Books to Introduce to your child: Saving Mother Earth

My son started consciously asking questions about how he can help save mother earth ever since he participated in Earth Hour. Sensing that he was ready to know more about how we can help take care of the planet we live in, I started buying these books.

Try them too.

Chinese Pin Yin

Consonant digraphs: sh ch wh th

consonant blends

CL

 SC

PR

st

Barbara Milne's helpful videos

Alphabet song (phonetical sounds)

Numbers

Counting by tens

Opposites

Mandarin summer classes

I am so glad I found Mandarin summer classes. We'll try this out next year though as Ahren is still below the age requirement.

Lego obsession

These are just some of the lego stuff I bought for my son.  He loves lego. I'll update this post to show some of his works.

Ahren's masterpieces

Ahren's Homeschool activities

Still snipping here.  I'm trying to really enhance his fine motor skills 'coz kindergarten entails a lot of fine motor exercise.

My son is a very active and inquisitive boy, so keeping him  on track is always a challenge.

Morning message: to encourage Ahren to recognize the words and read mommy's message. It also serves as a copy work activity.

Snip, Snip

Another good way to improve a child's fine motor skills. To most of us, snipping a piece of paper is relatively a no-brainer.  For young children, however, getting a good grip on the scissors' handles can be quite daunting.  It takes a lot of concentration, determination and practice to achieve a perfectly cut line.

I am happy to report that Ahren is doing well in this category now.

Mommy musing:Taking care of my skin

Recently, I have come to realize that I am not getting any younger, I must start a regular skin regimen to really take care of my skin. I cannot rely on nature/genes anymore to do all the work. (honestly, I really neglected my skin because I felt, at least after I gave birth, that money spent on skincare should be better lavished on my sweet son).  Obviously, this decision was so wrong because I also need to take care of myself.

This is my start up plan. I need to use a moisturizer.  I hope aveeno positively radiant will do the job for me.

My Pobox loot

I'm addicted to online shopping.  The items above are just some of my bargain finds in the last black friday sale. I'm a happy bargain shopper for my son's essentials..and some mommy stuff too.

Buttoning

Strategize

He learned how to "strategize" with this game. 

Of castles and Invaders

Left: this is the castle that Ahren built.According to him, the taller tower is the king's tower while the shorter one is the archer's tower. Right: an invader (see the stone) tries to enter the castle.

Ahren's fascination with castles and stories of invasion probably sprung up from these books.

CNY science experiment: Launching a Rocket

CNY experiment.rocket launcher using vinegar ang baking soda. We put 2ml of vinegar into the container(the launcher pad). Ahren then put baking soda into the hole of the foam rocket. He inserted the foam rocket into the launcher pad and shook it..puff! Our rocket flew.

Ahren's Boat Gunner

My 4 year old's drawing 

Saw this drawing and asked Ahren what it was, he said "It's a boat gunner."

Happy Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Teaching the value of money

Ahren happily sorting his money for deposit to the bank

Ahren's school has a savings program to help them learn the value of money. Instead of just putting money into his bank account (they opened a bank account specifically for the program), We thought it would do him good if he really learns how to do it (the hard way). For months, Ahren would collect coins we occasionally give him and put it in his angry bird coin bank.When it was full already, we had him help sort the coins. I showed him how I inventoried the coins and wrote on the bank form.

He wrote his own name on the signatory portion. Then he trooped to the bank to deposit his money. Ahren believes he will be rich someday if he continues to deposit his money to the bank (When the time comes, I will show him how to invest his money).