Happy Chinese New Year

Out of her initiative, Darlene said she wanted to make a Chinese New Year card. So, she started drafting and drawing on the paper. She asked me, ”mommy, can you help me colour?” Previously, I would  had said colour it yourself, mommy’s busy. This time, I was delighted to lend her a hand and so we coloured and had a good time talking. She explained about her drawing :  a stairs, a boat on the sea and a dolphin surrounded by the wall. We chose the captions from the newspaper and I helped her to cut out the words. Finally, it’s done and together we wish all of you ….

“Blessed Chinese New Year. May you have good health, peace, hope and love. May God’s blessing be upon you and your family.”

The chinese caption means “Health is the greatest wealth”, “Healthy” and “Gong Xi Fa Cai” 

Few days ago, I thought of doing something special with Darlene. I asked her if she would like to make cookies for the chinese new year celebration. She was so quick to say yes! and Woo Hoo! I’m going to make cookies. Her enthusiasm and excitement was the key to our 1st attempt of making chinese new year cookies at home. It was really fun. She was very serious and responsibile to carry out her part i.e. opening up the paper cups, mixing the cornflakes, scooping up  and decorating it with colourful ’sugar rice’. Well, she did complain tired and sleepy…but we made it!

So do drop by our home for some of our homemade chocolate peanuts butter cornflakes cookies during this festival.

If you are unable to come, try this recipe…

Step 1 : Melt the cooking chocolate in double boiled way.

Step 2 : Mix well with crunchy peanut butter

Step 3 : Mix well with light crushed cornflakes

Step 4 : Scoop up small portion and put into the paper cup. You may want to decorate it with some ‘colourful sugar rice’

Step 5 : Let it cool down adn enjoy yourself.

How to help a dyslexic child to improve in math/s – part 2

Many dyslexic children also have problems comprehending the vocabulary and symbols used in mathematics. It is also a common problem that these children will be confused with math symbols that look similar. Likewise, they often reverse numbers, which lead to errors when performing simple calculations and arithmetic.

Despite facing the above mentioned difficulties, a dyslexic child could further improve in math/s if he/she begins to feel more confidence about it and enjoys the process of learning math/s. Below are some strategies parents and teachers could apply:

Set up a specific time to do math together

Sit down with the child to help him with math homework/assignment.

Build a connection between math and his/her daily living

Using examples of math from bills and home repair projects can show the child the relevant role that math plays in a grown-up world.

How to help a dyslexic child to improve in math/s – Part 1

It has been estimated that around 90% of dyslexic children have problems in some areas of math/s, and most of the time they will need extra help especially when new concepts of math/s are introduced.

To help a dyslexic child improve in his math/s, we must first look into the reasons for this problem.

One of the difficulties a dyslexic child experience is with sequencing.

It is important to help the child learn his/her basic 1-100 systematically. Providing a hands-on experience by using a variety of physical objects and real scenarios (e.g. counting guests) to demonstrate numbers visually will enhance the child’s interest in math/s. The following steps are recommended:

1. Lay out 100 blocks, with 10 blocks on each line, practice counting from 1 to 100 e.g. 1,2,..99, 100
2. Lay out 100 blocks in group of tens, practice counting from 10 to 100 e.g. 10, 20..90,100.
3. Arrange the blocks in group of fives, practice counting from 5 to 100 e.g. 5,10, ..95, 100.
4. Count backwards, starting from 10 down to 0 e.g. 10, 9, ..0, and working up to 100 down to 0.e.g. 100, 99, …2,1,0 (practice daily until he/she can count backward fluently)

It’s important first to build a solid foundation on the child’s basic math/s and then build other concepts on top of it. Always remember to keep reviewing and never assume that the child knows everything.

Below was my observation of a 8 years old child that I helped to breakthrough with her sequencing concept. I hope this will encourage us to KEEP reviewing with our children until they breakthrough. It is definite a slow but sure process.

Observation on Counting Backwards

CY was able to count to 100 with some guidance especially where there is a change of tens. After few rounds of counting verbally while putting the blocks, CY was able to count 1-100 quite fluently.

Counting backward was a great struggle. She got stuck many times. We did a few rounds of you say and i say – ‘tell me the number before’. When she began to feel more confidence, we tried saying the backward numbers again, but this time I encouraged her to remove the block one at a time as she said the number.

I noticed that she still mix up some numbers. But she is now more confidence and and say the number more fluently.

After a few sessions repeating the above counting, I noticed CY was able to complete her counting backwards activity easily.

 

Technorati Tags: Difficulties with math sequencing,count backwards,build solid foundation,improve in math/s,breakthrough with basic math

Learning from the nature

A mentor is not measured by the splash he makes when he enters the water, but rather by the ripples he leaves in his wake.

Amy, Adeline and myself met last Thursday morning at the Marmalade, Bangsar Village II for  brunch and farewell gathering. It was interesting that we could meet and talk about ourselves, our lives and our dreams. Thanks to our pastor’s message to encourage us to gather in 2 or 3 for a time of encouragement and strengthening.

Amy’s  desire to learn about the nature so that she could inspired her kids to love and learn about the nature too really captivated me….

Yes, I felt that in our fast moving world and the ever improving technology that ’supposedly’ help us to be more effective, has handicapped us, in many ways, from learning, exploring and enjoying the nature. One of the kids’ parent that I work with expressed that her lifestyle was the reason why her children seldom go to the playground. Thoughts to ponder for parents…

I came across an interesting site for kids, teachers and parents. I especially like the read-along audio stories about animals, nature that  help us learn about ourselves and the things that are important to us. Hope you have an enjoyable time listening to the stories with your kids. Do let me know how the stories inspired you and family too. Thank you.

