MONTESSORI PHONICS BLUE SCHEME by Budsy

Budsy finally commenced on the blue scheme of Montessori Phonics with chubs, when lil’ dragon_boi settled down in school.

We have successfully kept up with a daily morning routine of a few hours of work. Chubs has been given the freedom and flexibility on his daily choices of work; from the 5 areas of Montessori Education – Practical Life, Montessori Language, Montessori Math, Sensorial Studies and Cultural Explorations. As our sessions are now 1-to-1, Budsy is gradually increasing pace for chubs, to prep him for the rigour of mainstream education.

Budsy has officially introduced the Blue Object Box 1 to chubs. As an orientation session, we merely carried out word building activity with the box. This session was for Budsy to gauge his competence in listening to the sounds in longer phonetic words. Little emphasis was placed on getting the correct letters to form the words. Just an orientation session to kick in the new term with chubs.

The funniest moment during our orientation session was when chubs tried to form the word crab. Budsy let him try out both cr-ab and cr-ap combinations just to see if he was able to distinguish the right one. We had a good laugh over how different the meanings of both words were, with just the last letter sound. 

After we finished the word building activity, Budsy invited chubs to check his work using the word cards. This is the auto-education feature in Montessori; called the control of error.

Each activity in the Montessori Method has a control of error for children to learn the skill of self-check(ing). This feature is a wonderful way of gradually instilling work independence from when they first start on Montessori education. This skill will gradually on the children and they will unconsciously follow through this awesome habit, right up to the time they attend formal national education.

Chubs will make his own corrections to the words which he may have formed inaccurately. This indirect teaching gave him the confidence that it is totally ay-okay (and very normal!) to learn from mistakes. This control of error feature in Montessori education, allows children to improve and refine their learning skills in a non-stressful and non-threatening environment. They do not have to hear about the many things they have done wrong but instead, they learn how to make many things right……. all on their own. 

Ohhh the wonderful things about learning phonics using the Montessori Method.

Splash Kidz Amaze @ SAFRA PUNGGOL

BUDSY's FUN ESCAPADES

Splash Kidz Amaze @ SAFRA PUNGGOL

We headed northeast last weekend to explore the huge, newly-built 5-storey SAFRA Clubhouse at SAFRA Punggol. Alight at Sam Kee station if you're going by public transport. The clubhouse is just across the street from the station. 😉

Magnificent sights all around the picturesque building, which is located along Punggol Waterway Park.

You can choose to cycle and drive to the clubhouse too! There are bicycle racks where you can park your bicycles, should you like to explore the clubhouse after cycling around the park.

We were delighted to be invited to the preview of Splash @ Kidz Amaze at this new clubhouse last weekend. 

Once there, we registered our attendance at the registration booth. We received tags, goodie bags and headed straight for the entrance to Splash Kidz Amaze.

It's the first indoor water playground in Singapore which boasts a 3-storey play structure. During this preview, the children played and gathered feedback on the level of fun, safety and variety of the new attraction.

Crew were all ready to welcome the very first guests at Splash Kidz Amaze.

The children didn't wanna leave. 

The SAFRA Punggol Clubhouse will be officially opened tomorrow. If you're heading out for the official opening of Splash @ Kidz Amaze, scroll through the pictures to view the rates.

For more details, you may visit : http://www.safra.sg/punggol#.VxuCD0XEmnO

Do share your fun experiences there with Budsy, if you're headed for the clubhouse where the fun flows! 😉 Would love to hear all about them! 

They're open at 9am..

Are u ready?☺️

The countdown begins..

10 hours to opening day... 😊

Another new venue for our children to have some fun! 👍🏻💞

Working with Peter & Jane readers (Part 1)

In Part 1 of working with Peter & Jane, Budsy will share what Budsy did with lil' dragon_boi.

He has never been fascinated with the illustration in Peter & Jane readers. Neither has he been keen with repetitive words. However, he was keen in learning new sight words.

It was tough to get him to sit through even a short session. As he took little interest in these readers, his concentration span was extremely limited.

When lil' dragon_boi saw the word cards that Budsy bought for chubs, he showed interest in wanting to 'play' with us.

One of the activities was for chubs to unscramble the mixed up words in each sentence. He was to write the sentence in the correct order based on the corresponding picture given.

As lil' dragon_boi just turned 3, he has had very little exposure to pre-writing. To be honest, he has little interest in writing. In Montessori however, Budsy picked up his sensitivity to learning language. It was almost too much a waste to forego a teachable moment.

You know the thing about maximising our children's potential?

