Early Years Homeschool Personal Blog

Last week we made our very own book. I got the idea from a book integrating 3R into child's play.

I basically wrote 4 words that are familiar to Don. I wrote : Don hugs Mom, Terry hugs Mom, Mom hugs Don, and all sorts of combination using those 4 words (I wrote them in Indonesian, though, not in English). Then I wrote each sentence on a paper, put a little drawing on top, made several of them, then bound them into a book.

Don can 'read' the book. He knows the words and he remembers them. I believe this is called 'word recognition'.

I wasn't actually comfortable doing this since some people believe reading by word recognition is not good. Kids are supposed to be taught 'spelling' and real reading. I kind of believe that kids need to know how to spell but I just cannot teach Don that right now.

I mean we've tried Bob Books and I really love those books. Don, however, just can't do it. I think it's mostly because the books are in English and Don doesn't really understand the words yet. When I try to use Bob Books, we read 'Mat sat.' Don was like "What's Mat ? Who's Mat ? What's Sat ?" And we haven't really gotten into the spelling yet.

When we made the book, Don understands what Mom, hug, his and his brother's names. Plus I did it in our language so he knows what we're talking about. He actually knows English too, he's bilingual. But teaching him to read in English is impossible for me right now. I'm not comfortable with teaching him in English.

I just read a book yesterday. It says when it comes to spelling, English is a nightmare. How could 'home' rhymes with 'comb' while 'dumb' rhymes with 'come' ? I couldn't agree more. And since I can't figure this out I wouldn't try teaching Don that... too confusing.

So I'll try teaching him to read in Indonesian while continuing to talk to him in both English and Indonesian. Bilingual research says that kids transfer their literacy in the first language readily into a second language, so I wouldn't worry about that.

June 5, 2006 22:52 - Another 'type' of homeschooling

Just read this on New York Times. It's basically homeschooling but a 'real' teacher does the teaching (as opposed to the parent). Once again, parents (and kids) want the one-on-one tutoring and the flexibility with family travel. The only difference from 'traditional homeschooling' is the presence of a teacher / tutor.

Very interesting (Go to URL)

June 13, 2006 16:13 - The Betta fish story

I had never had a pet in my whole life ! Never ! So this is a new experience for me.

There was a carnival last weekend. Don and Dad got lucky and won a fish (don't ask me what kind of fish, I have no clue). I was not very happy about that since I know I wouldn't be able to 'take care' of the little fish, I don't know how.

As usual, Dad says it's easy, just make sure we change the water and feed the fish regularly. Then Dad takes off, he needs to get out of the country for 2 weeks.

Surely enough, Don kept reminding me to change the water and feed the fish everyday. He cared so much for the fish and I was terrified the fish was going to day.

Well, it did. It died today. Don was sad. He kept asking why the fish died even after we changed the water and fed it often. I had no idea. I really don't know how to care for a fish.

So we bought a betta fish from the pet store. They promise this is going to be super easy.

Turns out that changing the water too often may be harmful. Our water is chlorinated and the chlorine might have killed the poor fish.

And feeding it too often might have killed it too. Poor little fish.

We'll see how this one turns out. I'm a little excited myself since this is my very first pet. We set up everything according to instruction and we feed the little fish only 5 pellets of fish food (those fish food are just super tiny).

I guess it makes great learning too. Don (and little Terry, too) were so excited to see the fish eat. Terry kept waving to the fish and trying to talk to it. Don can't stop asking why the other fish died, why this one have longer fins and different colors and 'hands and feet'

I have to dig more info about beta fish and then try to explain it to my little ones. Homeschooling, I guess it means more learning for me too.

June 15, 2006 22:43 - Whole language vs phonics : how to teach reading

Yesterday we did labelling game. It's an integrated reading-writing game that I've read from many different books.

Basically, Don decided which things he wanted to label, then I wrote the name of the thing with him, and taped the label to the thing. For example, our table now has a label on it : 'table'. So is our wall, our bed, our TV (this is the easiest).

Today I ask him if he remembers what the label says. He does. He reads !!

Now, I don't think he really reads, I think he remembers it more than he know how to read. I believe this is called 'whole language' approach in teaching reading, as opposed to 'phonics'.

CATHERINE SNOW from Harvard University said in an interview with Jim Lehrer :

Whole language approach argues that reading is a developmental process, that it develops naturally in literate environments, and that if children are surrounded by books and surrounded by adults who engage in lots of reading with them and to them that they will discover the principles underlying the relationship between sounds and words.

Phonics approach, on the other hand, argues that it speeds up the process of learning to read to point out to children explicitly what the nature of the letter/sound relationship is, how letters relate to sounds, and to give children opportunities to practice some of the complexities of English spelling.

For complete excerpt of the interview, click here.

Which method would I choose ? I don't know yet. Now that I really think about it, I'm not going to push on teaching reading for now. First because I'm just so confuse about it, English is such a difficult language to read, the spelling is very difficult for me to teach. I can never explain why 'one' begins with 'o' but sounds like it begins with 'w'.

Secondly, Don is only 4. I believe that I don't need to worry about him reading yet. He reads lots of books and he's interested (okay I read to him). He'll be ready when he is. A friend of mine just told me that her daughter (who is trilingual) couldn't read at all eventhough she was fluent in all 3 languages. She didn't even know the alphabet !! And then suddenly at 6 she knows them all.

So right now, I'm just going to read to him, and read, and read, and yes also talk. See more about activities to help teach children.