Artisitic Pursuits! "Teaching" Art to little ones

Hi Everyone,

I don't know about you but I have never ever come across a child who does not like "getting creative." I recently purchased a book for parents about teaching art to kids. It is written by a lady called Brenda Ellis from Artistic Pursuits. It is an excellent resource to have in your little learner library as I like to call it. The activities are easy to do and even allow the young and old to join in. The activities are adjustable to suit age ranges. The book is aimed at Pre-School children ages 3-5 but I have been able to adjust some of the activities so my 9 month old can join in to. The book is easy to read and certainly allows you to appreciate the 'art' your children make but what I love the most about this book is how it gets you talking with your little ones about the world around you and makes you notice the depth of colour in nature, and picking things up and talking about the texture, the material, the colour and noticing the beauty outside in our back yard
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Here are a few photos of some of the projects we have been doing.

This above picture entitled by my daughter "Silver Storm." It is Miss S's interpretation of the sky from Project no 2 in this book.  As you can see my dd has drawn a big silver cloud, The blue lines are rain drops, the pink, yellow and brown lines are 'lightning'. The Project is about observing the sky and talking about what we see and drawing it on paper. Although yesterday when this picture was created was a beautiful sun shine filled day my little dd wanted to talk about storms. So I said "what does the sky look like when there is a Storm coming?" and she talked about what the sky looked like as she drew. It was a lovely moment sharing together as I watched her create this. I also let go of the fact and shut my mouth when she drew pink lightning. Pink must be included in everything its her favourite colour. :)


Although it was not a proper observation of the sky as the book says the process of creation is far more important than the end result. This was the image in her mind about how the sky looked in a storm not mine and therefore Miss S's creation. What was the most important thing here was Miss S was creating something from her imagination and we were enjoying a moment together but all the talking about what we saw in the sky has already led her to notice other things in nature and want to 'draw' them. I believe the goal of this project is to take notice of what is around you.

The next project we did was one called "Mark Making" I adjusted this project so my youngest DD  who is 9 months could join in to. I have put cling wrap over the table, then added my finger paint, than added another layer of cling wrap and stuck it down with tape. This way I avoided dirty hands and the worry of my youngest dd putting the paint in her mouth. This way both my DD's could have the fun of finger painting and still make pictures without the mess.

This way also allows your kids to make "pictures' but it also gives the opportunity to teach about primary and secondary colours. In the above pictures you can see Miss S 'mooshing' blue and red together to make purple. Also you can see she has had a great time putting her hand prints everywhere.

 I hope this post has gotten you all inspired to start some 'art' projects with your little ones. Feel free to ask questions or post comments below.

Kimba

What I have been up to.

Hello everyone,


Sorry for the hiatus lately. Been really busy, my eldest Daughter is about to start at a Montessori school and has not taken as well to it as I thought she would. She is beginning to settle down now but I think the transition from a daycare environment to a Montessori environment has been a little harder on her than I thought it would be.

The reason why I think it has been harder on her is a Day-care environment is  more chaotic than a Montessori environment which is a very orderly and quiet environment. I think the transition from those two environments and what is expected of her in each one has been confusing. This has surprised me quite a bit as I thought she would have been really excited to go to Montessori and found it an easy transition but to my surprise it has not been that easy for her and my patience either.

Miss S is improving with each visit and starting to really enjoy being in the Montessori environment. She is far more tired after 3 hours of Montessori than she is of 10 hours of day care. A Montessori environment has a tremendous amount of things to do compared to day-care and I think to begin with the choice has overwhelmed her, even though the choice is limited the "work" as they call it in Montessori is very engaging and requires the child's full attention as Day-care does not.

I have actually been quite worried that our decision to send Miss S to a Montessori has been the right one. It is hard to say if this is the "right' choice for Miss S. My concerns have been about her settling in and making friends as she as a wonderful group of friends at day-care and I was not wanting to split her up from them, then my husband reminded me that when she goes to school that she will not be going to school with any of her friends from daycare any way. So I am only prolonging the inevitable. The other issue I have is that the Montessori school ask that children be toilet trained. My child the little darling that she is flatly refuses to go to the toilet. This has played on my mind quite a bit and I have been wondering if she is using the toilet as a delay tactic so she does not have to go. It is not a case of I cant go to the toilet it is a case of I wont go to the toilet.  Everybody tells me she wont do it forever but I'm beginning to think she will.

