Homelearning, Let's Go!

'Mummy, let's go!' is probably one of Jiale's most-often used phrase, haha. OK, not really relevant :p

Not long ago, I was quite lost about how to do learning activities with him. Though I want to prioritize and focus on fun activities, I also hope to do some learning with him if possible. Best is if we have time to do everything! Haha! *dreaming*

Seeing all the interesting stuff other mummies were doing with their kids, I wondered how how how to go about it.. until the answer revealed itself to me recently! As with most good things, it came totally unexpected : )

One morning, I saw Jiale standing at the window pointing to the rising sun and talking to himself.
 -- mummy fasterly gathered the books about sun that we had at home.

Another day while we were browsing at the library, I saw a book on lighthouses and thought it would be a good idea to go through the book with Jiale as we are now learning Letterland phonics and 'L' is represented by Lucy Lamp Light who lives in a lighthouse.
-- again, gathered the other books about lighthouse that we had at home. Surprisingly, Jiale was very willing to sit through the impromptu session : )

Outside one afternoon when Jiale took a sudden interest in the clouds. He kept looking up at the sky and point point point, going 'wow wow wow'.
-- haven't done anything about this yet, but I shall do it soon!

(This is why I think it's good to have a set of encyclopaedia at home! But of course, if you don't mind letting your child use the computer, Youtube and other Internet sources are very good resources too.)

 At the moment, I am inclined toward using such learning opportunities to impart general knowledge and science facts. I feel quite unmotivated to use our favorite books etc to teach numbers/alphabet etc... shall see how lah, maybe one day there will be an eureka moment for that too.

Jiale is also going through a 'learning explosion' recently. He is very keen on all things related to the alphabet and numbers, and for almost everything he comes across, he reads out the letters, e.g. while drinking Milo, he goes 'M.. I.. L.. O', without any prompting. And of course, he reads out the letters of the names of all his precious trains.

When he lines up his trains (very often), he 'counts' them too. Or rather, I think he's imitating us when we count.. he points at each train and goes '1.. 2.. 3.. 5.. 9..' Yes he skips numbers so he doesn't get the correct quantity, but that's ok lah : )

Even when he scribbles or 'draws', he looks at his masterpiece afterwards and points out all the 'letters' or 'numerals' that he finds. Of course he isn't writing lah, just anyhow scribbling and somehow by luck gets something that looks like a letter or numeral. If he's really writing... no such illusion :P

And my favorite:
Got him some Geomag (one-inch magnetic rods) recently, and there happened to be five of the rods lying around on the dining table. Suddenly he showed us a 'L' and told us 'L'! Then Hubby and I helped him to make / made for him the other letters.. so fun!

I have been waiting so long for Jiale to show me he is learning from all the non-learning stuff we do at home.. And yes, he has shown me that Wait long enough, and good things will come : )