A quick post today to show you two recent products from Ryan's factory.
This is Ryan's latest artwork, made with Do-a-Dot markers. I like how he layered the darker colours over the lighter ones. For example, you can see the brown bits on the left have specks of green on them and the pink bits in the middle have dark green bits on them.
Next is Ryan's little cardboard train, which is made up of four lacing cards. He laced the cards by himself and I helped to set up the train. Interestingly, when threading the laces, he would usually select the hole that was farther away, instead of following the line of holes. We bought this set from Popular Bookstore (the box is behind the train).
Yesterday, 14 October 2011, was Steve Jobs Day. Yes, Steve Jobs has his very own day. The day was earmarked before Steve's passing and has gained much more significance since then. There is a Steve Jobs Day website, Facebook event page and a Twitter feed, plus several real life meetups were arranged to commemorate the man.
On Steve Jobs Day, people are encouraged to talk/tweet/blog/share on Facebook about Steve and how he inspired people. Yes, you can talk to each other about which of his products are your favourites and how they have changed your life. And if you decide to put on a black turtleneck and blue jeans, well you go right ahead!
Some of you may think, what's the big deal? Apart from Richard, nobody I know in Singapore knew about Steve Jobs Day 2011. I guess only a true fan would know (or care) about it and Richard is undoubtedly a true fan. Richard has been a loyal Apple man since the very first Macintosh was launched. He's not one of those recent converts - you know who I'm talking about - those people who converted because of the Macbook or the iPhone, because it was fashionable to be in the Apple camp. Richard was born with Apple in his DNA and an Apple logo stamped on his forehead.
Back in university, long before iMacs and Macbooks came along, Richard would be the only person in the entire computer suite happily working at one of these babies, while everyone else were on the PCs. Nobody would touch them, just him. He was the opposite of fashionable at that time and he didn't care.
Every single computer Richard has bought has been from Apple, despite the fact that he uses PCs at work. His Mac computers are his refuge, his pleasure and his immeasurable joy (apart from his family of course!).
And yes, my funny Apple man knew that it was Steve Jobs Day yesterday, just like he would remember my birthday. He quietly donned the trademark black turtleneck and blue jeans. He didn't care that nobody knew the reason, he didn't care that nobody noticed, he didn't care that nobody else did the same. He simply said, "It's Steve Jobs Day." And that was good enough for him.
It was only when Ryan started voicing the letter names that we found out that he knew them. Before that, we never tested him - for example, we never asked him to point to the letter "A" or anything like that. When we knew that he knew the letter names, we then gave him materials to reinforce his letter recognition. I'll share these materials in this post.
These are the items that we used. I am by no means suggesting that everyone must use these items and I am not suggesting that you should not use other items. Neither am I suggesting that you must do things the way we did. There is no magic formula. How you teach your child and what you use is entirely up to you and your child, your preferences and your circumstances.
Ok, again, I stress that Ryan had already learned all the letter names by this time, ie. we did not use these as our first tools to teach letter names. Having said that, we didn't draw a line between these "stages", we still continued to use the items in yesterday's post and we still have most of them out on the shelves for Ryan to play with even now.
First up, the iPhone app. We only had one app when it came to letter names, which was "Fish School" by Duck Duck Moose. This is a fantastic award-winning app which introduces letters, numbers, colours and shapes. I'm sure most parents on the iPhone will have this. Ryan played the alphabet song over and over and over and over again on this app. We installed it when Ryan was about 16 or 18 months, can't recall exactly. Ryan didn't really get into the app until a few months later actually, because we did not give him much time with the iPhone until he was about two years old.
We don't have any apps on the iPad for letter names (we do have some for letter sounds, but that's for a separate post).
We have many many many alphabet stickers - flat ones, foam ones, puffy ones, glittery ones, even those used for scrapbooking. Ryan uses them freely in his artwork; he will select each one, call its name and place it wherever he chooses. Stickers can seem a little wasteful so I always try to stock up when I come across very cheap stickers.
Over at his nanny's place, Ryan's nanny gives him foam letters to play with. She says that he arranges them everyday in straight lines as he lovingly calls each of the letters by name and that he gets upset if anyone messes up his work!
When we are out and about, we look out for letters in our surroundings. Ryan will yell out the letters as and when he comes across them, on the street, in the car park, on the restaurant menus, on the buses passing by our car, etc. Usually he is the one who points them out to us.
Ryan also started showing us that he understood how to construct letters. One of our pre-dinner activities while waiting for our food to arrive at the restaurant, is for Ryan to construct letters using everyday items, like coins, chopsticks, straws, pins, toothpicks, eating utensils, anything really. He also likes to make letters using his arms. This is an "V" and below that, an "X"!