Just a ramble tonight. Trying to get all my worries together, Sorry if this post makes no sense.
Kimba

My Journey teaching my almost 3 year old to read. Part 2

Welcome back fellow readers.


Posting on from last night, Besides from DVDs I also made my own books and I made some of my own word cards and hung them around my house explaining what each object was. I took them down each time people came over so people were not aware of what I was doing. You could say I was in the early learning closet and that is because I did not want Miss S being made to 'perform' for others and I did not want to be bombarded with questions from other parents as to 'why' I was doing this. Also I was skeptical myself so I was quietly keeping the results to myself to as I was unsure to believe them or not.


Okay so why post words all over your house. Well I wanted to increase Miss S's vocabulary but I also wanted her to be immersed in learning to read so to speak. I wanted written words to be a part of her everyday life. As I walked by a word each time I would just run my finger under it from left to right (So Miss S knew which way the word went) and said the word aloud. Within a month she knew all the words around the house and she was approx 8 months old. By this time Miss S knew approx 300 words. (I knew by asking her to pick say the word cat out of 5 cards and she was able to. I discovered the words she knew through a process of elimination) and I don't say these things to brag about my daughter. I say this because I believe ALL young children have the capability to learn to read given the opportunity, and to prove to you all that any child can learn and I hope through some of the methods I have used you can find a way to suit you to and begin the journey.


Around the time my Daughter turned about 8 months old I returned to work 3 days a week. So some learning had to be done in the mornings before work and after work not just when it suited me through out the day. I also used the time I had at work in my breaks to create the books. They were very simple books which I made to bring her reading together while Miss S knew lots and lots of single words we needed to build her reading stamina to couplets and then on to phrases and sentences. This part actually took a lot of time and I went a bit backwards because at this time I introduced Little Reader another reading programme but more on that tomorrow night. Back to the books. All I did was by a blank spiral book A4 size and on every second page I wrote a couplet. For Example White Hair, Brown Bear, Tall Tree. etc etc. and once to twice a day (on my days off and weekends) we would go through it. I also wrote up more word cards and made up colours and I would sit on the floor with her and made a couplet game. I would get a colour card. A card with Red written in red and Green written in green and pair it with a noun card gloves, shoes, chair and put the words together. For example I would put green hair together and go in a silly voice that's silly people don't have green hair but people can have brown hair and change the card from green to brown while I ran my finger from left to right. under the card.

Now my biggest problem here was that I was not consistent. I did not show my DD the book regularly enough as well as the cards, but it was still a fun game to play and my dd still learnt something it just took longer because I didn't dedicate myself to a regular routine with Miss S. As in one of my earlier posts consistency is king. As I had returned to work I found I was not in the mood to always play games and after daycare Miss S was tired so it didn't always work, but she did enjoy playing the game on my days off and on the weekends.

Onto Part 3 tomorrow night Little Reader.


Happy Teaching
Kimba

My Journey teaching my almost 3 year old to read. Part 1

Hi Everyone,

Before I get into how I taught my child to read, I would first like to point out that my child is not gifted nor has she ever been assessed by a professional and given the label 'gifted'. Miss S has been taught to read through a process which I am now doing currently with my youngest daughter. I have also taught her other things like maths, which is for another blog. What I am hoping to do is to DISPEL THE MYTH That children before the age of 5 can not be taught to read.


I first started with Miss S when she was 3 months old. We started with a program called Your Baby can Read. (Which I will now refer to as YBCR) We followed this program methodically doing exactly 8 weeks of each DVD plus I did all the flashcards and books that came with the program. By 6 months Miss S could differentiate between approximately 20 words. By the end of the programme she knew all the words and what they meant.You could hold up the card 'mouth' and she would open her mouth. Hold up another card like point and she would point. You get the picture. By the end of the programme S knew all the words (approx 150-200).