As parents and educators, we should focus more on our children's strengths and what they CAN DO, instead of harping on what they can't. Why? It is because we can help our children to push the boundaries of what they can do towards excellence by observing/finding ways they learn best.

So here was what Budsy did for lil' dragon_boi...

(1) The following night when the boys finally turned in for the night, Budsy flipped to the last page in Peter & Jane Book 1C, scanned and laminated the few pages at the back that were meant for written activities.

(2) Budsy cut out the word cards and out them aside. After which Budsy cut out the pictures too and turned them into individual 

picture cards.

(3) Following the basic lesson presentation of the Montessori 3-period lesson, Budsy introduced each word to lil' dragon_boi. Lil dragon_boi's strengths were :-

(i) blessed good memory skills

(ii) already phonetically trained in up to 3-letter phonetic words

(iii) enjoys hands-on lessons

FIRST PERIOD

Budsy introduced a few word cards to him in isolation.

"This is Peter. /p/... Peter."

"Peter is the name of this boy."

(showed him a picture of Peter)

"This is Peter. /j/... Jane."

"Peter is the name of this boy."

(showed him a picture of Jane)

"This card says/reads; here."

"/h/... here."

"/i/ and /s/ makes the word 'is'."

"This card says/reads; like."

"/l/... like."

"This card says/reads; and."

While pointing to each letter on the card, Budsy blends the sounds to him. "/a/... /n/... /d/ - and."

SECOND PERIOD

Budsy asked lil' dragon_boi to point to the corresponding word cards as Budsy calls/reads a word out until we were done with all the words/cards.

For example :

"Which card says... 'like'?

"Can you show mommy, where's 'and'?"

"Now, which one's Peter?"

Carry on with the rest of the words/cards. 

(4) THIRD PERIOD
Budsy invited lil' dragon_boi to select a picture card. 

Budsy asked him, "What can you see in this picture?"

"I can see the dog with Jane and Peter." He replied.

"Yes, they are playing with the dog."
"Peter and Jane like the dog"
"Let's make that sentence together."

"Which cards spells Peter? Can you pick it up and place it beside the picture?"

"Peter AND Jane like the dog."
"What word comes next? Let's find it!"

He continues to place each word card to form the sentence that described the picture he selected. The sentences are provided in the answer keys of the same book. ie. Book 1C.

(5) Lil' dragon_boi finished putting the words together to form the sentence and read it out aloud. 

He was enthused by his newly acquired ability to actually form a sentence with some guidance from Budsy, that he proceeded to work on the other picture cards on his own, with combinations of words to make his own story... 

So there. 

Budsy finally managed to get him to read the Peter and Jane readers all. 

Montessori Homeschooling - Day 7

Budsy kept lessons simple on Day 7 of homeschooling. Budsy had lots to do around the house.

We revised the four objects we have used for the last 3-period lesson.

(1) fan
(2) float
(3) frog
(4) fish

Introduction to riddles!

My skin is wet, my legs are strong,

They help me hop and swim along.

To catch a meal, I leap up high,

And wrap my tongue around a fly.

Who am I?

Budsy went deeper into the frog object by introducing the life cycle of the frog. Lil' dragon_boi loved working with the life cycle kit. He asked for Budsy to read the book on the frog, a couple more times after lesson was over. When Budsy left the materials to cook, Budsy could hear him trying to retell the story on his own using the kit. 

We carried out the worksheet on the life cycle of a frog which was similar to the one we did on the life cycle of a butterfly. The boys did good. 

Budsy helped them with their frog craft for the day, to make it more 3-dimensional. We all thought the frog looked really cute. 

Lil' dragon_boi was absorbed with the frog craft and the life cycle kit, so Budsy continued the day's lesson with chubs.

We carried out the Spindle Box activity and followed up with the next few worksheets for the Spindle Box Booklet. Chubs can cut more confidently now, so he said he wanted to cut out the pictures of the spindles himself. He did well and pretty quickly too. Looks like his fine motor is improving as each day goes by. Budsy is thankful.

We sang the frog song we learnt from YouTube and the boys hopped along with the song, together with their frog craft.

When hubs came home shortly after we were finished with our lesson for the day, the boys couldn't wait to tell him about the stuff they learnt.

As Budsy went to the kitchen, Budsy heard chubs saying, "Dad... Dad... I learnt about frogs in school today from my teacher!"

Hubs asked, "School? Wow! Who's this teacher?"

"It's mommy's school and mommy's the teacher, dad! We had so much fun in school today..."

Budsy smiled as the boys rattled on about their day with their father. Another awesome day of homeschooling. 

Montessori Homeschooling - Day 6

At Budsy's, we move on to letter sound /f/ to kickstart our second week of homeschooling.

