Alicia reading Afraid of the Dark!

I received this book from my friend some time back and it's naturally become Alicia's. She loves the illustrations!

She loves reading and would often ask to be read to! :)

*photos taken on 26Nov 2010*

More about this book:

Christmas 2010 - Part II

We ended up not doing many homeschooling activities about Christmas because we spent the December hols busy catching up on family time.... which also explains why there aren't many blog entries about homeschooling in Dec. :P

My resolution is to plan more activities for Christmas in 2011! hahaha...

Anyway, she received this book about the nativity for Christmas 09 but I only read the book to her and she didn't get to play with the cardboard characters. (She did however on several occasions get her hands on them and she has lost a few pieces - I believe Joseph is still missing... haha)

Here she is... erm... telling her own version of the nativity... :)

Review of Eric Carle's Do you want to be my friend?

This is a quaint little book which doesn't have any words other than the title and at the end of the book!

It has pictures of an animal and a tail of the next animal each time you turn the page, but no words.

While it doesn't quite boost the vocabulary of a young reader (since there are hardly any words to speak of), it addresses something crucial in reading skills - something that will benefit young readers in comprehension in future - and that is the skill of prediction.

The fact that there are no words, the reader is forced to concentrate hard on the pictures and of course, as parents or guardians reading the book with the tot, do encourage the tot to guess what animal comes next on the page just by looking at the tail.

The most interesting part lies in the last animal - which, I hope, you will find that out for yourself by getting your hands on the book! :)

The letter D - literature

Books we read in conjunction with the teaching of the letter D:

This big book is available at Popular bookstore and retails for I think less than SGD$10.

A great book for dog lovers as it has pictures and descriptions of different breeds of dogs!

Other books we read:

         

Other "Spot goes..." books are appropriate as well. I know of some children who are absolutely in love with Spot the dog! (and Clifford too!)

Review of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Here's another of Eric Carle's books though only the illustrations were done by him.

Nevertheless, I think it's quite an enjoyable read as well with an animal taking the centrestage with each flip of the page!

Needless to say, that helps to focus the child's attention on the animal and also because the book's about the sounds the animals make, Alicia had quite some fun while reading.

Her favourite animal from the book currently is the elephant and she would pinch her nose and wave her other hand like a trunk, imitating the sound an elephant makes. :)

Next in line of her favourites is the boa constrictor - which is well, essentially a snake in the kids' eyes and and I just wonder why the author couldn't have made it simpler for the kid by referring to it as a snake instead. No prizes for guessing that Alicia hisses whenever we get to the page about the boa constrictor. Then again, she's always fast-forwarding the reading to those two pages she loves and hardly focuses on the rest. Sigh. Kids just have a mind of their own, don't they? :)

Overall, it's a good book but I think Alicia really misses Eric Carle's From head to toe as she's been asking for it, often asking for where the gorilla who thumps his chest is! *faint*

Time to borrow that book again for her.... :)

Review of Eric Carle's Draw me a star

Before I move on to the book review, I just need to say that I am so fortunate to have borrowed a copy that was autographed by Eric Carle himself(!) and he wrote about his inspiration for this book (see picture below):

This is yet another book that's filled with colours, bursting with spontaneity. It is hard not to fall in love with his delightful illustrations and that certainly draws any tot's attention to the book.

I must say that I only flipped through a couple of pages of the book before borrowing it and I had a shock when I was reading the book with Alicia when I came to a page depicting a naked man and woman. That wasn't quite what I expected and I guess for that reason, this is probably a book not often read to older tots at school.

While the book seems to have some biblical undertones of Creation, and in particular, the tree of knowledge of good and evil and Adam and Eve in the illustration (there's an apple tree on the left page and the naked couple on the right), I would say that it hardly makes any other significant reference to Christianity.

And upon reading the autograph (see above), you can be quite sure that Eric Carle's inspiration for the book came mainly from his dream about a falling star rather than religion per se.

The story begins with a star and ends with it - and everything in between just falls neatly into the storyline that he created.

It is a book that tots would enjoy. I know, because my Alicia did, tremendously. :)

Review of Eric Carle's From head to toe

If you ever pick up any of Eric Carle's books, you'd notice the beautiful illustrations and a very simple story line that a tot can easily follow.

This book From head to toe is no exception.

As you turn from page to page, you are greeted by an animal on the left doing an action and a child on the right, imitating that action. As you would expect, this spells great fun during storytime for the tot. It is truly hard not to get into the thick of the action together with the characters in the story!

While this book doesn't quite transport the reader to a place less travelled or a mystical place, you can be certain that children will still be enthralled by the animals and their actions, and they will probably be begging you to turn to a certain few pages which excite them more and spontaneously imitate the actions..

Overall, it is a great book for teaching body parts, body movements and even animals! I even used iphone apps to show Alicia pictures and sounds of the animals mentioned in the book and needless to say, that added another element of fun and participation.