A few months after his first birthday, we started gradually introducing letter sounds, which he enjoyed. We still continued to give him the opportunity to reinforce his letter names and letter construction whenever he could, and we still do.
In June this year, I bought these plastic magnetic letters, upper and lower case. I got them dirt cheap at a Popular Bookstore sale. Ryan loved these and played with them a lot (especially matching up the upper and the lower case letters!). Interestingly, he preferred to play with these letters on the floor. He was not as interested when I stuck them on the magnetic board. He wanted to touch and feel and handle the letters.
I bought them thinking that Ryan could start building words with them. In fact, I bought two sets of the lower case letters so that he could build words like "Mummy" and "Daddy" and "zoo". I showed him "Ryan" and "Elmo" and a few other words using these plastic letters, and that helped him to see that letters make words and have meaning. The first few times I did try to talk about the letter sounds, but he was not interested so I stopped that and I just constructed different words to show him.
As for videos, after we put away the YBCR videos, we generally didn't watch videos until Ryan was about 18 months old, when he started watching Hi-5 and then a few months later, Sesame Street. When he was a little past two years old, I felt that we should emphasise lower case letters a little more so I shopped around and bought this DVD from Leapfrog called The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park, which he enjoyed tremendously. The video teaches letter names and pairs up upper and lower case letters. It also teaches what rhyming words are. This was the thing that sparked his "hobby" of matching upper and lower case letters. Even now he still loves watching this and singing along with all the songs.
He does have a Sesame Street video called "What's the name of that song?" which was (and still is) one of his favourite videos when he was about 2 years old and a couple of clips on that video are about letters. One is an alphabet song sung by the divine Patti Labelle. It is AMAZING. This is not the well-known Twinkle Twinkle Little Star alphabet song - it's a bluesy, soulful tune with the muppets chiming in gospel-style. Ryan loves it! Sometimes he screams and shouts the letters out, as if he were watching the diva live in concert. I love it too and I scream right along! Please check it out on Youtube!
At this point, we also started introducing letter sounds, very gradually. We still continued to give him the opportunity to reinforce his letter names and letter construction whenever he could, and we still do.
We also have the LEGO DUPLO Play with Letters set which has the letters of the alphabet printed on the blocks. We got it at a promotional price at Toys "R" Us. We have a few other LEGO DUPLO sets, but this is the only one we have that is alphabet-themed. You can see them in action in this post. We started playing with these just a few months ago, after we got back from our trip to USA.
Recently also, we got him this book called "How to Build an A" by Sara Midda, which comes with 11 foam pieces which can be used to construct letters, and he enjoys that too.
I mentioned in yesterday's post on learning the alphabet that Ryan enjoys the book, "Colors, Numbers, Letters" by Leo Lionni. We bought it when he already knew his colours, numbers and letters so the first time he saw it, he "read" the whole book aloud. He still enjoys it. Here's a recent video of him "reading" it, which I posted yesterday as my book review.
Ok, I think I have covered everything. Next time (probably next week) I will cover the items that we used to introduce letter sounds.
Today I want to record the items that we used at home to show Ryan the alphabet. I can't recall exactly when but most of these were introduced when he was just under one year old.
These items were only for introducing the letters and their names. I have not included the items we have which show words and letter sounds - like A is for Apple and B is for Boat. The items in this post merely show him what is an A, what is a B, etc.
The first "item" we used was probably the alphabet song. You know how it goes, to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I do have one issue with it and that was the part that went "LMNOP". All the sounds are crushed together. So I usually sing it a little differently when it got to that part. Actually, there are lots of other alphabet songs that you can use, just pick up a CD at the children's section. I should add that, in Shichida class, for the children who are 1-2 years old, we sometimes sing an alphabet song (very much like the famous alphabet song, just slightly different at certain parts). We sing it while pointing to each of the 26 letters printed on a sheet of paper.
This was probably the first "toy" we used - an alphabet/abacus frame. Richard would have Ryan on his lap every night and he would tap each letter in turn as he sang the alphabet song to Ryan. He would do one or two rounds each time, and then they would move on to play with something else. There are images on the reverse side of each tile so Richard also goes through those with Ryan, to keep things interesting. After a while, and when Ryan started talking, Ryan started pointing to some of the tiles on his own and saying the letter's name. Now of course he can name all the letters on his own and this item has been packed away, waiting for the next little cutie to come along.
I came across the frame by accident. I was actually looking for something like an abacus (you can see three rows of balls on the other side (blue, green and red) if you peek between the rows on the lower left of the frame). To be honest, I was more persuaded by the price than anything else - it was only a few dollars. It's made of plastic, probably made in China - yes I know about all the dangerous toys that come from China, but I knew that Ryan would not be having much skin contact with this sort of toy and he certainly wasn't going to put it in his mouth, so I felt it was not an issue.
