December Them Board

I use on of our white wall to set up a bulletin board for the kids. Every holiday or events during the months, we will make some craft to put on it. I will print out some worksheets which related to the events for Ethan to do.

December is the Christmas time. The kids already make Snowmen, Christmas tree and Santa. I used the recycleble materials the we can find around the house.

Snowman Craft

December is the cold month, too bad we do not have snow in Houston, TX. I let the kids make the snowman craft by using screw, styrofoam, wire, beans and their imagination. I helped Evan to make the craft ( it is lots more prettier than Ethan's) and Ethan made his own and wrote his own name.

This craft is good to introduce the shape and number concept. I asked the kids what shape do we need for the snowman and they told me circle. Then I asked how many circles we need and Ethan told me 3 and Evan answered 3 after his brother. Ethan suggested to put screws for the eyes and I thought it was a good idea.

This is a good craft to introduce the kids about snow and the snowman. I found some good poem about the snowman too.

Snowman

S is for snowman
Round and fat
Sitting outside wearing hat

I brought him inside,
And sat him on the mat
And before very long
The snowman was flat

---Author unknown

"Green" Snowman

I found a craft idea on a book by using the things that we can find around the house. These snowmen were made from plastic bag, peanuts ( the stuffing that we found from the packaging), my scarf, my sons' used sock and the twigs that we found from the trees outside.


Too bad I did not have the colorful socks or scarf, otherwise, they will turn out better. Eric took these two snowmen to the office for Christmas decoration on his desk.

Turkey Craft

November is Thanksgiving month. I gave the kids something to work on the craft.Ethan is making the turkey door hanger. I provided him some color paper and the hard brown paper from the cereal box. This is not a hard project for him and he likes it so far.

Sun

It is raining these few days in Houston. I decided to let Evan make a "Sun" to scare the rain away. I found the craft idea from the website.

I traced his little hand and cutting into many pieces to glue along the unused lid from a container. He is having fun in putting his "hand" on the lid. I let him pick two gooey eyes to tape onto the sun and draw a big smile. It really scares the rain and it becomes a sunny day afternoon.

Jack-O-Lantern

Halloween ( Hantu festival in U.S) is coming, this year, I decided to make a Jack-O-Lantern to show the festive mood. I being teaching Evan how to sing the Jack-O-Lantern song, coloring the pumpkin, counting the pumpkins but I think the best way to reinforce his knowledge on the pumpkin is to show him the real one. Ethan being begging me to make one Jack-o-Lantern for him since last week after we read a story book about Halloween.

The song we being singing during the carving process:

Jack-o-lantern! Jack-o-lantern! Big and Yellow!
Jack-o-lantern! Jack-o-lantern! Funny Fellow!
Shinning in the night,
With your candle light,
Scarring out the people,
with the BOO! BOO! BOO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-WsJ4cHHEo
I finally buy a pumpkin today, a big one! A little big afraid that I could not carve the hard shell of the pumpkin. Ethan helped me chose a big round pumpkin.

I found some instruction online through YOUTUBE about how to carve the pumpkin. First, I had to cut off the top part of the pumpkin to get all the pulp inside including the seeds.




The two kids are ready to scoop out the pulp by holding the spoons waiting for me to cut off the top part. But when they saw the inside of the pumpkin with those sticky pulp, they just ran off immediately and left me alone scooping out the pulp and seeds.



After cleaning the inside, we had to decide which Jack O Lantern face we will be carving. Eric found some ideas online, Ethan drew some funny faces and then we chose our best choice of face.

I then drew the face on the pumpkin by using marker. I used the steak knife to carve it out the outline of the face carefully. I thought it was hard but actually not. The whole carving process only took about 45 minutes including cleaning out the inside, drawing, carving and cleaning.


Finally , we got out Jack-O-Lantern lighting out at night. BOO! BOO! BOO!

Body Lapbook

文睿在练习写中文. 我在网上看到有人利用Lapbooking 来让孩子对某些课题有更深的了解. 我觉得很不错, 就决定利用这个题目来让他做成一本书.

首先, 他得练习所有有关身体各部位的名称. 他已经练习写字有一年半的时间, 写的字还不够马来西亚的幼儿园的孩子们多, 还是写得不是很端正.

他必须知道哪个字是属于哪个身体部位, 这样他才能够将我预先准备好的字卡陪上各个部位. 他自己上颜色, 并写上图画里头每个小朋友的动作名称.

Quick Easy Playdough

My two sons enjoy doing this homemade play dough and they are having good time in shaping different kinds of things out of their imagination. This is the simple one and I have not try the one which need some cooking. The dough dry out easily if let outside for some time. But it is good to play with and it is safe for their two little hands.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup salt

1 cup flour

1/4 cup water

Have your child mix the flour and salt in a bowl then add water. Knead and squeeze the dough to make a clay consistency. You may need to add more water. Note: This dough doesn't last as long as the cooked recipes.

Learning to write Chinese

We being teaching Ethan to write Chinese since last year. It takes us a lot of effort to teach him. It is not easy to explain to him why he has to learn since he does not study Chinese in school. But I always tell him that it is good for him to learn because he can read the Chinese words in the newspaper or on the TV screen when we watch the Chinese programmes.

Playing Blocks

He did not notice that I was taking his picture secretly

Immediately, he looked at me with a " What" face.

Then, he ignored me again and kept building his blocks.

Still building and ignoring.

Suddenly..............a silly face again.

Learning to write Chinese words

Ethan starts writing Chinese since last year. We know he will not learn to write if he growing up here in U.S. Unlike other kids back in Malaysia, he got not opportunity to practice writing Chinese in school. Eric and I are very concern about this issue. We want him to be able to write and speak well in Mandarin.

It is not an easy tast for us. But I belive persistence and consistence are teh key in learning Chinese. A lot of my friends are sending their kids to Chinese school once a week. But we do not want to do so since we know how to write and speak well. The best thing the kids could learn is from the parents.

First, I had to find materials and resources to provide him words that are suitable for him to learn at his age. I refer to the kindergarten book from Malaysia and get an idea from it. Then, I make the copies myself and teach him the word. I did buy some Chinese Learning Book for my extra reference. But the most important thing is to emphasize the daily learning process.

He is refusing to write at first and complaining a lot. I kept telling him if he knows how to write and speak Chinese, everyone will be amazed by him. He will one day understand the words on the Chinese Newspaper too.

I know one day he will feel proud of himself because he is bilingual and know how to write the Chinese well. But if he does not learn now, he will definitely have a hard time when he is getting older.