Hello 2013!

Happy happy new year dear readers! 

How’s everyone’s vacation?  Hope you and your family had a lovely time during the holiday break :)  I know most of you are anticipating a new post, but unfortunately, the Mommy (that’s me!) is still on vacation mode (LOL) and we only had a few random activities that aren’t post worthy.  And there’s still some work to be at home, like putting down our tree (not my favorite thing to do!), and some workers are coming here tomorrow to fix our water heater and tank (argh). 

But despite the fact that there’s a lot of things to be done in the next few weeks, I still long to start home “schooling” again.  It’s what I love to do and there’s never a day that I don’t think  about it.

For a head start, here’s what we’re having this JANUARY

• Science: Space and the Solar System
• Geography:  Africa
• Artist Study:  Michaelangelo
• Math:  Clock and Fractions
• Language:  Finish Green Series of Montessori Language, Spelling

There are just the MAJOR topics I want to accomplish this month.  In conjunction, we’re also doing worksheets (Singapore Math and the ones I bought locally), get lots of outdoor activities/ free play when the weather permits, and do random arts and crafts.

We’re gradually settling back to our old routine, and will definitely share some stuff the soonest :)

Thank you dear readers for a good 2012 and cheers to a much fruitful and enjoyable 2013! 

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Thank you!

Animal Classifications

Last week Mavi learned about animal classes.  He’s been playing with his animal figures for weeks and I thought that maybe I could have a little activity that would make use of these animals and learn at the same time.   And it hit me that we haven’t talked about animal classes yet.  All we ever do is sort animals whether they live on land or water, or whether they’re farm or zoo animals. So the thought of having a new activity got me really excited.

So per usual, I went to the library to get some books relating to animal classifications.

I started telling a story about the animal world wherein they are grouped according to their characteristics.  I used the images here to describe each of the class and then we sorted each of the figures whether they are mammals, reptiles, fish, birds or amphibians.

MAMMALS.  (Fur, mommies nurse their young with their milk, four legged and warm blooded)

REPTILES. (Scaly and dry skin, 4 legs or no legs at all, usually lay eggs, cold-blooded)

 

BIRDS. (Feather, 2 legs, lays eggs, warm-blooded)

FISH. (Scales and fins, lay many eggs, live in the water, cold-blooded)

AMPHIBIANS. (Moist smooth skin, live in land and water, lay eggs,webbed feet)

My son had a wonderful time with this activity.  For two days, this is just what we did, he loves sorting his animals.  Then one day, while he was doing free play in his room, I peeked and saw him sorting his animals all by himself :)

 

It felt good to see your son loving the things that you teach him.  So note to self, that the next time we’ll visit the zoo, we’ll play a game of telling what the animal class a certain animal belongs :)

Linking to:

Math

I’m curious how you guys practice addition at home.  Aside from the usual worksheets, what we do is mostly use our beads and counters to do hands-on addition.  I wanted to gather more ideas because as of now I’m running out of activities as to how I could make “addition” more interesting to him.  Don’t get me wrong, he loves addition.  At times he would randomly play addition using his fingers or spend his free time playing a MATH BINGO app.

I caught him one time playing with the app.  He's the happiest whenever he gets a correct answer.

              

We use beads as follows: 

I handwritten the equations on the writing paper and all he needed to do is follow what’s written on the paper and solve the equation.

 

For the bear counters:

I wrote numerical equations in a notebook and solve the problem using number cards and counters.  He records the answer in the notebook.  Aside from checking if it’s correct or not, I can also check whether he writes the number correctly.  At this time, he still finds it difficult to write number 4 and 5 LOL.

                

  

So this is what we usually do with our Math :)  How about you... any more ideas?