At 39 months, she is now able to do the following:
1) Alphabets & Phonetics
She can read and understand all alphabets from A-Z already. She can also make the sound of the alphabets from A-H and slowly progressing to the rest. For the phonetics part, I played the phonetics video for her to learn the sound of different letters and currently her playgroup is also teaching some simple phonetics from A-H also. They will teach one alphabet every week.
2) Writing Alphabets
I started to teach my gal writing alphabets by practicing on those workbooks which I bought. So far she is now able to write some of the letters by herself like A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, O, Q, T, U, V, X and Z. She still not able to write some of the letters like K, M, N, P, R, S, W yet.
G was the alphabet which she took quite some time to learn. She would always stop at G but few days ago, she surprised me by writing G on her writing pad by herself! For a start, I think she wrote quite well!
She surprised me many times by suddenly showing the understanding for certain things which I taught her previously. She might look distracted sometimes when I taught her which lead me to think she not ready yet. But a few days or weeks or months later, she would suddenly do or say or apply the things which I taught her previously. The writing of G is a good example. The learning of all the planets in the solar system is also another example and learning how to ride a bicycle and many others too.
This lead me to remember what the classes in Shichida had taught previously. Never underestimate your child. If at first the child don't seems to get it, it's ok. Their brain may be taking time to digest. Therefore what I try to do is if she start to show some resistance, I will stop first and proceed to the next activity. The idea is not to force her to learn.
Anyway, my plan is to teach capital letters first as I felt it is more easy, then slowly progress to writing small letters.
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| Her first time writing G by herself! |
She can now count from 1-20 confidently and occasionally beyond 20. I had started introducing the numbers from 21-100 by singing the 100 counting song while reading the book "100 days of school" with her. I borrowed the book from the library and it was quite an interesting book. The 100 counting song is a simple song make up by me just to make the boring counting process to 100 more interesting.
It worked and she was picking the book every night and asked me to sing the 100 counting song to her. Yes I literally sing and counted 1-100 with her almost every night until I returned the book! At least now she got the concept from 1-100. She might not be able to count to 100 yet, but I believe by introducing to her early, it could help her to learn easier next time.
4) Simple Math - Addition
She can now understand simple addition like 1 +1 = 2, 1+2 = 3 and by adding 1 to each incremental number up to 10. She can also write simple numbers from 1-3. I haven't really started teaching her to write numbers yet but I will be starting very soon.
5) Astronomy
She can now memorize all the planet's name in the solar system and in the correct order. She can even know all the Dwarf planet names too! She no longer like to watch Peppa Pig or Dora videos but her favourite now is to watch the planet song videos (But I would limit her to watch 2-3 times a week for a short period less than 1 hour each time). I noticed she will absorb learning faster when I add the music element in it. She can focus and concentrate better.
6) Sight words
I bought some boardgames "My First Scrabble" and "Scrabble Junior" set for her to learn and recognise words in a fun way. I bought from Carousell for a price almost 60-70% cheaper than buying from retail shops. Of course the trade off is they are preloved, but the condition still very good. My logic is I'm not sure if my gal likes the boardgames. I don't want to spend a fortune buying things which I think she will like but if it turns out otherwise, it will really be a waste of money.
We played the games together and it was quite fun. She can now recognise some easy words like "Cat", "Ant", "Dog", "Sun". I realised teaching sight words is the most challenging so far as she is used to visual pictures. Therefore I hope by injecting some play element, it can spur her interest to learn words. Surprisingly, she prefers "Scrabble Junior" than "My First Scrabble".
Of course all work no play is boring. So I make sure I bring her to playground, attend some fun activities together, go for some sports like swimming, cycling, scooting frequently so that she can have more complete development.
I hope by preparing her well, it could reduce her stress level as she progress to Kindergarten and Primary school. Seriously, I'm quite worried as I see most of the kids nowadays look so stress with their school work, attending tuition after tuition even at a very young age. I hope I will not subject my gal to go through all these. I hope she be able to cope with her school work easier and faster so she can have more time to develop her interest and passion.