I thought YBCR was and is a great programme I also felt that this programme was not enough and as Miss S was 10 months old when we completed the programme I felt she needed something more as YBCR covers a lot of single words it does not go into couplets e.g (White hair, blue bricks) to building into phrases e.g (I'm standing up) to sentences. Please also note that I also introduced in this time Baby signing time which she learnt to read all the words off those DVD's to. I taught my DD1 Sign Language (ASL) as she was pre-verbal it was how I knew that she knew what words she was reading and she could sign what they meant.

At this point it is where most 'well meaning' people say it is not reading it is only memorisation if the child can not phonetically sound out a word it is not reading. The definition of reading and this is from The Free Dictionary is as follows

1. To examine and grasp the meaning of (written or printed characters, words, or sentences).

2. To utter or render aloud (written or printed material): read poems to the students.

3. To have the ability to examine and grasp the meaning of (written or printed material in a given language or notation):

As you can see the definition of reading does not say you must be able to phonetically sound the word out all it states is that you are able to examine the word and understand what it means. I do not knock the teaching of phonics I do believe it certainly helps in teaching an older child to read whether it is necessary or not in the teaching of a child under the age of 3 is still up for debate. Why? you may ask when we were taught to read through strong phonic instruction is because if you show an under three approximately 200-500 words and their meanings a lot of those children intuit the phonic rules without formal instruction but not all. The child is able to sound out the word without hours of  formal instruction.

I will discuss the next thing I did tomorrow night in Part 2.


Happy Teaching
Kimbaxx

Mum's we deserve more!!

Today I thought that I would vent about something that seems to be something that is highly dismissed by society as an important job and that is the job of MOTHERHOOD.

Motherhood is the most important task many women undertake for the love of their children to make sure they grow into well-respected, contributing happy human beings of society. Yet it is the most undervalued and the least respected of all the jobs that could be done. It seems lately that unless you are in the paid workforce (and are of working age) you are not a valued member of society. The other thing I notice is when those children act up the first person blamed is usually the mother too.

Mothers are the back bone to any culture. Our unconditional love for our children means their survival and this is not just seen in humans this is seen in the animal kingdom to. You only have to watch a documentary on animals to see what they do to protect their young. Without mother's we as a society would wither and die.

I believe that it is time that mother's got what they deserve which is recognition for what we do. It is hard, hard yakka. Any mum out there who has had to try and get their two year old to go to the toilet, or has been woken from a sleep because their little one has had a night mare and at 3am you are checking under the bed and all the cupboards just to reassure that child that their really are no monsters and then to only be woken 3 hours later by the same child now fully refreshed and eager to start the day and you have to drag yourself out of bed and you have to be ready to go when you feel like a train has hit you, and there is no time before you here Mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, and you haven't even had a sip of your tea or coffee. Is true love, 

Before I had children, I can tell you I thought parenting was the most piss easy job in the world. All you have to do is feed them, clothe them, keep them clean, make sure they know that they are loved. Hugs and cuddles and bed time stories and that pretty much sums it up. I now know better. I work harder now than I have ever done in any of the paid jobs I have had. It is tiring some days you will do nothing but discipline all day. Other days can be listening to constant whining ad some days are just absolutely marvellous and it wipes out all those bad days. Some days it takes all of your strength not to shut yourself in your wardrobe and hide there until your significant other comes home. In saying all of this the rewards are endless and better than any bonus you could ever receive from work.


I think it is time we challenged the stereotype of Motherhood. We certainly don't sit on our arse's all day while our children play on the floor. We are the one's their for all the scraped knees, doing the hard yards with discipline, looking at the best schools for our children online. Preparing their food and drink, reading every parenting book on the market to constantly improve ourselves as parents. Reading our children their favourite story 20 times a day. Playing pretend, cooking cakes. Vacuuming, washing, mopping, doing dishes and grocery shopping. We do it all with a smile on our faces and while sometimes dragging our feet. We are also the first to sacrifice whatever our needs are so our children can have better.