Here is the link again… http://www.linkslearning.org/Kids/2_Reading/2_Audio_Stories/index.html

Technorati Tags: nature,mentor,fast technology,life style,read-along audio stories,family,encouragement

Sweet Memories

Darlene was delighted that her cousins slept over at our home for two nights during the recent school holidays. It was really fun to watch the kids enjoying themselves and later settling some issues together.

For me, the kids brought me back to my childhood memories. So sweet … and I can still remember so clearly…

… my dad and mom would bring us to the Titiwangsa Park almost every weekend for cycling, games and then later to the nearby shop to eat noodles. I treasured those moments very much.

Darlene enjoyed her time with Gareth and Elysia at the Titiwangsa Park too on Saturday morning. They had great time in learning playing badminton, cycling, sitting on the swing and climbing the steel tanker.

Gareth, Darlene and Elysia at the Steel Tanker. This is Gareth and Darlene favourite spot for the day.

This is Elysia’s favourite – the swing.

Oh yes, we also went to the Air Panas market to have early lunch. Darlene requested ‘chee cheong fun’, though Gareth requested rice, he was alright to eat ‘chee cheong fun’ too. However, Elysia preferred noodles. We waited for a while for Elysia’s noodles to be ready. It was a joy to see them enjoying their food and practice paying for their food too.

Technorati Tags: childhood memories,playground,sleep over,sweet memories,Titiwangsa Park

A day with Dr. Paul Dennison, Founder of Brain Gym International

 

Wow! Today is a great day. I have a great learning experience with Dr. Paul Dennison, the Founder of Brain Gym International in Petaling Jaya.

Dr. Paul, you are really a remarkable person, sharing with us the heart beat of Brain Gym. I greatly treasured the hand-on experiences we had in going through the 26 movements with you. Thank you for giving me new insight and answering to all my questions so that I could help the children I work with more effectively.

Two things that you said impacted me today :

“When the children play (doing the movement), you can’t see the teacher, because the teacher is playing with them”.

“It’s all about love”.

What a privilege to learn together with some other Brain Gym instructors in Malaysia. Sally, Marie Helene, Elizabeth, Thava, Ang Nei and of course, my instructor Mdm Goh Siew Siew. You ladies are so humble, gentle and just great! Your experiences really inspired me. Cecilia and Hasanah, I am sure glad we can move on to be instructors, one day.

Protect and Save the Children – Awareness Talk

Every now and then, we hear news reports of children abducted or abused. For each of these tragedies, many more go unreported. Every child has the right to be loved and protected.   But who will stand up for their rights?

Preventing child sexual abuse by empowering communities

When?

Saturday, 16 August 2008, 4.30–6.30 pm

Where?
The Father’s House (Bangsar Lutheran Church)
23, Jalan Abdullah off Jalan Bangsar, 59000 Kuala Lumpur (map)

Registration: FREE

Light refreshments will be served before the talk

Facts on child sexual abuse (CSA)

• Any act of sexual contact between a child and an adult is CSA
• Can be the result of force, coercion or trickery
• Happens in all countries – to any child, any time, anywhere – including Malaysia
• Goes beyond statistics, as it is often unreported

Preventing CSA is an enormous task. But the first step is easy. Come to the Protect and Save the Children Awareness Talk on child sexual abuse.

Be a clown again?

Attended Uncle Button’s creative teaching with balloon today. He has challenged me to let WaWa clown back in action. Well, for your information, WaWa clown made a public appearance at the Taman Tun Dr. Ismail Park on 23 December 2005 to bring Christmas joy to a group of children from the Rumah Hope.

Thank you Uncle button for your clear, easy and effective steps in sculpturing the balloons into beautiful shapes. I’ve learned that we can see the same thing with different perspectives.  You have inspired me to, once again, use balloons to bring joy in learning, especially to those that face difficulty in breaking through with their learning knots. Thank you for your DVDs. Indeed they are treasures that I’ve found to be successful with the balloons.

Hear your child read

Hearing a child reads with pleasure is a very rewarding experience a parent could enjoy. Here are some steps how you could improve the way you hear your child read.

Building confidence

• As reading is an acquired skill, it is important that we must always build a child’s confidence and interest when we encourage him/her to read. This will result a life long love for reading.
• The Golden Rule for hearing a child read is to tell him/her the word he/she does not know, and the moment you feel you are tensing up, just switch over to you reading to the child for the next few pages until you feel a bit more relaxed.
• By doing so, your child is learning to be confident that you will always tell him/her a word which he/she does not know, and can trust that reading with you will be a pleasurable experience.

Create a routine and the right ambience

Effective Teaching Strategies

Most of the dyslexic children and teenagers (learners) face difficulties in coping with the traditional curriculum and teaching styles focusing on the use of visual and audio senses. This is due to their difficulties with either or both of these senses. Some of them may have difficulties with tracking, visual processing, seeing the words become fuzzy, auditory memory or auditory processing. Nevertheless, with proper teaching strategies, they can achieve their true intellectual potential.

Below are some of the recommended teaching strategies for dyslexic learners.

Multi-sensory teaching approach

One of the most effective teaching strategies is using multi-sensory teaching approach. This approach helps them to learn also through tactile and kinetic sensations. For example, in helping a dyslexic child to have breakthrough on the confusion over the direction of ‘b’ and ‘d’, multi-sensory approach means the child has a visual memory from seeing the letter, an auditory  memory from hearing the sound it makes, a tactile memory from writing the letter in the air, touching the sandpaper letter, forming letter using the manipulative such as play-dough, clay or plasticine and  a kinetic (body movement) memory from having draw the letter really large on the carpet.

My personal experience with an 8-year old boy learning his spelling list using multi-sensory approach: