日媽媽の育兒筆記 : August 2013

Game #33 3D 熱氣球

自從窗外看到熱氣球後 mappi 一直說著 balloon, balloon. 今天我們就做了兩個 hot air balloon, 還是 3D 的啊!

做法很簡單, 3張顏色紙疊在一起, 剪出熱氣球的形狀, 然後畫畫畫… 再把每2張紙背對背黏起來就行了.

畫的過程中我們用了蠟筆, 媽媽從雜誌剪了些圖讓 mappi 貼. 媽媽最滿意的是下面這頁:

mappi 有做 “KUMON　はじめて鉛筆”畫線的練習, 可是一直沒興趣也畫不好. 媽媽想了個對策: 買了摺幸運星的紙條讓mappi 用漿糊筆貼 - 跟用鉛筆一樣是從左到右畫橫綫. 用漿糊筆mappi高興多了!

今天的 balloon craft 親子也大滿足. 熱氣球高高飛在天(衣櫃)上好可愛啊!

Reading Audio PDF books on iPad

OK, now I have reviewed and got these great English Leveled Readers and can’t wait to transfer them to my iPad for Mappi to read. And here comes the big shock!! My favourite, all-rounded pdf app Good Reader will not play the embedded audio in pdf files!!! Went ask Professor Google, it seems many people posted the same question without a concrete solution… after an hour of struggle, finally I found this!

Documents by Readdle

Love it!! Why? It’s:

Free without ads!!!!
able to play the sounds from my pdf files!
many option to transfer files, including dropbox!
nice and simple layout showing the covers of each file – so mappi can touch and choose what she wants me to read her
can even play MP3s and videos!

Here go some screen shots:

It’s my first night reading from iPad to mappi tonight. Guess how long we read until she asked for dinner? An hour!!!!!

English Story-books: Leveled Readers Review

We live in countries that speaks the language of the Vikings, and the language of the Sun. Buying English books for Mappi here is expensive with limited choices. I have tried to make and print books myself like this one, but it won’t be a long-term solution. Mappi should read as much as she likes without the boundary of resources.

So here I go, researched and compared nursery readers (yeah I read them all myself…), and here’s a short description of each:

<- Ten Apples Up on Top

Dr. Suess

His books are all-time favorite for foreign teachers. Especially love the books “Ten Apples Up on Top” and “One Fish, Two Fishes, Red Fish, Blue Fish”
There are tones of worksheets and activities for Dr. Suess’ books created by teachers and homeschoolers

Harcourt Leveled Readers

Grade K-6, with audio tracks
especially love its Picture Cards (flash cards). All pictures are photos instead of cliparts.

Houghton Mifflin Leveled Readers

Audio-embedded PDFs. Read out very slowly.

Oxford Owl

3-11 years, the first level contains books without words, other levels with 2 audio options – the whole story in one track, or a separate track for each page.

Oxford Potato Pals

Grade K. So cute!!! With audio tracks.

Pearson Scott Foresman Readers

Sound-embedded pdf files. Love the "Science” and “Social Studies” categories.

Pearson Leveled Readers

Fantasies, classics, animals and everyday life stories. With audio track.

I really wanna try Bob Books too. Will get them when I am back.

Game #32 夾子分長短

很想讓 mappi 玩蒙特梭利長棒數棒 Montessori Red Rods / Number Rods, 不過還是要把長/短的根基打好才行!

今天又是隨手的, 拿了袋 IKEA 袋子封口夾, 在顏色紙上用 marker 畫了長/短兩個框, 寫了兩隻字, 又玩得!

Game #31 Story of Shapes with Harry and Larry

* (以後學英文的 post 會用英文寫)

Mappi has a lot of books. Most of them were bought when she was only a tiny 3-month-old, before we moved to the country of the Vikings. Most of her books are Japanese, and her few English books aren’t very suitable for her level now (I didn’t know how and what to choose for her that time). So I turned to Professor Google and found a really good one:

Chateau Meddybemps – Beantime Stories

The site is free, the stories are short, illustrations are colorful and cute. What I like most is the very few buttons on the pages. Mostly just “back” and “next” page buttons. That makes it more like a book then a game (Yeah games are great too, but I do want Mappi to fall in love with books too).

As my next planned topic for Mappi is shapes, this little shapes story is perfect for her!

Shapes with Harry and Larry

To limit her screentime, I even made her a physical book printed on 5”x11” photo paper!

I copied the picture, and typed the words myself (so the text does not go on a brownish background to save ink):

I even made additional pages to illustrate the vocabularies in photos and words, using the OIL teaching method. (I didn’t write the words, I only expanded the paragraph into two pages so the words are larger.)

So here’s how the book looks like (selected pages):

Printed, punched holes, tied a little ribbon, and how nice it looks!

Mappi enjoyed reading it! She asked me to read 3 times in a row!

Download the book in PowerPoint format here – you can also use it as a slideshow:

* I do not own copyright of the storybook, so please do not distribute commercially. Thanks!

Game #30 到文具店玩 1:1 對應

1:1 Correspondence (1:1 對應) 是 counting 很重要的根基. 之前特別用了 Dot Dot Marker 和圓形貼紙玩了 Dot Dot Dot 的 game, 昨天帶 mappi 去街街, 發現文具店/玩具店有很 perfect 的東東可以練習1:1 對應, 還是不用分毫, 玩完了拍拍屁股就可以走~~

就是它了! Hello Kitty 筆! mappi 拿了2支, 我索性把全部都拿出來, 叫 mappi 逐一插回 display 底座的洞洞 - 非常好的 1:1 correspondence + fine motor skills game!

在家裡我把未開封的 123 印仔拿出來,照版煮碗.

這盒淘回來的的印仔有 2 set 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0, 另加 + – x / > < =. mappi 練 1:1 之餘還自己發現相同的, 拿著跑過來對我說 “Two! Two! Same!!”

Game #29 我的浴室大畫紙

白板筆除了畫白板、在 clear folder 重做功課外還可以畫瓷磚, 用水一冲 or 一抹就乾淨. 浴室是 mappi 的大畫紙!

Game #28 意式千層麵

歡迎來到 ma 太教煮餸的時間. 今天我們要教的是意式肉醬千層麵.

你需要的材料是:

千層麵 Lasagna
肉碎
肉醬(現成買的)
pizza topping 碎芝士
蔬菜類 (我今天用的是洋蔥+菠菜)
蘑菇
小朋友1-2個
鋦爐 + 錫紙盤

做法:

先準備好材料: 蔬菜類切細, 與肉碎一起放入肉醬煮滾, 蘑菇切片
把所有材料放在飯桌上. 錫紙盤放近小朋友
倒入一層肉醬
小朋友上場了!! 在肉醬上面灑上蔬菜 –> 蘑菇片 –> 碎芝士
媽媽在上面鋪上千層麵 --> 倒入一層肉醬
重復 Step 4
重復 Step 5
重復 Step 4
跟盒上的指示放入 oven 鋦 (我的是 200度 35分鐘)

(詳細的食譜在這裡)

我們今天學到的:

合作
sauce, meat, mushroom, vegetable, pasta
pattern: 肉醬之後放甚麼?
晚餐是要煮的, 不是從雪櫃變出來的!!

老實說跟 mappi 一起做飯的確慢很多, 但 mappi 很 enjoy 做的過程, 千層麵也吃了很多呢!!

Game #27 熊貓大中小

上次 mappi 成功過大海玩大細, 開始要讓她知道世界不是非黑即白, 大和小中間也有中的. 所以請來了 panda 幫忙.

我還做了一頁空白的, 什麼大大中中小小的也可以在這裡分!

可能是跟熊貓 long time no see 了, mappi 再見到 panada 很開心! 大中小也有點簡單, 不過 medium 就有點難發音!

Game #26 來了來了! 蒙特梭利粉紅塔 Montessori Pink Tower

我對蒙特梭利 Montessori 簡直是一見鍾情. 可是蒙特梭利教具太貴, 我住得又太遠, 實在買不下手. 今天終於終於蒙特梭利粉紅塔 Montessori Pink Tower降臨我家了!!

咦? 看得出有破綻?

好了喇, 我家 Pink Tower 的真身其實是它:

從鄰居承繼過來的 10 Cubes. 每個 cube 四面也有圖案, 動物, 數字, 很精彩的!

可是, 這樣精彩的設計在蒙特梭利的角度是個大大的 NO!

蒙特梭利主張 isolation, 學每個新概念時只專注在那個概念, 不要把別的東東混進去. 例如 pink tower 是學大小, 在熟練之前就不要貪心把數字等等加進去.

個人來說, 覺得這很有道理. 特別是語言還未完整的小b, 聽不明白之餘又容易分心. 還是把一個個概念獨立隔離較好.

話說回來, 我一直也不明白 pink tower 為什麼是 pink 的. 反正就忠於原創, 買來很 pink 的粉紅花紙把 10 Cubes 逐個包好. (也頗累的…)

Yeah! 就這樣 pink tower 就完成了!!

其實 mappi 1歲多就開始玩這 10 Cubes, 玩到厭了. 但當我包好 10 Cubes, 變身為 Pink Tower 後 mappi 竟然搶著要玩! (又再證明「換湯不換藥」是行的!)

先來從大到小堆成塔…

咦?咦?咦? 這個不對, 大了嘛!!

豪氣的把上面太小的的推下來! (不是我手上的太大, 而是上面的太小!)

mappi 還連續玩了 3 次啊! (但一定要媽媽一起玩). 看來最好玩的是完成後全力把塔推倒!

不知道 Pink Tower 大名的的話請務必 Google Search 蒙特梭利粉紅塔 , 然後看看這天書 – Montessori Albumn (教具操作手冊).

類似 10 Cubes 的玩具市面上很多, 如果想自己動手造也可以上網 search “Montessori Pink Tower DIY”, 有很詳細的尺寸啊. 真的自己動手做了的話請務必 share 相, 我對那麼有心的媽媽絕對佩服!!! 比10個贊!!

買唔買過膠機好?

有媽媽問, 買唔買過膠機好?

我答過, 過膠機好好用, 好好玩!!!
有了過膠機可以印很多小配件不怕被催殘. 最大的好處是可以上網 download 一些好心媽媽的 game, 外國很多 homeschooler 都很有心設計 game & share, 不過她們都有過膠機, 如果你沒有的話就要用下腦想下替代的方法了.

如果你的小朋友比較大, 不用小配件, 不會咬紙, 或你家有很多小小的玩具配件, 那就不太需要過膠機了. A4 size 的紙用 clear folder 或有打孔的透明文件袋就行了. Flash Card 之類的 size 可以用較硬的卡紙印, 玩完了放入6格透明文件袋 or 相簿 display.

沒有過膠機又要用小配件的話我還有絕招 - 用卡紙印, 再用透明封箱膠紙貼底面, 較大的部件可以到文具店買透明的俵圖膠 (像包書膠但有黏力的). 要貼得沒氣泡不容易 (比貼電話保護貼難…), 但亦 work!

大家有其他好方法嗎?