Home Practice for 15 mths old (his adjusted age 12.5mths)

Baby Reagan's yearning to learn and explore increases each day. We set up a learning corner in our bedroom, a proper area we can do our daily home practice together. Each time I want to begin our home practice, I will sing "Everybody sitting down, sitting down, sitting down. Everybody sitting down, it is fun time with mummy!" (tune of London's Bridge is Falling Down.) And my baby boy will crawl excitedly to our learning corner, where I'm already waiting.

I prepared a card with his name on it and placed it on where I want him to sit. I'll ask " R.E.A.G.A.N spelt Reagan! Who is Reagan? Your name is Reagan!" By then he'll be smiling very cheekily at me as he picks up his name card and hand it to me. 

During his Heguru class, name cards of the students are also placed on the floor, therefore he knew that when lesson starts, he needs to pick his name up and pass it to the teacher.

 1) First we begin with flashcards 

- 20 x topics of picture cards

- 5 x Glenn Doman words cards in English

- 5 x  Glenn Doman cards in Mandarin

- 5 x BabyCanRead Words Sliding cards

2) ESP game
Either I insert the piano or drum into one of the red packets (I wanted to use white envelopes but ran out of it.) Then I put both red packets near his ears and get him to listen for the sound made by the piano (or drum), and get him to pick the right red packet with the piano (or drum) inserted inside. 

ESP is one segment of right-brain that I did not really show much emphasis on at first , until baby Reagan started getting most of the ESP questions right during his Heguru class. So I thought he might enjoy the ESP game in his daily home practice.

3) Dot bar
The dot bar which I learned from his Heguru class, is used to teach simple addition and subtraction. The number of grid squares increases as they advance. I started with 5x5 grid and use colored magnets instead to represent the dots.

 4) Proverb & Poem reciting
Every week I introduced a new proverb in English and a poem in Mandarin. I'll just point and recite them 3 times each.

5) San Zi Jing

I began to expose him to San Zi Jing via flashcards.

By this moment, if he starts to lose attention, gets distracted or even crawl away...I'll play this SanZiJing poem (click HERE) on the Ipad right after I finished reciting the above. Most of the time it works in getting him AND his attention back. However I'm still not comfortable in using gadgets like Ipad, TV or computer to teach. It has been proven to cause more harm than benefits for babies, such as poor eyes and brain development, and behavioral problems after long-term usage. Therefore this Ipad activity only comes in when necessary. Otherwise I will put it on the Ipad but keep it away from his reach, so he can only listen to it.

6) 2 pieces puzzle
I'm trying to introduce puzzle-fixing to my baby boy, and 2 pieces puzzles are probably the best type to start him with. At the same time I can also input the concept of half and whole.

To make the game easier for babies, each lesson I only choose 2 kinds of animals for him to play with. (Throw them too many pieces at one time will confuse them and they end up chewing on the puzzles.)

 I will demonstrate to him how I fix the puzzle together to get a whole picture of the animal. Then I pick up one piece to show him and ask him to help me look for the other half of the puzzle. He just have to choose and pick one from the 2 pieces. Baby Reagan cant really fix the puzzle together by himself yet, so usually I do it for him and get him to fix them in place by tapping on it.

7) Alphabets or Phonics  

 I sing the ABC song or recite the Phonics sounds while flashing the alphabets or pointing to the chart. This is still his all-time favorite.

8) Shells Pasta Finger-Training

This is a new activity that I created for him, but only play this game strictly under close supervision, especially for babies close to a year or below. The first time I brought out the pastas, Reagan went crazy over them and was so eager to pop them into his mouth. They look similar to a type of biscuits that we often give him and therefore I had a hard time to stop him from eating my pastas before I can even start the game.

The shells pasta can be used in many ways to train their fingers-control. They can first learn to pick it up one by one using their fingers (thumb and index fingers) and transfer them to another container. As they advance, they can start using a ladle or spoon to transfer the pastas. 

I taught Reagan to pick up the pasta shell one by one and put them in individual compartment of the ice-tray and did simple counting together. The shells pasta and ice-tray activity can be used to input various math concepts, even multiplication and division.
I will come to that again when Reagan has reached that stage.

Reagan always gives up after completing like 2-3 compartments, then he will try to "spice up" the game by grabbing the pasta shells and throwing them across the floor. He also enjoys toppling the entire container of pastas and swiping them with his bare hands in glee. I hope I can gradually cultivate his patience until he is able to successfully fill up the entire ice-tray all by himself.

9) Tracing Activity

 I've started to let him use the crayons or markers to do some scribbling, since he was also given a chance to use them during his Heguru class. I bought a book on tracing, tear them out page by page and insert them into a sheet protector. So he can use the whiteboard marker to trace and erase as many times as he wants.

I still have to monitor him closely during this activity as there are still times when he attempts to put the marker into his mouth. At this stage they can't hold a writing tool very well, so I've to control his hand and guide him to trace. However he finds more enjoyment using the duster to erase off everything after this activity ends.

10) Story-reading or Music dancing

Lastly, we often end our home practice either with a story book (if his patience is still present)

, or playing the CD and dancing to his favorite songs. It depends on his mood too, baby Reagan doesn't really dance or even move or groove to the music. However he loves to watch me dance for him instead, which is what I always do.

Our daily home practice consist of 10 easy steps and has increased from 5 to 8-10 minutes a day. The entire curriculum is catered to my boy as every baby's interest is different. I'm looking forward to add some memory games like Mandala and linking memory, or speed-reading and Iroita to his home practice once he is ready for it. I'll gradually monitor and adjust his home practice session as he grows older. 

Baby boy is still enjoying his fun learning time with mummy and I too cherish every single home practice bonding session with him. Mummy has so much fun learning together with you, love you always my baby boy!