We deserve thanks for what we do! I salute all you mothers out there doing the hard yards and even if your children never thank you. I do. Thank you for loving your children and making them decent human beings for society. Thank you for all of the sacrifices you make, the sleep ins you give up for Saturday morning sport or dance. The times you find it so hard to discipline your child and you are taking them to the naughty corner for the 20th time that day. You are a hero.


Kimba

My review of Monkisee ACTION WORDS dvd.

I was recently sent the Monkisee Action Words DVD to review.(http://www.monkisee.com) I have to say it was a really good DVD. I gage this on how well my 2 DD Miss S almost 3 and Miss A almost 7 months interacted with the DVD. I will write my review with dot points because it is easy to read and allows us already time poor parents to make quick decisions.

PROS

• 30 words on the DVD are covered which is excellent, approx a word per minute
• Kids are asked to participate immediately by doing the action. Great for Miss S and I can help the younger one
• The word is shown in 3 different ways. So the child can see how each word is used in our daily lives.
• 3 words are shown at a time than each word is explained individually.
• Each word is shown in large red letters and an arrow comes across the screen from left to right to show which way we read the word.
• A catchy song is played at the end of each segment and the words appear again and the word meaning is acted out. So the child watching sees the word and puts the meaning of the word together.
• The puppets add a fun touch. I was never a fan to begin with but after watching both my DD's engage with the DVD. I felt they engaged more because of the puppets and participated more in the dvd because the puppet asked them to. My youngest DD watched the dvd glued and its hard to make her watch anything my eldest DD giggled and laughed and did all the actions the monkey's did.

CONS

• There really aren't any it's more improvements that could be made.
• The sound is a bit tinny and could do with a slight adjustment. The Host Olivia sounded to me a bit echoie at times.
• And that is it.

So in my humble opinion when it comes down to it all the question I ask my self is this. How much bang for my buck am I getting? For $19.95, this DVD is well worth being part of your Early Educational Library. It is fun and interactive. It gets the kids up moving, so its good for a rainy day or snowy day, depending where you live. I rate this DVD a 9/10 This is very good considering there is a lot of stuff on the market touted as 'educational' when it is not and this is very educational at all.

Happy Teaching Parents and Caregivers
Kimba xx

A great TED talk about how education kills creativity!!!! Something to think about

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

A very interesting talk. well worth the 20minutes. Is the arts still important to you?


Kimba

Does social media stop us from being good parents??????

I have been recently thinking a lot lately about the impact technology has on our lives especially with children. I was watching extreme parenting with Super Nanny Jo Frost and she was conducting a sleep experiment. The children in the first week were allowed to stay up as late as they liked and in the second week they had to go to bed at 7:30.

It was the second week that had me intrigued. All the electronic devices were removed form the bedroom so they had nothing to keep them awake and all they could do was go to sleep. They were not even allowed to play with them once they got home from school. What I found interesting was the amount of electronic devices these kids had. Mobile phones, laptops, wiis, PS2, ipods or mp3 players. These kids spent more time on these devices than they did with their own families.

So that led me to my next thought. Are we using all these devices so we do not have to engage with our own children? So they are babysat in some way.? I understand the world we live in is very digital but are we teaching our kids to never have a real relationship unless it is with some device as a medium? Are we so distracted in our own lives and by the internet that we can no longer really engage with them any more either?

As the children were no longer allowed to play with these devices. The families began spending more time together. The board games came out, books came out, homework was done, and funnily enough the families all said how nice it was to play with their children and engage with them rather than them locking themselves away in their rooms playing the computer or texting friends or both.

I know I am guilty of this. I know how often I am facebook throughout the day. Seeing what everyone else is up to, using it to engage with other people. Checking my emails constantly to see if anyone has commented on my status update. Checking my husband's twitter page and seeing where he is at or how far away he is from home. Conversing with him on twitter. The list goes on. I find I’m almost need to constantly check it and if one of my children need me or come to ask me something I’m like wait I’m on facebook instead of really making her important I make the internet important. I'm almost annoyed if I am interrupted and writing this down does not make me very proud as a parent but if im honest enough I don't think I am the only parent who does this in some shape or form.

