Teaching Toddlers to Write

The giraffe stepped on a pizza, it was hot
Image by Brande Jackson via Flickr

Last week Ryan came back from school with his termly workfile. Inside the file were worksheets and booklets that he had completed in the past few months.  While browsing through his work I was amazed that at Nursery 1 they have started to teach the children how to write in simple sentences.  Back when I was a kid we were only taught our ABCs at a much later age.

Looking at his work it got me thinking that I needed to start teaching him the basics of writing now instead of waiting till he was much older.  I have to start teaching him the skills needed to write proficiently.

Browsing through the notes that I used to explain essay writing to my students I revisited the different websites that I referred to back then and how it could the lesson plan could be simplified to suit the needs of a 4-5yr old.

Since Ryan has already learned and fully understood Uppercase and Lowercase alphabets and can read phonetically most words independently I feel that it is the right time that I start him on something more advance letter writing.

For the past few months we have been sending short e-mails to his aunt in USA. Ryan absolutely loves typing at the keyboard and sending the e-mails. Now is the time to work on actual writing of letters as he still needs to work on his handwriting skills.

In the next week I will be starting another short 5 part series. This time it would be on how I plan to teach the writing skills to Ryan and be sharing with all the resources that I will be using.

Stay Tuned!!

Recalling baby days

During these few months I have been invited to a few friend’s baby’s 1st

frog-boy-diaper-cake
Image by PatGrahamBlock via Flickr

month parties. It has been quite  some time since I have held a newborn in my hands. Carrying the fragile looking baby swaddled in his receiving blanket  made me recall the days where Roy was all so little. Everyone was cooing and fussing over the new baby.

It has been awhile since the birth of Roy,1yr 8mths to be exact. I can  still remember the joy and excitement I had during his full month celebration party in Jan 2007. It was great fun opening all the  baby gifts that our guest have generously gave us. My elder boy, Ryan, couldn’t wait to tear off the wrapping paper off each   gift to see what was inside.

Based on Chinese tradition, being one month old is equivalent to one’s 1st birthday.  Celebrating the birth of the baby happens after the baby is born instead of before like in Western Tradition. We have a baby shower for the baby with the baby present. It was so much fun seeing how the baby reacts to seeing each gift being presented to him. Also proud parents and grandparents get to show off the latest addition to the family.

Nowadays new parents are very lucky as they get lovely  presents like the diaper cake above. Not only is it physically attractive, it is also extremely practical as it consists of  70 diapers, a huggable teddy bear and skin care products for the baby. I wouldn’t mind having the bear for myself as I love teddy bears. Baby can keep the diapers and skin products. Mummy wants your bear!! 🙂 Okay, we share the bear ?

I only hope that I too will be able to receive such a gift when #3 comes along. We are planning for a girl for  2010.  Maybe I should start a baby gift registry to list items that I would like my friends to present me? A diaper cake will certainly be on my list.

Looking back at the photos and videos that I took that day it really reminds me that my babies have grown a lot since then.

This is a photo of Roy when he was 1mth old. Doesn’t he look very different from the photo of him taken recently? I really miss his ultra chubby cheeks and Michelin Tire look.

Do you still recall how your kids look when they were babies?

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