The Letter C - Literature

The days sometimes just fly past and before I know it, it's the end of yet another day, and sometimes I feel that I haven't done anything very constructive with Alicia for the day... I wonder if anyone else feels the same way... I guess for me, it's mainly Alicia's super slow eating that's the obstacle to the many other activities I could have done with her. I can only hope that she will progress and get out of this phase.

Anyway, yes, we're still on the letter C mainly because of Alicia's eating.

I've not covered the literature for the letter C and I decided that this week's the week to do so! And we can hopefully move on to the letter D soon...

Here are the books we read!: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (borrowed from Julia Gabriel's Bookroom) and Just like Jasper!

Alicia just loved the little holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and she kept poking her fingers into the holes and she'd move her hand over the page just to feel the different texture created by the holes. And she kept meow-ing when we read Just like Jasper!

There are quite a few activities to do with your kid if she's older... just google "The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities" and there are free printables and lesson plans to go along with the book!

For Alicia, I decided to just read the book with her as I don't think she's mature enough to handle the activities suggested... well, except for maybe the eating bit... if only she can eat like the caterpillar... oh well, never mind... :P

And here's the other book which we read earlier before and she was crazy about: Hermie: A common caterpillar...

The bookworm

Alicia has always loved reading and I can't remember if I had managed to capture any shots of her doing this in the past, but here she is, displaying all her bookworminess. :D She decided that she needed to read a book before going to the market today!

Still trying to make up her mind...





Ok, this one!

She started climbing up and standing on this little sofa of hers, to reach for the books on the top shelf, since about 10mths!

Getting into a comfy position...

Alright... let's read!

Alicia's new PJs!

I went to the market on Tuesday to pick up some groceries and was just about to make my way home when Alicia pointed at something at the pasar malam and started to get really excited. That was when I looked up and saw a set of Elmo print pyjamas. Then she started to say "Mo!" Haha. Couldn't help but walk over to find out if there was a suitable size for her. There was! And so we made our purchase. Just when we were about to leave, we saw another set of PJ - this had Sesame Street characters on it (and there was Elmo of coz). So this time, we made our way to the ATM instead... hehe... coz I had run out of money.

She was really overjoyed as she pranced around her new sleepwear when I brought them home and laid them on the floor to take a pic to send to my hubby who was at work.

See a little moving hand in the pic? :D

She's still admiring her new sleepwear

So I quickly washed them and hung them out to dry while the weather was still good and they were dry in the evening! And she got to wear her Elmo PJ that night. She was over the moon and kept pointing at her shirt, lifting it a little each time to see the Elmo print and she kept saying "Mo!" and occasionally, "Elmo!" And she was fascinated too by the other character prints on her pants and kept pointing at them too. Isn't she lovely? :D

Here she is the next morning, wearing her new PJ and trying to read a book about baby food. For some reason, she's taken to this book lately and has been flipping through the recipes... :P Time for experiments?

The latest book craze

Yup, this is it. The latest book that she's crazy about. She now insists on reading this book over and over. And yes, she loves it more than "Jesus is Born" now, though over these few days, she's beginning to show a strong liking for both; it used to be just "Hermie" this, "Hermie" that and "Hermie" ALL the time when she first got the book. There was one night, I swear, I read this book at least 10 times over.

Anyway, this book was given to her by my friend when we went to his place last Monday. It kinda slipped our minds when we reached home but at night, when she saw it on the dining table, she kept pointing at it and shouting "that" and so I read the book to her that night. She was mesmerised and sat through the whole story. After the story ended, she still sat there, waiting. As if she was expecting something more. She's so adorable!

Anyway, there are a few concepts and words that she has come to show understanding of and she demonstrated these when I read the book to her. For instance, she can repeat the word "Wow" when it occurs in the book and she can flip to that page that contains the word and say it correctly. Also, when we come across the word "up", she raises her hands up in the air and when we read the word "yawn" she does the action. She's beginning to flap her "wings" (i.e. hands) when I read that phrase since a couple of nights ago. She's picking up things really quickly now!

Christmas book from grandaunt!

Alicia got this very beautifully-illustrated book about The First Christmas on Christmas eve from my aunty. She has been so in love with this book since Christmas and will keep bringing the book to hubby and I to read to her. When I want to have a change of books, she'd insist on reading the same book over and over again. Toddlers.... Anyway, she's really good at sitting through a story these days and believe it or not, she managed to sit through the whole book before moving off to do something else!

Anyway, she loves to hear us make the animal sounds whenever we point out the animals to her and will imitate the sounds we make. She's gotten quite good at this and can "mehhhhh" like the sheep (this she learned from reading this book), "meow" like the cat (ok, she learnt this from both the book and watching her Sesame Street DVDs) - one wonders why there's a cat in the stable but that's besides the point, and cluck (she goes "pak pak pak") like a chicken. :) When we point to the baby, she'd put her hands to her eyes and pretend to cry like a baby (something she picked up during JG PlayNest last year and reinforced by me at home whenever I sing "The Wheels on the Bus"). She's becoming so cute and responsive to our teaching!

