Homeschooling / домашнеобразование
Today's Sunday hour-escape was all dedicated to find my way further into my son's education. To spend it with Internet was expensive. 200 baht for a pot of tea, I guess it's more Moscow rate (soy 9 place where they sell macarons, if anyone wants to know).
So. how it all started...
My starting point a few months ago was a BOOK.
"Project-based homeschooling. Mentoring self-directed learners" by Lori Pickert.
I made it to page 53 out of 150 so far, and took my conclusions:
3 thing are crucial:
1) space
2) materials
3) time.
Points 1 and 2 are the ones to start with, logically, therefore I must start organizing a dedicated workspace and compiling all the materials. And I won't have peace in my mind (and my husband's mind, obviously) until I got it all right.
Because the free time and free hands are so limited for me now, this project is an ongoing thing for the last 3 months already.
This is how we started
I have no idea why it happened to be the marine life theme. But what happened, it matched Neteep's first word, which was ปลา in Thai (fish in English). I cannot tell, what happened first - our ocean wall painting or the yellow color board with fish on the top-right corner. I asked the Mom of one of my students, who was teaching me Thai language, to teach Nateep the names of the objects on that board in Thai, and he repeated ปลา (bplaa) after her straight away and very clearly. And so it began - his first well-pronounced and million-times repeated favorite word is the fish. The second, and very long-lasting is now "papaya", which is applied to wide range if things. Sometimes it's the first thing he says when he wakes up.
Painting was going all-right until I tried to paint the sand bottom with some plants on it. It was so horrible, that we painted it back into marine blue. I don't have enough skills/technique to paint realistic textures with shades of colors and smooth transition of colors. So the corals and some bright fish around them was my final step. It was inspired by this beautiful artwork:
http://www.oopsydaisy.com/store/pink-coral-and-little-fish-1.html
We added some stickers. And also printed+laminated+glued to the wall some real photos of whales and turtles.
Nateep already knows the name of turtle and whale in Russian, and shows their pictures when I ask.
This is how it looks now:
These are some pictures that helped me:
To create the studio, we cleared off the space that wasn't really used before, there were ropes, and some never-to-use things were piled up in the corner.
Now, the furniture.
These are the items that caught my attention in the Internet:
my absolute favorite
great design from tidy-books.com
the ideal chair as I see it from http://www.communityplaythings.com
And this is what our local genius carpenter created for us:
The best point about it is that Nateep stands up on the bottom shelf and takes the books he likes independently.
The space to organize all our materials+games+toys is not enough already, so we ordered another 2 cabinets, will post the pictures as they arrive.
One leg of the table is not exactly straight but it doesn't affect its stability
As to the sport, one of my friends showed me this web-page http://www.r-start.ru
It inspired us to create this kind of indoors sport-complex, courtesy Teep, my husband, it came out brilliantly, in bamboo, and remains one of Nateep's favorites, all kids who come to play here love it:
Two huge baskets happily found their way to store the plush toys and other many things. They proved themselves very convenient immediately, kids hide inside, then use the puppet-unicorn (the only one we have at the moment) to present some "stories-out-of-the-basket". This idea will be explored further, for sure.
A-frame tent playhouse was my dream when I was a kid. I tried t make small houses in every corner, even on top of a huge wardrobe. So now it was only logical for me to arrange a play house for Nateep.
These are the ideas I liked in Internet:
And this is what we got (frame - bamboo, cover - cotton fabric+buttons):
the window
the window is open there is a mosquito net
What about the themes and materials/toys/games/.
My first ideas were intuitive/obvious - colors, shapes, numbers, animals and their sounds. What comes into my mind first.
Right from the start I got:
1) animals cards+books+touch&feel books. We spent a long time with cards (2 different types: cartoon-like and realistic). Nateep enjoyed this book a lot, touch&feel portions are truly huge in this book, the pictures of animals are realisic, also very large, and all the textures are different. The cat and the rabbit are soooo very fluffy!!! i spent ours surfing through touch&feel books and this one is the best for me.
2) A stacking shapes+colors pyramid, standard one, found it all of a sudden while walking through Udon-Thani (400 baht). I think it's quite complex, first it needs the fine-motor skills to place the pieces onto the sticks, then it aims for colors+shapes+size matching, and also requires building skills, because the squares consist of 2 parts that must be put together to fit on the stick. The progress with this toy is yet to be evaluated. Nateep has enough motor skills to place the pieces onto the sticks, however I'm not sure how much is there for shapes&size matching at the moment.