Good mainstream preschools normally select a theme for a month or term (3 months) for integration of lessons. These themes can be different categories of animals like zoo animals, ocean creatures, rainforest animals, pets, prehistoric creatures and a host of other animal categories.

Themes can also be adapted from good story books for children like from popular authors like Eric Carle, Eric Hill or Julia Donaldson. Story themes mirror our primary schools' language programme called STELLAR.

See here for post on STELLAR programme. 
> http://budsjuice.blogspot.sg/2013/04/stellar-programme-primary-1.html

Themes can also be about countries, people, numbers and the list is honestly endless. The sky is the limit to your creativity. A plethora of ideas are sprawled over the internet be they from blogs, educational websites, Pinterest and more.

Selecting a theme for our young Montessorians however, includes not just in the academic sense of lessons. Lessons are holistically planned so our children can learn both soft skills and the needed academic requirements.

The 5 areas in Montessori Education are :-
(1) Practical Life
(2) Sensorial
(3) Cultural & geography
(4) Language
(5) Mathematics

It takes more detailed planning to incorporate the essence of Montessori into our lessons, especially since we cater to mixed group of children; in age and abilities. This is why Montessori caters for individual curriculum. Unlike mainstream schools that group children by their age (the year they were born), we believe every one of our young Montessorians, has a different pace and there is no need for conformity in a Montessori classroom.

There may be group presentations where children congregate like for story telling sessions, music and movement and some Montessori presentations. However, directresses observe each young Montessorian on their pace of learning. There will be a specific order of activities in each child's individual check list where Montessori directresses detail their development and their individual progress.

This is precisely why Montessori education is wonderful. Each child is respected as an individual and allowed the freedom to progress at his own time. This allows them to develop confidence, gives a positive capacity for learning and most times the non-threatening learning environment helps them accelerate in their progress. The small class size in Montessori is an equally wonderful advantage.

For chubs and lil' dragon_boi, they currently big enjoy awesome class size and due to this advantage, they have opportunities to do even more if they want to.

As much as possible our home lessons will centre around the 5 areas of Montessori Education, so Budsy can replicate the holistic learning programme carried out in Montessori schools.

Here are the activities we did on Day 6 of homeschooling. As usual, Budsy will put the pictures up first and share the details of the lessons during the day. Where possible, Budsy will also share craft templates, worksheets and other activities as well, should time permit. Look out for them either in the comments or in the accompanied descriptions to the photos. For now, here's sharing the work we've done. 

We used 4 objects for today's 3-period lesson.

(1) fan
(2) float
(3) frog
(4) fish

Chubs was able to read fan effortlessly. He used his knowledge on phonetic sounds to try reading the other three words. Very pleased.

Budsy used this template to create this fish tank. Chubs used paint to colour the tank and the fish. Once dry, Budsy laminated the template and cut out the fish bowl for counting activities. You can also clip paper clips on the fish and make a magnetic fishing rod to play fishing game with this craft.

Budsy used this template to create this number puzzle game. Chubs used paint for this craft as well. Once dry, it was laminated and cut into vertical strips. Very easy game and can be used for bigger numbers as well. Control of error is when the last strip does not match/complete the picture of the fish.

You may print this Rainbow Tracing worksheet for your children to carry out tracing activities just like chubs and lil' dragon_boi! 

The boys reinforced their knowledge on the names of the parts of a fish using our Montessori cultural puzzles. 

We love these puzzles very much!

Budsy had to run some errands at the market, so Budsy brought the boys down to see the fish. They had fun distinguishing the different parts of a real fish!

Budsy got the boys to carry out their worksheets after they worked with the puzzle of a fish. If you'd like to replicate similar lessons with your children or your students, you are welcome to print these off for your personal use; either to create your own DIY puzzle of a fish or to make them like activity worksheets. Enjoy!

We went down to a neighbourhood pet store to look at the array of fish offered as pets. Chubs was somewhat horrified each time a fish came near the glass so it was just lil' dragon_boi and Budsy, who went in to check the pet store out. 

Montessori Homeschooling - Day 5

We wrapped up the first week of homeschooling with a library trip. We picked up some books that reinforced the letter sound /c/. 

These Little Dino books were the perfect books to end our first week. Budsy introduced a new word to the children... /c/ as in /c/-haracter.

Budsy explained the meaning of this big word in simple terms that the boys could relate to, that character meant :- the way someone thinks, feels, and behaves, someone's personality. In short, this word describes the moral qualities that are distinctive in a person.

Character building is an important trait to nurture in our young children and it is during these formative years, that good values can be more easily inculcated.

