Staples!

Presentation:  Stapling.

We did the Snipping...but not the stapling.
By his request, we are introducing the stapling skill.
A no brainer set up, just offer a stapler and some paper.
But we kicked it up a notch by combining stapling WITH letter writing and word recognition.

The Goal
Learn hand grip, coordination, and pressure level for stapling
Combine handwriting and word recognition through stapling game

The Set Up
1)  Tray
2)  SMALL Stapler *We opted for a clear one so that Zozie can see the staples inside and refill when empty.
3)  Cut pieces of paper
4)  Write a few cursive letters
5)  Make smaller word pictures to be stapled on to the letter sheets (see below)

The Presentation
1)  Invite child to bring tray to the table
2)  Hold corner of paper with one hand
3)  Grip stapler with other hand, thumb on top, rest of fingers on the bottom
4)  Hold over the corner and apply down pressure until stapler clicks (important that it's a small stapler so they can do the ONE hand hold)
5)  Have child do a series of staples till he is comfortable with the one hand hold and push.
6)  Add a second piece of paper ontop, secure with thumb over the layered paper.
7)  Same one hand stapling action, repeat.
8)  Variation:  If not comfortable with the ONE hand grip, try showing the Double hand grip - Have one hand over another on top of the stapler.  With a swift push down, staple papers with hands cupped.
Extension:
We included paper with cursive letters and cut up small pictures that start with each letter.  "T" had small papers with words like "Table," "Train," "Tent", "Turtle," "Tail"....
Child can color the small pictures, as well as practice writing the cursive letters they see.  Zozie liked to repeat what he just stapled phonetically...

One hand grip.

Double Hand Grip

A straightforward exercise... challenging, but rewarding.

Almost as easy as the easy button @ Staples, but with alittle more UMFFF on the push down.

See the phonic game below!

Spring Scroll.

春到了!
Spring is Here!
At the close of the holiday season, we are moving into the start of Chinese New Year...
One of the ways to welcome in spring is to write Chinese Spring Scrolls.
These are usually done on red banner type paper with black or gold brushwork.  A large variety of "well wishes & blessings" for the new year are commonly seen on these scrolls, which are then hung on doors and walls to share these blessings with all.

This morning, Zozie wanted to try his first Chinese Spring Scroll.  We opted for a washable black marker instead of the usual brush and ink.  Hey, black is black.  One of the most basic one is of the character "SPRING" or "春".  I wrote a sample for him to observe and copy onto his own red paper.

By displaying the banner "upside down", or "dao" (到), it is visually & phonetically the Chinese word for "Here" or "Arrived"...so thus, "Spring is Here" or "Spring has Arrived".  So you may frequently see these character being hung inverted for this double meaning.

Zo tried another variation of "春 ".

And of course, any mention of the Chinese New Year makes Zozie draw Chinese Lions.  The obsession is deep, it doesn't take much for him to draw Lions and Dragons these days!

What's after Christmas, mama?
Zozo kept asking what month are what things happening once the new year comes.  So we decided to write out a pictoral monthly LIST, breaking down what is to be expected in the next couple of months in the new year.  You can see his own Chinese number writing down the right side of the pictures on the chalkboard.

Jan:  Chinese New Year (Dragon Face)
Feb:  Zozie's 4th Birthday
Mar:  Moon is full
Apr:  Beanie's 0th Birthday

And with that, he was satisfied.
See Zozie scroll away in the clip below, followed by his all Chinese New Year Chant to offer blessings to all in the second clip!  Then, his blue lion drawing in action...
Our Home Chinese New Year Celebration has begun.

Meet BOB.

Zozie...Meet BOB.
Bob.  A funny name that Zozie could not stop laughing at in the beginning. "Bob? What's BOB?" giggle...giggle...giggggggle.
He's really really wanting to read these days.
At nearly the end of his 3rd year, the reading urge is really kicking in.
Big Time.

We have been doing phonics reading with him for a few months now, as this is the preferred Montessori method of teaching the alphabets.  Instead of reading the "Name" of the letters, the Montessori approach is to teach the "sound" of each letter.  This gives a more accurate tool for a child to use when trying to sound out a new word in a book.
"Ah, Buh, Cuh/Ccc, Duh..."


Our BOB first reader series was a total FIND at a garage sale.  But don't worry if you are not a rummage shopper, these can easily be purchased on Amazon for a decent price.  Just under $12 for a set of 10 small books!

The 1st set consist of all 3-letter words with short vowels and simple sentences.  Book 1 of Set 1 is has only 4 letters for a child to read...they were clever enough to combine these 4 letters in various ways to build a short story for a child to repeat and build literacy confidence.

It was a short "click" for Zozie to get the idea of sounding out letters in a string to form a word.  Before then, he had a rough understanding of single phonics, but piecing together for word creation is the new milestone. Now...like blowing bubble gum, or anything else worth wanting in life, it is just practice, practice, practice.