Story-telling session at Bukit Merah Library

I signed Alicia up for a story-telling session held at Bukit Merah Library at 7.30pm on 11/11/09.

And here's the recount of the session:

The librarian went through some rhymes and short little songs before actually going into story-telling. She told the story of The Enormous Turnip and had cute little props made of cloth on ice-cream sticks. The props included the turnip of course, a farmer, a dog, a rat and I can't remember what else. The kids were either seated (though not all were really actually listening to the librarian's story) or wandering around. And what was my Alicia doing? She was of course wandering around, tottering about in the room. Well, that wasn't all that she did in that half an hour. She actually went up to the librarian several times, attempting to snatch the book and her props. Later she noticed that the props were actually on the chair next to the librarian and so she helped herself to them. She grabbed the turnip first. The librarian had a hard time getting it back from her. I didn't want to snatch it from her grasp coz she would wail and destroy the whole story-telling session and anyway, I'm sure this happens all the time so I just waited to see what the librarian would do. Subsequently, when alicia took the dog and later the rat, the librarian just told the rest of the kids that alicia was pretending to be the dog/rat, which i think was an appropriate way to handle the situation.

Just when i thought that that was all the disruption she was going to cause, a much older kid went to the CD player and tried to remove the CD and of course, my little one decided to follow suit. She's very good with electronics and always seems to be able to press the right buttons and so she decided to turn on the music. The librarian was stunned and speechless and helpless for awhile. Hahaha. Then after stopping the music, she commented that Alicia's quite a techie, to which I definitely agree. Hmm... i think Alicia must be the librarian's worst nightmare now... I may well be barred from the next story-telling session - islandwide... hahaha...

Well, here's a pic of alicia wandering about (and me hovering around her) while the librarian was telling the story...

Alicia's checking out the recommended books on the table

We borrowed five books for her that night and so here's the selection of library books I have now at home:

I made hubby clean every page of the books with dettol upon reaching home so that they'd be CLEAN!

The last time my niece borrowed library books she got HFMD - not sure if it's a coincidence but it's better to be safe than sorry...

Oh, and we managed to get Happy HoliDogs on Ebay and it's on its way to Singapore now... not cheap though. We got it for US$12.69 I think (erm, the funny thing's the shipping costs US$12 and the book's only US$0.69!)

Reading...

I read the book "The Snow Ball" most often to Alicia before she was born ever since I received it for my '08 birthday from my friends in my department. Knowing that I was crazy about my snowbears, getting books about snowbears (or known commonly as polar bears) for me is most apt. Plus I can share them with Alicia. Double bonus.

Here's the book:

And here's Alicia reading the book on her own on her play mat when she was 8mths old.

Apparently after reading the book, she was inspired to love her snowbears (or rather mine) so here're the shots I captured of her 'loving' one of them.

It's still the most read book to date and she knows when to raise her little hands in anticipation of my reading "No school!" cheered the bears. Haha. My well-trained little one. This is a really cute board book with lovely illustrations that simply captivate her. And of course, I can narrate the whole story by heart... :) and so the story goes on although she's busy flipping through random pages of the book...

First trip to the library and the first book we borrowed!

Alicia's always been fond of books and I wonder if it's because I've been reading to her since she was in the womb. Anyway, I brought her to Bukit Merah library last Friday to secure a place at the Fun with Tots programme on 11 Nov. It's a story-telling session for children 1-3 years old. I've been wanting to introduce her to the library and I think a story-telling session would be a nice way to do so.


As I was perspiring like crazy after the walk from my place to the library, I decided to hang around in the library before leaving for home so I went to check out where the storytelling session will be held and also the children's corner. I brought her to the area where the recommended books were for adults and kids and she fell in love with this particular book at first sight. She pointed at it and exclaimed loudly so I brought her nearer to the book and she took it off the shelf. This is the book she's so captivated by:



I had a hard time trying to get the book from her hands to borrow it and of course she screamed and threw a tantrum like any other 15-mth-old. I tried my best to be quick with the process of borrowing and returned the book swiftly back into her little hands. And she really loved the book so much that she held it all the way home and she even tried to flip the pages while we were walking home. I had to explain to her that reading on the go is bad for the eyes... I had to peel it out from her grasp when we reached home as I wanted to give her a shower after the trip out and quickly put her to bed for her nap. Actually I was the one who needed the shower badly. Hee... :D

Anyway, she pronounces "dog" as "dag" currently and initially I thought she was trying to say "cat" because it sounded like "cat" to me (she already knows how to say "cat" and can point to a picture of it and say it correctly). So I kept trying to tell her that's not a "cat" but a "dog". After listening more carefully, I realised that she said "dag" and I'm still trying to correct the pronunciation.

It's a really colourful book and the illustrations are really nice. I'm thinking of buying it from Amazon.com as a Christmas gift for her (update: we really bought it for her!).
Anyway, it's a story about Christmas so it's kinda apt. I've already placed a bid for it last night and we'll see how it goes. For now, we get to keep the library book till 20 Nov and maybe we'll renew it after that.