The Little Dino books were a big hit with the boys! Firstly, they love dinosaurs. Secondly, the books were wonderfully illustrated. Thirdly, the story lines were simple and humorous (read:silly) and the boys sure love these kind of silly books. The examples were also presented in ways the boys were able to relate to in real life. They loved these books so much, they even said goodbye to Little Dino before putting them into the return slots at the library's book drop. 

Little Dino's good practices rubbed off on the boys quite a bit, for during our trip to the playground after that library visit, Budsy observed chubs being a little gentleman.

It's natural to see a few rowdy kids at the playground. Chubs didn't like their shoving around and their screaming at other children whom they thought were in their way. One boy shouted at his lil' dragon brother and that boy also gave his brother, a little shove. Chubs went up to the boy and said to him, "It's not nice to push people. We can share this playground and take turns."

The rowdy, elder boy looked at chubs and said to him. "Why do you care?"

Budsy merely observed this scenario and held back against the will to intervene. It's not easy to keep quiet when you see your own children being the subject of bullying... honestly. However, it is important to give opportunities for our children to first try to deal with their children problems themselves, without an adult intervening on their behalf all the time. These opportunities are life skills for our children.

Chubs put his arm around his little brother and told the elder boy nicely. "Because, he's just a baby. That girl is a baby too." Pointing to another child who was also pushed.

"No pushing and shoving at the playground and this little baby boy - he's my brother." Chubs explained, whilst putting an arm around his brother's shoulders.

The elder boy said sorry to chubs and told his friends in a loud voice. "Eh, watch out for babies when running." There were mumbled "okay la... okay la..." in the background and everyone continued playing... a wee bit nicer than earlier.

When chubs announced that we should all go home, Budsy asked him why not play a little longer.

"Baby kept falling down and hurting himself because the boys are still not careful. It's not nice to play like this. Let's go to a different playground or we can come here again on another day, mom. It's okay."

Our babies... they are growing up much faster than we think.

At home in the evening, we worked with our construction toys for a while before winding down for bed. The boys were able to relate the /c/ sound : /c/ as in /c/-instruction. 

We have this thing we do before turn in for the night. We reflect. The children and Budsy will reflect on the day's activities, the day's highs and lows... Budsy would start off by asking what everyone thought about how our day went. After which, we count the little blessings we have that day.

It could be simple things like, we were thankful for great weather so we could go out and play or have a swim... Or, we were thankful for a good meal at the restaurant... Or, it could be, for just having one another.

When we said our prayers before bed time, lil' dragon_boi said, "Today, chubs took care of me at the playground, right mommy?" "Yes, he did and mommy's really proud. You two are brothers and it's nice that you are looking out for each other."

Then, chubs quipped, "I didn't know how I did it, but I just did. I was brave ya, mommy?"

Budsy replied, "Yes, you were brave indeed. Were you actually a little scared then?"

"At first, yes. But I just wanted to take care of my baby brother. So, I just said it. The boy said sorry to me but he was still doing the rough things. Never mind, we can play there another time with baby, right mommy?"

........ and the three of us snuggled up for bed.

Homeschooling; to Budsy, is more than just academics and exploring about the world. There are soft skills we can teach our children when they are this young. They can absorb our teachings and the words we say are worth in gold.

Montessori education includes Social Grace & Courtesy by the way. It's wonderful how incorporating sound values and graciousness is part of the Montessori Method of Education. Which is precisely why it has been quoted that Montessori is not merely for academic pursuits but it is a form of learning for life itself.

So, friends... That was the wonderful end to our simple day of homeschooling. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! - Lil' dragon_boi turns 3!

Budsy's lil' dragon, is 3! He's sleeping on Budsy's arm, while hugging Budsy as we speak. Lying down here in the stillness of the night, Budsy's reminiscing on the weeks before his 2nd birthday, a year ago...

Budsy was teaching dragon_boi how to introduce himself should anyone ask him his name and age, a few weeks running up to his 2nd birthday last year.

Me : What is your name?

Him : My name (his hand patting his chest) is...... (his name).

Me : How old are you?

Him : I am twooooo eeeeears ollllllld. 

both his pointers pointing to his ears).

This year, hubs decided that he wanted his "assets" back so he's been been trying to drill in the official breastfeeding-wean-off to Budsy's baby. 

Hubs : 3 years old means you're gonna be a big boy already, so cannot drink mommy's milk anymore.

You'd never guess his reply came like this! 

Lil' dragon_boi : But I'm not drinking any milk. It's just for sucking. So, I can sleep. 

Now, how do you counter an answer like that from an-almost 3-yr old?

Ohhh baby…

Ok, cliche moment coming now…

No matter how old you may be, you will always be mommy's lil' baybeeee.. 

Happy 3rd Birthday, sweetheart. 

Montessori Homeschooling - Day 4

*pant!*

No mean feat trying to put up (upload pics, share videos, share lessons and templates where available) for the many different activities we are doing daily!

Budsy will try Budsy's best to share as much as possible, so those of you who are just trying the Montessori method out for the first time or are currently homeschooling your children, can save some time from the bulk of lesson planning.  Budsy hopes these sharings help relieve some prep work for you. 

We went easy on Day 4. We even took a day off on Friday, so Budsy could bring the boys out for some outdoor fun!

1st week of homeschooling was superdee awesome and we are looking forward to do more fun stuff together in our humble abode. We welcome everyone to follow our learning adventures!

Note : Budsy will usually upload the pictures first. Scroll through each picture to read about the activities and (where available), Budsy will update templates in the comment box below each picture.

Lots of love,
Budsy.

Budsy woke up hearing two cute little voices having a very cute conversation.

Lil' dragon_boi : Hurry chubs! The school bus is here.

Chubs : Wait for me, baby! I'm trying to carry my Thomas bag.

Lil' dragon_boi : (in a draggy voice) Wokayyy... but we're gonna be late for school, I tell you...

Chubs : Okay okay... I'm done! Let's go, baby.

Both boys : Say bye to mommy first.

Pretended to close my eyes like I was still sleeping.

Chubs : Ssshh, mommy's still sleeping.

Lil' dragon_boi : (kisses me on my nose) Bye, mom.. we're going to school. Goodnight.

PS. I bet the boys are gonna bawl their eyeballs out when they really go to school next time. Lol!

We got out our /c/ box that was filled to the brim and worked with it again. The boys enjoyed exploring with the objects in greater detail. They shared their new observations with Budsy. 


Chubs was asking how come it was dark when he peeps through the window. We talked and played with the shutter for a bit. Then, he asked/talked about the car - where he normally sits, about seat belts, the engine, the bonnet, of how the petrol goes into the car and more!

Budsy bought this book via a spree at Singapore Morherhood Forum (SMH). Budsy likes how simple the exercises are and can be used to complement Budsy's Montessori Phonics lessons on phonemic awareness.

Budsy loves the layout of the book, the fat square grids, the beautiful illustrations and the hollow letter tracing sheets, closely mirror Budsy's own Rainbow Writer Worksheets. 

Budsy got chubs and lil' dragon_boi to work on the Thinker's tracing worksheets using a /c/, crayon.

For the activity sheet, instead of getting the boys to simply cut and paste the given cut-outs, Budsy laminated them and added self-adhesive fasteners (velcro) to turn the activity sheet into a play-mat. Budsy can't wait to jumble the pieces up after we have covered more letter sounds and get them to sort them out on the specific play-mats. 

Budsy went through the 3-period lesson using the geometric solids again and happy that the boys still remember them. So, we proceeded to work on the extension activity - which was identifying the different objects that had a conical shape to them. Budsy had a party hat, a small yellow cone Budsy used at home to teach the boys how to dribble the soccer ball and a real ice-cream cone.

We discussed further on the other uses of cones, apart from traffic cones and soccer cones. We also covered a little on safety -where cones are sometimes placed to signal a no entry zone or stopping for the traffic police during routine road blocks, etc.

There almost wasn't an ice-cream cone left to see through to the end of the session because when Budsy passed it to chubs, he chomped off a big bite off it! Natural tendencies of a child.  No harm done except the fact that a slightly tilted ice-cream cone was left for conclusion, at the end of the lesson.

Our craft activity for the day was making a party hat using cut-outs of a star. The boys glued the stars and pasted them on the template of the party hat. Budsy carefully opened up the Pororo hat and traced out a nice pattern for our craft.

The boys brought out a lizzie that they said it looked like the chameleon from Eric Carle's, The Mixed-up Chameleon, during story time.

We discussed more about chameleons and briefly spoke of what /c/, camouflage, means. Some facts you can share are :-

(1) Chameleons are reptiles.

(2) Reptiles have leathery skin and are cold-blooded creatures.

(3) Chameleons have long tongues which they rapidly extend from their mouth, too fast for human eyes to see properly.

(4) Chameleons generally eat insects.

(5) Some chameleons have the ability to change colour. This helps them communicate with each other and can also be used for camouflage.

After story time, all of us had a break and had /c/ /c/ /c/, as in Crunch ice-cream (vanilla, chic and choc bits like maltesers, me thinks) in our ice-cream /c/ /c/ cones.

Day 4 has been another wonderful homeschooling experience.