Ok, next item. This is a wooden alphabet board. There are wooden letters which fit on the board which I didn't bother to fit for the photo. At present, we've put the board away and we keep the letters in a small container which we sometimes bring along when we go out for meals. When Ryan was still learning the alphabet, the letters were always in their places on the board and all the little images are covered, so you just see the letters and it's not as distracting as it is in the first photo. In fact, we never bothered with the little images.
What Ryan did with this was the obvious - he fit all the letters onto the board. That was it. I guess it gave him a sensorial experience and familiarity with the shapes. As he fit each letter, we would sometimes say the letter's name out aloud but not always.
These are the letters. The thing that persuaded me to buy this board (apart from its low price) was that it had both the upper and the lower case letters, remembering that it is very important to introduce the lower case letters, in addition to the upper case letters as the lower case letters are encountered more frequently in everyday life. I did not like the font used though - the lower case "a", "g" and "a" are not my desired shape (see the bottom row of letters in the photo). Ryan didn't have any problem with them however. As he grew more familiar with the letters, he would use them without the board, and his favourite thing to do was to match up the upper case letters with their lower case partners.
Next is this wooden train, made up of letters. All 26 letters are represented, plus an engine and a caboose, and you can hook each one on and off in any order. Ryan loved this and we still keep it out for him to play with, even now. The advantage (although I did not realise it at the time I bought it) was that Ryan could see both sides of each letter. As the hook on each letter is only on one end (the other end being the eye for the hook), he learned that there was a correct side and a wrong side (for letters like B, D, E, etc). Again, I didn't spend much on this, it was quite cheap.
The last item I will show was a Christmas gift (in 2009) from a friend. This comprised a set of wooden letters and a corresponding set of 26 cards, made by Plan Toys. Each card has, on one side, a picture of an animal which name starts with that letter. There is an empty space on the animal which the wooden piece can sit on. The other side of the card shows the plain letter (which is also the same size as the wooden letter) and there is a dotted arrow line showing how the letter is written - you are supposed to trace the letter with your finger following the arrow.
Ryan didn't love this immediately, he took a long time to get into it. I guess it was like a duplicate of some of the items above, which he was already playing with. Plus the pictures on the cards were not that appealing, I think. In fact, when he did play with this, he preferred to play on the plain side of the cards, although we never bothered to do the tracing, just the matching up of the wooden letter with the card. Anyway, this toy slowly gained acceptance and now Ryan pulls it out quite regularly to play with, sometimes he plays with the cards (both sides); other times he doesn't bother with the cards, he just holds the letters in his hand or lines them up on the floor and says their names.
Around the same time that we introduced the Plan Toys set, I also introduced cards with textured lower case letters. You can see what this looks like at this link (I did not buy it through this link though. I bought it off the shelf from a local store). The intention was to get him to trace the letters with his finger, in the order and direction that he would eventually write them. This is what is done in Montessori when they work with sandpaper letters. Ryan did not like these - I think this activity was too restrictive and too advanced for his age so I packed it up after two or three tries. I re-introduced these cards later, and he was much more receptive. I would think that you can try when your child is, at the youngest, 18 months, and even then, when you start, don't ask the child to do the tracing, just show him/her how to do it and leave it at that, until his/her interest is sufficiently piqued and he/she starts to reach for the cards on his/her own.
As for books, we felt that there was not much point buying a book with pages that simply had A, B, C, D, E... etc. So, we didn't use any. After Ryan was already familiar with the alphabet, we did pick up two alphabet books, because by that time, Ryan absolutely loved the alphabet so we wanted to get some books that he would enjoy. One is the famous "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" (by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault with illustrations by Lois Ehlert). We bought this fairly recently and have only gone through once or twice with Ryan. The other one is Leo Lionni's board book, "Colors, Numbers, Letters". Ryan read the whole book on his own the very first time he saw it - there are no words, he just named all the colours, numbers and letters. Great book, I will post a review soon.
I should add that we do not have an alphabet chart on the wall at home.
Before I pen off, I want to mention that, in the beginning, I had the intention of teaching letter sounds first, before teaching the alphabet. I was concerned that Ryan wouldn't want to learn the letter sounds if he had already learned to refer to the letters by their names. My fears were unfounded - Ryan learned the letter names first and had no problem with the letter sounds subsequently. Now, in addition to reciting the alphabet by letter name, he can even do it by letter sound! In fact, when reading up on this, I came across an ex-Montessori teacher who said that she had one student who learned the letter sounds without learning the alphabet and he was so demoralised in pre-school when he discovered that his peers all knew the letter names. He felt out of place and all this negativity affected his ability to learn the letter names, which frustrated him even more. Thinking about it, even if you don't teach letter sounds at home, it's all right because children will get that done in school, but you have to teach the letter names at home, because that's not done in school (the students usually already know the letter names).
