Bibinogs Term 1 - Lesson 10

Today is Reagan's last lesson for this term at Bibinogs Playschool. We had a big group of 7 babies in class! I couldn't blame him for being distracted by the screeching and wailing noises and other babies moving around. During the lesson, my cheeky monkey was so eager to explore and move around with the other babies too and I made efforts to get his attention back many times.

Probably only during the story-telling time and phonics recitation, he is more willing to be seated on the mat. And now, he would struggle for me to let go of his hands when we do the actions songs together. He shows that he wants to do it himself and doesn't want me to help him anymore...oh well. Even for the craft time, we were supposed to paint the sea blue and paste jellyfish but baby Reagan was trying what he can do to "destroy" his artwork. His cheeky mischievous face tells it all...

Surprisingly baby Reagan showed more patience for the mandarin lesson today. Instead of trying to crawl or turn away as usual, he cuddled up to me, sat on my lap throughout the entire mandarin story-telling and all the songs and poems recitations. I guessed he had drained out all his energy during the English segment and was getting too tired and sleepy to move. As expected, after I popped in his pacifier and pat him with his pillow, he snoozed away within seconds.

Letter of the week is "J", and we had Jam Jam Joey!

1 more month to 1 year old!

Reagan is going to be ONE !

2 more weeks to baby Reagan's 1st birthday Party ! He didn't get to celebrate his first month as he was still stuck in the ICU, so we promised to throw him a lovely 1st birthday bash to make up for it. Even if he may not really remember his party in future, still I felt it's pretty meaningful to treat it as a celebration of making it through the first year of parenthood! Yeah we survived ! And I know...more to come..

I'm trying not to let this post end up all about reminiscing about how this day finally arrived all the way from last year. As a mom, you tend to think back on the day you gave birth to your baby and all the crazy and emotional journey you tide through that one year. It seems like just yesterday that I'm still carrying my tiny little kitten in my arms and now...I'm planning his 1ST birthday party!

The initiate planning stage is a little daunting as there's probably no step-to-step guide on how to plan your 1 year old birthday and my ideas are just scattering everywhere. I'm also a great procrastinator and it takes lots of effort to push myself to start thinking, sourcing, planning and executing the preparation just two weeks before his big day.

Bits and pieces of ideas are floating around my mind, of course they're no way near Martha Steward's style. I wanted his birthday party to be fun, creative, memorable, easy, fuss-free and of course inexpensive, but I admit that sometimes I do get carried away in my moment of thrill.

First, I need a theme, one that must be of baby Reagan's interest, and I chose "Jungle Animals" because currently that is one of his favorite flashcards topic, and also one of the easiest theme to execute a kids' party.

This banner sticker is made by my cousin, cute isn't it? She helped me with some of the customized stuffs which I'll talk more about it nearer to date.

So now, let's count down to my baby boy's first ONE-derful birthday party!

Bibinogs Term 1 - Lesson 9

 Baby Reagan is at the stage of learning to crawl and stand, therefore today he is so eager to "show-off" his new skill to his teachers. Throughout the lesson, he would eagerly get on all fours to attempt to crawl whenever he had the chance. Or else he would turn towards me, put him arms around me to pull himself up to stand. Usually during the free-play time, he can sit on the mat by himself and play with the toys quietly before the class starts. But now, he prefers to move around and explore! Today my boy is an active and curious little monkey !

Today is letter "I" and we made an Igloo out from a plastic bowl and some cotton pads. Mummy tried to help baby Reagan to brush the glue on it. Halfway through, he lost patience and started slapping his other hand on the plate of white glue. Poor mummy needs to clean him up again and finish the artwork for him.

Our art piece, little Igloo

The teacher brought out an Iguana puppet today which I thought was pretty cool but Reagan seems to have no interest and wouldn't even bother to look at it. And he used it as an "excuse" to crawl away..

Finally once the teacher whipped out the phonics flashcards, baby Reagan's eyes widen and he returned back to his sitting position.
As the teacher recite the phonics chant, he began smiling and moving his arms in excitement again.

 

 

He is totally obsessed with alphabets and flashcards, you can witness how much he enjoys the phonics segment.

Letter I, Iggy Iguana

 And also this week then I found out from his teacher that all these while they are doing the ZOOLANDER Phonics and not ZOO-PHONICS. Well, the only difference is the type of animals associated to the alphabets.

Bibinogs Term 1 - Lesson 8

 Reagan baby, you helped teacher to put the toys back into the box during the clean-up time! Good job sweety!

 

 Today's letter of the week is "H", and the teacher introduced Harry Hippo to the class! Reagan is still not a fan of soft toy but I managed to get him to give Harry Hippo a big "hi-5".

For craft-time we painted a picture of a Hotdog! There was supposed to be "chilli" and "mustard" stick on it but it got tore off when we reached home.

Polliwogs again! with his buddy Ean

Reagan's Early-Learning from Infant stage

For babies below 12 months, learning is mainly about exposure, exploration and inputting information. And therefore the fastest, easiest and most convenient way to expose them to a various topics under the sun, is via flashcards.

