hands by herself

Left and right
- on the road, in an intersection, I tell/ask her if we're turning left or right
- in a place she's familiar with, like Toys R Us TriNoma, I ask her to give me directions (Are we turning left or right, or going straight ahead?)
- I hide an object in my left or right fist and make her guess where it is (or sometimes, I use inverted cups on a table instead of hands)