All right, that's it. Maybe next time when I write on this subject, I will write about the items we used to introduce letter sounds.
Last year in Shichida (Oct to Dec 2010), we were given this A4 book. The cover says, "MY FIRST DICTIONARY". The pages inside were blank except for a small square at the upper right corner where the letters of the alphabet appear, one letter per page (upper and lower together).
For each week, we were to find and paste pictures on each page showing words starting with the relevant letter. For Week 1, we had to do this for letters A and B; for Week 2, it would be letters C and D, and so on. In class, the books will be passed around and the parents would input all the words to their child.
That term, Richard accompanied Ryan to class so Richard was in charge of this. He was quite hardworking at it - he always made sure that the homework for each week was done in time for class. He reported that he always got compliments on "his" book from sensei (which I think motivated him to keep up with the good work). He also said that, some weeks, the other parents didn't do their homework with the result that everyone had to share our book!
Anyway, this is how it looks inside. Richard chose caterpillar and clown for Cc, and donkey and drums for Dd.
I left the task completely to Richard - he didn't consult me or ask me my opinion at all. I usually flipped through the book only when we were on the way to class, and sometimes it was quite amusing to see what his choices were. Here are some of the more interesting ones.
Gg for Gruffalo.
Mm for McDonald's (we usually hang out at McDonald's after Shichida class).
On Sunday evening, we went to see the US Navy 7th Fleet Band perform live from the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
According to the published event details, "The US 7th Fleet Band's contemporary music ensemble "Orient Express" is an exciting twelve-piece group of professional Navy Musicians who continue to be a featured attraction throughout the Navy's largest area of operation. They are a high energy rock-and-roll band featuring such music as Stevie Wonder, Journey, Bruno Mars, and Michael Jackson. This diverse group also performs as a smooth Pop/Jazz combo and a playful acoustic Dixieland band. Their energetic performances are sure to add excitement to any event! Whatever your musical taste Orient Express is sure to please!"
And they sure pleased us! Ryan was very appreciative - he clapped enthusiastically after each number!
We were afraid that we would get rained out, but the weather was kind and everything was perfect.
The band was simply fabulous! They played rip-roaring tunes that got us yelling and screaming along. When they launched into "Go, Johnny, Go Go Go!", we were off our backsides and dancing like maniacs!
Twilight came and the band played on.
And so did we! With some new friends! Our little mat soon became quite crowded. Ryan had a really enjoyable time!
We wished it would go on longer but the darkness soon descended, reminding us that all good things come to an end.
Loved watching this couple dance in front of us as the band played its last song, James Brown's "I Feel Good". They were really burning it up!
Yesterday, Ryan went for Edudrama in the morning as usual. Richard accompanied him.
Richard reported that, during English Edudrama, when Teacher Alexis was going through the students' names that were written on the board, Ryan kept yelling out the first letter of the name as she pointed to each one. When she pointed to his name and asked, "Who is this?", he didn't say a word! Instead, he crawled all the way to the front of the class where she was and stood beside her! She said he was so cheeky! I think so too! Hmm well, it's good to know that he knows that RYAN is his name.
Teacher Alexis served a butter cake (Sara Lee) to the class today and Ryan ate a whole slice! He was super hyper after that, so much so that, in Mandarin Edudrama, he kept running about and talking loudly. When he was asked to count from 1 to 10 (in Mandarin), he yelled the numbers out! Normally, he won't say anything (even if he knows the words)!
Anyway, his hyper state of mind continued till the afternoon and he did not go down for his nap. We were supposed to meet up with some friends at Singkids Vivocity and we stuck to the appointment, Ryan yawning all the way. He perked up when we got there, and I think he enjoyed himself a lot, especially in the balloon chamber.
After that, Ryan fell asleep for a little while, as our group adjourned for dinner in Tiong Bahru. Ryan woke up in time to have some rice, but he was generally not in the mood for socialising. He spent most of the time nursing. Nevertheless, we had a good tummy-filling time catching up with everyone and, all too soon, it was time to go home.
We are a family of four, living with our dog and cat in Singapore. This is a diary of our family life and our thoughts on parenting/family issues/life in general.
We hope the blog is as inspiring to you as it is meaningful to us. Do leave us a comment or email us at pinkiepirate(at)live.com.