 It is NOT about forcing the baby to memorise or to understand the concept immediately from flashcards. Its main piroirity is to INPUT and EXPOSE to them the different topics and it doesn't matter whether if they are too young to understand that certain topic, because the purpose is to ACTIVATE their RIGHT BRAIN and store that information in it. When the right time arrive, their left-brain would automatically "decode" whatever information you've inputed into their right brain earlier, and in this way, gradually they will understand and use the learnt information at a faster rate.

Whether it is from Glenn Doman, Shichida or Heguru, which are the top 3 pioneers for babies' early-learning via flashcards, they all follow similar principles and rules, such as

1) To start as early as possible as the window opportunity is from birth to age of 3
2) Flashing at a high speed to activate the right brain
3) To teach with love and joy

When Reagan was an infant, we exposed him to visual stimulation cards and lots of music. Not only we play him different kind of songs and music, mummy also sang to him all the time.

At nearly 3 months old onwards, we started flashing picture cards, Shichida's dots cards and Glenn Doman Word cards. And from then on, Reagan's love for learning and flashcards took off from there. Till now, mummy cherishes every single bonding session with baby Reagan through our daily home activities.

Reagan displayed interest in phonics and alphabets during one of the trial classes that I brought him, therefore mummy input that in the daily home-learning, by flashing the alphabets and reciting the phonics sound of each alphabet. He has been enjoying his learning activities every since.

His Daily 5 mins Home-Learning includes:

- 5 X Glenn Doman cards

- 1 set of Shichida dots cards

- 15 topics pictures Flashcards

- 1 set Phonics flashcards

- 1 BabyCanRead book

- 1 BabyCanRead sliding words cards 

Refer to the video here.

1) Glenn Doman cards- I bought the 2nd-hand Glenn Doman reading kit set from another parent on the internet, after the book I read "How To Teach Your Baby To Read (The Gentle Revolution)" sparked my interest on this learning method.

 2) Math dots cards- There are two types of Math dots programs, one from Glenn Doman and the other one from Shichida. Because I'm more familiar with the Shichida method therefore I chose to use his Lightning Rapid Calculation 65 Day Dots Program. The course outline can be found here here.

3) Some of the pictures flashcards are either bought from bookstore and online websites, but most of the cards are "home-made" by myself. Believe it or not, I started making my own flashcards when baby Reagan is still in my tummy.

4) I printed my own Zoo-Phonics cards using the same animals learned in his current Bibinog school, so he can relate it during his school lesson as well. He grew familiar when I flash the cards everyday and recite the animals and the sounds they made, so during class he shows more excitement when the teacher recite the phonics to him.

5)BabyCanRead series of books and flashcards are bought at a discounted price during a baby fair held in Expo. Mainly it's just books/cards that shows the words and the pictures separately.

- Story books
It is easier to cultivate good reading habits if you start from young. I began reading storybooks to Reagan after he was able to sit up straight at around 6 months old. I just show him the pictures and read or describe the pictures to him, or point the words when I read if they are big and clear enough. To capture his attention, I choose books that are bright and colourful and flip the pages fast enough to retain his attention span.

Reading the words and pointing them in a left to right direction at a young age can reduce the risk of dyslexic for children in future. 

- Teaching Folder

I actually prepared this teaching material when I was pregnant with baby Reagan. First I show him  the words, then the pictures and then tickle the body parts that was shown. He enjoys this game as well.

-Educational DVDs
There are many articles and research that emphasize the harmful effects that are caused if baby is exposed to too much tv, regardless whether or not they are educational. It may be beneficial to a toddler or a young child who is probably able to pick up what is taught in the education programme but it may not be likewise for a baby. This article explains more on the tv effects on baby, worth a min of read up.

Despite that, Reagan has 3 educational dvds, Baby Signing Time, Baby Can Read and Sparkabilities.  I'm still strictly against the use of TV to teach a baby, so a little confession on my part, usually when I play Reagan's dvd , it is mainly for me to "buy" time to keep him entertained for just a short while so I can take a bath, wash up , sterilise his bottles or do some quick cleaning up. So if I really need to use the TV to buy me time, it might as well be some educational programmes. However, we set a very strict TV rule for Reagan at home. We restrict his DVD time to only 10 minutes a day (IF it is necessary only, otherwise he will go without TV the entire day) and never play it for him before his school time or bedtime. And that includes the IPad. We do alot on listening though, playing his familiar videos or songs on the IPad then hide it away from him so he can only LISTEN, which in my opinion, encourages auditory and visualization thinking skills.

-Our Goals for baby Reagan's learning journey:

1) To raise him up in a fun-loving and stimulating environment, creating lots of exposure, enriching his learning experience, so he would grow to become an inquisitive boy who finds joy in learning and displaying his creativity.

2) To provide a lifetime of love, attention, support, guidance and encouragement to build up his confidence for him to reach his full potential in life at his own comfortable pace.

3) To give him the best and most memorable childhood.
 
- A Teacher and a Mother
I've always got this deep interest and strong passion in the studies of early-learning. Teaching and bonding with my baby boy is one of the greatest opportunity, satisfaction and fulfillment in my life now. My baby boy is also my teacher who is teaching me so much more than what I'm teaching him now. He taught me to love whole-heartedly, to cultivate my patience, to be stronger and tougher (mentally and physically)  and to be thankful and cherish every simplest thing that happen to me in life. To sum it up, he shows me the light to happiness and completes me as a better person.