Toddler Beginnings Week 5

My notes on Mavi's homeschooling for Week 5

Date:  April 5 - 9, 2010

Source:  Bright Beaming Resources

 Theme: Eyes | Vocabulary: Pupil | Shape: Triangle | Letter: E  | Number: 5  | Nursery Rhyme: Bobby Shaftoe's Gone to Sea

Finally, I discovered another bookstore that has English books. While walking around Knez Mihailova, I discovered  PLATO. They have a few books which I plan to buy for Maverick in case we already have a budget.  English books are so so so expensive here!! A simple children's book would cost around 10Euro, and to think that it's about 6-8 pages only!  It makes me want to go back in the Philippines where you can buy a book for less than 1Euro... Booksale has a lot more in-store for Mavi!

Anyway, I was also happy that this week, I finally got to introduce watercolors for our hand painting activity! Plus, I found a nice kitchen set at Pertini Toys which I will also be using for our fine motor skills activites.

To read about the things Mavi learned for this week, read on for the details below.  Warning, long post ahead!!






MONDAY

Theme: Eyes

Vocabulary Word: Pupil

So curious to see EYES on the paper

I showed him the picture of an eye and a pupil.  I discussed to him what a pupil is, though I believe that as of now, it is still difficult for him to distinguish between the two.  My husband kept on telling me to make the vocabulary words much more easier hehe.

Maverick enjoying the activity

For our activity based on the theme, I made a picture of a face on the Photoshop and removed the eyes.  I printed it out on a paper and let him place the eyes on the proper location.  He enjoyed this activity, as he can position the eyes on any part of the face.  To make it more fun, I made two different types of eyes so he will know that  there are different shapes of the eyes.
 

The song we played this week was Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes which I got from Your Baby Can Read.

TUESDAY

Shape: Triangle

I drew a triangle and discussed to him that it has three sides. At first, he wasn't interested, but when I began to count, he started to listen to me attentively. Then we draw several triangles on a piece of paper. Lastly, I made him identify the triangle in the form fitter. He keeps on pointing to the diamond at first, but eventually he figured out the triangle. 

Learning the TRIANGLE shape

At the end of the day, he keeps on showing to me that he can fit the triangle properly on the fitter. I learned that it takes a while for him to digest the shapes. He gets confused at times, like the circle, he keeps on calling it the letter O.


WEDNESDAY

Letter:E

Painting the letter E

We hand painted the letter E with a blue watercolor.  I first showed him how to do it using my pointer finger in filling the letter with dots (while singing dot-dot-dot).  He's a little hesitant to touch the watercolor because he doesn't want to get his hand dirty.  Then I guided his pointer finger on the blue color, and painted a few dots on the letter E with his hand.  He keeps on looking at his pointer finger and feeling the texture of the water paint hehehe.

When he was already accustomed to the watercolor, he easily did  handpainting on the letter, even saying "dot-dot-dot".

I got the letter E from this site.

WEDNESDAY

Number:5

As usual, we wrote the symbol of number 5 together on a piece of  paper.  We also added  5 stickers below the number.  On the first side of the paper, I used ordinary blue-circular stickers (which I made) for our counting and on the other side, I made him use the bubble stickers.

I was happy that he's beginning to show interest on the stickers!! I mean, he did the whole "sticking" thing. We were just supposed to stick 5 stickers on the paper, but he insisted on adding the rest on the same side. I observed that it's easier for him to put the bubble stickers on the paper rather than the plain paper stickers.  

FRIDAY

Nursery Rhyme: Bobby Shafto's Gone to the Sea

I just read out to him the poem which I printed out.

Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea,
Silver buckles at his knee;
He'll come back and marry me,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe!

Bobby Shaftoe's tall and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair;
He'll be mine for ever more,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe!

THE LEARNING WALL

That's all for this week!

One of the activity I prepared for this week is hand painting.  I bought a non-toxic watercolor on a nearby shop and a large painting book.  

We just did the simple strokes first.  I slowly introduced to him the basic colors, then I showed him how to draw using my pointer finger.  I dipped my finger on the color and use it to draw lines on the drawing paper.  He was hesitant at first, he doesn't like the color staining on his hand. 

First time to touch the water paing!!

And when I wrote the letters, that's the time he got interested and started to draw using his fingers as well.

He's mixing the colors:-(

Our other activity was all about spooning.  It's a new activity I prepared for him. I used the kitchen set I bought a few weeks ago for this activity.

I didn't give him "water" for the spooning, because I am not ready yet to clean out the mess once the activity is done.  Knowing Mavi, for sure... water will be everywhere if I used it on this activity.

According to Tot Trays, I can use any "spoon-able" materials, so I made use of the kidney beans which we are not using.

 

The end result, he cannot spoon the beans yet.  He would just use his hands, transferring the beans from one plate to another.  Although he knows how to hold the spoon.. especially the bigger one, he cannot scoop the beans yet. He tried, but he just can't, and when his patience run out, he tapped the spoon on the container, making the beans scatter!

So this is just an attempt for spooning, we will continue this activity till he can manage to spoon smaller objects.

We were blessed with a good weather this week so we were able to spend the time outdoor, playing at the park.  We do not allow him to wander at the playground by himself.  Since there were kids swinging around, playing football.. we're afraid that he might be knocked off or bump with other kids. That's why we made sure that we follow him around in the playground

• On the playground, he likes to chase the ball of the kids playing football.
• He likes the slide, but he's not able to do it on his own yet.
• He's interested on the see-saw.  So I would make him sit on one end, and with me pushing the see-saw manually.

When he's on an open area like this, that we allow him to play on his own and discover things.

• He's into exploring these pebbles.  It's all about discovering textures nowadays. A few weeks ago, he played on the sand, now on the pebbles.  
• He noticed the twigs, and loves to play with them.  He would use it to write something on the ground or use it to dig on the pebbles.
• Whenever he sees a writing on a wall, or a poster, he would read out the letters that he can identify.  It's cute because he would use his fingers to point to the letters.