Mind you, this is a self-motivated practice.
You really can't force a toddler to do something they don't want to do already. Believe me.  I can't even get him to wear a shirt in the morning that he didn't pick out, let alone push early reading, yicks.

Below you will see Zozie's reading of Book2 in Set 1, SAM.
This was the 3rd time he read this particular book within the week.

We are careful to NEVER read these books TO HIM.

What?  So cruel?

Never!  You know we are not like that at the LAB.

This is just so he would not be given the chance to just memorize and repeat.  

Kids have spongy sharp memories and can "appear" to be reading when they have just memorized the script!  Instead, we tell him that we will read any "Storybook" to him but that these are his "Reading Books".

Reading books are ones that HE reads to US so that he too can be a storyteller!  So far, that has worked. Zo is pretty proud when he can tell us a story too.

All Done?

Note that he starts to say "ALL DONE" at the end of the clip.  Dalee is careful to cue him with the phonics of "th" to get him to look at the word itself.  Zozo then proceeds to sound out correctly "The End".

As with all FIRSTS in a toddlers life, this is actually just "The Beginning."

The ride, of course, just got more fun now with BOB in the mix...giggle.

Must say, it is a pretty funny sounding name.  

Like Zozo.

Poking Fun!

Presentation:  Shape Tracing.

 "I want to write smooth letters, mama..."
Zozie has been asking to write alot recently.
He's been working on his name,  but at 3.5, he often does "love letters" where he's is pretending to write sentences in paragraph form and give them to me all folded up.  The sentences are just loops and squiggles, but they connect, like cursive letters, or in his words, "smooth".  "That's E, mama, look..."as he makes a small loop in one of his sentences.

Montessori starts toddlers with lower case cursive letters when introducing the alphabet.  What?  None of this ALL CAPITAL learning in all the kids toys, books, and teaching props sold in stores?  What's up with that? 

NOPE.  Apparently, lower case cursive is considered the natural "next step" to a child drawing loops and circles.  Once introduced, that actually made complete sense to me.  Just think of your 3 yr old drawing pictures.  How hard is it for him to make a solid straight line, let alone a series of straight lines that connect in a certain sequence (Print Capitals).  Curves and loops are much easier for little hands.  Also, grammatically, we don't write in all caps.  Caps only begin a sentence and lower case letters are used 90+% of the time. 

Now to the shape "poking".  Tracing is the foundation on which Montessori builds writing skills.  When a child shows interest in writing, they are asked to start with the METAL INSERTS.  This repetition of tracing different shapes with a pencil builds their coordination and pencil grip, skills they need to master in order to move on to writing.

At the LAB, I was in need of a FAST new home tool, and the metal inserts were much too expensive to own.  So this one is really simple, only requiring some paper and a marker.  It builds on the idea of tracing shapes, so we used various geometric shapes, outlined by dots, and we asked Zo to hand-poke the dots for tracing purposes.  Sounds basic and simple, but the kids really dig it.  Now run along and go do some poking-fun of your own!

The Goal
To build hand eye coordination & focus as foundation to start writing

The Set Up
1)  Cut scraps of paper
2)  Markers to draw geometric shapes and outline each shape with dots.  Make the dots more dense if child is older, looser if child is younger.
3)  Sharpened Pencil
4)  Small hand towel

The Presentation
1)  Bring tray to the table
2)  Select one shape to work on
3)  Lay the shape on the folded towel to create a soft surface for poking
4)  Take the sharpened pencil in one hand and come down firmly on one of the dots, piercing the paper
5)  Continue to trace along the shape until all dots have been pierced.
6)  Ask child to clip up their finished shapes on a ribbon (Our own addition to work clipping pincher skill and just an opportunity for the child to have a "finish" to the routine in displaying his work)

 

Some poking fun at home:

 

 

Puleta Ab-lay!

Ever wonder what a Chinese speaking American toddler sounds like reading Spanish?
 
We were inspired by one of our Blog Followers who is a fluent native Spanish speaker teaching her daughter Chinese in their own homeschool.  Since Dalee can speak Spanish, we thought to read a few Dora stories to Zozie, just to hear his "Spanese" accent!

Open the door, shouts Dora.
Puleta Ab-lay, screams Zozie.
(snicker, snicker...squeeks mama & dalee.)

BoPoMo.

Presentation:  Chinese Character Matching.

Our first attempt at "reading" Chinese.
I noticed a similar tool at a recent tour of a Montessori Preschool.
Not knowing where to start, I have been meaning to find a simple way to introduce Chinese written characters to Zozie.  The sheer numbers of Chinese characters is quite overwhelming:  47,035.  
Full literacy in Chinese requires knowledge of 3 to 4 thousand characters.
Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world.

But before taking bites into the characters, we need little nibblets.

BoPoMo is a loose equivalent to the English "ABC's" in that it is a building block to phonetically sound out the way a Chinese character (or word) is spoken.  As if it's not already hard enough, we have to learn the characters to the SOUNDS in order to sound out the written final characters...the alphabet before the alphabet?

So...Our first letter is "Bo", shown in the green square in the photo.  
This is the preferred way to learn to read Chinese when I grew up in Taiwan.  Learn your BoPoMo's, then learn your words.  Perhaps a similar introduction to English can be done in this manner as well?

The Goal
Sight Recognition
Memory exercise
Hand eye coordination

The Set Up
1)  Tray
2)  Photocopy a page out of a book
3)  Clear sheet protector or laminate the page
4)  Photocopy a second page and cut out the various words or sentences
5)  A container or small basket

The Presentation
1)  Bring the tray to the work table or mat
2)  Take the basket of loose letters out
3)  Start with the main character/letter being introduced
4)  Continue with the other sentences
5)  Hover each new sentence over the base sheet in a linear and systematic fashion, doing an exaggerated motion of comparing, shake head if not a match and move on till a match is found.  Can even start with a sentence up-side-down, then reversing it upon hovering over the key sheet
6)  When a match is found, place the loose sentence over the existing one, then keep going until all sentences have been placed
7)  Have the child try, when done, place all pieces into container and return tray to shelf

This is both a typical memory matching game and a basic Chinese lesson.
Our boy seems to be playing it like a picture puzzle, not yet really reading the characters.  But since Chinese characters are considered Sinographs, it's basically a bunch of little pictures anyways.  Although Z did note that the target BoPoMo character was highlighted in pink to the right of the Chinese word.  So he's noticing that these parts make up the sound.  We'll need alittle more exposure and practice on this front, but a (free) and good start on pre-reading.

First Alphabets!

So I was washing dishes today and turn around to see this.
Looks like somebody is ready to write, eh?
"Are those A's Zozie?"  
"Yeah!  ALOT of A's mama!"

Interesting that Zozie should "start writing" just as I discovered my Cousin-In-Law's (is that a proper title?) Homeschool Blog the other day.  She did a feature called "Letter Weeks", in which she worked through the alphabet, one letter per week, and came up with various fun projects for her daughter to learn each letter.  The Homeschool Menagerie is a wonderful resource if you are looking to setting something up for your toddler at home.  Smart, sweet, and sassy...Adrienne is sure to keep you reading, and smiling, about her many adventures with her 2 cutie-patooties!  After seeing this chalkboard covered with the letter "A", I think I'm going to start my own Letter Week too...this kid keeps me on my toes!

An animal costume always makes homework more fun!

Now at 38months, Zo has progressively gotten better with signing his name since I first noted it a year ago.  The "O" was his first written letter, then followed by "E".  It use to be a vertical with 4-5 horizontal lines extending out.  Now, on good days, we get just a single line in the middle for "E" (see below).

last month's signature on a birthday card...

But the Big Surprise, after doing the board of "A's", is actually him writing "Little I's"!  2 New letters in one day on his own...I was floored.  I never showed him either letter, but  he has been able to sight recognize Capital letters for a while now.  The lower case letters is another story. 

So when he did this on camera for the first time ever...



"i is like a candle..."
Just like potty training, they are ready to be literate when they are ready.
He is ready.
Just not sure if I am.

Oh....Boy.

ensō

We are often asked what Zo's name means...

If Italian?  It's "Ruler of the Home", or just simply, Henry.

If Japanese?  It's "Circle of Absolute", "The Void", or simply, The Moment.

We chose the more common spelling to make his life easier.

Yes.  Alot of people think Ferrari when they hear it.  

And yes.  It was the 2008 #1 boy name in FRANCE. 

A true international name...a Hapa name for a Hapa boy.

The ensō symbolizes a moment when the mind is free to simply let the body/spirit create. In Zen Buddhist art,  the character of the artist is fully exposed in how she or he draws an ensō. Only a person who is mentally & spiritually complete can create a true ensō .  Some artists will draw this symbol daily for Spiritual practice.   
Very Mr. Miagi circa 1980's.


Zo started to "sign his name" at alittle over 2 years old.  It was open scribbles at first, but now he's deliberately connecting the two end points at 3, closing the circle.  It's so very hip of him...having a name that's a symbol...like the artist formerly known as something that was formerly comprehensible.

A child's art does reflect on his character in many ways.  Either loose or tight, imaginative or literal, from scribbles to writing, a child's reflection of the world around him is simply fascinating.
Zigg-Zags started to appear in alot of Zo's doodles.
"That's a story mama...like ABC's".

A few of his playmates are now spelling their own names.  Just amazing.
Zo's not there yet, the letter "O" is his best letter, we're lucky that worked out.

Circles became "words."  And now, words became "people."
His latest chalk scribble is of the most beloved people in his life.
At least I would like to think so.

Slowly, the previous empty Void is now beginning to fill.
Words, images, characters...a once clean slate now has inhabitants.
Real or pretend, invited or intruded, these stories of the who we are, what we are, and how we are, are all around us...and in us.
In this lab, I see my subject self filling and being filled.
A mind empty.
A mind full.
The Merry-Go-Round of life has started.