3) Shapes puzzle (8 shapes, different colors). http://www.melissaanddoug.com of course. The space to put each shapes into has matching color, so it works for both shapes and colors find&match teaching. I encourage NAteep to place the shapes into their 'houses' by clapping my hands and saying 'molodets' (smth like "well done" in Russian). He claps his hands and screams too after succeeding, but sometimes gets very upset if a piece doesn't feet (under a wrong angle).
4) a set of big buttons yellow-red-green-blue colors+laces of matching colors. These can be used for color and shape matching (buttons have different shapes). For sorting as well, I got 3 plastic dishes of matching colors to practice sorting, blue dish not yet. And for lacing later - they have big holes, each button 4 holes. We already tried making necklaces with older kids, worked out perfectly. Nateep tried it too, but it's not yet happening, he doesn't have the concentration required yet, and also fine motor skills, the holes are quite small and need precise movements.
5) a book with animal sounds, pictures of animals and their habitat with short rhymed stories for each animal/insect/reptile, etc. He spent's a a long time playing with it, for now it's forgotten, i think new wave will be when he will be able to spend more time listening to reading and watching pictures.
6) several board books, mostly rhymed, mostly in English. A board book with Russian rhymes by A. Barto (one of Nateep's all-time favorites, especially this one about a toy-buffalo that balances on a plank "Idet bychok-ka4aetsya"). Aother one by Marshak about a sparrow visiting different animals to eat with them is also a hit.
7) Hape's memory game
It's too early to play it as a game, right now I'm teaching Nateep to recognize the animals, and also to understand the idea of 2 identical images for each animal.
I haven't been able, so far, to give it a serious look into Montessori system. However, every time I search the web to elaborate on my own ideas, I find the best books, advice, materials, activities, etc. on Montessori-related pages: shops, blogs of parents/teachers who follow this system. Therefore, I'm going to explore it mor thoroughly to take my conclusions and follow the best practice.
For today, I found great inspiration here http://www.howwemontessori.com/how-we-montessori/please-read-about-us.html
These are the books I'm waiting for, to find some new knowledge:
So. how it all started...
My starting point a few months ago was a BOOK.
"Project-based homeschooling. Mentoring self-directed learners" by Lori Pickert.
I made it to page 53 out of 150 so far, and took my conclusions:
3 thing are crucial:
1) space
2) materials
3) time.
Points 1 and 2 are the ones to start with, logically, therefore I must start organizing a dedicated workspace and compiling all the materials. And I won't have peace in my mind (and my husband's mind, obviously) until I got it all right.
Because the free time and free hands are so limited for me now, this project is an ongoing thing for the last 3 months already.
This is how we started
I have no idea why it happened to be the marine life theme. But what happened, it matched Neteep's first word, which was ปลา in Thai (fish in English). I cannot tell, what happened first - our ocean wall painting or the yellow color board with fish on the top-right corner. I asked the Mom of one of my students, who was teaching me Thai language, to teach Nateep the names of the objects on that board in Thai, and he repeated ปลา (bplaa) after her straight away and very clearly. And so it began - his first well-pronounced and million-times repeated favorite word is the fish. The second, and very long-lasting is now "papaya", which is applied to wide range if things. Sometimes it's the first thing he says when he wakes up.
Painting was going all-right until I tried to paint the sand bottom with some plants on it. It was so horrible, that we painted it back into marine blue. I don't have enough skills/technique to paint realistic textures with shades of colors and smooth transition of colors. So the corals and some bright fish around them was my final step. It was inspired by this beautiful artwork:
http://www.oopsydaisy.com/store/pink-coral-and-little-fish-1.html
We added some stickers. And also printed+laminated+glued to the wall some real photos of whales and turtles.
Nateep already knows the name of turtle and whale in Russian, and shows their pictures when I ask.
This is how it looks now:
These are some pictures that helped me:
To create the studio, we cleared off the space that wasn't really used before, there were ropes, and some never-to-use things were piled up in the corner.
Now, the furniture.