So do we as a western culture allow these devices to come into our lives because we are bored and addicted. We want to engage with everyone and feel like we are important to someone but not to the people we should be important to? Are my kids learning from me that social media is far more important. Engaging with a screen all the time. Please don't get me wrong I am not against social media at all or using technology or the TV to teach my child but when I am using the devices as a form of escapement and entertainment rather than doing what I should be doing or brushing them aside to finish a facebook status or checking my email and not engaging with the kids as I should I wonder where you draw the line? When is it an addiction to escape boredom? Are our children learning to be addicts because that's what they have been taught as kids. Do we as a western culture find it hard to be in the present moment and therefore don't want to engage or can't engage because we have forgotten how to socialise? I think it is hard all the time to engage with our kids. They are in the present moment playing pretend, dressing up or playing with a toy. I find it hard at times to engage with her and 'play pretend' in fact if I was honest I don't do pretend play very well. I am happy to watch pretend play but I don't like participating (even though sometimes I do) and the play is not very mentally stimulating to me, which makes it even harder to do but there are times when I try to engage with her and yet at the back of my mind I’m thinking must check my facebook page or send an email so it is not real time with me because I am distracted.

I know as a stay-at-home-mum that sometimes the only other adult you will speak to is your significant other for the whole day and I understand what facebook and twitter are to a SAHM a life line in many respects. It allows you to engage with other's have an adult conversation without leaving the house but if we are constantly on facebook and twitter or texting we have something always gnawing for our attention and not just our children who need to know that at some point during the day when your little beep on your phone goes off that you are not going to run and dive for it while in the middle of something with them.

Just something to think about. Please feel free to comment.

Kimba.

A letter to my sanity!

Dear Sanity,


I don't know when we last spoke, I believe it was before my husband and I made the decision to have a family. I'm sorry I did not consult you maybe it was the joy of thinking about  holding a baby in my arms, or all the fun things I would get to do with that baby as she grew older. Maybe you checked out when I fell pregnant. You were lost behind the raging hormones and tiredness maybe you just didn't feel needed by me anymore. Let me tell you dear sanity after the week I have had with both my children I am writing to you because I need you back to help me get through the rest of the week.

Please don't feel rejected, I never really rejected you I just checked out for awhile because the love you have for your kids is unconditional and can make you a little crazy, but if you were there to tell me I would have to listen to my daughter cry (for 2 hours before giving up) because she wasn't going to get a baby cino or have an argument with me about going to the toilet, I promise you I would have listened and prepared for it. If I was told my 6 month old would scream the house down because no one was in the room with her. I could have prepared for that to. If you told me my children would have the will power of 10 men combined I don't know if I would have believed you but now I am in it I want you back to help me get out of it.

Sanity, where art thou? you need to come back.

Love Kimba

How to tackle teaching a second language when you don't speak any other langauges! Part 2

What I am learning about Chinese is that it is an extremely complex and beautiful language, the more I learn about it the more I shake my fists and go "Why did I choose this language why not something easier?" Well I like a challenge and it is such a different language. Anyway on to the topic.

The really good thing about Chinese is that there are many, many resources to teach Chinese and many websites that help you. Chinese as a language is growing in popularity and as China increases it's economic power knowing the language will become ever more important to our children who may or may not in the future have something to do with China in their chosen careers.

This moves me into the how to teach the language with a huge anount of resources on the net saying my product is the best product to teach Chinese, which one will get the desired result? (My desired result is having my child be able to converse and read the language with an understanding of chinese culture)As I go through this journey with both my girls I will write as honest review as I can on the products I use.

This brings me on to a recent product I bought which to be honest I am not that happy with. It is the My Montessori House Beginners Bilingual Manual for teaching Mandarin Chinese which retails for $39 USD which I paid for.  Now I was expecting a manual which actually went through Chinese grammar and how to construct sentences and basically teach you how to teach a little child to be able to speak Chinese. Well this manual falls far short of really teaching anything. It teaches all the the numbers from 1-40 and then goes up in ten by 50,60,70,80,90,100 in simplified Chinese characters and does have the pin yin to be able to pronounce each one and the Chinese characters to go with each number. The Chinese characters are very large and easy to trace.


My biggest gripe and the reason why I bought this manual was to teach my daughter and myself how to construct a sentence in Chinese as well as write a sentence. (My belief is the more you write in the language the more understanding you have of it) While this manual has many of the Chinese characters for  basic words such as Mum, Dad, Hello,  this, what, good, again, meet, go, not, don't go, etc etc you get the gist. It does not really go in to how to construct a sentence, all the manual does is tell you to basically take the chinese characters out, they them on the floor and mix and match them with your child a 'make your own sentences'.

This particularly annoys me. Learning a language is hard enough when you don't speak the and know very little about the language. To me a language is about getting it right I correct my own daughter when she makes grammatical mistakes in English, so she understands that is not a correct way to speak why would I not want her to speak Chinese correctly to?  For me to feel comfortable using this manual to teach Chinese to my DD I would need more information. Its great to say have fun making Chinese sentences but I'm not going to tell you how so you really can't teach anything.

I rate the manual about a 2 out of 10. All it really is, is a bunch of sheets with Chinese characters on it only really good for tracing.

I hope this helps you in the search for good and reliable resources.

Happy Teaching
Kimba

My review of My montessori house math DVD

I have recently purchased a DVD set from My Montessori House. A website that sells DVDS and manuals relating to the Montessori way of education. I will review each DVD one by one as I watch them with my DD to give a decent review.

First things first, this is the FIRST DVD that my DD has asked to watch twice since first putting it on to show her. My DD does not like anything to do with maths, numbers or counting. I recently got out a puppet which I have named mathematics owl and she told the owl I don't like numbers, I only like words. So it has been an uphill battle for a long time with maths so when she asked to watch it again I was impressed.

The DVD only goes to ten but covers basic addition and subtraction and teaches what the number 1 actually represents a quantity. I think it presents this concept very well. It does repeat them and go over the quantities several times.  This DVD is certainly aimed at children who have not been introduced to numbers and makes sure the concepts are clear and not mixed up. It has no right brain methods there is no flash card concepts. Everything is very methodical and logical in how the information is presented to the child. Which is very Montessori.

It is very different to what I am used to watching with her. It is very slow to go through everything and the graphics are not of high quality and the voices used are a little condescending to the child watching it. The voice to me is a bit high and shrilly but in saying that it works for my child and she does not notice. My dd1 does struggle to sit through the whole DVD but sits through enough to learn what she needs to learn.

My DD2 does not watch she is doing Little Math through brillkids and is enjoying that. My dd2 is only 5 months and this is certainly not the age group this DVD is aimed at. I would certainly be looking at this DVD for an older child (2-3 not any younger than that) and if your child is extremely active I would wait until later to purchase it when they are able to sit still for at least 15-20minutes.

So down to the nitty gritty,

PROS

• Covers each math concept very well
• Repeats the concepts
• Logical in order presents what each number represents (Here is one and shows one thing)
• Has basic addition and subtraction,
• Very methodical makes sure the math concept is understood.
• Fantastic price tag for an educational DVD $15USD plus postage
• Most importantly my child who hates maths asked to watch it twice

CONS

• The quality is not high, graphics are very basic in a cartoon format.
• The voices used are high and shrilly (This annoyed me not my child)
• Only goes to ten does not cover numbers higher than ten
• Very long and slow and my DD can sit for about 20minutes of it although she has taken a lot of the concepts in.

So that is my honest opinion of this DVD. I think it is a great introduction to basic math concepts. It forms a good basis for you as the parent to build on. I think this is a good addition to your educational library and a great one if you are on a budget. (Which lets face it we all are) I hope this review will help you in your decision. Check it out for yourself mymontessorihouse.com

Happy Teaching
Kimba

toilet training what a nightmare!

i have heard lately that if your children don't have the terrible twos they certainly can be worse at three. I am beginning to wonder if that is the case for me. My DD1 is not that far off three and she is becoming the most argumentative, willful, stubborn, have-a-tanti-at-a-drop-of-a-hat child I have ever known.

Toilet training this child has been an absolute nightmare she is so strong-willed that she will fight with you about going to the toilet because she does not want to stop what she is doing. I have asked nicely and taken everything away from her. She knows she has to go and was often taking herself until she went to daycare realised if she argued and refused to go she would get put back in a nappy (diaper) and she could conveniently go whenever she wanted without having to stop what she was doing. So my little DD decided she was going to try this on at home.

This week she has been a pain in the backside having 'accidents' for no other reason other than she can't be bothered. My dd actually sat down and coloured with me she says to me "Mummy I need to do a wee" "Quick go to the toilet" which is two steps from where she was. "NO I WILL NOT GO TO THE POTTY I AM DRAWING" which resulted in a five minute argument to get her on the toilet and then i finally picked her up, pulled her pants down sat her on the toilet and said yelled "YOU WILL GO ON THE POTTY OR NO COLOURING" she went and got off the toilet and said "Mummy I did a wee like a big girl can I have a sticker?' to which with steam coming out of my ears and through gritted teeth I replied "No you can have a sticker when you go to the toilet ALL DAY." I have no idea what goes through their little minds!!!

I just need to vent, this toilet training has been an horrendous experience it has taken my Mum and me to clamp down on her to make her go. Although my DD will do anything for her Nonni. Hopefully tomorrow she will be willing to go.

signing off with one big sigh,
Kimba

Letting our children fail or learning to let go

This post should really be called 'learning to let go as a parent so even our tiny tots can fly'.

I recently was doing a workbook with my DD1 which was 'Let cut paper' by Kumon workbooks. I was 'working' on this book with her showing her how to cut each page out correctly and not to make any mistakes. Follow the grey line I kept saying to her and when I saw her go off the Grey line I was quickly taking the scissors out of her hands and showing her how to do the exercise until I heard 'Mummy I want to do it. My scissors' I soon began to realise that I was so afraid of her making a mistake or not cutting it the page correctly I was afraid that she would 'fail' and not get the 'reward' (a nice picture) or half chopped off face picture and be disappointed.


As I took a step back from this little event and realised I was being a hindrance rather than a help. I started to think that I was taking a real opportunity for her to learn away. She was not being able to make the mistake and learn from it or even being allowed to correct herself. She was missing out on a deeper level of learning that making a mistake is okay and as long as I learn from it the world will not fall apart. I had become the all in all HELICOPTER parent one who hovers over their child always there just in case they are about to fall and save the day. Now I know there are situations where you must be there to help, but how often do these situations arise? Is letting them fall every now and then such a bad thing? If we teach them 'okay hon, yes you fell, yes you made a mistake but you have corrected it and learnt from it so you know not to do it again'. Rather than always standing over them in anticipation of them making a mistake and never letting it happen.

I think this is particularly hard for any parent to let go of. We do not want our children to go through pain. We do not want them to fail, so it is a lesson for us to let go and trust the process. and trust that our own child will get it right. Which is easier said than done.When I finally caved and gave my DD1 the scissors back and let her cut out the pictures on her own, I will not forget the beam on her face as she held up the picture of the Tiger she had cut out with its ear missing and proudly held it up to me and said "Look Mummy I cut the picture out all by myself." and to think I could have taken this moment away from her.

My DD1 finally got to the end of that book and with each Kumon book there is a certificate for completion. I could give her that certificate knowing that she had earned it and by the time she got to the end her cutting skills have improved significantly.


From on Humble Mummy to another
Kimba

ps Please note I do not let my child use scissors unsupervised I was in the room when she was using them.

A quick update about my next project (Music)

Well I thought I would let you know that I have gone and bitten the bullet and bought Tuning Forks to teach my kiddly winks perfect pitch!!!
 I have thought about this for a long time and because I know nothing about music and can't even read music I would love my girls to learn and discern sound so when they do take a musical instrument I would make it easier for them and also in the hope it will also help them to learn other languages.

This is also taking the plunge right into Right Brain Education and teaching something that I presumed to be something that was God-given and reserved for those who are truly gifted. Since delving into this world of Early Childhood  Education and having some of my own jaw dropping moments with my dd1  I have come to realise that little children have the most amazing potential and now that I am a little more converted and a little less sceptical I am willing to try new things and see how they go. I still am skeptical but I will give anything a go once as long as I do not believe that perfect pitch will hurt my children.

I am bit excited as well as a bit apprehensive. I will give you updates a long the way.

Happy Teaching Mummy's
Kimba

How to tackle teaching a second language when you don't speak any other langauges!

Hi Everyone,

It has been a long time since I posted but I am back I have been busy laminating and making flashcards presentations for my little ones and they take a long time to make.

So what have I been doing in this time with my little ones, well I have undertaken the task of introducing a second language. The second language I have chosen is simplified Mandarin Chinese. Why have I taken on this task? You might say I am a glutton for punishment! You would probably be close to right but I was given some DVD's to try by a friend and my Daughter loved them soo much I ended up buying the complete set and I have not looked back.

I also have other reasons for wanting to teach Chinese and it is not the first time this has crossed my mind. I have wanted to teach a second language since DD1 was born but I have always felt daunted by the task as I speak no other languages other than English and even my English could do with some improving at times.

My other reasons for wanting to teach Chinese are
1. It is the world's most spoken language (with over 1Billion people speaking Chinese)
2. They are the world's next economic power and Australia will continue to have a very strong relationship with them and I think for future job prospects of my children it will help if they have an understanding of this language.
3. It is a very different language from our own. Chinese is a tonal language with four main tones and if you get a tone wrong you can change the whole meaning of what you are trying to say. Chinese does not have a lot of words like English does.
4. The Chinese people claim they have the highest rate in the world of people with perfect pitch (The ability to hear a sound a be able to tell what key it is in) I would like to train my daughter's ear especially if they take up music at a later stage.

Any hoo. So now that I have taken on the task of teaching my daughters' Chinese. You may be asking how I am going about this.

As I mentioned before I have bought a DVD set called Baby Learns Chinese (babylearnschinese.com) I have bought the first 6 DVDs and I plan on getting the phonics set later once I know that DD1 has a good understanding of the Chinese language. She loves these DVDs so much that she asks for them all the time and if I am not careful she would gladly sit in front of the t.v. all day and watch them. They have the right balance of cartoon and real life images with children as well as songs to gr child get your child off to a good start. I bought the packs that came with the Flashcards to be honest I think the flashcards could be better made with the simplified characters on the front with the pinyin tones on the back so you could read the card out to the child then have a slide come out of the picture. Except the cards have Simplified Chinese on the front with the pinyin tone (an English translation on how the characters are pronounced) underneath in small writing. Since I am learning myself how to read the characters I find I fall back to reading the pinyin which my daughter sees and she to reads the pinyin instead of the characters.


I have also bought a few Chinese CD's to play to DD1 at night time for her to listen to while going to sleep. She has come out with a few Chinese words not many and I have no idea how much she has taken in but you do need to immerse yourself in a language as much as you can so I continue to keep this up.

I have a digital Flashcard programme called Little Reader (brillkids.com) and I have both the English and the Chinese versions of this programme and she loves it. My DD1 did the English programme and has enjoyed and I have had great results with it. My DD2 is now doing the programme and enjoying it, plus she is being exposed to a lot of Chinese words as well as English to. My DD2 is 5 months old and is too young to see any results yet. The main thing with her is making sure she gets a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Through the power of the Internet I have also started making my own cards and sticking them up around the house in an effort to immerse the kids and myself in Chinese and I hope I will absorb some more Chinese I also find that writing the character myself helps me understand the language so much more.

I have ordered a manual for teaching Chinese to pre-schoolers from My Montessori House (mymontessorihouse.com) I have not received it yet and I am looking forward to using it to teach myself and my DD's more of this fascinating language. I will give a very honest review of the manual once I have had some time to use it.


My results so far. Well, I have to say that My DD1 would easily know 100 Chinese words from the DVDs. She is getting better with the characters but her love of learning this language will help and she is always asking me what is this word in Chinese and what is that word. She also likes to correct my tones when I get it wrong. :)



Well from one Mummy to another.
Good Night, and Happy Teaching
Kimba