How Reagan Learns Sounds of Alphabets (Phonics)

Reagan can recognise all the initial sounds of the 26 alphabet letters at near 20 months. I make the letter sound, eg. "ber ber" and he can point to letter "B", "ge ge" and he points to letter "G", and so on. Now he is trying his best to say out the letter sounds vocally. Almost everyday I test him the same questions over and over again, "what does A says? What does B says? and so on..."

So far he can say out the phonics sound pretty clearly for "A,B,C,D,G,I,K,M,O" but the rest he is still babbling through haha, well at least he tries..!

 

How Reagan is exposed to Phonics

 

1)Flashing of the alphabet phonics cards since he was a baby.

2) Listening to the Phonics songs I played to him on Youtube. I sing along with him or prepare cards and flash together with the song for him.

 

3) I sang to him his ABC songs but instead of singing the alphabet letters, I sing the phonics sounds instead.

 

4) I bought a Phonics CD & book titled "Ants On The Apple" and have been going through with him since he was a year old. I let him listen to the CD and point to the letters and sentence on the book.

One of my mummies friends gave me the idea of tearing the pages out, laminate them and flash them as cards. Which is what I did!

 

I'm still looking out for more ideas for Alphabets and Phonics games because so far he is enjoying every single activity!

Reagan's Home Practice update for 1st quarter of yr 2014

An update on Reagan's current home practice as of 18 months onwards in beginning of year 2014..

Alphabets & Phonics
Although Reagan has already mastered all the 26 alphabet letters and their initial phonics letters sounds, I'm still constantly thinking of new activities to enforce further on his alphabets learning.
 
Eg. Matching the upper case letters (magnetic letters) to the lower case letters (printed on a paper). Now he can finally match correctly big capital "A" to small letter "a", all the way to letter "Z".

At times I prepare worksheets like this (below) for him to do. So far he is able to complete them all by himself, although sometimes he would miss out one or two letters, which he would still manage to find it after I gave him some hints.

 

Flashcards

Reagan is still having his daily dose of flashcards, 25-30 topics each session. There are days when I'm feeling tired (or lazy), so I may just skipped all activities and just do the cards flashing only. Till now I strongly believe that flashcards did help in building a strong learning foundation for Reagan as I can see that at this stage, he is picking up learning concepts really fast and I've to literally keep up with his learning pace.

Besides the 25-30 topics, I've also been practicing his words/phrase cards, and at same time, adding more words for him to recognise each week.

Recently I've added in the Glenn Doman Intelligence bits cards as well, topics on "Body Organs" and "Composers", inputting one of the 10 facts each day.

 

Puzzles

I've moved on from 2 pieces puzzles to 3-4 pieces puzzles this year. Reagan knows where each piece should go to form the picture, but he still can't really piece them properly by himself. He just placed them together but not fix them together properly. There are more room for improvement in his motor skill, but I still appreciate that he didn't give up at all..

 

Reading

After Reagan can recognise words, I gradually move on to reading. Reagan is still too young to read out the sentences in the books vocally, however it does not mean that I cannot prepare him on his reading. When he was younger, I used to read and point the sentence (in one direction) to him, then describe the pictures in the book.

 

At 20 months old, I've begin to start him on the habit of pointing to the words on the page himself while he listens to me reading the sentence out loud for him. So as I read, he points the words. And hopefully soon after he turns the age of 2 and develop better speech, he can point AND read the sentence to me by himself!

 

This series of books, "WOW! I Can Read" is bought from one of the "Growing Fun" outlets when I happened to see a sales staff recommending them to a mother who wanted to get something for her 5 years old child. The mom asked if I'm also getting the books, and I replied yes, as I think they be useful to start my boy on reading. She nodded as well and shared with me how she struggles to teach her 5 years old child to read. And then the awkward part came when she asked how old my boy is now....

Well, I don't know how to tell her that my child was just 18 months that time, and getting the same books which she was going to buy for her 5 years old child. I cant blame her if she sees me as some insane kiasu tiger mom. Still I believe it is never too young to start reading especially if your baby enjoys it.

 

So back to the books, what I like is the big clear bold words and pictures with clear background. It also emphasizes on sight words which are usually common in reading, eg" This is, I am, It is, I have, Because...and many more." It comes in 3 sets of 5 books with different difficulty level. I kept the books till Reagan hits 20 months before I started him on the first set. So far he is enjoying the reading session as much as I do.

 

 What more I've planned to do soon...

- Start him on Shichida Math Dots cards again. Repeat from first cycle.
- Focus a little more on Mathematics, teach him the concept of addition and subtraction
- Practice memory games with him (eg. Instant memory, photography memory, space memory, linking memory)
- Practice more tracing and writing with him

 

JG - Bilingual Playclub - Swimming + WaterPlay

Reagan LOVES to play with water ,he was certainly thrilled to bits during the waterplay activity last lesson.

Dear Kyrian...

Dear Kyrian,

You've been doing awesomely great! You must stay comfy and cozy inside till you're full term ok? Daddy, mummy and your korkor Reagan will see you in 3 months time...

Lots of hugs and kisses for you my darling...

Friday Lunch & Crafts @ EATPLAYLOVE

 

Reagan:" Let kor kor show you how it is done!"

The kids enjoyed a lovely Friday noon hanging out at this craft café, so did the mommies..

Our Baby Signing Journey

The day before, coincidentally two of my mummies friends texted me at the same time to get my feedback over the use of baby signing. Reagan has been exposed to baby signing for nearly 18 months and now I've gradually retiring it because my boy is now ready for more new and challenging learnings ahead. Reagan still remembers all the signings that was taught to him and we did enjoy a fantastic baby-signing journey together. And since I was asked for a feedback, I thought it'll be a good idea to record it down on my blog as part of an update of Reagan's learning development..

How our baby-signing journey begins...

While teaching as an instructor years ago, the parents of one of my 2 years old class brought up the use of "Baby Signing Time" to me when I mentioned that their girl seems very expressive in her speech and learning concepts ( as mentioned in my previous blog before, under baby-signing.) 
So after I had Reagan, I started to teach him the signing for milk when he was just an infant, just to "trial" to see if it works. And yes it did....at 7 months old, he spoke his first word "MILK" to us, which is also the first and only baby sign I taught him during that time (as recorded here). Speaking his first word at 7 months is enough to impress and got everyone in the house jumping in awe and excitement. And they began "pushing" me to teach him more baby signings. From then on, every time he wants milk, he either sign to us or just cried out "milk milk!"  I began researching more on baby signing, introduce it to him and allows him to naturally grasp it at his own pace. It was near 1 year old onwards that he's able to do more signings back to us. Well and that's pretty much how our baby- signing journey begins...

Like other mummies, I did hear of rumours that baby signing causes delay in speech at the later stage. However I took it with a pinch of salt, as so far what I've witnessed (esp the learning development of that particular 2 years old student in my class) it seems to be the opposite of the truth. I think it is more convincing if the individual that mentioned this has experienced the delay in speech after teaching his or her own child baby-signing or witnessed or know a child ( not just heard from somewhere) who learned signing and did encounter the problem. So far I've always heard of it as a rumor but yet to witness any negative feedbacks from other real parents who taught their baby signing.

It reminds me of another saying I used to hear before (as a rumour too), that you cannot teach a young child too much, otherwise when they're older, they will show no interest in learning. ??!! Seriously where do they hear this from?! THIS IS SO OPPOSITE OF THE TRUTH !!!! And I've so many reasons and facts to defiant this ridiculous rumour...

Anyway back to the topic on baby signing, there are also many who have never encountered baby signing and also doing well from other inputs too. So to me, baby signing is just another kind of learning or another type of input for babies. Good to expose, but certainly not a compulsory.
Still, thinking back on our journey of baby signing, below are some of the benefits which I like to highlight in my blog entry...  mainly based on what Reagan and I have derived from signing...

How baby signing benefits my baby and I

-Strengthen parent-child bond and boost his learning and self-esteem

Signing as a baby before he can speaks increase the number of positive interactions between us. It allows Reagan to relate to the things he sees around him and although he cant communicate to me vocally yet, his ability to sign encouraged him to initiate a conversation with me as a baby, which then of course I will respond positively back to him.
 For eg. When Reagan sees a flower, he did the sign for "flower" to me , which of course motivates me to praise him for doing the sign correctly, and carry on the conversation by telling him the colour of the flowers or count the number of flowers with me. This example shows that as a baby, he has attempted to initiate a conversation with me by signing and I was motivated to carry on the learning by adding more inputs. In other words, it helps him to relate to the things around him and aids me to provide more inputs on the subject which he signed and shows interest in. He also knew that it is a way to get my positive responds effectively when he relate to something using signing. So before my baby can speak, he has signed, communicated and learned more new information from me which therefore helps to boost his self-esteem, confidence ( more willing to express what he learned) and also strengthen our bondings.

- Early input of good manners
Baby Reagan is able to sign "thank you", "please" and "sorry" as a baby, which means at an early age he understood the use of the above gestures and able to apply it during situations that requires him to use it. I believe it is good and necessary to cultivate good manners from young, and when they're older, it gradually becomes a good habit and you don't have to constantly remind them to" use" their manners.

- Aids in teaching him to read
I feel this is probably the most important benefit of baby signing for Reagan and me. I'll never know that baby Reagan can recognise words before he can speak, IF he didn't sign to me the words he could "read". Since he had a "collection" of vocabs that he could already sign, I was able to use those vocabs and teach him to read them in words form. So although he has yet to be fully developed in his speech, he could already show me he can recognise words by signing what the words mean (video). Therefore it motivates me to teach him more and more words to give him a head start in his reading skill. And when his speech development comes in, hopefully he'll be soaring off from there.

The entire episode of baby signing learning with Reagan has been a fulfilling one. Each time my baby successfully learned a sign and used it correctly, it brings me so much joy and excitement and always motivate me to teach him more. I'll probably expose my 2nd boy baby signing too because since Reagan has already gone through the learning of signing, I knew by then he will be happy looking forward to be his younger brother's "little teacher" too !

So byebye signing time, time for your retirement....but we shall see you again very soon!

 

Wooden Sorting box

 

This wooden sorting box caught my eye during one of the Baby's Fair because it looks almost similar to the Montessori version of the sorting box.

 

It was nearly a year ago that I started to learn about the Montessori teaching method and since then I've been sourcing around for Montessori learning materials to teach my baby boy at home.

It was stated on the box that this activity is suitable for 3 years old and above, but Reagan was only close to 10 months old at the time when I discovered this similar one at the Baby's Fair.  I'm glad that I did not hesitate to purchase it at that time, especially since it was selling like a fraction of the above price of the original Montessori Sorting box. Furthermore, Reagan did not need to wait till 3 to enjoy this activity. At 20 months, Reagan is ready to play with this and is ranked as one of his favourite game at home now.

 

The wooden box contains strips of a variety of objects, from animals to fruits to numbers..etc

 ...and wooden cards of the objects to be matched to the wooden strip.

 

The most basic level is for the child to match the same items together by choosing the right card and inserting inside the right slot.

 

If matching objects is too easy, you can move on to the next level...

counting and matching the quantity to the right number...

 

Check out Reagan, as usual looking so serious and focused in doing his activity...

 

 

JG - Bilingual Playclub - Chalk Art

The kids busy with their craft activity.

Reagan was one of the first to complete the activity, so he began pacing up and down the classroom with his finished artwork haha!

 Chalk Art for this week's outdoor play.

Reagan loves the chalk art session... look at how serious he is in his drawing haha!

Pretend play with his teacher and classmates..

Looking forward to next week's class....swimming for outdoor play!

Montessori Sensorial Materials

The purpose of Montessori sensorial activities is to
-teach concepts of comparing and contrasting.
-aware of concepts of size, color, weight, quantity etc
-sharpen visual perception and comprehend abstract objects.

1) Pink Tower

consist of 10 pink cubes of different sizes and diameters. The child is supposed to build up a tower with the cubes starting from the largest to the smallest one. This activity encourage hand-eye coordination by preventing the tower from falling. It also helps the child to develop better perception in 3 dimension objects.

It took my 20 mths old boy around 5 tries before he could stack up all the cubes by himself

 To side-track a little, when Reagan saw me trying to take his picture with my camera, he paused, stared at me a while, then suddenly did his signature "cute cute face" pose ! Whahahha my boy is so ADORABLE!

 2) Knobbed Cylinders

consists of 4 blocks of cylinders different in size, height, depth and diameter. It can Improve fingers motor skill by handling the knobs of the cylinders and encourage them to observe the different variations for later Math that involve comparison and seriation.

 

 3) Brown Stairs

consist of 10 brown wooden Prisms ,all of the same length but with different height and breadth.This activity helps to develop visual perception of dimension and understand the relationships between prisms. It also sets a foundation for later geometry and unit differences in Math.

 Reagan counting the steps he builds

The Babies CNY Gathering

The kids wouldn't want to miss out the fun of "Lo-Hei-ing" this CNY !

 May our babies be blessed with good health and happiness, HUART AH!

 

JG - Bilingual Playclub - Beach Play

The kids get to have fun at the beach for their outdoor play this week. It was the first time that Reagan sank his feet into the warm sand and he seemed pretty intimidated by the new experience. He would curl his legs up and whine for us to carry him. It took him some time to "warm up" with the sand before he was willing to stand by himself.

Picnic at the beach before their sand play.

Reagan, still not v comfortable with the sand under his feet haha...

Scooping and digging the sand...

His buddy Ean happily collecting the seawater to build his sandcastles.

The kids had fun digging up a "well" together.

Pattern Board to Tangram Puzzle

One of the learning goals for my 20mths old baby boy this month is to get him interested in doing the Tangram puzzle, introduced from the previous Heguru right-brain school he used to attend. He is supposed to match the wooden blocks of different shapes to form a selected picture.

Initially he doesn't show much interest in doing the Tangram puzzle. He prefers to wait for me to complete the puzzle for him and then have fun messing everything up later, which was what always happened during his Heguru lessons that time.

 

Well, that's until I introduced him another almost similar activity, called the Magnetic Pattern Board from ELC. This Pattern Board Puzzle is more attractive and is much easier to do, compared to the Tangram puzzle mainly because of the colours I guessed.

 

Recently Reagan has been very interested in sorting colours and once I bring out this board, he shows great enthusiasm in completing the puzzle all by himself without my help or instructions at all. Somehow he understood exactly how to play the game !

 This activity not only helps in his motor and IQ skill , it also helps to train his patience and concentration in completing each picture.

 I used this activity to reinforced his learning of colours and shapes too.

Not long after, I tried my luck with Heguru's Tangram puzzle again. Hopefully after a week of practicing on the easier version of the Pattern Board Puzzle, he is more willing to challenge himself with the more difficult (or boring)Tangram puzzle.

 And I was right! Now finally he has more patience to complete the Tangram puzzle all by himself!

That's one big improvement I see. Keep it up baby boy, you're doing wonderful!