These are the items that caught my attention in the Internet:
my absolute favorite
great design from tidy-books.com
the ideal chair as I see it from http://www.communityplaythings.com
And this is what our local genius carpenter created for us:
The best point about it is that Nateep stands up on the bottom shelf and takes the books he likes independently.
The space to organize all our materials+games+toys is not enough already, so we ordered another 2 cabinets, will post the pictures as they arrive.
One leg of the table is not exactly straight but it doesn't affect its stability
As to the sport, one of my friends showed me this web-page http://www.r-start.ru
It inspired us to create this kind of indoors sport-complex, courtesy Teep, my husband, it came out brilliantly, in bamboo, and remains one of Nateep's favorites, all kids who come to play here love it:
Two huge baskets happily found their way to store the plush toys and other many things. They proved themselves very convenient immediately, kids hide inside, then use the puppet-unicorn (the only one we have at the moment) to present some "stories-out-of-the-basket". This idea will be explored further, for sure.
A-frame tent playhouse was my dream when I was a kid. I tried t make small houses in every corner, even on top of a huge wardrobe. So now it was only logical for me to arrange a play house for Nateep.
These are the ideas I liked in Internet:
And this is what we got (frame - bamboo, cover - cotton fabric+buttons):
the window
the window is open there is a mosquito net
What about the themes and materials/toys/games/.
My first ideas were intuitive/obvious - colors, shapes, numbers, animals and their sounds. What comes into my mind first.
Right from the start I got:
1) animals cards+books+touch&feel books. We spent a long time with cards (2 different types: cartoon-like and realistic). Nateep enjoyed this book a lot, touch&feel portions are truly huge in this book, the pictures of animals are realisic, also very large, and all the textures are different. The cat and the rabbit are soooo very fluffy!!! i spent ours surfing through touch&feel books and this one is the best for me.
2) A stacking shapes+colors pyramid, standard one, found it all of a sudden while walking through Udon-Thani (400 baht). I think it's quite complex, first it needs the fine-motor skills to place the pieces onto the sticks, then it aims for colors+shapes+size matching, and also requires building skills, because the squares consist of 2 parts that must be put together to fit on the stick. The progress with this toy is yet to be evaluated. Nateep has enough motor skills to place the pieces onto the sticks, however I'm not sure how much is there for shapes&size matching at the moment.
3) Shapes puzzle (8 shapes, different colors). http://www.melissaanddoug.com of course. The space to put each shapes into has matching color, so it works for both shapes and colors find&match teaching. I encourage NAteep to place the shapes into their 'houses' by clapping my hands and saying 'molodets' (smth like "well done" in Russian). He claps his hands and screams too after succeeding, but sometimes gets very upset if a piece doesn't feet (under a wrong angle).
4) a set of big buttons yellow-red-green-blue colors+laces of matching colors. These can be used for color and shape matching (buttons have different shapes). For sorting as well, I got 3 plastic dishes of matching colors to practice sorting, blue dish not yet. And for lacing later - they have big holes, each button 4 holes. We already tried making necklaces with older kids, worked out perfectly. Nateep tried it too, but it's not yet happening, he doesn't have the concentration required yet, and also fine motor skills, the holes are quite small and need precise movements.
5) a book with animal sounds, pictures of animals and their habitat with short rhymed stories for each animal/insect/reptile, etc. He spent's a a long time playing with it, for now it's forgotten, i think new wave will be when he will be able to spend more time listening to reading and watching pictures.
6) several board books, mostly rhymed, mostly in English. A board book with Russian rhymes by A. Barto (one of Nateep's all-time favorites, especially this one about a toy-buffalo that balances on a plank "Idet bychok-ka4aetsya"). Aother one by Marshak about a sparrow visiting different animals to eat with them is also a hit.
7) Hape's memory game
It's too early to play it as a game, right now I'm teaching Nateep to recognize the animals, and also to understand the idea of 2 identical images for each animal.
I haven't been able, so far, to give it a serious look into Montessori system. However, every time I search the web to elaborate on my own ideas, I find the best books, advice, materials, activities, etc. on Montessori-related pages: shops, blogs of parents/teachers who follow this system. Therefore, I'm going to explore it mor thoroughly to take my conclusions and follow the best practice.
For today, I found great inspiration here http://www.howwemontessori.com/how-we-montessori/please-read-about-us.html
These are the books I'm waiting for, to find some new knowledge: